The AACP Board Meeting was held on October 9-10, 2002 at the elegant Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Illinois during the Institute on Psychiatric Services Meeting.

The following announcements were made at the Board meeting:

Paul Appelbaum, MD, President of the APA; Prakash Desai, MD, Speaker of the APA Assembly; and Paula Panzer, MD, IPS Scientific Program Committee Chair, participated in the Board Meeting. Dr. Applebaum noted APA’s commitment to the IPS Meeting and the need to find a liaison to work with AACP to ensure the viability of IPS. Dr. Feldman commented that gains have been made with the assistance of Dr. Paula Panzer. Dr. Panzer stated that a proposal is being made to the APA Board of Trustees to outline the following regarding the future of the IPS Meeting:

She hopes that IPS will become a more affordable, accessible, and multidisciplinary meeting in the future.

Dr. Appelbaum shared APA’s political and advocacy efforts, including working with Senator Wellstone on parity. There is concern that the first casualty of the Iraq conflict may be the mental illness parity legislation. He also discussed that a number of states will be pursuing psychologist prescribing legislation. The APA is working to help District Branches with their strategy. Further, he emphasized that the APA will be addressing the potential effects of state budget shortfalls on public mental health services. Dr. Appelbaum also noted that the APA is exploring how to be involved with the President’s New Freedom Commission. Carl Bell, MD, also a participant in the Board meeting, shared information regarding the New Freedom Commission’s visit to his agency. Dr. Bell stated that he advocated to the Commission the need for linking community based organizations with universities to develop and disseminate treatment approaches with "real world effectiveness," as is being attempted in Chicago.

The APA has appointed a steering committee on the Surgeon General’s Report with no funding. Altha Stewart, MD is in charge of this committee.

Several members of the NASMHPD Medical Directors Council including Drs. Steve Karp, Alan Radke, Steve Sterry, Lisa Hovermale who is standing in for Dr. Burt Pepper from Maryland and Joe Parks, also joined the meeting. Current foci of interest for the Council include integrated MI/MR services, disaster planning, and seclusion and restraint. Their most recent paper is the restraint and seclusion paper for deaf and hearing impaired individuals.

A recently added area of interest for the Council is the new cost saving trend among states to abolish or marginalize state medical directorships. Only approximately 30 states have medical directors, and a number of these are directors in name only. The council is undertaking a national survey on state medical directors’ leadership practices.

Dr. Everett reported on the progress of the SPMI Assembly Task Force appointed by APA Speaker Dr. Nada Stotland. The task force has ten action items that have been reshaped into five action papers.

Dr. Pollack has been appointed to the APA Council for Advocacy and Public Policy. This Council oversees three committees that used to be joint commissions. CAPP reports to the Joint Reference Committee, which in turn reports to the Board of Trustees. Of note, CAPP has concentrated most of its efforts on psychologists’ prescribing privileges.

Dr. Russell Lim reported that several committees previously under this council were transformed into corresponding committees and reassigned to the Council of Psychiatric Services. The Committee on Minorities and Under-represented Groups has been downsized to 5 members. Dr. Lim plans to improve the collaboration between the Council and AACP.

The AACP was invited to become more involved with IPS Meeting planning. Dr. Feldman met with the APA Scientific Program Committee about how to enhance the quality of IPS in orderto attract a larger target audience and to meet the needs of community psychiatrists. Three recommendations resulting from this collaborative effort included the following: 1) Develop a formal relationship between the AACP and the IPS meeting planning committee; 2) Develop a formal relationship between Presidents of AACP and APA; and 3) Develop a task force composed of four members, including the current and future Scientific Program Chair and two members of the AACP Board.

Dr. McQuistion had previously presented a request (via email) that AACP serve as Amicus Curiae to the New York Supreme Court opposing attempts by NYC to deny shelter to homeless individuals with mental or social dysfunction who were unable to comply with bureaucratic requirements. The request was presented formally to the Board and it was approved that AACP sign on as Amicus Curiae.

Dr. Huffine reported on several issues the committee will be focusing on in the future including: 1) Consent for treatment laws (around the country age of consent varies from 13 — 18); and 2) Developing new articles on system of care reform for a new child psychiatry column in Psychiatric Services.

This is a new subcommittee under the Training Committee. Drs. Gibson and Forster shared that the focus of the subcommittee will be on developing CME specifically relevant to community psychiatrists. They discussed possible venues for their first CME event, including traveling educational events, courses at IPS or APA, and web-based offerings. Committee members will examine funding and participant arrangements used by institutions and global/regional financial resources. Content of initial CME offerings will derive from the AACP membership survey. The next step will be to develop a specific curriculum.

Dr. Ng provided follow-up to the AACP/CMS community disaster response meeting held in DC in July. A steering committee will be writing the proceedings from the meeting and developing curricula that were outlined in the meeting. There is a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) disaster response preparedness grant available for each state for $100,000.

Dr. Lim reported that the committee is working on the ten nominees for next year’s free membership. The committee plans to involve local diversity training professionals in Boston with the IPS meeting/presentations. Dr. Ng will be developing modules in the CMS disaster response curriculum for working the minorities during disaster.

Dr. Everett noted that the document, Principles of Formulary Management, is expected to be completed by February and will highlight the relationship between provider and consumer.

Dr. Primm reported that there are 602 paid members. The committee has been considering strategies for increasing membership further. They will be working on developing a list of ‘Why Join?’ bullets for recruitment purposes. The committee is also considering rewriting the statement in the application brochure to better include state hospital psychiatrists.

Drs. Goldfinger and Ronis stressed the importance of recruiting residents early in their career. Subsequently, the Board approved offering residents a one-year free membership without the journal.

Dr. Pollack reported that: 1) AACP’s letter has been sent to APA leadership commending their work on fostering integrated primary care/mental health care delivery and offering the help of AACP in APA’s endeavors; and 2) the Board reviewed the most recent edits of the proposed position paper, "Principles for Working Effectively with Primary Care." The position paper will be included with the AACP’s report to the New Freedom Commission. Of note, Dr. Weinberg will take over as Chair of the Primary Care Committee.

Dr. Sowers circulated a revised draft of the AACP paper, "Quality Management Guidelines for Incorporating Recovery Oriented Principles in Mental Health Treatment Systems." The Board recommended an improved description of the Recovery Model and summary statement. The committee plans to incorporate these suggestions, add quality indicators, and re-circulate the document to the Board.

Dr. Haggerty reported on multiple issues being tracked by the Training Committee: 1) The curriculum project is progressing. Curricula and training programs are now being collected in a new training section on the AACP website for public access; 2) The Committee will work toward a presentation on the status of community psychiatry training for a future IPS meeting; 3) The Committee will explore the feasibility of a national summit on community psychiatry training; 4) The Committee will work to improve community psychiatrist representation on the Residency Review Committee (RRC); 5) The Committee will work on developing strategies for using consumers as consultants to training programs.

Dr. Foster updated the Board on his efforts to organize a broad based response strategy against cuts in state funding for mental health services. He hopes to have a strategy (advocacy) "toolkit" on the AACP website following the 2003 AACP Winter meeting.

Dr. Sowers discussed various ways AACP could obtain input from consumer and family partners: 1) A hybrid advisory group could be formed from existing advocacy groups; 2) AACP products might include input from either local or national groups with whom AACP Board members already have liaison relationships; and 3) An official policy to obtain feedback from consumer and advocacy groups could be developed.

The Board resumed discussion of post-September 11 restrictions affecting availability and maintenance of J-1 visas (and job placements in underserved areas) for FMG psychiatrists. Dr. Chandrigiri will take the lead in developing an AACP position statement and will present it at the next Board meeting. He would like to develop liaisons in each state to work on the project. Several Board members suggested that our response can best approach the J-1 issue through discussion of its impact on access to care.

Dr. Minkoff circulated the draft of an AACP statement to the New Freedom Commission. The statement contains 10 bullets, each referring to existing AACP position papers. A general discussion of items that needed to be added occurred. Among the pertinent items, the importance of culturally competent care, the need for housing, and government responsibilities were highlighted.

Dr. Primm shared that Pfizer would like to talk with AACP about employee initiatives. Pfizer has a division for employee health and they have linkages with corporations. Pfizer is working with Sara Lee, a company based in Chicago. Employees of Sara Lee have a high incidence of diabetes and mental health issues. Pfizer is looking for psychiatrists to make presentations to their employees. These efforts are educational and Pfizer is hoping for outcome demonstrations.

Dr. Feldman offered guidance on email etiquette. It was reiterated that email responses are preferably directed, when applicable, to the initial sender rather than the entire group. It was also recommended that the subject line needs to be very clear.