Our business relations initiative is gaining momentum. A significant part of our plan is to establish contacts with Fortune 500 companies to determine their knowledge about and interest in the impact of mental illness in the workplace. Without much effort, I was able to talk to major health care decision makers including vice presidents at Bank One, Sears, General Telephone, General Electric, and Union Pacific Railroad. Larry Kraus, former U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive and consultant on this project, contacted additional corporate executives at Boeing, Hughes Electronics, and Merrill Lynch.

From the conversations, it was clear that the corporations had different levels of sophistication regarding psychiatric illnesses. Most have relied on behavioral managed care organizations but have begun to consider the need for other options. Some wanted to meet with us in the near future, and others wanted us to come to them with an effective mental health program that had been used to provide quality care for employees at another company. They wanted to apply a proven model rather than participate in a pilot project.

As a follow-up to the initial contacts, and to better assess the likely success of our future business relations, on June 15 the Board of Trustees met with Dennis Righting, M.D., assistant vice president for health services at Union Pacific Railroad. Dennis is responsible for the medical and health-related services for 53,000 employees in 23 states. He is also a member of the Washington Business Group on Health. Dennis described the way in which medical care is provided in his company and the treatments available to employees and their families with psychiatric illnesses, including substance abuse problems. He was very enthusiastic about our interest in working with corporations, indicated that he had funds available for a number of pilot projects, and was willing to play an active role in our project.

The Board also met with Jody Dean, Ph.D., corporate manager of the employee assistance program of Hughes Electronics Corporation. She described the changes she had been able to make at Hughes to improve the mental health care of employees and also indicated a strong desire to work with us to evaluate her program and to expand the range of mental health treatments available to employees in her company. Following the meeting, she quickly approached the Hughes senior executive vice president for corporate human resources in an effort to work toward future contacts with APA.

On July 7 APA representatives met with a major financial services corporation that was interested in bringing its mental health services to the same high-quality level as its other medical services. Once again, we paved the way for additional contacts.

The Committee on Business Relations is overseeing this project. Dr. Norman Clemens chairs the six-member committee, which includes two other members of the APA Board of Trustees, Drs. Marcia Goin and Sandra DeJong. The other members are Drs. Leonard Sperry and Jeff Kahn from the Committee on Psychiatry in the Workplace and Dr. Robert Gordon. These three members have regular contacts with corporations.

Employers are becoming aware of the impact restricted access to treatment for psychiatric illnesses is having on their bottom lines. They have witnessed rising disability premiums and a loss of employee creativity. A recent, well-designed, major corporation study demonstrated that strict managed care resulted in no net cost savings. Moreover, the study did not include the significant disability expenses corporations are experiencing.

As you can see, there is no lack of corporate interest in working with APA to diminish absenteeism, sick days, and employee turnover, which are largely secondary to psychiatric illnesses. Soon we will begin pilot projects with several companies. Once we can demonstrate positive results from these projects, we will take them to other companies. It is exciting to see this project evolve—a project with the potential to dramatically improve the psychiatric care of employees and their families.