AACP Newsletter, Volume 10,
Number 3, Summer 1996
Annual Awards Presented in New York to Housestaff Union and Community Mental Health/Health Activists
Each year the AACP presents two awards to physicians, one to a psychiatrist and one to a non-psychiatrist who have demonstrated excellence in community mental health. The awards are sponsored by McNeil Pharmaceuticals and consist of a plaque recognizing the recipient’s achievement and a $500 honorarium. Recipient’s expenses to the award presentation are also provided.
CIR is the housestaff union representing housestaff working in New York City’s public hospital system as well as other public hospitals and voluntary hospitals across the country, including Boston City Hospital, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in DC, and the University of Cincinnati, among others. This is the first time that the award was given to a group of physicians, most of whom are not psychiatrists, though psychiatric residents have long played an important role in the union, especially around issues of patient care. The awards committee, chaired by Steven Goldfinger, MD, noted that CIR has a long history of advocacy for health care for poor people. In addition to actively taking public stances in support of the public mental health and health care system, the union established a patient care trust fund, in lieu of a raise, and has used it over the years to channel millions of dollars back into the public health care system of New York City, expressly to improve the quality of care provided to New York’s citizens dependent on the public hospital system. The award, presented to CIR President Angela Moore, MD by Kenneth S. Thompson, MD (a former CIR member), was inscribed “to the Committee of Interns and Residents in recognition of it’s tireless efforts on behalf of the disenfranchised, disaffiliated and underserved individuals who have benefited from it’s advocacy and leadership.”
The recognition award for a non-physician was presented this year to two individuals well known in New York City for their health care advocacy efforts for poor persons. The honorees, Judy Wessler and Marshall England, are community activists who have both fought long and hard to protect and improve the public hospital system in the city, usually in close collaboration with CIR. The psychiatric services in the public hospitals have been of particular concern in recent times, with the public hospital system under threat of budget cuts. Both Judy and Marshall were honored for being extraordinarily active in the Commission for Public’s Health System in New York City”. The inscriptions on their awards read “In recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of community health and mental health and for promoting quality care in community settings “.
Neither CIR, Ms. Wessler nor Mr. England confine himself or herself to advocacy for mental health care alone, but include medical care as well. Dr. Goldfinger noted that “Good mental health care has to take place as part of good health care in general.”
Readers interested in learning more about CIR and their unique collaboration with community activists are invited to write or call:
Kenneth S. Thompson, MD
Associate Newsletter Editor
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
3811 O’Hara Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412/383-1980
FAX: 412/383-1756
Email:kthomp@al.isd.upmc.edu.
March 31, 2003 - Web Editor's Note: Dr. Thompson's e-mail address is now ThompsonKS@msx.umpc.edu.
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