I know, as a clinician providing care to hundreds of patients a year, how corporate and government policies have interfered with our ability to provide excellent clinical care. I am proud of my role in beginning to transform APA into a proactive organization focused on protecting psychiatrists scope of practice, preserving patient privacy, and fighting for parity. But this is just a beginning, and there is much more we have to accomplish. Psychologists prescribing initiatives must be stopped all around the country. Corporate infringement on our decision making about the best care of our patients is a national tragedy.
Many states still lack effective parity legislation.
Productive coalitions with patient advocacy groups need to be developed and existing coalitions need to be strengthened. To accomplish these critically important aims, we need to focus our resources on public education, government relations, and activism at the local and state levels. We need to do much more, as the full impact of this reallocation will not be felt immediately. APA must become much more responsive to our members practice needs, and we need a more effective advocacy network at the state legislative level. We need to provide more resources so that district branches, state societies, and local chapters can provide the tools to our members to carry out the work necessary to ensure open access to high-quality psychiatric care.