By Ihuoma Njoku, MD
PGY-4, University of Virginia Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Charlottesville, VA
The APA State Advocacy Conference was held on October 15-16. Representatives from each of the APA District Branches were there. It was incredible to interact with colleagues from across the nation who have had notable wins and similar struggles. Opportunities to learn from one another were plentiful. There were breakout sessions on Social Media Training and one on “Hot Button Topics and How to Advocate as a Physician.” The latter was informative on the physician voice and our daily advocacy tasks, as well as bringing these experiences outside of the traditional healthcare setting, including to legislatures, school boards, or correctional settings.
The conference was nonpartisan and included discussions with several current legislators from around the country (including Hawaii!). They discussed their experiences hearing from physicians, tips on how to make an engaging pitch, and recommended being proactive (i.e. before state legislatures are in session), honest, and credible.
The new crisis hotline, 988, was a focus. Particularly how the rollouts of this have varied across the country. Crisis response services in Oklahoma were highlighted.
APA Model legislation, templates that can be used for state advocacy efforts, were unveiled on Prior Authorizations. There is also model legislation on the Collaborative Care Model. Other topics of interest – rural healthcare, non-physician scope of practice, mental health parity, building relationships with state medical organizations, and trainee engagement – were part of smaller group discussions.
Lastly, there was a brief activity prompting us to reach out to our state legislators through the APA (https://psychiatry.org/advocacy). There are links to learn more about advocacy initiatives, sign up for alerts, and to find your legislators to contact them. There is a template message that one could use to start when crafting a message.
