Dear Member of the American College of Psychiatrists,
As a Member of the College, I ask that you support me for APA President-elect. In the late 1980s, I began the effort, with considerable help from Carolyn Robinowitz and Paul Fink, to have the APA include major allied organizations in the APA’s governance. Seventeen allied organizations have decided to join APA’s governance, and should the College decide to join, we would certainly be welcome and could contribute to the thinking on key issues.
One of the major issues is how the APA should support academia. I believe the APA should have three major priorities: 1. The APA advocacy must intensify its efforts to increase NIMH, NIAAA, NIDA, and SAMSHA appropriations. 2. Pharmaceutical Companies give money to universities through R&D budgets and through marketing budgets. I favor the APA supporting the concept of academic centers receiving pharmaceutical industry R&D money, as that is consistent with the mission of universities to expand knowledge. 3. I support the APA assisting universities in developing and implementing plans to increase the number of US graduates who select psychiatry as their specialty, as well as the APA assisting in the need for an increase in the number of subspecialty fellowships.
Regardless of what happens to the US economy, a major issue facing APA Presidents in the next few years is how to do more with less. This challenge is one in which I am experienced. When I assumed the Chair of the Psychiatry Department at Saint Elizabeths in 1979, we had 18 residents. When I left Saint Elizabeths to work with Jerry Wiener in 1995, we had 40 residents, becoming Washington’s largest residency program. This was achieved even though we lost 36% of our faculty in 1981 and another 14% in 1987. A key to the APA doing more with less is making greater use of volunteerism, and I have an excellent track record in that area.
For a listing of my APA activities [albeit, incomplete]: http://rogerpeele.com/apa_activities.asp.
Thank you for considering me to lead the APA.If you are already committed to another candidate, as you know, this is a three-way race, and I would appreciate your number “2” vote.
