xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 2, Spring 2000
In Tribute to Our President
In describing Dr. Huffine, David Cutler, MD of Oregon states that he "deserves an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement award. He has been the heart, soul, and voice of community psychiatry here in the Northwest and, for the past four years, in the US. I don't know where he gets all this energy but he simply never gives up . . . a born fighter, a born leader."
Wes Sowers, MD shares the following about the AACP's accomplishments under Charley's leadership:
As Charley's tenure comes to an end, there are several things which I think have made his service remarkable. He has presided over the most productive era of the AACP's history.During this period the AACP completed work on LOCUS and CALOCUS, established sponsorship of the Community Mental Health Journal, developed the Website, expanded our committee structure and productivity, developed a strategic plan, and expanded our liaisons resulting in our influential role in the APA. The organization has addressed the need for community psychiatry to be added to formal residency training, adopted the resolution to seek removal of conduct disorder from DSM V, formally become the providers of clinical coverage for NAMI, expanded our commitment to diversity, cultural competence, and children's issues, and had a 100% increase in membership. During the past four years a number of official documents were developed on a wide range of topics including Quality in Medicaid Managed Care, Formulary Management, the Mentally Ill Behind Bars (see also this link), Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Psychotherapy, Co-Occurring Psychiatric and Substance Disorders, Medical Necessity Criteria, and Seclusion and Restraint (see also this link).
Although Charley does not get complete credit for these accomplishments and (several others I may have forgotten), he does deserve credit for almost singlehandedly transforming our organization by his slavish dedication to communication, primarily through the internet. This has made us the most dynamic professional organization in the mental health field. This use of electronic communication has brought hundreds of persons into active participation in the AACP, making it a truly grassroots organization. This has been particularly remarkable in light of Charley's initial reluctance to use e-mail as a way of doing business. It is a testament to his extraordinary open-mindedness. This was demonstrated in another instance when Charley changed his view that LOCUS could not be adopted to children and adolescent services and eventually became one of the primary architects of the redesign and one of the greatest proponents of the instrument.
This characteristic of his leadership has been one of the factors that has enabled him to harness the energies of the organization and integrate the input of a diverse and individually strong-willed Board of Directors. His humility and genuine admiration and appreciation of the positive qualities of the persons he works with has allowed him to maintain the respect of the organization and to direct it without seeming to do so. His childlike enthusiasm in conjunction with his boundless energy together with these aforementioned qualities have made him a quintessential leader.
Additional thanks to Drs. David Cutler, Steve Goldfinger, Hunter McQuistion, Andres Pumariega, Clif Tennison, and Ken Thompson for their
contributions to this piece.
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2000 Table of Contents