Electronic Spring 2023 | Issue 54

President's Message

By: Abdi Tinwalla, MD

Hello fellow colleagues,

As I write this message, I am realizing that this is my last message as President of IPS and the year has gone by so quickly. There is so much work to be done, but I am glad to be leaving the job in the capable hands of my successor, Dr. Andrew Lancia. I will continue to work with him and the Executive Council as the immediate past president. I do want to thank Kristen Malloy for the many years of dedicated service she has provided to IPS and in recognition of her work, the council has promoted her to the position of Interim Executive Director. She has been instrumental in keeping IPS going after the departure of our previous Executive Director, Ms. Meryl Sosa. 

I am pleased to update our members that thanks to the hard work put in by our Advocacy, Lobbying and Communications teams, and support from APA, we were able to prevent the psychologist prescribing bill to move out of the senate committee this time around. Please refer to the detailed article in this newsletter for more information regarding the history of the psychologists prescribing bill in Illinois. Our work is not done and IPS will continue to fight for patient safety and improved access to psychiatric services in Illinois. We need IPS members to continue to work with their legislators and the public to help educate them regarding the dangers of prescribing without appropriate training and safeguards in place. IPS will continue to develop a community presence by participating in various health fairs and committees hosted by government organizations such as HFS, DHS, Illinois Courts, IDFPR and many others. I encourage our members to reach out to Kristen Malloy if they have an interest in participating.

In this message, I also wanted to acknowledge all the hard work our IPS subcommittees have been putting in every year. A big thank you to all the committee chairs and their committee members. IPS does a lot of its leg work at the committee level, and we want to include any members interested in serving. 

The Planning Committee has been working hard to bring you all the programming and networking events for the 2023 year, including an upcoming Judicial Roundtable with key players in the Mental Health Court system as a first step in working together towards a better system for all our patients. The Annual Meeting is scheduled for October 7 at the Le Meridian in Oak Brook, IL. This year’s theme is “Commitment to Patients, Commitment to Life” and will include educational sessions on suicide prevention, 9-8-8, drug court and commitment issues, and physician burnout. It will also include the first-ever poster session for medical students and residents along with the usual awards dinner. Be on the look out for information regarding these and other exciting events throughout the year. 

The Child and Adolescent committee has been working closely with the Illinois Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist (ICCAP) to develop a virtual collaborative care event scheduled for May 12 that will address the pediatric mental health emergency and ways that all physicians can work together.

The Heath Equity and Anti-Racism committee (HEAR-C) has developed the first Carl C. Bell Memorial Award and Essay contest for Illinois high school students, and we are excited to announce that even though the deadline for essays is not until June 1, we have already received a handful of submissions. 

The Early Career Psychiatrist (ECP) committee is for those who are within 1-7 years out of training. This committee is starting to have some informal get togethers to connect over their shared experiences and they are developing a new and exciting leadership training program within IPS.

The Resident committee is constantly evolving and developing new programing to support the IPS residents including new meeting formats, informal chats with attendings in various practice settings, and the ongoing mentorship program that has been beneficial to so many members. 

The Medical Student committee is completing its first full year as a new committee with over 90 medical students from ALL the medical schools throughout the state. In addition to providing support to all medical students, they are ready and willing to assist IPS in any area needed from advocacy to staffing health fairs, working on social media, and so much more. Their enthusiasm is contagious and anyone within IPS who has had the pleasure of interacting with this group knows that the future of psychiatry is in good hands. 

These are just a few of the active committees within IPS. They all do great work and provide invaluable resources to our membership. You can view the full list of committees on the IPS website and of course, please consider serving on one or two. 

The field of psychiatry is constantly evolving and growing. There has been renewed interest in several areas such as psychedelic research and legislation, use of digital apps and AI in psychiatry, Disaster and Climate Change Psychiatry, access to care via collaborative care and telepsychiatry, prevention and early detection and treatment, and Rural and Street Psychiatry, just to name a few. I would encourage our medical students, trainees, and ECPs to consider these areas of psychiatry as there is a great need for work to be done in this space.

Finally, the APA annual meeting is coming up in May in San Francisco. Several of the IPS leaders and council members will be attending the meeting in person. If you are attending in person, please reach out to Kristen Malloy so we can organize a ‘meet and greet”. 

I want to take this opportunity now to thank all our members, council members, IPS staff, lobbying and communication team, and the APA for their support during my presidency. It was truly an honor and privilege to lead IPS this past year. A special shout out to Dr. Jasleen Singh, who is chair of the Resident-Fellow committee and is editor of our newsletter, working hard behind the scenes to produce this newsletter.