This was my first meeting as your Assembly Representative. I can tell you that we are very well thought of and I was told by some of the more seasoned representatives that I would be following in the footsteps of many wonderful GLIPS representatives. So I hope to continue to represent you in that tradition of excellence.

Financially, APA is in good shape, mostly from publications, advertising, and receipts from last year’s meeting.

Our new Assembly Speaker is Ron Burd, from North Dakota. He was elected over New York’s own Herb Peyser. The new Assembly Recorder is Gary Weinstein

Although we in New York are not directly affected by the push by psychologists to become “physicians” by legislative fiat, you might be interested to know that the APA has spent upward of $2.5 million on battling Scope of Practice legislation, and, as you know, these battles will be ongoing. It is imperative that we support our colleagues by not only paying our dues, but by contributing to our state and national PACS!

All representatives caucus with their Area Council in addition to meeting in the main Assembly. There really were not that many things that required strategic planning, but it was good to meet with familiar and friendly colleagues before heading into the main Assembly. Who are the main players in NYSPA?  Deborah Cross, President (and Chair of the National Public Affairs Committee), Westchester;  Glenn Martin, Vice President (Queens); Seeth Vivek, Secretary (Queens); Davrin Varon, Treasurer (Syracuse); Ann Sullivan, Area II Trustee (New York); Seth Stein, Executive Director (Garden City).  Michael Blumenfield (Westchester) finished his term as Speaker of the Assembly.

The main business of the Assembly is to debate and vote on Action Papers. Action Papers are written and sponsored by representatives and their District Branches and address issues that are relevant to all aspects of contemporary Psychiatric practice in America. What follows is a selection of what I thought were the most interesting and compelling Action Papers.

1. Federal Mental Health Parity Legislation: This was written by NYSPA, and points out that of the two bills moving through Congress, the Senate bill presents a threat to some State-enacted parity rules. It asks that the APA get involved in making sure that it is known that the House version is the preferred version. Later on, however, we heard from Nick Meyer, who said that the threat was overstated. APPROVED
2. Protection of Children Who Testify in Criminal Proceedings.  This paper called for the APA to develop a policy. APPROVED
3. Number of Beds in State-Funded Psychiatric Facilities. This addressed the perceived shortage of beds, and asked the APA to get involved in requesting an appropriate determination of how many beds are actually needed. This was postponed until the Fall, in part because of costs involved in implementation.
4. Increased Access to Treatment of Veterans suffering from Military Related Stress: This called for APA sponsorship of training programs for non-VA physicians who will undoubtedly be seeing some of the psychological casualties of our Middle East ventures. Many of the soldiers (e.g. National Guard) are not eligible for VA treatment. APPROVED
5. Psychotropics in the National Stockpile: Instructed the APA to request of the appropriate agencies that psychotropic drugs be included in the National Stockpile in the event of a catastrophic emergency. APPROVED
6. Persuading Local Health Insurance Companies to Integrate Mental Health Coverage and Cease contracting with MCBOs.  This paper requested that the APA advocate for insurance companies to directly provide coverage for psychiatric care rather than contracting with MCBO to do so.  APPROVED.
7. Psychologist Prescribing. This paper from the Vermont DB, requested that the APA open a dialogue with the psychologists’ APA in order to think about what our common interests are and stop the state-by-state battling over prescription privileges. This lead to a spirited debate, but the consensus seemed to be that there were already joint discussions on other areas of mutual interest. NOT APPROVED.
8. Malpractice Suit Support Program. This paper requested the APA should provide more resources for collegial support for members sued for malpractice. APPROVED.
9. Proposed Position Statement on Patient Access to Treatments Prescribed by Their Physicians. This had to do with interference by PBM with patients receiving the exact medications prescribed by their physicians (i.e., preventing substitutions or interference by aggressive PBMs). NO ACTION TAKEN.
10. Proposed Position Statement on Pharmacy Benefit Management. This  outlined what “good” PBM is. NO ACTION TAKEN.
11. Psychiatric Residency Training Directors should be members of Professional Societies. As a training director, this perplexed me, but I suspect that it had to do with anger that some TDs were not members of the APA. This was amended from language that wanted mandatory membership. APPROVED
12. Health Information Technology for Psychiatrists. This paper requested that the APA take more of a role in encouraging the inclusion of HIT topics and issues on agendas and develop programs for educating members. APPROVED
13. Make Membership in a Professional Organization a Requirement for Residency Training. This too was amended, so that the APA would encourage membership (not advocate for the mandatory membership). APPROVED
14. Supporting AACAP Practice Parameters. This paper arose out of the recognition that the APA Practice Guidelines do not include any for Child Psychiatry conditions. Aside from endorsement of these guidelines, this would make for easy access to these guidelines through our web page. APPROVED.
15. Use of the term “suicidality.” This was an interesting paper from Roger Peele that arose out of the concern of the looseness of the term, and its ramifications for Black Box warning, etc. Ultimately, it was felt that we cannot control the use of language, nor should we take a position advocating for that. NOT APPROVED.
16. Member-In-Training Recruitment. This was from our own Area 2, and grew out of the Committee on Membership report. The APA would endorse an M-I-T lead plan to recruit other M-I-Ts for membership. It would require that the APA donate 100 pocket DSMs to give to Residents.  This would be Manhattan based. It is amazing that we always have to give these residents a gift to get their attention. APPROVED.
17. Expansion of Professional Guidelines to Include Interdisciplinary Professional and Procedural Aspects of the Care of Psychiatric Patients.  Many, if not most, psychiatrists work in some sort of interdisciplinary setting, yet there are no official guidelines for the professional interaction of psychiatrists with other MHPs. This AP requested that the Council on Quality develop such Professional Guidelines. APPROVED.
18. Campaigning on DB e-mail. This would advocated for DBs to use their listserves or e-mail lists for APA campaigning, if the DB approves such a use.  It was thought that such use would increase interest in the elections and in the APA. APPROVED.

I would love to hear your ideas for Action Papers so that we can make our presence felt in the Assembly! Send me an e-mail (mikeschw52@optonline.net) with questions, suggestions, gripes, etc. – anything to do with the APA or NYSPA.  I am looking forward to Deborah Weisbrot joining me as our second GLIPS representative for the Fall Council and Assembly meetings.

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