Inaugural Meeting of Division Directors Forum due at CLP 2019

‘They may feel alone in this role—and newer directors may have little prior administrative training or experience.’

A proposal for a forum for C-L Psychiatry division directors has been approved by the Academy’s board of directors.

Brian Bronson, MD, FACLP, vice-chair for clinical affairs at the Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook Medicine, is due to chair its inaugural meeting at CLP 2019 in San Diego.

“C-L division directors are often the primary, if not sole, administrative leader at their institution, responsible for overseeing psychiatric services across medical settings within health care systems that are complex to navigate,” says Dr. Bronson.

“They may feel alone in this role, and newer directors may have little prior administrative training or experience.”

Easy-to-access administrative guidance on specific issues and mentorship for C-L Psychiatry division directors throughout the year in real-time is generally not readily available, he says.

Yet, C-L Psychiatry division directors share common administrative challenges and themes across their institutions.

“The primary function of the forum is to provide a more immediately accessible, professional support network for C-L Psychiatry division directors to assist them in navigating shared administrative challenges.”

To date, Dr. Bronson envisages the forum will:

• Provide an email group and monthly conference calls via Skype or telephone.
• Hold a regular face-to-face meeting at the annual ACLP meeting.

“Activities will grow organically through the questions, experiences and participation of its members,” says Dr. Bronson. “Participants will educate and empower one another by sharing their local administrative questions, challenges, failures, successes, and best practices.”

The forum expects to address a wide variety of common administrative questions that C-L Psychiatry directors face. “Specific questions or topics of discussion will come from the directors themselves, based on the challenges they face at their local institutions.”

Examples of topics that could arise are:

• Faculty affairs in C-L Psychiatry—clinical productivity; academic development; scholarship and promotion for C-L Psychiatry faculty.
• Institutional practices, policies and procedures—such as levels of nursing observation for high-risk patients; treatment over objection in patients lacking capacity; and protocols for management of severe substance use disorders.
• Staffing and service development—C-L Psychiatry staffing ratios; business proposals; and interdisciplinary models of C-L Psychiatry staffing.

Membership of the forum is open to all ACLP members who are division directors. If you are interested, add the inaugural meeting (Thursday, November 14, 5:15-6:15pm) to your CLP 2019 schedule, or register your interest at https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5215003/ACLP-CLP-Division-Directors [valid thru Oct 15].

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