xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 2, Spring 2000
Women With Careers in Community Psychiatry
Fine-Tuning the AACP's Reception
For many years, psychiatry has been a career choice for women due to the options and flexibility in practice settings, allowing women to choose a lifestyle that blends career and family responsibilities. I have seen a significant shift in this trend in the past five years. Many women completing psychiatry residency training still opt for part-time private practice settings or to work for an HMO. In West Los Angeles, the VA was the standard option for those interested in jobs as clinician-educators, but the last wave of VA psychiatrists was hired in 1991, and some of those have since been laid off. Increasing numbers of women are seeking out the predictable income, benefits, and professional gratification associated with a career in community settings. In our county-run community mental health center, those seeking part time employment are more often men who use a public sector job as a temporary, but secure, adjunct to their income and experience as they build a private practice or develop research careers. Those seeking full time employment are more often women with young children seeking a source of adequate income and benefits without expectations for evening or weekend call. Four out of five full-time psychiatrists who work in our facility are women and parents of young children, and three of them are "head of household." All are dedicated to careers in public sector psychiatry, are excellent clinicians and spend a significant amount of time teaching psychiatry residents and medical students. Perhaps husbands with less traditional roles as writers, chefs, and stay-at- home fathers are unique to Los Angeles, but I am not at all certain that this is the case.
The AACP is a tremendous organization with a Board of overly conscientious, bright and hard-working individuals. In the four years that I have been on the Board, the work of the organization has been accomplished through progressive reliance upon e-mail. There is no question that electronic means of communication are efficient, and I applaud the productivity and advances the AACP has made to communicate with its on-line membership. I fear that this has left some of our membership isolated and unable to participate. I fear that women psychiatrists who are not members may often be among those left out. I fear that our attempts to reach these individuals with an electronic signal may not be successful. The psychiatrists who work in our county-run facility use computers to access patient information and to prescribe medications. They do not yet have access to our Web page or e-mail. The women who work in my center go home at the end of their paid workday to another job. Most have chosen this work for some degree of altruism, but also because of the ability to draw a clear line at the end of their workday.
I am concerned that many people who work in publicly funded institutions do not have computers or are not on-line at work. It is unlikely that they spend their own money or time at home to communicate with colleagues on line. I am concerned that our organization has become more and more exclusive of those not on line. I am concerned that an important group of providers whom we could be representing is isolated from our work and from their colleagues.
Forgive me if this sounds critical. It is not meant to change the tidal wave of electronic communication, but only to remind everyone of the obligation we have to reach out and inform those who need to know of our work and who need to be represented. Please continue to write in the newsletter and do not assume that all who are interested in our projects are communicating with you online. Please do not underestimate the value of the newsletter as a recruitment tool -- not everyone is tuning in to our truly sensational Web page.
Kathleen Daly, M.D., M.P.H.
Area VI Representative
Kathleen Daly, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director,
Edmund D. Edelman
Westside MHC
11080 Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Phone: (310) 966-6542
FAX (310) 231-0764
Email: kdaly@ucla.edu
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2000 Table of Contents