January 15, 1999

The growing role of psychiatry was evident at last month's AMA House of Delegates meeting in Hawaii, as many issues supported by the AMA Section Council on Psychiatry were approved by that body.

In addition to the AMA's strong support for parity for mental health and substance abuse services and support for a measure specifically favoring a role for psychiatrists in dealing with children who bring guns to school (Psychiatric News, January 1), issues ranging from opposition to a national patient identifier to expedited pain control for terminally ill patients were addressed.

Delegates approved were sponsored or cosponsored by psychiatric organizations, including APA, while other measures reflected a convergence between the broader interests of medicine and the specific concerns of psychiatry.

Some issues were approved without discussion by the House of Delegates, through placement on what is called a "reaffirmation calendar." As the phrase suggests, the reaffirmation calendar deals with resolutions reaffirming existing AMA policy as determined by the AMA Rules Committee, according to Eugene Cassel, J.D., deputy director for regulatory affairs in APA's Division of Government Relations. These items may be extracted for specific consideration by the house, Cassel noted.

With the exception of resolutions on the reaffirmation calendar, all resolutions are reviewed by the AMA's many reference committees. These committees, as their name suggests, serve as reference points in which resolutions relevant to a specific area, such as science and technology, public health, or medical practice, are discussed and recommendations provided to the House of Delegates regarding how a reference committee thinks the house should vote. The house often follows these recommendations.