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MPS Newsletter - August, 2011
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Greetings!  Greetings from MPS President
Mary Roberts Greetings! It is hard to believe that the fall is already upon us. I had the opportunity to share some goals for my work this year with members of our Executive Council at our June meeting. It is time to share those goals with you, the membership, as well, and my intention to update you regularly on our progress. My first goal involves all of us: it is to generate fresh interest in engagement among the membership. We do a great job of that in many of our current activities, such as meetings, programs and legislative involvement. I would love to push that further. I'd like to explore strategies for reaching those members we don't often see or hear from, and to hear from all corners on matters of interest and importance to any of us. I'd like to explore strategies for shared energy and talent across geographic boundaries and career stages. This is a great time in psychiatry to be interested in one another's work, concerns and ideas. To that end, we're going to hopefully help you make our newsletter a habit. We will work to get it out six times during the year - three brief updates, and three more in-depth issues. We will "kick it up a notch", by exploring the media's polling function for use in the brief updates - in order to find out what you think about important issues such as legislation, practice, training or organizational matters. Ollie Cameron, our gifted editor, will most certainly be tapping some of you for content for the longer editions. The Executive Committee has undertaken a Strategic Planning process, which involves a review of our committee structure, and possible recommendations for realignment. Committee work is a crucial area of member engagement with opportunities to assure that we reflect the broadest possible representation of our membership in responding to critical contemporary issues. We'll need your thoughtful ideas about what the critical issues are. My second goal involves change management: I will strive to balance change and continuity. This is a dynamic time of change in finances, membership demographics and leadership for the organization. It is just as important to assure continuity as to assure progress. We have instituted strategic planning as a regular stewardship role for our President-Elect, and will report regularly to all of you on our progress in that process, which involves focused analysis and discussion of our mission/vision, membership, leadership, operations, programs, finance and committee structure. I look forward to engaging with as many of you as possible this year. I hope to see you at our meetings and programs, and to hear of your interest in becoming more involved - in committee work, study groups, or legislative efforts. Try responding to our attempts at polling. Better yet, send me your ideas for valuable polling questions (or on any other topic) at: mroberts@med.wayne.edu.
Finally, the nominations process will soon be underway again. We have a remarkably committed and energetic Executive Committee. It is a privilege and pleasure to work with this group. Please give careful thought to nominating yourself or a colleague this year - we're looking for you. Mary Roberts, MD
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Member Survey
Please take a minute to answer a three question survey. The Newsletter will be asking questions that will be used by the MPS Council and staff to improve services to members. Our first survey concerns the MPS website and newsletter. To participate in the survey please click here.
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Fall Scientific Meeting - September 30th
Integrated Health Care: In Your Future - Please Save the Date
Save the date and plan to attend the Fall Meeting of the Michigan Psychiatric Society, Integrated Health Care: In Your Future. We have completed our planning, and more information as well as registration materials will be emailed to members very shortly. It will be held (as it was last year) in the beautiful Postma Center on the campus of the Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids. The date will be September 30, 2011, to coincide with ArtPrize, the spectacular annual cultural event in Grand Rapids. We plan to offer a full day of presentations focused on exemplary psychiatric programs in the state.
For more information, please contact the office at 517-333-0838 or at mps@mpsonline.org.
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Nominations
The Michigan Psychiatric Society is calling for nominations of officers for the upcoming year. The offices which will be open include:
· President-Elect (one year term, followed by a year as President)
· Vice-President (two year term)
· Councilor (two year term - two positions)
· APA Assembly Representative (three year term)
Elections will be held by mail in March and new officers will take over their positions following the APA Meeting in May, 2012. Chairing the Nominations Committee is Denise Gribbin, MD, Immediate Past President. If you would like to nominate yourself, or any other member, please contact the MPS office at (517)333-0838 or by email at mps@mpsonline.org.
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 Proposed amendments to Michigan Mental Health Code--
Civil Admission: Request for Reviewers
The Michigan Mental Health Commission of 2004 made recommendations for changes to Chapter 4 of the Michigan Mental Health Code, which addresses civil admission and discharge. The recommendations would require legislation. MPS will be reviewing proposed language changes. Members who are willing to review and comment on these proposals are urged to contact MPS Executive Director Kathleen Gross at kgross@mpsonline.org For a thought-provoking analysis of this issue, see Judge Milton Mack's article, Involuntary Treatment for the Twenty-First Century, published in the Spring 2010 issue of the Michigan Probate and Estate Planning Journal (scroll to page 13). |
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MEDICAL DIRECTOR
DETROIT-WAYNE COUNTY COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH AGENCY
Annual Pay Rate:
$144,000 to $226,000
About the Job:
Working for the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency and under the supervision of the Executive Director, this position is responsible for the administration and daily oversight of Mental Health services and programs such as utilization management/review, reporting and review of death, sentinel event reporting, and on site consultations with contractors and service providers. Responsibilities will also include policy development and review activity of various medical topics such as psychotropic medication, psychiatric evaluation, and coordination of care. This position will provision staff development and training to Medical Directors, Agency Managers, Coordinating Agencies and other staff. This position will be responsible for assisting development of Evidence Based Best Practice Standards for service delivery and other clinical duties.
Qualifications:
Licensed Physician as a Medical Doctor by the State of Michigan Board of Medicine; AND
Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as an adult psychiatrist; AND
Possess a current, valid and unrestricted Michigan Board of Pharmacy Controlled Substance License; AND
Possess a current Drug Enforcement Agency Registration.
Also must possess 5 years of full time paid professional experience as a direct provider of Mental Health Services in a state or community psychiatric hospital or outpatient setting; AND 5 years of administrative/executive experience in a Mental Health program with responsibilities including policy writing, accreditation activities, staff development, and peer review management of direct report staff.
To Apply:
Submit qualified resumes to the Wayne County Department of Personnel/Human Resources located at 500 Griswold, 9th Floor, Detroit, Michigan 48226.
You may also visit our website and submit a resume there:
www.waynecounty.com/hr_job_postings.htm
or fax to 313-967-1231
Join our employment opportunities group on Facebook @ Wayne County, Michigan Employment Opportunities
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Editorial
 Marcia Angell, M.D., a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and a persistent critic of psychiatry, has recently published a two-part review of three books also critical of psychiatry in the New York Review of Books (6/23/11 and 7/14/11). She offers several trenchant criticisms, but also some assertions that are debatable, and a few that are demonstrably wrong. The two most essential issues she raises relate to the efficacy of psychotropic medications and the relationship between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry (though she does not acknowledge that all areas of medicine have similar financial associations with the pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance industries, as well as the government), and the burgeoning of the number of psychiatric diagnoses and prevalence of such diagnoses.
Throughout, an underlying theme is that old bugaboo, dualism. That is the problem I wish to address. Dualism is the theory that the there is both material and non-material existence, in this case the brain versus the mind. This theory is often associated with Descartes (1596-1650) though he was not the first to offer such an idea. But even he, by placing the locus of interaction of the body (brain) and the soul (mind) in the pineal gland in the brain, acknowledged roughly 400 years ago that the brain is the physical organ of thought and behavior. Many millions of words have been written about this controversy, but it just does not go away. With an apology for adding my two cents to this discussion, let me briefly respond to her critique (and indirectly to the books under review as well).
In the beginning of the first part of the review, Dr. Angell raises the dualism issue, and (to this writer) at least implicitly appears to invite the reader to consider the dualistic dichotomy valid: "The shift from 'talk therapy'...coincides with the emergence...of the theory that mental illness is caused primarily by chemical imbalances in the brain..." (Is she questioning here about the chemical imbalances or the locus in the brain?) And in the next paragraph she asks "...if these disorders are biologically determined and not the result of environmental influences...?" (as if it could be either/or). Despite these comments, unless she has changed her mind in the past decade, she does not seem to be in full agreement with herself, because she and her co-author wrote "Mind is obviously a function of the brain..." (Psychsom Med 64; 558, 2002). She cites a quote from one of the books under review, an assertion she apparently agrees with: "Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, and other psychiatric disorders do not suffer from any known 'chemical imbalance'." But, first of all, this is the logical error that lack of evidence is evidence of lack, and second, if "chemical imbalance" is a proxy for brain dysfunction, the statement is incorrect. The second article includes a photo from that 35-year-old anachronism "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'" which logically could still be making valid criticisms but largely isn't. Further, she notes that the author of one of the books "...tells the story, that the theory [of chemical imbalances in the brain are the cause of mental illness] had its genesis shortly after psychoactive drugs were introduced in the 1950s. Despite its major influence, that surely gives the psychopharmacological revolution much more than its fair share. Finally, Dr. Angell comments that psychiatrists are the larger medical profession's "poor relations." Whether true, false, or in-between, this is a snide ad hominem irrelevancy to the arguments being made.
Despite its siren song, scientifically, dualism was, is, and undoubtedly always will be a failed theory. "Mindlessness" versus "brainless" is a false distinction. All thought and behavior, regardless of source: genetics, learning, whatever, comes from the physical brain. The mind is in the brain, and is the brain in action, and the mind is nowhere else and nothing else. Dualism does not provide Dr. Angell or anyone else any valid support for any scientific argument about anything.
-Pythi |
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Mentalnote, the newsletter of the Michigan Psychiatric Society,
is edited by Oliver Cameron, MD, PhD.
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Contact Information
phone: 517-333-0838
mps@mpsonline.org |
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