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Biographical Statement: I grew up in Southern California and attended UCLA. Naturally, I majored in motion picture production. After a couple of years in graduate school (anatomy/history of medicine), I went to Western Reserve University in Cleveland for my M.D. I returned to Los Angeles, where I completed my psychiatry residency at UCLA and psychoanalytic training at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society/Institute. I began an academic venture and received an NIMH Career Teacher Award. After several years teaching at UCLA, I began a full-time private practice, which I have continued. I am an associate clinical professor at UCLA.
As soon as I was able, I joined APA and the Southern California Psychiatric Society. I was appointed to several committees and, after a suitable period of time, I ran for office. I have served in almost all offices of my district branch, including the presidency. I have also been active in psychoanalytic organizations. I have held most offices in my institute, including the presidency. I am a member of its senior faculty. I am presently the secretary general of the American College of Psychoanalysts. For many years I have been interested in ethics. I have served on the ethics committees of my district branch, of the psychoanalytic institute, and of APA. I have been on the APA Ethics Committee since 1992, and I am currently the chair.
In my spare time I went through the Los Angeles Sheriff's Academy. I was a member of the Helicopter Mountain Rescue team for about 10 years and worked in various other capacities. I taught mental illness management at the Sheriff's Academy. I learned how to cook and cooked in a trendy West Hollywood restaurant on weekends for about a year. Feeling bored, I took up flying and earned an instrument rating. Recently, I've sold my airplane and settled down a bit. I now content myself with brewing beer, baking bread, and growing bonsai. Working for APA has been my most recent interest.
From 1991 to 1995 and from 1996, I have been a member of the Assembly. My work on the APA Ethics Committee has been challenging and invigorating. I look forward to other challenges. Becoming recorder of the Assembly would be such a challenge.
Candidacy Statement: I am running for the office of recorder of the Assembly in an attempt to exert some influence on how the Assembly goes about its business.
The Assembly is the one body of APA where all points of view can be heard. The leadership of the Assembly must assure that all reasonable sides of an issue get fully aired. There are some rather unpopular opinions that, through the debates of the Assembly, get modulated and then, when they serve the good of the organization, get incorporated into the Assembly actions. I hope to facilitate that sort of process.
The Assembly is, after all, the deliberative body of the members. If the organization is to survive, we must address ourselves to the concerns of our members. In this regard, the Assembly will have to take a significant lead. The members elected us, and we are here to do a job for them. Here are some proposals to enhance the members' status in APA.
We must retain members. There is a variety of reasons why our membership rolls are declining. Many of our members feel the economic pinch and feel that any level of dues is too much. If one's income is diminished, one cuts down on practice expenses. You can't very well stop your rent or your telephone or your malpractice insurance, so dues gets the hit. Most of us pay dues to many organizations, and the aggregate bill is rather steep. Therefore, we must do for our members that which they can't do for themselves. The components, staff, and the Medical Director's Office are doing a fantastic job in this regard, but the members must be told about it. An article in Psychiatric News is fine, but members of the Assembly must go back to their district branches and tell it like it is. If the members don't know how hard we are working for them, then they won't have the incentive to pay their dues and preserve their membership in APA. We must tell them what we've done for them lately. A great deal of what we do goes as unnoticed as fluoride in the water. We know it prevents cavities, but we don't have those cavities, so we don't think about the fluoride very much. Members of the Assembly need to make sure that the members, whom they represent, know what they are doing as well as what they need to do.
We must listen to our members. We really need to find out what the members want us to do for them. Sadly, many members have never heard of the Assembly, let alone know who their representative is or what he or she does. We all need to attend our district branch meetings and hear what the concerns are. We see that in the Assembly a modest few of our colleagues write many of the action papers. The rest of us need to bring our members' concerns to the table.
This year Jerry Lazarus began a plan to get each of us to contact members/constituents to tell them what's going on and to listen to them. That seems to me to be the least we can do for our members.
We must enhance members' benefits. Using the above strategies, we must figure out what our members really want. Then we must use all of our powers in the organization to provide it. It's nice to have a Visa card with the APA logo on it, but maybe what the members want is a list of CPT codes for psychiatrists. Perhaps they want a sample of a letter opting out of Medicare. We'll never know if we don't ask.
We in the Assembly are not going to solve all the problems of APA and its members. But we need to make a start. We need to be very visible to our members, and we need to work for what our members want most. I would like to help to lead the Assembly in this enterprise. I ask for your vote.