Electronic Fall 2024 | Issue 60

President’s Message

By: L. Joy Houston, MD

As we roll into the fall months, I hope that everyone had an amazing and productive summer! We’ve certainly been busy as an organization, participating in health fairs as well as the 4th Annual APA Moore Equity 5k, where IPS once again took top honors for fundraising from a district branch. I am so proud of our many active members who came out to support this important cause through donating their money, their time, and their steps.

Our summer networking event for medical students, residents, fellows, and early career psychiatrists relocated this year but remained a popular opportunity for our newer members to meet and socialize. I’m looking forward to the new Downstate networking event that will be occurring this fall as well.  More information on that to come, so please keep your eyes peeled.  The Downstate event will be open to any members from the Central and Southern regions of the state, so please come and network with your fellow members.

Fall also brings our annual meeting, of course, which will be on October 5th.  We’ve got an amazing panel of speakers, including APA President, Dr. Viswanathan. The theme of this year’s meeting is Extending Our Reach: Building the Psychiatry Workforce of the Future. To that end, we’ll hear about expansion efforts through the Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Center, best practices for working with advanced practice providers, and what it can mean to be a general psychiatrist. Our poster session also returns, and we’ve received twice as many submissions as last year, so please come support our members’ scholarly work. We’ll end the night with our annual Awards Dinner, and we’ve got an amazing group of members to recognize.

On the topic of extending our reach, I’ve decided to take a different approach to our charity work this year, one that I hope will become a tradition for future Presidents. Rather than choosing a charity to recognize for a single night at the annual meeting, we’re going to run a year-long campaign for a charity that is important to me personally: The Phoenix Center.

Coming from the Southeastern U.S., individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community often had difficulty accessing the care they needed. Even when care was available, it might be delivered from a place of judgment rather than one of affirmation. These glaring health disparities led me to join a team of physicians and psychologists in opening an LGBTQIA+ focused multidisciplinary clinic in Mississippi. Although that clinic unfortunately no longer exists, my passion for working with individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community has remained. It is my firm belief that every individual should be able to access necessary care without feeling the need to hide parts of their identity. We all deserve to be acknowledged in our totality and to be our truest selves with care providers.

The Phoenix Center very much embodies that regard and support for individuals. They are Central Illinois' LGBTQ+ Center. Phoenix Center services include housing with supportive case management for unhoused individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or HIV+, free public health services including harm reduction services, HIV, Hepatitis C and STD testing with linkage to medical care, various LGBTQ+ support groups including TransParent group, TranSupport group, yOUTh group, LGBTQ+ recovery group, social and educational groups, professional in-service trainings and community engagement. These services are provided at 2 sites in Springfield, 1 in Quincy and via mobile and street outreach in 15 counties. For more information, please see their website at www.phoenixcenterspringfield.org.

I hope that you will consider joining me in donating to the Phoenix Center. They provide services to individuals who are often overlooked or stigmatized and who often have significant mental health needs. We will be sending out email blasts periodically throughout the year to remind everyone about this year’s chosen charity. In future years, I hope each President will have the opportunity to similarly choose a charity to support that has personal meaning for them.

IPS continues to be a vibrant and active organization with constantly growing reach. Please reach out to myself or Kristen Malloy if you would like to be involved in any of the committees mentioned on the IPS website or if you have any ideas/suggestions/recommendations about how IPS can work to improve the life of our community.

Thank you all for being part of IPS’ journey. This organization would not have the same passion and reach without each and every one of you. I look forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming annual meeting.