Assembly Supports Expenditure for Assembly-Board Database

The Assembly has recommended that APA approve an additional $40,000 to create a database of a decade’s worth of Board of Trustees and Assembly actions, position statements, and related information as part of APA’s Electronic Communications Project.

The recommendation, which was approved at the Assembly’s November meeting in Washington, D.C., originated in an action paper from Area 3. It must now go to the Board of Trustees for final approval at the Board’s December meeting.

To date, $70,000 has been spent to create the unified database, which is being produced from paper records and a variety of nonintegrated computer records. Completion of the database itself—although not its final entry into the APA computer system, which requires the additional $40,000 - is anticipated by early 1998, according to Lea Mesner, manager of the Electronic Communications Project.

In May the Assembly approved an action paper calling for authors of other action papers to review current APA policy and positions before submitting action papers in the future. Given the nonintegrated nature of APA data, however, the apparently straightforward request required the creation of a new database.

Members supporting the new database have pointed out that the AMA distributes an updated compendium of positions and actions following each semiannual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. The compendium is readily available and is seen as a useful resource document.

When completed, the database will be made available in printed form or on computer disk. It may also be placed on the APA Web site for access by all members.

The Assembly also took these actions:

• Approved the Ethics Committee recommendation that the Guidelines for Ethical Practice in Organized Settings be appended to the Principles of Medical Ethics With Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry and approved the Ethics Committee recommendation for word changes to the section titled "Procedures for Handling Complaints of Unethical Conduct" such that the word "merit" be changed to "warrant," and the section on sanctions read: "The four sanctions in order of severity are as follows: (a) admonishment; (b) reprimand; (c) suspension; and (d) expulsion." The Ethics Committee also agreed to develop recommendations to reduce the cost of dealing with ethics complaints and return to the Assembly in May with these recommendations. These matters will be referred to the Board of Trustees.



• Approved the merger of the Indiana Psychiatric Society and the Northern Indiana Psychiatric Society effective at the close of the May 1998 meeting of the Assembly.



• Approved a request to have APA give Assembly members the option of getting documents via e-mail rather than in paper form no later than APA’s 1998 annual meeting.



• Approved, in principle, the mission statement of the Task Force on Strategic Planning with the understanding that the document would be further revised by the task force.