AACP Newsletter, Volume 13,
Number 4, Autumn 1999
Editor's Column:
AACP Celebrating Fifteen Years of Excellence
During the early years of the organization, work began on the " Guidelines for Practice in Community Mental Health Centers" which was eventually approved and adopted by the APA. A model curriculum for residency training in community psychiatry was also developed and eventually published. During this period the AACP also began to develop its network and identity in the psychiatric community through the development of liaisons with allied organizations. In the early 1990's, the AACP was one of the few psychiatric organizations to publicly endorse a single-payer plan for financing health care reform; an action which appears prescient in this era of profit driven managed care. During these early years, the AACP established annual awards for outstanding psychiatrists and non-psychiatrists who have made significant contributions to the field. By establishing biannual meetings of the membership, the AACP began to establish its reputation as an organization which cares about and values the participation of this membership. Linkage to the new generations of community psychiatrists was established through the development of the APA - Mead Johnson Fellowship Program (now the Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellowship Program), which continues to this day. Communication with the membership was also maintained through a quarterly newsletter that has been simple, but reliable and informative. An affiliation with a more scholarly publication, The Community Mental Health Journal, was established as well and a subscription to the journal became part of the membership package.
It is within the past five years that the AACP has perhaps achieved its greatest successes. During this period the Membership Committee has responded to the perception that the membership fluctuating between 300-500 was not an adequate number to support the activities of the organization or to achieve true credibility in representation of our field. It was clear that there were many more psychiatrists practicing in the community whose interests were represented by the AACP who had limited or no knowledge of our organization. With this recognition, the Membership Committee took on a new mandate: 1000 by 2000. As we march toward the new millennium, we continue to inch toward that goal. While we stand at 821 with three months to go before the new millennium, passing the 1000 mark appears to be within reach by the end of the year 2000, if not at the beginning.
Part of the credit for the new interest in our organization is due in part to its frenetic activity during the 1990's. During this period, the reputation of the organization has grown steadily as it has achieved a higher profile through the production of a variety of guidelines, instruments and position statements. Enhanced participation and liaison with a number of allied organizations has been an instrumental part of this accomplishment. Perhaps the most important among such liaisons has been the AACP's establishment as a permanent member in the Assembly of the APA. This relationship which has required a great deal of dedicated work has been a forum for the AACP to display its expertise and ability to develop solutions to identified problems in an efficient manner. That ability was not often possible within the more cumbersome structure of the APA, and they were eager to take advantage of this trait as evidenced by their adoption or endorsement of several AACP produced documents. (See "AACP and the APA: Establishing Connections, this issue).
The AACP Website was established in 1997 and is the current repository for many of the documents developed over the course of this decade. A visit to the site at http://www.comm.psych.pitt.edu allows a review of past and current editions of Community Psychiatrist, the Level of Care Utilization System for Psychiatric and Addiction Services (LOCUS), the AACP Guidelines of Psychiatric Leadership in Organized Delivery Systems for Treatment of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders, the AACP Position Statement on People with Mental Illness Behind Bars, Standard for Quality Management in Implementing Public Sector Managed Care Systems an many others. Recent documents such as Guidelines for Formulary Management in Public Sector Managed Care, Psychotherapy and Rehabilitation will soon be added.
March 25, 2003 - Web Editor's Note: The above, as well as additional documents, can be found by clicking on" Findings/Products"on the left sidebar on the AACP Main Page
Five years ago, upon reaching its 10th anniversary, and agenda for the future was elaborated (Community Psychiatrist, Volume 8, page 6, 1994). That agenda included an expanded role in policy formulation, definition and defense of quality standards, development of a proactive agenda for managing managed care, and expansion of a public health conception for psychiatry. It is gratifying that five years later we have made significant progress in addressing these issues and we can only hope to match that degree of success in the next five. One of the innovations that has made this progress possible was the development of the AACP listserv. With the exception of a recent glitch which sent all members on the list thousands of the same message and nearly drove us all crazy; this medium has been most successful in bringing the membership into a productive partnership with its elected Board of Directors and its working committees. This has enabled a level of productivity and communication unheard of in most other organizations of this kind. With luck, we will continue to expand participation and communication, and our identity as "community" psychiatrists will flourish in the context of a community "of" psychiatrists.
Wesley Sowers
Editor
March 25, 2003 - Web Editor's Note: The AACP Website is now at http://www.communitypsychiatry.org instead of http://www.comm.psych.pitt.edu.
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