Winter 1998 - Board of Directors' Report

xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 1998

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Board of Directors' Report

The AACP Board of Directors met this autumn at the end of October in Washington, D.C. at the Institute on Psychiatric Services. The meeting was held the same weekend as the Marine Corps Marathon run annually in the nation's capital, and the pace and breadth of activities around this meeting was reminiscent of that event. Despite the hectic atmosphere, the accomplishments of our organization over the last year seemed to make all the hard work worthwhile. Some of the highlights of recent board activities are presented below.

Treasury

The AACP finds itself in relatively good shape financially at this point in time. With declines in contributions from corporate supporters much attention had been paid to establishing a more independent base of support. Recently, some of the urgency of developing independent means was lifted due to generous contributions from our corporate sponsors. Despite a lower level of urgency, the board intends to continue plans to develop a core budgeting process which would plan for fundamental expenditures using predictable income as a base. Fortunately, there are increased prospects for generating income through the publication of AACP authored instruments, such as LOCUS, and sales of the corresponding software. A growing membership should also contribute to financial stability through increased dues income. There was general agreement at this time to maintain dues without an increase in the near future.

Membership Hits 500

Efforts made toward achieving the organization's goal of 1000 by 2000 have started to pay off! The membership of the AACP cracked the 500 mark for the first time this fall. Some of the factors that have contributed to the recent surge in membership applications are increased exposure through E-mail proceedings, establishing a booth at the spring APA meeting, and increased efforts of area representatives. Several additional strategies are planned. One potential source of new members will be through sales of LOCUS software. Substantial discounts will be offered to those who join the AACP. Efforts to create mechanisms for offering group membership are also being discussed.

LOCUS Development Continues

The software version of LOCUS is now available and it was demonstrated at the exhibition area of Institute on Psychiatric Services. The demonstration drew a great deal of attention, many of the program's participants had no previous exposure. Several directors of state mental health offices were present and indicated interest in using LOCUS to guide utilization of services. At the board meeting, the LOCUS Development Committee worked in conjunction with the Research Committee to elaborate the blueprint for reliability and validity testing. A tentative plan was approved and will be further elaborated prior to the actual field testing which will likely take place this winter at five selected test sites. And expanded version of the software is scheduled to be released this spring. The new version will be capable of storing data and generating a variety of reports for mental health service systems. the simpler version will remain available at a very modest price for users who are from small or independent agencies which do not require sophisticated reporting capabbilities.

Work continues with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to develop a Child and Adolescent version of LOCUS. Dr. Andres Pumariega will take the lead in this effort and hopes that a draft will be available this spring.

Psychiatric Workforce

Last spring, the AACP formed a new committee under the leadership of Jacqueline Feldman, MD, which was given the task of developing perspectives and methods to determine psychiatric staffing needs and caseload guidelines. The committee's initial work will be directed toward developing an approach to this problem which is based on consumer accessibility. The committee plans to compose a questionnaire for AACP members which will facilitate an understanding of this question. As it became evident that interest in this issue extended to the APA, Dr. Allan Tasman was invited to this meeting to discuss the activities of an APA Task Force on Workforce Issues. There is particular concern at this time due to proposed cutbacks in federal funding which could eliminate up to 40% of psychiatric residency training positions, and possibly many positions for child training as well. While addressing the Board, Dr. Tasman urged collaboration in the two organizations' activities in this area, and Board members agreed that efforts should be complimentary in addressing these important questions. Further dialogue was planned to ensure that these efforts do move forward in a cooperative manner.

1998 AACP Ballot

The slate for upcoming elections to the board of directors consists of the following nominees. Ballots will be delivered in January.

President - Charles Huffine
Vice President - Linda Gochfeld
Secretary - Ben Crocker
Treasurer - Bob Goisman

Area II
Hunter McQuistion

Area IV
David Giles
Mark Munetz

Area V
Pat Carrion
Joel Feiner

Representatives at Large
Angel Garrido
Peter Gibson
John Haggerty
Russell Lim
Humberto Martinez
Monica Miles
Ken Minkoff
Carol Paris
David Pollack
Barbara Rohland

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