mmunity Psychiatrist

President's Column- continued

And finally, many thanks to the products and services plank for your continued efforts to support innovations for quality improvement in our field through LOCUS and the SMART tool work, with more and more organizations requesting use of both. Dr. Rachel Talley is now offering office hours related to questions about and use of the SMART tool. See the website to schedule an appointment (https://www.communitypsychiatry.org/home ). Plans are underway to update our other Keystone programs, i.e., the AACP Board certification exam and model curriculum.I encourage members who have interests in any of these areas to reach out to us and find out how you can join in this important work. All are welcome!

Our reputation as an organization that is action-oriented in its community engagement focus continues to grow and we intend to continue working to address the growing need for innovation in our approach to patient care, diversity in our workforce and creating strategies that favor collaboration in efforts to effect system improvements and transformation in the approach to patient care needed in our field. The AACP meetings with SAMHSA are proving to be informative and helpful in planning strategies for AACP to move the needle in the area of policy and advocacy, program development by members in various parts of the country and building the workforce capacity we need in the future.

And now we’re in the final run up to this year’s APA annual meeting and I can’t tell you how excited we all are about it. AACP is returning to a practice started several years ago where we gather for information sharing and networking at a local community mental health organization in the meeting city. This year thanks to the initiative of Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, one of our ECP board members and vice-president Peter Chien, we will be meeting at the Alliance Health Project (AHP) in San Francisco (https://alliancehealthproject.ucsf.edu/) and adding a consultation engagement to our meeting with this local community-based organization affiliated with UCSF. A detailed plan for that engagement was shared with members in an April email and information is available on the website regarding this opportunity. All members are invited to participate if you’re in San Francisco for the annual meeting. More information will be available in advance of the May membership meeting. And plan to join us for the annual membership meeting to be held on Sunday May 21, 2023 at 5pm at the Alliance Health Project, followed by our member reception, also at AHP.

Spring 2023

Column- continued

Volume 39, Number 1 www.communitypsychiatry.org

So, what’s next for you and the AACP? I’m going to ask everyone reading this to do two things: first, send us your ideas for a topic for our upcoming policy and advocacy forums; and second, read the description of the work of our three working groups (“planks”) and commit to volunteering an hour or two each month working with one of them on the issues of importance in AACP.

Finally, many of you have heard me say, “the future of psychiatry is community psychiatry” and for the rest of 2023 I’d like to see us do the work to make that a reality. More and more we are hearing from trainees and ECPs how excited they are about community psychiatry, and we are seeing the number of community psychiatry fellowships grow. At the AACP member meeting in May, we’ll be discussing some of the strategic decisions we will need to make going forward – addressing workforce capacity and diversity needs, providing opportunities that prepare future psychiatrists to incorporate what we know about the toxic impact of social determinants of mental health and structural racism on the psychological well-being of marginalized communities into our training programs, and advocating for the policy and funding needed to fill the system gaps and create community based service systems that improve the behavioral health continuum of care. There will be many more opportunities for each of you to contribute to making this true.

So remember, the future of psychiatry is community psychiatry, and I hope you’ll join us as we plan the path forward for that future! I look forward to seeing you at the member meeting, May 21st, during the 2023 APA Annual Meeting in San Francisco!