COMMITTEE REPORTS Continued.

MILITARY & VETERANS Continued.

years following September 11th, 2001. Dr. Ursano of USU has endorsed this idea. They advised that the success depends on asking the right questions Dr. Doidge has offered to formulate a list of questions for us based on successful strategies in the literature. One possible frame for our project is that military psychiatrists know more about the beginning of the combat stress story and VA psychiatrists know more about its long-term consequences. Major Wolfgang suggested that young and upcoming psychiatrists might prefer to access our findings through YouTube videos and brief texts which could be accessed online and/or incorporated into didactics from their attendings. SUSP could play a role both in producing/funding and disseminating our products. We may also want to include interviews with military support organizations such as Semper Fi and Veterans Organizations such as Team Red, White and Blue and discuss special topics relating to humanitarian deployments (such as to Haiti). We must clearly articulate (1) What information we want to collect, and (2) How do we want to get this into people’s hands? Firsthand accounts of experience in working down range and with detainees and POWs (e.g., Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) could help our work “fly off the shelf.” We might best begin with just a few select interviews (at an estimated $2,000/interview for videography/ production) and share these with prospective audiences, publishers, producers. In a subsequent session, we were joined by GAP Public Relations advisor, Amy Franklin, who suggested that we might best capture the attention of military and VA psychiatrists and policy makers by developing a series of blogposts and other brief articles based on our interviews. She suggested that we start with just 4 interviews and offer them as a blog through GAP’s established relationship with Psychology Today. Then, based on the number of views and any feedback received, we can pitch our plan to other outlets/funders to create an entire series. Possible sources of funding include the National Endowment for the Humanities, various DoD history programs, and VSO’s.

7. Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: Dr. Koffman provided an update on the status of policy, research and clinical efforts. On the day prior to our Committee meeting, the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Clinical Treatments (PACT) Caucus put forward a bill to increase knowledge on this topic. The Senate is considering moving Schedule I psychedelic agents to Schedule II to improve their availability for research. Dr. Koffman suggests that GAP create a subcommittee on Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy under an appropriate standing Committee.

8. Recruiting New Committee Members: Dr. Shannon Ford of the U.S. Army plans to attend as a guest at our April Meeting. Dr. Kudler will prepare a brief statement which can be shared with the SUSP and with the APA Caucus of VA Psychiatrists seeking nominations (including self-nominations).

9. Getting (and Making Good Use of) a GAP Fellow for Our Committee: We have repeatedly applied for a GAP Fellow. The video history project could strengthen our argument for having a Fellow. We could include a request for funding a fellow to be shared with the President of SUSP in concert with our request for their support in producing pilot interviews for the video history. Doctor Kudler will take responsibility for developing that paragraph.

Neuropsychiatry

The Committee has been meeting at least monthly on Zoom. We are nearing completion of a manuscript about a newly-recognized neuropsychiatric condition called D-MER (dysphoric milk ejection reflex).

PLANNING, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Attending: Bob Boland, John Looney, Jack Bonner, Harvey Ruben, Harsh Trivedi, Seth Powsner, Mary Barber, Lois Flaherty (by Zoom).

Saul Levin and Uma Naidoo unable to attend.

This GAP meeting, its 151st, was significant for its improved in person attendance and for the Strategic Retreat held Saturday 11/19 led by Mary Barber of our committee. We had a full agenda.