AACP Program Committee Report

October 10, 2007

Committee: Program

Members Present: Vogel-Scibilia, Kovasznay, Everett, Pollack, McQuistion, Hutton, Radke, Huffine, Christiansen

Agenda Items:

1. 2007 APA Mtg Presentation

Symposium, entitled “The IOM informs, NAMI storms, and AACP transforms, went off not exactly as planned. Pollack had to leave San Diego early because of a family illness. The two discussants were unable to come. The audience was not very large, but the session went fairly well. Wes was pressed into service to chair the session and to cover some of the other presentations, so he deserves a big thanks.

2. 2007 IPS Mtg, New Orleans. Scientific Program Committee is dominated by AACP board members, so the AACP Program Committee’s input is secondary to the overall influence that the organization has. Many submissions came from AACP members and some will be acknowledged as AACP program presentations.

3. 2008 Winter Mtg. Brooklyn, organized by Steve Goldfinger. Steve presented the preliminary program and solicited volunteers for some presentations. Logistical details being still worked out.

4. 2008 APA Mtg., Washington, DC.

Topics that were developed at previous mtgs:

· Take advantage of the DC location to tap into some of the advocacy leaders in DC (e.g., govt. relations reps from the major MH advocacy groups) to have a forum on advocacy re public MH policy issues.

· Major policy issues: Impact of DRA (Medicaid deconstruction) and/or universal coverage schemes

· Emphasize the need for psychiatrists to be more directly aware of and involved in policy issues at the state level.

· Forum or debate on behavioral health related evidence-based practices

· Relevance/problems associated with understanding what and how psychiatrists in community settings do what they do. Is accepting some accountability (“time and motion”) requirements okay or have we sold ourselves “down the river”? How can accountability approaches actually and meaningfully capture/honor what we really do?

· Electronic health records in community: Bring together some key national and organizational leaders in how EHRs are being developed and used in community-based MH programs, with emphasis on how psychiatric practice and records are being developed and whether psychiatric staff have input in their development. Still need someone to take coordination responsibility for this. Anita may be willing.

What emerged from the discussion at the 2007 APA mtg was the possibility of having a symposium length forum inviting health advisors for each of the remaining Presidential candidates (as of May, 2008) to provide overview of the candidate’s health proposals with specific emphasis on public sector behavioral health (MH and addictions). Pollack developed a draft proposal, got the support of Carolyn Rabinowitz, Nada Stotland, and Dale Walker (Chair of the APA Counsel on Advocacy and Public Policy, prior to proposing to the APA’s Division on Government Relations that they set the forum up as a cosponsored event (AACP and APA’s CAPP). Still waiting for Nick Meyers to determine if this will happen, either as a symposium-length session or in the slot usually set aside for the CAPP breakfast program at the APA (90 minutes).

Anita reports that her subcommittee within the APA Council on Hlth Svcs Systems has been developing a forum on state initiatives w/ specific reference to MH issues. Possible tie-in to the presidential candidate forum.

5. 2008 IPS ideas: Theme is “Patient to Partner”

· Abusive adolescent residential programs: how to address them, both the programs and the kids who are impacted by them (Charley)

· Strategies for improving health status of persons with SPMI in all settings (possible co-sponsorship w/ NASMHPD Medical Directors): what to screen for and treat; what types of staff should be utilized in which settings; how and whether psychiatrists can reclaim their primary care medical expertise; how reciprocal responsibilities and training can be managed. (Suzanne w/ Anita, Beatrice, Richard, Alan, Hunter)

· Psychiatric advance directives: what are they, how are they used, are they used, what strategies can be used to increase their use and to address the resistances to completing them by consumers or adhering to them by providers and reimbursing their use by payers? (Hunter, Bazelon, Backlar)

· Catch-18 Syndrome: Transition from adolescent to adult treatment system; key issues; review of models; discontinuity of criteria for eligibility for services; special population issues (Charlotte Hutton w/ help from Suzanne, Anita’s friend from Scotland (Denise), others?)

· Criminalization of persons with mental illness: strategies for diverting or transitioning from criminal justice and/or improving the MH svcs within the CJ system (Radke w/ Osher, Suzanne V-S, Beatrice, Jackie, Eric Roskes)

· Autism spectrum disorders as a disparity area: where do they fit

· Evidence-based practices in community-based BH in relation to the IOM Roundtable report; alternative methods (Pollack)