By Karl Northwall, MD, DLFAPA
PSV President
Catawba Hospital
Catawba, VA 

The Fall Meeting of the PSV was held October 3^rd and 4^th.  The theme was Interventional Care: Innovative Methods for Improving Mental Health Care.  The meeting was held jointly with the VCCAP.  UVA and Eastern Virginia Medical School received 2 out 3 awards in the Resident and Medical Student Poster categories.  

We have been active in resisting the bill to allow psychologists to prescribe in Virginia.  Our lobbyist, Trevor Moncure, has been very active in recruiting members of the PSV (thanks Dr. Burton!) to meet with legislators.  It appears that there will NOT be a bill before the legislature promoting psychologists prescribing this next session. I thank everyone who contributed to our PAC.  The legislature has a legitimate concern about the shortage of mental health providers in Virginia.  It’s not enough to oppose bad ideas to mitigate this.  We must actively lobby for ideas like collaborative care.

Our Spring Meeting will be held April 10-11 at Kingsmill Resort.  We will be using a different format, utilizing Case Studies.  We are considering whether to continue having 2 meetings a year.  Financially, we lose money on meetings.  Among possibilities are just having one meeting a year, but have it longer with higher quality CME.  Your input from the survey sent this past summer regarding the number of meetings, where to have them, and when to have them, will help decide this.

We need to recruit new members.  We have about 600 members presently.  A number of these are residents and life members.  We need more early and mid-career members.  I’m sure there are several hundred psychiatrists in Virginia who are not members.  I encourage local chapters to have in person meetings and invite psychiatrists you know who do not belong to the PSV.  Reaching out personally beats e-mails and letters.

The political environment continues to be challenging.  I feel the Blue Wave in Virginia will be beneficial to us.  There is now a physician in the legislature, Dr. Mark Downey, a pediatrician from York County.  I urge you to contact your congressman on any issues relevant you.  Personal contact does play a role in their votes.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or issues regarding psychiatry in Virginia.