COMMITTEE REPORTS Continued.

ADMINISTRATION & LEADERSHIP

Continued. health specialty) sits at the head of the table. First do a literature search and gather material for a longer paper on how administrative psychiatry has evolved over the years. John Lauriello suggested that writing papers is better than composing a book. A title for the article could be “What does the administrative leaders in 2030 look like?” The approach of writing a paper is also useful for working towards a session/ presentation at a conference. In this morning’s general session, we also learned about blogs when Jack Drescher described GAP agreeing to do 24 blogs a year for Psychology Today. Jack asked for subjects and the subcommittee of the Publication Board can help. We can write a blog on psychiatric administration with an appealing title that attracts attention. Stu mentioned that today it is important to know that there is an electronic interaction with patients. Our papers tend to be backwards looking and we need more forward-looking visions, e.g., writing about what is the ultimate role of the psychiatry interface of mental health and between computer and patient. Doctors are busy with algorithms, but the psychiatrist has the expertise to master the f2f interaction. Psychiatry is saving the interpersonal relationship for those who need it the most. We, psychiatrists, are a scare resource! Farooq mentioned that a blog about the online explosion needs to be addressed and how we psychiatrists integrate this into our daily work. Other topics to cover can include workforce issues, quality, automation, use of artificial intelligence in mental health, etc. We can also work on a new theme issue for a journal that include topics that cover the new landscape for psychiatric administrators and leaders. We agreed to exchange ideas on topics to write about through email. We also have an option available through GAP to invite consultants to our committee at future meetings.

Committee Membership And Leadership Discussions

Sy informed the committee that Brian Hepburn had indicated to leave GAP. This means that the committee can invite new members, starting as guest to a future meeting. In the past we have considered inviting: Ken Rogers, Lumig Li, and Laura Roberts. Sy followed up from the discussion in our previous meetings regarding his desire to step down from this committee and to start another committee on “Telepsychiatry, Health Technologies, and e-Behavioral Health”. A formal proposal for this new committee was discussed at the GAP board meeting yesterday afternoon and the board approved it. The initial concept was previously discussed at the board in 2019.

Britta was proposed to be the new chair of the committee and was elected unanimously. She asked the help of the members to run the committee.

Committee members thanked Sy for his years of leadership and mentorship. Under his leadership many projects have been successfully completed.

Victor reported that he also planned to join Sy in his new Committee on “Telepsychiatry, Health Technologies, and e-Behavioral Health”

OTHER BUSINESS:

None.

Adolescence

Present: Daniel Becker, Gordon Harper, Aaron Krasner, Jean Wittenberg

Virtual: Lois Flaherty

Guest: Stephan Carlson in person

Virtual Guests: Jack Crookall, Liwei Hua, Mayank Gupta

Ittleson Consultant: Natasha Vianna

The Committee had a very successful and exciting meeting. We have been welcoming new guests over the course of the pandemic and continue to extend invitations to others who can increase our depth of knowledge and though as well as our level of energy. We are reviewing a range of topics before deciding on any specific one, having just completed a long project on teen mothers and stigma. We are continuing to develop the teen mothers project by creating publicfriendly products for their information and education as to the harmful effects of stigma on this vulnerable population. Sectors to be addressed include policy makers, educators, child protection workers, family doctors, and the general public.

Focus Of Work Accomplished

DURING THE MEETING:

Discussion about new projects. Discussion about modern platforms for communication of our work including blogs, social media, etc.

We have published a paper on the harmful impact of stigma on adolescent parents and their children in JNMD in August 2022 and have a book on the same topic in press with Springer.

The Committee has been meeting virtually once a month.

FOCUS FOR NEXT MEETING:

Continuing discussion and reflection on which new projects might be of greatest interest and benefit for us to pursue.

Discussion about possible collaborations inside and outside GAP on our teen mothers project as well as on other new projects. This begins with a blog in Psychology Today which we hope will be published soon—for that many thanks to Jack Drescher, Carol Bernstein and Thomas Franklin. We are now in the process of determining where we will direct our attention and efforts for new projects.

Aging

Members present: Susan Lehmann, Sebha Husain

Krautter, Helen Kyomen and Bob Roca

Guest: Ebony Dix joined

Remote: Maureen Nash

We discussed:

1. Blog posts: a. Why Your Brain Needs a Workout has been visited nearly 7,000 times and is the most visited GAP posts thus far. We discussed further posts: i. Susan and Ebony expressed an interest in creating a blog post on the pros and cons of early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease using some of the new non-invasive approaches (i.e., blood tests and imaging). They will have a draft by mid-December. ii. Bob and Sebha agreed to create a post to follow-up on the “workout” blog; the new one will look at the evidence for and against the value of “mental exercise” as a way to preserve cognition/forestall cognitive decline. They will have a daft by mid-December. iii. We also discussed a blog post on ways to reframe in a more positive way the otherwise difficult experience of cognitive loss for both patients and caregivers. There have been some moving testimonials about this. Another approach would be to put something together to assist caregivers in their work with a person living with dementia. This might include advice on dealing with “sundowning”, wandering, etc. This blog post will require further refinement before being written.

2. A photo-essay project a. We are considering a photo-essay featuring photos of older adults (e.g., over 65) accompanied by their answers to one or both of the following questions: i. What is wisdom, and do we grow wiser as we grow older? ii. Tell me what you think/how you feel about being ___ (your age) b. We would need to work out the practicalities of getting good portraits. Ideally, they would be taken by a professional photographer. Sehba’s husband, a professional photographer, has volunteered his services. c. We will also need to explore legal/liability issues a. Helen will explore writing up the study on the emotional impact of disclosure of the diagnosis of dementia done by her and her student and presented as posters at the Annual Meeting of AAGP and American Geriatric Society. a. Helen is taking the lead, and we aim to have a first draft by no later than January.

3. Writing up the “disclosure of dementia diagnosis” research done by Helen and her student.

4. Revising the chapter on older adults for the next edition of Fred Stoddard’s GAP book on Disaster Psychiatry.

5. Inviting Ebony back as a guest for the April Meeting, with a plan to recommend for membership at that time.