The collaboration between the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City is the winner of the 1996 Award for Exemplary Interdisciplinary Collaboration.

The winning collaboration was recognized by the award's sponsor, the State/University Interdisciplinary Collaboration Project, for its long history of fostering service, teaching, and research to improve services for persons with psychiatric disorders and developmental disabilities.

John A. Talbott, M.D., chair of the collaboration project and a former APA president, presented the award to Roy Wilson, M.D., director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health, at APA's Institute on Psychiatric Services in October.

Talbott presented a plaque of honorable mention to Calvin Sumner, M.D., in recognition of the West Virginia University School of Medicine/West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources collaboration, which effected the creation of the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital, a 150-bed state psychiatric facility. Sumner is the director of public sector psychiatry at the West Virginia School of Medicine.

The Award for Exemplary Interdisciplinary Collaboration acknowledges noteworthy cooperative efforts by universities, state systems, and advocacy groups engaged in innovative projects to improve effectiveness and efficiency in the public mental health sector. It is funded by a grant from the Center for Mental Health Services.

More information on the award winners appears in the October issue of APA's journal Psychiatric Services.

(Psychiatric News, December 6, 1996)