Insight Matters
Summer 2005

Our Chapters Are Our Backbone
David Bienenfeld, M.D., President

All politics, it is said, are local. If "politics" in its broadest sense defines the management of relationships among people and groups, then organized psychiatry is certainly a political activity. In any case, I have no doubt that the origin of OPA's energy and purpose is entirely local. The few who volunteer to work on committees, make phone calls, send letters, organize and attend meetings, do so only to represent the interests of the broader membership.

At the July meeting of the Council of OPA, we adopted a mission statement to reflect our overarching purpose and aim:

The Ohio Psychiatric Association is dedicated to promoting the highest quality care for people with mental disorders and serving the professional needs of Ohio's psychiatric physicians.

Of course these sentiments are not novel; they reflect what we have been doing implicitly for years. It is worth noting the two principal elements of the mission: to promote the highest quality of care for our patients and to serve our members. These aims are about as local and personal as we could get. No service is provided to patients at OPA's offices; our members perform that function every day. And members do not walk in to our home base on West Fifth Avenue in Columbus; they approach their local colleagues. From your office or clinic to APA's headquarters in Virginia, the first step is your local chapter.

As I indicated in my inaugural message, I want to spend this year clarifying and solidifying relationships between OPA and its chapters. Janet Shaw and I have begun our schedule of visits to local chapters, and have concluded a survey of chapter presidents. A few findings are noteworthy.

• Chapters are different from each other. In broad strokes, larger chapters focus on education and practice issues; smaller ones on membership and collegiality.
  
  
• There are nonetheless a number of themes common to chapters across Ohio:
  
  • Collegiality and socialization among members
  • Continuing education
  • Protection of practice and professional identity
  • Maintaining or increasing membership
    
    
• Chapter presidents identified assistance that OPA could provide, including:
  
  • Information to encourage new members to join and old members to remain
  • Resources for education besides industry-sponsored talks
  • Orientation to new Presidents-elect and Councilors
  • Communication with other chapters
  • Grassroots advocacy training and facilitation

It is encouraging that these wishes are so congruent with the direction of the Council, the Executive Director and me. We just completed an orientation for new Presidents-elect and Councilors. Janet has assembled a very useful package of materials with contacts and resources, as well a long list of reasons why non-members would gain by joining the organization. I will be putting on the agenda for each Council meeting a report from two chapters. I will also be recruiting a network of volunteer experts to attend meetings of nearby chapters to provide CME outside the tired old drug company channels. Marianne Peters (Membership chair), Janet and I will be visiting residency training programs to raise awareness of current trainees about the importance of becoming members-in-training and remaining as general members after graduation.

Our chapters are the backbone of our organization. They are the only contact most OPA members have with our state or national groups. We have the resources, and we have a plan, to fortify our local membership and its links with OPA.

Back to newsletter