Assembly Election

Albert V. Bogel, M.D.

Biographical Statement: Psychiatry for me remains the best of specialties for physicians who wish to combine the technology and tradition of physical medicine with the humanity of psychotherapeutic medicine. In my career that has meant-and still means-a clinical focus on consultation psychiatry and psychosomatics in a public teaching setting. I have never regretted the choice of psychiatry.

After residency in Boston my wife, Kate, and I moved to the Southwest. Kate is a marvelous person and a talented research scientist and teacher in the biology department of the University of New Mexico. Our three children are grown now. They have watched with insight and good humor the increasing hours and energy that Kate and I now put into our professions.

Although patient care and clinical teaching are my first professional priorities, leadership opportunities brought new challenges: I am now associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. A very rewarding part of my service to the larger community has been as vice commander of the New Mexico Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Over the years I have led the team to four hurricanes (including Andrew in Florida) and the Northridge, Calif., earthquake to provide emergency medical care.

To me it seemed natural-and a professional responsibility-to actively join my local medical society and the APA district branch (New Mexico). I have been district branch president and newsletter editor. I represented the district branch in the Assembly for nearly seven years prior to serving Area 7 as deputy representative and now representative.

I am honored to be a candidate for Assembly speaker-elect. With the energy and collective wisdom of the Assembly and our members, we can move APA forward to meet the challenges at the beginning of the 2lst century.

Candidacy Statement: This is a time of challenge-and opportunity-for APA and for the patients we serve. Egregious abuses of managed care in particular have adversely affected patient care and the ability of psychiatrists to carry out the professional responsibilities for which we are trained.

The Assembly is the place where, through their representatives, our members' experience, knowledge, concerns, wisdom, and energy are brought to bear on the problems and opportunities facing psychiatry. When debating and shaping action items, Assembly members are acting for our members. To do this well, we must indeed represent the members: the representatives to the Assembly from the district branches must know-and bring forward-the interests of the members they represent.

APA is a professional association that exists to help its members carry out their professional responsibilities to patients, communities, and colleagues. The Association leadership must know and meet our members' legitimate professional needs.

Advocacy for patients is fundamental, especially for populations that are highly vulnerable in a managed care setting, such as children and the chronically severely mentally ill. The special difficulties encountered by patients and psychiatrists in rural settings must receive attention. Also, while psychiatrists are under the pressure of managed care in abusive form, the Association must continue to address and support our efforts to maintain an ethical stance-and to provide our members and district branches with assistance in maintaining the highest individual and organizational ethics.

The Assembly has become an increasingly potent force in APA-it is the place where the idea or concern of a single member can be heard, edited, debated, focused, magnified, and advanced toward APA action or policy. To perform this function well for our members, the Assembly and APA leaders must improve the processes and efficiency with which APA serves its members. We must:

1. Strengthen the leadership role of the Assembly in APA by improving the connections and communication between Assembly members and the district branches they represent. We must continue to improve the work products that emanate from the Assembly by refining the reference committee structure without diminishing the role of the Area Councils in the process. We also need to enhance the tracking system to monitor movement of action items after they leave the Assembly. Collegiality helps in this process-and so does tenacity.



2. Pursue the strategic-planning process already begun and implement governance and functional change. The structure of APA has been well suited to the exigencies of the time and environment. It no longer is so well suited. The planning and change process must be inclusive, equitable, and incremental-but it must occur.



3. Move beyond just "stemming the tide" of lost members. We must start growing the organization again. We can increase the inclusiveness of the organization and diversity of our members-and design creative ways to include the expertise and energy of newer members and of psychiatrists active in professional organizations allied to APA. This process has begun through the Assembly's project on allied organizations and the Early Career Psychiatrist project. We can find ways to expand the allied organization project and to involve allied organizations more effectively in the Assembly and in the APA committee and component structure.

I have a vision of APA as a vital, growing organization. One of our most difficult tasks will be to set priorities for the use of our very substantial, but finite, resources. In whatever structure emerges for APA, the elected representatives of district branches must play a major role. As speaker-elect and speaker, I will be the strongest possible advocate for the actions and leadership of the Assembly in APA.