Tuesday, September 06, 2005
What does APPA do for you? We provide a means to network with fellow PA’s and other professionals who work in mental health specialties, primarily through the member list on the website. You should be added to the list shortly and will have access to all links, including other members via the mailing list. The website is new and still being put together. Your feedback would be helpful as we construct it. Doug Peterson has been quite generous of time and effort in developing and maintaining the new site. We hope to begin posting newsletters soon (currently administrative work is taking all of my time!).
APPA is a recognized constituent chapter of AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants), and we hope to have a liaison with APA (American Psychiatric Association) through AAPA in the future. We also communicate (at least weekly) with third-party payers who have questions about PA’s working in mental health, students (PA and pre-PA) interested in mental health, psychiatrists and other entities who supervise and employ (or may be considering employing) PA’s in mental health positions, and other PA’s who specialize in mental health (for a variety of reasons, such as third-party payment problems, supervision, privileging, job descriptions, etc). APPA provides a voice for PA’s who work in mental health.
Where do your dues go? Right now dues are being used to train our leadership (e.g. I attended AAPA’s leadership conference last month, with the assistance of a $500 grant from AAPA), obtain office supplies (e.g. accounting software, mailing supplies, records storage, etc), and costs of maintaining incorporation status. We hope to post financial statements on the website in the near-future.
What can you do for APAP? Utilize the resources available on the website to communicate with one another. We will soon need to elect officers and board members for the next 2-year term – are you interested? Once a paid membership list is established, notices will sent regarding an election. Please notify us if you are having any success or difficulty that others may find helpful to know about. This may be done directly through our address (web or geographic).
The world wide web seems to be the communicating mode of the future, but if you have no access to it, or prefer paper communication, please let us know, so newsletters and other communications can be snail-mailed to you.
Please inform us of any other ideas you have regarding how we may help one another help our patients and profession.
Thank-you.
Bill Hardy
Association of Physician