We must be aware of the needs of all Canadian psychiatrists in our evolving mental health system. We must find out if we are dealing with those clinical, educational, research, and advocacy needs effectively, and how we can further improve. We must also determine if CPA is centring its activities on the priority needs of our members, our profession, and our patients. If we want to provide leadership, we must find the answers to those questions. We must initiate specific projects involving collaborative partnerships with provincial psychiatric associations, university departments of psychiatry, the Canadian Medical Association, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Nobody can work in isolation anymore.
A new partnership between psychiatrists in leadership positions and psychiatric administrators is necessary. Our public education efforts must continue. The national round tables on mental health involving patients, families, care providers, and governments must also continue. We must expand the presence of CPA internationally through our publications, communication vehicles, formal liaisons, and collaborative projects with other national psychiatric associations. The admission of psychiatry to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1941 established psychiatry as a specialty in medicine amongst its medical and surgical colleagues.