We also plan to host a ‘Meet ‘n’ Greet Event’ with prominent members of the APA and ACLP this year that allows ECPs to engage in discussion with senior members related to current health care reforms and political issues in Psychiatry. 

The ECP subcommittee in collaboration with the ECP SIG chairs have sent out a survey to ECPs to obtain feedback about topics of interest for this year’s ‘Ask me anything’ event. We plan to use the survey results to invite speakers on topics that are the most pertinent to ECPs. 

There are ongoing efforts to improve collaboration between the subcommittee and the Early Career Psychiatrists SIG to support their representation and work in the Academy, use the SIG to connect members to common interests, and increase participation of ECPs in other SIGs and the Academy subcommittees. 

We are working on setting up webinars for ECPs, including on negotiating a contract, academic advancement, and topics pertinent to career-related changes. If you have a webinar that you have presented or are able to present, please reach out to dr.inder@gmail.com

As a subcommittee we meet monthly and will continue to build on creative opportunities for ECPs through the Academy. 

Second, we have compiled a list of resources to help orient you to the city of Atlanta. If you are eager to start your journey right away, we encourage you to check out the Archive Atlanta podcast to learn more about this fascinating city. No time to think about what to do and where to eat in Atlanta? No worries, we have done the legwork of researching popular attractions and well-reviewed restaurants for you. Please check out our guide on the meeting website. See you in Atlanta!

In preparation for this, a new Networking Subcommittee to the Annual Meeting Committee has been created. This new subcommittee will focus on the development of networking and informal learning activities at the Annual Meeting which will serve as a nice complement to the high-quality structured meeting content.

The subcommittee is comprised of a diverse membership from all parts of the country and career stages. Stay tuned for more information about the opportunities that are being created by this group!

After a significant revision, FES has  updated interviewing and selection guidelines: the ACLP recommends, like most major specialty organizations, that all interviewing be virtual rather than in-person this recruiting season. Similarly, the FES is in the process of updating the existing fellowship application guidance document for prospective fellows that is currently published on the ACLP website. 

As ACGME prepares for its next update of the C-L Fellowship Program Requirements, the FES is responding to an ACGME request by developing recommendations addressing revisions of training competencies and incorporating concepts of DEI and social determinants of health. In line with the FES’s ongoing interest in developing DEI in C-L programs, we are currently collecting survey data from current and recent fellows regarding their fellowship experiences in these domains, with plans to share this data later in the year. 

Finally, following the FES-sponsored presentation on ERAS in May, we plan to use the remainder of the year to examine the pros and cons of moving towards ERAS-supported fellowship applications. 

Additionally, in light of the recent recognition of the magnitude of social determinants and their impact on mental health, we have joined with the other Education subcommittees to create a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) curriculum for C-L psychiatrists, trainees and interdisciplinary team members. The objective is to generate a clinical guide for the interdisciplinary team which reviews the concepts of cultural competency and helps to recognize and address mistreatment of patients and their medical team. Members are planning to include an annotated bibliography of DEI-themed articles for the interdisciplinary team. 

We recently developed a clinical module that aims to satisfy the improvement in medical practice requirement (Part IV, PIP) as part of the continuing certification process. The module asks you to evaluate your notes on substance-using patients and consider your assessment and treatment planning. The module will allow you to fulfill your PIP requirement in an efficient and meaningful way. This is posted on the ACLP website at: https://www.clpsychiatry.org/educationcareers/moc-program/ If you need clinical PIP, try this free option from the ACLP. 

There is a process currently underway by the American Board of Medical Specialties that seeks to revise what continuing certification means and how it is developed across specialties, so that it is seen as providing value, being relevant, and avoid duplicating efforts. The subcommittee contributed to the comments to be provided by the ACLP in this process. Once these changes are ultimately defined for Psychiatry, our subcommittee will work on developing a system to clarify, organize, and track requirements.

Our team is focused on increasing student involvement in the Academy and is spreading the word about opportunities for student participation at our live annual meeting this fall in Atlanta!  We are strengthening mentoring relationships, presenting the work of our subspecialty to national student interest groups, and offering a workshop about optimizing student education in the C-L Psychiatry setting at CLP 2022. We would alert all students and medical teachers to look for new materials for featuring on the medical student section of the ACLP website and the Academy-supported virtual question bank at Psy-q.com. 

Lastly, we will be recruiting a new student member to our subcommittee this fall and would ask you to encourage your student mentees to join the ACLP (for free)!

The RES continues to add to its How To guide series on common consultation questions encountered by residents on a C-L Psychiatry service and has recently added guides on demoralization, use of clozapine on a C-L Psychiatry service, and behavior plans. 

RES members will be presenting two virtual symposia at CLP 2022:

• The State of Residency Training in C-L: An Analysis and Discussion of Results from the 2021 ACLP National Survey
• Navigating Burden of C-L Training in Residency: A Residency Education Subcommittee Sponsored Workshop. 

The RES continues its collaboration with other Education subcommittees to create a shared DEI curriculum for C-L Psychiatry educators. 

We are currently working on an environmental scan to assess the work happening throughout the Academy that focuses on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. In this effort, we are preparing a review of the activities within the committees and plan to work with a DEI consultant to improve the experience of members, including those from historically marginalized groups. Over the next year, we will strive to increase and amplify the issues of Social Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at all levels within the Academy.

The Guidelines and Evidence-Based Medicine subcommittee (GEBM) aims to help Academy members apply the latest in scientific findings to patient care and clinical leadership. The subcommittee continues to produce widely read Annotations on the Academy website that describe the latest findings in areas of interest to Academy members. New topics have been dedicated to Climate Change and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. GEBM has also advanced the first set of Academy clinical guidelines thanks to the leadership of former subcommittee chair Paula Zimbrean, MD, FACLP.

The subcommittee is also looking forward to another presentation of the year’s ‘Top 10’ articles at this fall’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta, led by GEBM subcommittee member and editor Jeylan Close, MD. The subcommittee welcomes new members to participate in committees and invites everyone to reach out with ideas for new topics of interest!

The Task Force was fortunate to have the opportunity to present some of the data we have gathered to the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association at the spring ACLP Board Meeting.

The presentation focused on the productivity and quality metrics we gathered through the ACLP Membership and the Departmental Surveys. In this meeting, the ACLP stressed the importance of differentiating clinical productivity expectations for C-L Psychiatry from general Psychiatry.

It was pointed out that other medical subspecialties have been allowed different RVU benchmarks from their core specialty to recognize the uniqueness of their clinical efforts. It is time that there was similar recognition of the unique subspecialty work performed by physicians practicing C-L Psychiatry.

We also discussed the diversity of quality benchmarks deployed by our membership and their clinical departments. There is a clear need to identify quality metrics to aid our profession in demonstrating the value of our work to department, hospital, and practice leadership.

Lastly, the APA learned about ACLP efforts, along with the American Delirium Society and the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry, to lobby the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to recognize the complexity of delirium in clinical coding, especially as it relates to encephalopathy.

We would also like to thank the ACLP leadership and membership for their patience as we endeavor to review the data thoughtfully to ensure the results are valid and meaningful to our membership. We look forward to presenting the final analysis of our data to the ACLP membership in the coming months.

Please do not hesitate to contact Tom Heinrich at theinric@mcw.edu with questions about this project.