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Insight
Matters
Winter 2006
Candidate for APA Representative
By S.R. Thorward, M.D.
Position statement
I am very pleased to be your candidate for a second term as OPA Representative to the Assembly. I am very invested in striving to assure that both OPA and APA are 100% “our” organizations. I therefore want to serve as your representative, to speak your opinions, to vote your views. To be sure there are times when I will have to chose among your many varied opinions and distil your ideas into representation that always intends to serve your interests even if a particular action or vote is not the one you would have chosen.
The issues before us remain daunting. Public education. Access. Research funding. Eliminating stigma. Parity. The role of the APA in public policy not immediately medical or psychiatric. Big Pharma and our appropriate relationship to it. Recruitment and retention. Serving and representing our members.
The assembly process is complicated and often tedious and cumbersome. Time is needed to learn the system and process. Time is needed to become a part of committees and assure that your representation is widespread and present at all levels. I have tried hard to achieve that end purpose.
I am active on the Assembly Committee on Public Psychiatry. I have served as our substitute representative in area IV to the Council on Public Affairs. I have initiated and co-sponsored action papers which have been primarily concerned with assuring the ‘grass roots’ are respected and involved. I remain a corresponding member of the Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing. I have testified on your behalf before the CMS EMTALA Taskforce which oversees how are patients are received, treated, and discharged in our Emergency Rooms.
You are well represented by your three representatives. I look forward to continued teamwork with Drs. Ronis and Dunn.
Editor’s note: There is no opposing candidate.
Biographical material
Education 1973 graduate of the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio ; Residency at Chicago ’s Northwestern University Institute of Psychiatry; Chief Resident 1977; The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology certified in general psychiatry in 1980. Ohio Psychiatric Association Twice president of the local Columbus Chapter;Secretary of the local chapter and OPA Council Representative; Chair of OPA Government Relations Committee and the OPA Public Information Committee. American Psychiatric Association Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association 1986; Corresponding member of the Council on Healthcare System and Financing. Member Assembly Committee on Public Psychiatry. Washington State Psychiatric Association Chaired the Government Relations Committee for five years; President 1994; Southwest Washington Medical Center :Chief of Behavioral Health. Community Leadership Harding Hospital Board of Trustees 1991-94. 1994 President and CEO of Harding Hospital; Active on the boards of the Mental Health Association and the Franklin County National Alliance of the Mentally Ill; 2003 assumed office as President of the Board of the Mental Health Association of Franklin County; Chair of the Governing Council, Section for Psychiatry and Substance Abuse of the American Hospital Association; 2000 returned to full time clinical work - as a staff psychiatrist at Twin Valley Behavioral Care - Columbus Campus, as well as private practice. Faculty involvement Member of the clinical faculty of the OSU Department of Psychiatry; Twice received the Department of Psychiatry Outstanding Faculty Award by the second year psychiatry residents; Trustee of OSU Harding, the psychiatric hospital of The Ohio State University.
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