Coalition for Healthy Communities (CHC)
Advocating for Quality Mental Health and Substance Addiction Services
The OPPA is one of 27 member organizations of the Coalition for Healthy Communities that includes agencies, provider groups and organizations that advocate for, or provide direct services for, Ohioans with mental illness. Annually, more than 250,000 Ohioans with mental illness and 80,000 Ohioans with addiction disorders need our services. Thousands more are on waiting lists or do not receive services at all. The CHC reminds lawmakers that Ohioans from all walks of life need mental health and addiction services. This includes Ohio National Guard troops, military personnel who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families. It includes people in urban and rural settings, children, adults and senior citizens, families and workers who find themselves laid off and without employment.
Representative: Janet Shaw, MBA, Executive Director
Advisory Committee on Mental Illness & the Courts (ACMIC)
The OPPA is one of 50 organizations that are represented and serve on the Advisory Committee on Mental Illness & the Courts. A revolving door problem has developed in this country. Jails and prisons have become the de facto mental health system of our day. We must reverse this trend. Over the past few years, innovative diversion programs and other pioneering efforts across the nation have been successful in attacking this crisis. The ACMIC works to establish local task forces in each county to bring similar local representatives together to collaborate and work on issues of the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.
Representative: James Wasserman, MD
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
The OPPA was successful two years ago in getting, for the first time, a position on the P&T Committee specifically designated for a psychiatric physician. The P&T Committee was established many years ago to advise ODJFS on decisions related to what medications should be included on the Medicaid Preferred Drug List.
Representative: Karen Jacobs, DO
Ohio State Medical Association
The OPPA has a delegate and alternate delegate representative to the OSMA House of Delegates representing Ohio's psychiatrists. In addition, OPPA members serve on various committees and task forces of the OSMA, serving as the voice of psychiatry on issues related to advocacy, policy and education.
Representative(s) 2010: Alan Levy, MD and Brooke Wolf, MD
American Psychiatric Association Components
The OPPA has excellent representation as part of the APA components (councils, committees, corresponding committees and task forces) that report to each Council. The members of components are appointed by the APA President-elect and bring expertise and perspective to a topical area of focus. OPPA representatives include:
Robert Findling, MD, Assoc. Editor, APPI Editorial Board
Jonathan Dunn, MD, Assembly Allied Org. Liaison Committee
Robert Ronis, MD, Assembly Committee on Pub.& Com. Psychiatry
Roslyn Seligman, MD, Assembly Rules Committee
Melinda Fierros, MD, Board of Trustees, Member-in-Training
Norman Clemens, MD, Committee on APA/Business Relations
Vikram Kambampati, MD, Council on Adult Psychiatry
Megan Testa, MD, Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing
Robert Ronis, MD, Council on Med. Education and Lifelong Learning
Cheryl Wills, MD, Council on Psychiatry and the Law
Susan Hatters-Friedman, MD, E Council on Psychiatry and the Law
Mary Jo Tamburrino, MD, Investment Oversight Committee
Cheryl Wills, MD, Manfred S. Guttmacher Award Committee
Norman Clemens, MD, Past Speakers of the Assembly
Martha Sajatovic, MD, Psychiatric Services Editorial Board
Radu Saveanu, MD, Scientific Program Committee
Joseph Locala, MD, Subcommittee on Joint Sponsorship of CME
Mary Kay Smith, MD, American Psychiatric Foundation