AREA 3 UPDATE Maryanne Albaugh, MD, DLFAPA Daniel Neff, MD, FAPA The Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society is represented in the national APA by our state representatives (Dr. Mary Anne Albaugh, Dr. Daniel Neff, Dr. Hector Colon-Rivera, Dr. Nazanin Silver and Dr. Robert Wilson). Collectively with New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia we form the APA Area 3. There are several issues which APA has had to deal with over the past year. A new administration in Washington, the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and society’s continuing grappling with structural racism have been at the forefront of matters. The APA has a complex governance structure, atop which major decisions come before the Board of Trustees (BOT). We are lucky to be represented there by one of our own members Kenneth Certa, MD. Three contentious items dominated discussion at the March board meeting, again: institutional racism, the budget, and our relationship with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Recognizing the reality of institutional racism, the BOT has struggled with how to properly address it. The BOT has recently voted in favor of numerous recommendations from the Task Force on Structural Racism and will continue to move forward with their guidance. The BOT has heard member dissatisfaction with ABPN and MOC and has taken a strong stance that Board Certification and MOC should have no place in employment or state licensure decisions. The BOT also voted recently to acknowledge the existence of competing certification boards and commissioned a study to evaluate next steps. As with all large membership organizations the APA has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has been working hard to continue to deliver the same high-quality education, advocacy, and membership services in the current environment. The APA continues to promote mental health in the political sphere with the excellent efforts of our APA Political Action Committee (PAC). The PAC actively communicates the priorities of our members, organization, and patients to legislatures and maintains relationships on both sides of the aisle. Individual members are always
encouraged to get involved locally with the APA Congressional Action Network (CAN). The APA Foundation (the APA’s partner charitable organization) continues to provide generous support to Minority Mental Health Fellowships and is working on several important initiatives including the Notice.Talk.Act.TM at School program and the Center for Workplace Mental Health. Like last year, the 2021 APA Annual Meeting will be online on May 1st through May 3rd. The live meeting will include 13.5 hours of AMA PRA Category 1 CME credit, while the popular APA Annual Meeting on Demand product will feature up to 75 additional hours of additional CME. Mental health disparities and the social determinants of health are the main topics for this year. As before, there will be a pre-conference expo day so participants can familiarize themselves with the meeting platform. Keynote speakers include Anthony Fauci MD, director of NIAID. There will be two Town Halls, one on Structural Racism in Psychiatry and the other on defining the number of hospital beds needed in our communities. The Town Hall on structural racism is the fifth Town Hall of the APA Presidential Task Force. The Task Force has submitted its final report to the BOT and the Assembly to develop and promote guidelines and initiatives to address structural racism’s impact on our colleagues and patients. During the meeting, we will welcome the APA’s next president Vivian Pender, MD, the president-elect Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD and our new secretary Sandra DeJong, MD. New members joining the board of Trustees include the Minority and Underrepresented Trustee (MUR), Felix Torres MD, and the Early Career Psychiatrist (ECP) trustee Elie Aoun MD. These new leaders will work together to actively address the important issues that face the APA as an organization. They will also serve to work with the new Biden Administration and Congress to advocate for issues related to mental health, the opioid epidemic, reform of the criminal justice system, structural disparities in society, and insurance parity among others. APA member Octavio Martinez, MD has been appointed by the Biden Administration to the COVID-19 Health Equity Taskforce. In Area 3, we would like to extend special congratulations to Jenna Cheng, DO and Hephsibah Loeb, MD who were recognized by Area 3 with the Resident-Fellow Member (RFM) Achievement Award. This award is a new innovation of Area 3 that we have implemented to promote the voices of our RFMs which are so important for the future of our organization.
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