AACP Newsletter, Volume 13, Number 4, Autumn 1999

Mission

Current Business

Board

Join

Electronic Community

Journal

Newsletter

Archive

Links

Conferences

Bulletin Board

Findings/Products

AACP and the APA:
Establishing Connections

After five years as a pilot project, the APA Assembly approved the creation of an official Committee of Allied Organization Liaisons. The group will expand from the original seven (we were one of the original invitees) to twenty or more. Criteria for eligibility are: (1) more than 80% of members are psychiatrists; minimum of 100 psychiatrist members; (3) Two-thirds of members are members of the APA; (4) mission must pertain to professional practice; (5) ethics code must be compatible with that of the APA; and (6) the Liaison to the Assembly must be a member of the APA. Each Liaison will have one vote in the Assembly and travel expenses will continue to be borne by the Allied Organization. Individual agreements between the APA and the Allied Organizations are encouraged, and may include administrative contracts or joint membership agreements.

As the AACP Liaison to the APA Assembly, I serve on the Assembly Committee on Public and Community Psychiatry, the Committee of Allied Organization Liaisons, and the Assembly Committee on Planning. I participate in the meetings of the Area VII Council, our welcoming and supportive "host" in the Assembly.

The AACP has played a significant role in the activities of the APA since the founding of the AACP in 1984. Immediately following the organization's startup, Gordy Clark, AACP's Founding President, began a long tradition of our organization making its way into the APA's work on community psychiatry issues. We attracted to our membership and to our Board a number of APA leaders in community and public psychiatry, and seeded APA components (committees, commissions, councils, and task forces) with our own leaders. Scores of liaisons to various committees have served our membership well by introducing our perspective and arranging for support of our official positions. We have sought and obtained APA approval and support (e.g., publication in widely distributed APA materials) through components, the Assembly and the APA Board for several AACP projects. Among the many other influences we exert in the APA, we not have two named, specific and official liaison positions: the Assembly Liaison (since 1994) and the Liaison to the Consortium on Special Treatment Settings (a new position within the Council on Psychiatric Services established this year).

Recent successes in introducing AACP projects into the APA include: our Guidelines for Psychiatric Practice in CMHCs and Recommendations for Psychiatric Leadership in Organized Delivery Systems. With minor revisions these are now the central pieces in the APA's Guidelines for Psychiatric Practice in State and Community Systems.

Other successes include:

  • Acceptance of our guidelines on formulary restrictions and our standards of public sector quality management systems (Community Psychiatrist, Volume 10, Number 3, page 5)

  • Use of the AACP Committee on Psychosocial Rehabilitation's report as the basis for the position of the APA Special Presidential Committee on Psychosocial Rehabilitation ( CP 13:3 p6)

  • Wide distribution and attention to our position statement on Psychotherapy in Community Psychiatry, especially by the APA's Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists ( CP 13:2 p7)

  • Seeking our advice on various issues, including HCFA rules for CMHC-based partial hospital programs and proposed APA positions on seclusion and restraint (see article page 6)

  • The AACP's Position Statement on the Mentally Ill Behind Bars ( CP 13:2 p4) has been making the rounds of relevant committees since February and will be introduced to the Assembly this November, asking for its endorsement by the APA and its use as a resource document for further work in this area.
    March 28, 2003 - Web Editor's Note: For the most recent update to the position paper on the mentally ill behind bars, see http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/aacp/finds/mibb.html in the Findings/Products section of the AACP Website.

The APA has offered both informal and formal supports to the AACP over the past fifteen years. We have enjoyed the APA's careful attention to our work products and positions, consistent invitations to present in meetings, inclusion in committee work central to our areas of expertise, and the current official liaison positions in the Assembly and the Council structure. This is a successful collaboration that derives its benefits from our independence and voluntary cooperation toward mutual goals.

Clif Tennison, MD

Back to Autumn 1999 Table of Contents



Email Webmaster:
Ken Thompson, MD
Technical Support
Patrick Connell
© Copyright 1999 AACP.