Calling all advocates! We are delighted to announce that we will be offering an Advocacy Skills course for the first time at CLP 2024 in Miami.

We heard your requests for advocacy skills and are thrilled to offer the special session Advocacy Skills for Physicians: Leading Change in the Practice of Medicine led by our AMA House of Delegates representative, Lee Tynes, MD, PhD, FACLP, and our APA Assembly Committee of Representatives of Subspecialties and Sections representative, Michael Peterson, MD, PhD, FACLP.

The course will be free for all ACLP members who register to attend the annual meeting in person.

Book your hotel now so that you can join us for this exciting session on the morning of Wednesday, November 6. Hotel registration is open. See how to book here.

The call for abstracts is open through Monday, April 1. See details here.

This year we will be able to accept more general sessions! Sessions will be 75 minutes and have a maximum of four presenters.

We will have great programming throughout the meeting. With this year’s meeting theme, Promoting Whole Health Through Innovative and Integrative Approaches to C-L Psychiatry, and our location in the vibrant city of Miami, you won’t want to miss a minute!

We meet monthly and, with the addition of multiple new members this year including trainees, we continue to build on creative opportunities for early career psychiatrists (ECPs) through the Academy.

The emphasis in 2024 will be on collaborating with other subcommittees and creating programs focused on assisting ECPs throughout the year by creating webinars and ECP mentoring groups during various stages of their career.

We plan to offer forums for peer supervision and create wellness-related topics of ECP interest along with a platform that allows early career members to interact in an informal manner and seek advice from peers on day-to-day challenges from academia to workplace changes.

The subcommittee continues to focus on ways to improve the networking experience for the Academy’s early career members at the annual meeting and will continue to host the Ask Us Anything (AUA) event focused on topics requested by early career members. The AUA event at CLP 2023 was well received with positive feedback (‘good’ and ‘excellent’) from attendees based on a post-event survey conducted by the subcommittee. We look forward to expanding on this in 2024.

The subcommittee will continue to collaborate with the Early Career Psychiatrists SIG and other subcommittees working with trainees to support their representation and work in the Academy.

It is particularly rewarding for the last two years (after the COVID hiatus!) to join in person for final review and presentation of the poster awards.

Even though the meeting is barely behind us, we’re already preparing for CLP 2024. This year we expect many outstanding submissions again—perhaps we’ll even break last year’s record? 

Our review of submissions for CLP 2024 will be our second year integrating ‘crowd-sourced’ reviewer volunteers from the ACLP membership. It was an outstanding addition to our process last year and helped with the heavy-lifting of reviewing so many outstanding abstracts—so no major changes, but a few adjustments to make it even better!

We also look forward to continuing collaboration with the Mentorship Subcommittee on a pre-submission webinar with tips on your best submissions, and with the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee on how we can best integrate the DEI statement with each submission in the review process. We have been pleased to welcome some new members into our group and thank outgoing members for their service at the end of their terms in November.  

Our committee is thrilled to be complementing this year’s meeting theme: Promoting Whole Health Through Innovative and Integrative Approaches to C-L Psychiatry. This year we be holding a morning review course in C-L Psychiatry. This four-hour course consists of multiple speakers discussing core topics in C-L Psychiatry, presented by experts in our field. It is a great way to stay current across multiple content areas within C-L Psychiatry.

Our Skills courses provide an opportunity to develop skills in more specific areas that may support career development across the domains of clinical work, administration, research, and education. We are excited to continue plans for live sessions this year and emphasize the interactive nature of these courses. Courses may include up to two hours of pre-recorded didactic content or background information that will be available for viewing prior to the course.

On the Wednesday afternoon of the meeting, the live sessions will consist of interactive content with experts in each skill area. We are encouraging submissions from the Academy for these courses. This is a great way to develop the skills to be effective in our multiple roles as C-L psychiatrists.

Our committee will be soliciting submissions for these skills courses and both individual members and SIGs are encouraged to consider skills course submissions. Please see guidance from the Academy with regard to submissions.

As our committee prepares for the annual meeting, we encourage any suggestions from members regarding content and speakers. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting this year!

The Education Committee coordinates the activity of the six ACLP Education Subcommittees. We will be continuing to host the monthly webinars, alternating between journal clubs and clinical case conferences. If you would like to suggest topics for the webinar series, please contact Ann Schwartz or another member of the Education Committee.

The subcommittee has actively addressed several key areas over the last six months.

In recent efforts, we navigated our subspecialty’s transition to the Electronic Residency Application Service, directly supporting program directors through informational resources and a town hall. This was paralleled by an update of ACLP’s interviewing guidelines, reflecting the needs of the current selection season. To further align with evolving educational requirements, an electronic survey was disseminated to program directors, capturing insights into curricular support needs. We concurrently updated the Information for Fellowship Applicants guide to mirror recent shifts in selection practices.

On the academic front, abstracts on wellness and scholarship in fellowship training were submitted to the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training and the APA, and  we recorded a workshop on scholarship in C-L Psychiatry education for CLP 2023.

The subcommittee is also completing the final edit of a manuscript for Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison (JACLP) submission reporting results from a subcommittee-designed survey for program directors and fellows regarding DEI in fellowship training. In addition, we drafted and submitted comments in response to ACGME’s proposed changes to the C-L Psychiatry program requirements.

In coming months, we will work with the Online Education Subcommittee to reorganize the fellowship section of the ACLP website; finalize and submit the DEI survey manuscript to ACLP; develop an action plan based on findings from the program director curricular needs survey; gather feedback from program directors on the ERAS transition; evaluate evolving selection methods in light of the recent SCOTUS decisions on affirmative action; start a quarterly Fellowship Program Directors’ Forum; and evaluate the implications of artificial intelligence in fellowship training.

Subcommittee members worked on preparing the MOC self-assessment questions released for ACLP members in October 2023. The subcommittee will update and provide advice for writing good multiple-choice questions to continue to improve the quality of the MOC SA exam.

MOC members will continue to contribute focused questions for the Psy-q.com: website designed for teaching/learning across training levels, currently containing 241 multiple-choice questions pertaining to Psychiatry. Editing and entry of 2023 MOC SA questions is in progress.Please feel free to send any additional content/questions/ideas to Montie Meyer (flmeyer@partners.org).

The subcommittee will work with the ACLP Education Committee to develop accessible resources for completing the Article Based Continuing Certification Pathway.

This year, the subcommittee is excited to continue working on our mission to educate students on the subspecialty of C-L Psychiatry, recruit early-learners to our field, and involve students in Academy activities.

The theme of this year’s projects is collaboration. First, we’ve begun partnering with the Mentorship Subcommittee to initiate group mentorship sessions for students to connect with ACLP members. We will also continue to host information panels for students nationwide in collaboration with the national Psychiatry student interest group network, PsychSIGN.

In partnership with the Online Education Subcommittee, we have been working to make the student tab of the ACLP website more user-friendly and welcoming to students. Look out for changes coming soon! The website content will be an area of growth as well, with subcommittee members currently developing student guides for sub-internships and child/adolescent C-L Psychiatry settings.

Finally, we are working with the Online Education Subcommittee to launch a sub-series within the ACLP podcast. This sub-series, called Fundamentals, will feature content designed for early-learners that may also be useful to residents, fellows, and providers outside of C-L Psychiatry.

Please remind your students of the multiple ACLP web resources available to them (including psy-q.com and the medical student tab of clpsychiatry.org) and the numerous benefits associated with ACLP membership (with an annual fee of $0 for students!). For those interested in higher-level involvement, there is also an option each fall to apply to join the subcommittee as a student member. The subcommittee looks forward to welcoming students to the ACLP community throughout the coming year.

See: All Medical Students Should Be Exposed to C-L Psychiatry, this issue.

The subcommittee aims to improve ACLP members’ access to online educational resources and tools available through the ACLP website. The highest priority is to optimize the organization of the website. We are coordinating with the medical student, resident, and fellowship subcommittees to review the current pages and update/organize them.

The subcommittee will continue to facilitate production of podcasts to further disseminate ACLP content. We have released eight episodes; a new one in the pipeline is on transplant psychiatry.

The subcommittee focuses on promoting educational scholarship, developing educational materials, recruiting trainees to C-L Psychiatry, and addressing issues of DEI in C-L Psychiatry training.

We hosted another successful virtual case conference in October from the world of psycho-oncology. Case conferences hosted by the subcommittee occur every other month. In February we experimented with a new type of ‘mentoring case’.  If you are interested in participating as a presenter in this series, join an ACLP SIG to get involved.

The subcommittee continues to add to its practical and rich How-To guide series on common consultation questions. We anticipate new additions to the archive, including practical guides on motivational interviewing, decisional capacity, and HIV. Share these helpful resources with your trainees. Creation of these guides began in 2020 and this year we look forward to reviewing and editing them to keep them up to date and accurate.

In an effort to expand exposure to C-L Psychiatry and ACLP resources to training programs with limited C-L Psychiatry presence, Sarah Slocum, MD, has developed a presentation to share what is on offer. Let your local residency know that the subcommittee wants to support them. This can be done by reaching out to Sarah at SSlocumMD@gmail.com.

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

Select members of the subcommittee are hard at work creating important contributions to educational scholarship. Anticipate an upcoming C-L Psychiatry training recommendations manuscript that Scott Beach, MD, FACLP, is leading out. It will provide important factors to consider when creating the learning environments for our future C-L psychiatrists.

Thank you to all the residents who attended the annual meeting in Austin. Subcommittee members had a great time meeting you at the trainee mixer and hearing your important perspectives on the future of C-L Psychiatry.

The subcommittee continues working to incorporate equity and inclusion in all aspects of the Academy.

We are working with the Annual Meeting Committee to ensure DEI at the meeting. We are partnering with other subcommittees and SIGs on talks and workshops, such as the ACLP Case Conference on Mentorship. We continue scholarly works in DEI, such as an analysis of last year’s DEI statements.

Within the next few months we will be launching ACLP’s first-ever equity survey for members along with the outside firm Health Justice, to systemically explore ways ACLP can promote DEI as an organization.

• Hackett Award—the Academy’s highest honor.
• Stoudemire Award—Best Project in C-L Psychiatry Education.
• Trainee Travel Award—Awards to support meeting attendance for promising trainee members.
• Special Recognition Awards—Award to recognize individual members for outstanding service on a local or national level, with special attention to DEI contributions.
• Distinguished Service Award—Award for extraordinary service to the Academy or the field of C-L Psychiatry.
• Visiting Professor Awards—Award to support C-L Psychiatry experts visiting a department at another institution.
• Fellowship of ACLP—Award to recognize the contribution of frequent and substantial contributors to the Academy.

Each of the above relies on nomination of candidates by ACLP members.  Please think about yourself and your peers and nominate as you see fit.  Nomination deadlines are either April 30 or July 1, depending on the award.  Details can be found here.

Applications for the Career Consultation Program are reviewed on a continuous rolling basis and all interested members are encouraged to apply.

The subcommittee also continues to plan virtual mentorship-themed sessions in collaboration with other committees/subcommittees, caucuses, and SIGs. Please be on the lookout for information about upcoming sessions on applying for ACLP awards and developing annual meeting submissions—and don’t hesitate to reach out with ideas for future sessions.

We are undertaking several activities for 2024. First, following updates to many of the ACLP award descriptions and applications, the REBP Committee and Research Subcommittee will participate in a webinar on March 11 to discuss these changes and introduce the awards process to interested members.

Second, following a successful inaugural research colloquium event in 2023, the Research Subcommittee is hard at work planning an expanded 2024 event, which will include individualized feedback on various ‘works in progress’ (e.g., case reports, potential study designs) for interested Academy members.

The subcommittee will be presenting the 2nd Annual Developing Scholars Research Colloquium at CLP 2024 in Miami on Wednesday, November 6.

We welcome C-L psychiatrists interested in engaging in research or other evidenced-based scholarly work as part of their careers, whether on a modest scale or with the intent of becoming independent investigators.

The colloquium aims to enlarge the cadre of C-L psychiatrists who possess the skills needed to take scientific investigations from initial ideas to completed projects.

Registered participants will have the opportunity to engage in one of three tailored tracks that best fits their career goals. Leaders in the field will engage participants in keynote addresses, interactive didactic sessions, and small group workshops focused on career and project development. Keep an eye out for updated announcements for registration in late spring.