Successful Legislative Session But PSV Has Big Challenges Ahead
by Cal Whitehead, PSV Grassroots Lobbyist

I am pleased to report that SB 400 has passed both houses of the General Assembly and was signed by Governor Mark Warner. The measure, which will require the Governor to appoint a psychiatrist to the Board of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, & Substance Abuse Services (DMHMRSAS), sailed through the legislature without a single vote against it. You can credit PSV leadership for identifying the need for a change, PSV lobbyist Mark Rubin for drafting a simple, clear bill, and Senator Steve Martin for sponsoring the legislation. SB 400 will go into affect in on July 1, 2002.

We were pleased that numerous psychiatrists visited, wrote, and called their legislators to voice support for SB 400 and opinions on other bills affecting mental health and medicine. These relatively easy exercises helped secure the passage of sensible public policy. The list below recognizes some of your colleagues who took political action this past year. Please thank them for their commitment to PSV and the Washington Psychiatric Society and join them in their efforts in the coming months:

Robert Alessi, James Blitch, Bernard Bressler, Angela Brosnan, Owen Brodie, Valerie Byese, Randy Canterbury, Doug Chessen, Conrad Daum, John Davies, James Dee, James Dimitris, John Eagle, Anita Everett, Renate Forssmann-Falck, Helen Foster, Merritt Foster, David Gould, Dan Harrington, Stan Jennings, Cheryl Jones, Alice Jesudian, Kenneth Kendler, Leslie Kryzanowski, Jim Levenson, David Markowitz, Bobby Miglani, Nooreddin Mirmirani, Mary Olinger, Anand Pandurangi, F.J. Pepper, Mimi Koller Pizzani, Jim Reinhard, Jagan Reddy, Miriam Woodall Roland, James Shield, Ram Shenoy, Joel Silverman, Ross Silverstein, David Jacob Scheiderer, Eric Steckler, David Trinkle, Steve Welton, and Marion Wouters.

Enormous Challenge Faces Medicine
Psychiatry and medicine will have an enormous challenge in the near future. On March 6, New Mexico became the first state in the country to grant prescriptive authority to clinical psychologists. Using “access to care” as their battle cry, psychologists mounted a concerted lobbying campaign that caused New Mexico’s legislature and Governor to ignore the serious risks to patients. Now, psychologists, social scientists with no medical training, will be able to prescribe powerful psychotropic medication to the mentally ill.

In the past, Virginia’s psychologists have expressed their desire to attain prescriptive authority. They are well-organized, politically aggressive, and rich. With nothing to lose, their grassroots network will apply pressure to legislators and pour money into campaigns to deliver their message. Will PSV and organized medicine allow undertrained psychologists to prescribe in Virginia?

We do not have much time for grassroots development. The time to get engaged is now. Talk to your colleagues, your patients, and your community leaders about the unsafe delivery of medical care.

If you have questions, comments, or an interest in getting politically active, please contact me at (804) 389-2825 or cwhitehead@whiteheadconsulting.net.

Back to newsletter