xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 3, Summer 2000

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President's Column: Defining the Relationship of the AACP and the APA

In June of this year, as one of the first tasks of this office, I attended a Leadership Meeting of the Allied Psychiatric Organizations in Washington, DC. The purpose of the meeting was to have the leadership of the Allied Organizations meet with APA leadership ( Drs. Borenstein, Pearce, Harding, Mirin / President, Speaker, President-Elect, and Medical Director). Per a memo from Drs. Borenstein and Mirin, they hoped the meeting would offer an opportunity to discuss "how we can work more closely and collaboratively to achieve our common goals in advocating for our patients and our profession. ... Psychiatry as a field can ill afford fragmentation and redundancy in our efforts to provide advocacy, education and needed benefits to our members. We need to find a way to work collaboratively, without threatening the autonomy and missions of our organizations. While we have much in common, we need also to discuss our differences in a frank and open exchange." We were to assess the value of coming together with the APA, identify potential areas for successful partnering (membership recruitment, advocacy, publishing, shared infrastructures), and identify barriers to enhancing these relationships.

A large number of the Allied Organizations were represented (for the sake of brevity I am not going to list the formal name of each group): Psychosomatics, Addiction Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Clinical Psychiatrists, Psychiatry and Law, Academy of Psychoanalysis, Geriatrics, Social Psychiatry, AACP, Psychiatric Administrators, Group Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Association, Adolescent Psychiatry, and Family Systems Psychiatry. Lively discussion ensued, with occasional provocative suggestions for changing boundary conditions twixt the groups.

As a whole, the Allied Organizations requested more complete (cogent and timely) communications from the APA to the allied groups, and a wish for greater input into the APA. The APA leadership promptly designated contact persons, and promised to attend promptly and thoroughly to requests for information. In turn, those representing the APA requested the following from each allied organization:

  1. Membership lists, including addresses, phone and fax numbers, and email addresses;

  2. Designated representatives with whom the APA can communicate regarding issues of import, or to whom the APA can turn if they need information/someone to testify at hearings, etc.;

  3. Delineation of areas of expertise of each organization;

  4. Provision of current products of each organization;

  5. Designation of ONE representative to an APA component, commission, or committee of each group's choosing. However, each organization would be responsible for travel and hotel costs to the meetings (other members of components have their travel/hotel costs supported by the APA).

I have surveyed the Board and have received mixed replies. Most favor sharing "demographic information", but many express concern about sharing email addresses (One person asked why someone at the APA didn't just join the AACP, then they'd have the directory and access to the list-serve...). The board favored identifying AACP "experts", and providing our past and current products (with the exception of LOCUS). I am working on a document delineating AACP's areas of expertise. I will circulate it to the membership for comments. Designating a representative to a specific component has generated the most affect, mostly related to the cost to our organization. It strikes me that the core issues are: what is the value of AACP to the APA, what is the value of the APA to the AACP, and how should we define our relationship.

At present, many of our members serve on components and committees (Indeed, one strategy suggested was for one of these folks to wear two hats at one meeting.). We have superb representation on the Association of Allied Organizations and the General Assembly by Clif Tennison, where he has been very successful in moving many of our products through the APA approval/acceptance process.

Do we need a more structured relationship with the APA? Is this a worthwhile expenditure of our limited financial resources? I have a sense from the Board that they would support meeting the requests of the APA leadership. I believe the AACP has had an enormous impact on advocacy, assessment, treatment planning, and systems of care. It is possible that building more bridges with the APA will facilitate the distribution of our products, and of our philosophies. Before we move forward, however, I wanted to give the AACP membership a heads up, and offer y'all an opportunity to send a message to your Board. I can be reached at jfeldman@uabmc.edu, (205) 975-7720, or by snail mail at

Jackie Feldman, MD
4-CCB
908 20th Street South
Birmingham, AL, 35294

I look forward to hearing from you and will keep you posted as events unfold. Post-script: Earlier this summer I sent out, via email, a "State of the AACP" missive. It covered a lot of territory: thanks to old board members and retiring board leadership, a welcome to new board members, a list of our affiliations, a synopsis of our products and activities, and some plans for the future. If you didn't receive it, or aren't on-line, please give me a holler and I will get a copy out to you.

Jackie Feldman, MD
President, AACP

Jacqueline M. Feldman, MD
Director, Division of Public Psychiatry
University of Alabama at Birmingham - 4-CCB
908 20th Street South
Birmingham, AL 34294

Office: (205) 934-4108
Home: (205) 967-9218
Fax: (205) 975-8950
Email: jfeldman@uabmc.edu


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