As a long-time Member of AAAP, I ask that you support me for APA President-elect. I have a long record of supporting the need of AAAP’s place in APA governance. Also, I worked with George Kolodner to have the Assembly pass the motion that the APA advocate for the removal of restrictions on the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine.
In the late 1980s, I began the effort, with considerable help from Carolyn Robinowitz and Paul Fink, to have the APA include major subspecialty organizations in APA’s governance. We specifically spoke of the need for representation of psychiatrists specializing in substance abuse being part of governance [See Speaker’s Report, AJP, October, 1987, page 1393]. As a result, AAAP has a seat in the Assembly. But we need to do more.
IF I am elected President-elect:
1. AAAP, not I, will decide who fills the vacancies within the Council on Addiction.
2. AAAP will be encouraged to select corresponding members of other components, such as the Council on Psychiatry and Law.
3. I will encourage the Assembly to give major psychiatric subspecialty organizations, such as AAAP, more than one vote in the Assembly.
4. I will encourage the APA to turn to AAAP to explore the feasibility to AAAP being the author that updates the Practice Guidelines on substance-related disorders.
I will continue to champion the role of AAAP within the APA by strengthening the role AAAP plays in our profession via the APA.
The APA must become more of a representative democracy, and if elected President-elect, I will ask that AAAP help me achieve that goal.
