Be on the lookout!

Members of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) who are also APA members will have a chance to help increase APA's representation in the AMA's House of Delegates by voting for APA to represent them in that body.

AACAP members have nothing to lose and everything to gain by voting for APA in the specialty society ballot that was mailed out on October 14, Academy President Lawrence Stone, M.D., told Psychiatric News.

The ballot must be returned no later than December 20.

For every 2,000 votes received, APA will gain an additional delegate to the AMA House of Delegates, lending crucial support to all of psychiatry, Stone said.

Stone explained that under the rules of the voting, the AACAP cannot possibly gain additional delegates on the floor of the AMA; neither can it lose any representation if members cast their votes for APA.

"We are encouraging our members to designate APA as their representative on the ballot," Stone said. "The academy will retain its seat in the AMA House of Delegates. It will not lose a delegate, a seat, or a vote.

"But we have the potential to increase support for all psychiatry by voting for APA," Stone said. "This is an opportunity for the academy and APA to work together to increase support for all psychiatry and strengthen each of the organizations."

APA Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., has also requested that psychiatrists who receive an AMA ballot to check the box labeled "American Psychiatric Association" and send the completed ballot back to the AMA.

"It is critical to our efforts at representing the needs of the mentally ill in the house of medicine that there be a 100 percent response," Sabshin said.

The special ballot is part of an effort at reorganizing the AMA House of Delegates to give greater voice to specialty societies

(Psychiatric News, October 4).

The October 14 letter, which was mailed to all members of the American Medical Association, requests each physician to designate a specialty society to represent them on the floor of the House of Delegates.

"Specialty societies that currently hold seats in the AMA's house will not lose their seats," write AMA President Daniel H. Jonson Jr., M.D., and House of Delegates Speaker Richard F. Corlin, M.D., in the October 14 letter. "However, societies can gain additional seats depending on how many ballots are cast per society. There will be no change in your state society representation based on this ballot."

The mailing also notes that physicians may register their vote by calling a toll-free telephone number.

(Psychiatric News, October 18, 1996)