Insight Matters
Winter 2005

Candidate for Treasurer:
Marilynn J. Peters, M.D.

Position Statement
The OPA keeps us known to ourselves and others in Ohio. We monitor ourselves through the ethics committee, educate ourselves through annual meetings, inform ourselves through electronic and print newsletters, speak out to Ohio legislators on behalf of our patients and the scope and quality of our medical practice, and support each other as colleagues with APA benefits such as malpractice insurance.

As a membership organization, we multiply the clout of each of our member psychiatrists-of the medical training, the compassion, the dedication, and the professionalism of each of us. The well-organized executive director's office of the OPA is an expression of this dedication to excellence and determination to serve Ohio psychiatrists.

This work is done in a constantly and rapidly changing, at times alien, medical economic and bureaucratic climate. Our patients are now termed "consumers" and receive information and sales pressure about medications in television and magazine advertising, while they and we struggle with "pharmacy benefits plans" limiting access to those promising medications after we have agreed as doctor and patient that they are indicated. Those of us not "grandfathered" in certification find fees to recertify more than double the cost of a year's membership in APA/OPA, and the costs of "maintenance of certification" requirements are looming within the next two years. Ohio legislators have yet to grant parity to mental health care. Psychologists and potentially pharmacists advance on our scope of practice.

These are continual worries, but there are opportunities in each of the above-to create a better informed public, reduce stigma, and maintain and improve our competencies. As individuals and as an organization, we can focus on these opportunities for growth in the quality and availability of our treatment capabilities and speak clearly as a group against impediments to care. In doing so, the elected leadership of the OPA must respect your hard-earned membership dues and use them effectively and efficiently to strengthen and focus the impact of our profession in Ohio.

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