CONTROVERSIES IN PSYCHIATRY
Summer 2021 Issue |
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American Psychiatric Association Assembly Meeting - April 24-25, 2021
By John P.D. Shemo, MD, DLFAPA
APA Assembly Representative
Psychiatric Society of Virginia
This was the 94th meeting of the American Psychiatric Association Assembly and the second, and hopefully last, to be held in a virtual format. The meeting began with a tribute to Joseph Napoli, MD, Speaker of the Assembly, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor just before the start of his term and died two weeks before this meeting. Mary Jo Fitz-Gerald, MD, Speaker-Elect, has functioned as acting speaker for the past year and will now begin her own term as Speaker.
It is further, sadly, noted that the prior Assembly Speaker, Paul O’Leary, MD, Chair of the Rules Committee and the Nominating Committee, died unexpectedly soon after this meeting.
The total time of the meeting was somewhat shorter than at live meetings. The agenda was adjusted to maintain time for discussion of the position statements and action papers at the expense of shorter presentations by APA administrators and committee chairs. More extensive reports from these individuals were available on-line for review.
There were 49 issues voted on by the Assembly. It is noted that a lot of work had been done prior to the assembly meeting to edit and revise these items – with a lot of input and consultation. Thus, some of the items were passed on “consent calendars” because there was broad support. Any single member of the Assembly can have an item removed from a consent calendar, requiring that it be presented and discussed “on the floor.”
So as to not have this report be ten pages long, I will briefly outline a sample of the actions that passed or failed.
- Approved - Position Statement: Recognizing Childhood Trauma In The Setting of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Race-Related Challenges to Human Rights.
- Approved – Position Statement: Interstate Licensure for Telepsychiatry.
- Approved – Position Statement: Racism and Racial Discrimination in the Psychiatric Workplace.
- Approved – Position Statement: Position Statement on Orchiectomy or Treatment with Anti-Androgen Medications as a Condition of Release from Incarceration (for men in prison related to “sex crimes,” especially involving children).
- Approved – Retention of the Position Statement: Publication of Findings from Clinical Trials. (requiring that all results be available from clinical studies, including all negative findings).
- Approved – Retention of the Position Statement: Use of Animals in Research. (addressing humane treatment).
- Approved – Position Statement: Ongoing Need to Monitor and Assess the Public Health and Safety Consequences of Legalizing Cannabis.
- Approved – Position Statement: Morale Injury Among Healthcare Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic.
- Approved – Position Statement: The Role of Psychiatry in HIV.
- Approved – Revised Position Statement: Core Principles for Alternative Payment Models for Behavioral Health.
- Approved – Position Statement: Medical Supervision of Psychiatry Residents and Fellows (their supervision needs to be done almost entirely by physicians).
- Approved – Position Statement: Condemning Rise of White Supremist Violence.
- Approved – Psychiatric Care is Not a Consumer Product Nor Subject to Online Consumer Reviews, asking:.
-That the APA develop disclaimer language about the inability of healthcare providers to acknowledge, address, correct, or refute reviews – especially false reviews.
-That the APA engage with other healthcare organizations to advocate for federal legislation to require attaching the disclaimer developed to any online healthcare review. - Approved - Eliminating mandated possession of “less lethal weapons” (i.e. tasers, nightsticks, etc.) by physicians employed by law enforcement agencies, in addition to lethal weapons such as firearms.
- Approved – APA create a task force to draft a position statement on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and another to address Neuromodulation (this replaces action papers asking that these areas of treatment be endorsed by the Assembly).
- Failed: Proposed Position Statement: Providing Telepsychiatry Services Across State Lines for College Students.
-This item advocated that college students could continue to be treated using telemedicine by those treating them in college student health services while away and out of their college state for vacations/summers, etc. Its failure was based on the lack of reciprocity that “home”psychiatrists could maintain treatment while patients who were college students were in another state in school.
There was a complex array of papers submitted on the topic of “Addressing Structural Racism in the American Psychiatric Association.” This is, of course, a very important but complex topic. Some progress was made, but a lot remains to be addressed.
Significantly more detail on all the subjects I have addressed is available on the APA website.
As always, if you have an issue you would like addressed at the Assembly level, Adam Kaul, Varun Choudhary and I are available for consultation and assistance.
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PSV 2021
FALL MEETING
September 24-25, 2021
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