Association of Women Psychiatrists
APA Election
| Office | Candidate |
| Treasurer |
Carol Bernstein, M.D. |
AWP: What have you done to advance women’s involvement in organized psychiatry and specifically in the APA? Please tell us your specific accomplishments.
Bernstein:
It is vitally important that the APA address the persistent
under-representation of women in leadership positions and create effective
mentoring mechanisms for our younger members.
As women make up an increasingly high proportion of psychiatric
residents, we are quite literally, the future of the Association.
We must encourage women to seek positions on all major components and in
the Assembly. The standardization
of "term limits" in the Assembly might be a mechanism to facilitate
the election of women as Representatives and address the persisting shortage of
women in the Assembly. As a
psychiatric educator and in my national work on the Board of Trustees, I have
viewed the mentoring of women colleagues and students as a central mission.
I have made it a point to meet younger women as they enter the APA, to
make myself available to them for support and guidance and to encourage them to
speak up in settings which are often intimidating.
I have been an Executive Council Member of AWP, have attended meetings of
the Women’s Caucus and will continue to work vigorously to use my leadership
position to advance issues of special concern to women such as women’s mental
health and reproductive freedom.
AWP: What important issues for women would you promote? How would you do this?
Bernstein:
APA must have a significant number of women in leadership positions in order
to maintain its viability and relevance. In
addition to the promotion of women in leadership positions, women's mental
health is an important issue for APA to address.
With the resources of APIRE
and the Council on Psychiatric Services, APA should promote research into health
care issues which are particularly prevalent among women such as major
depression, dysthymia, post-partum depression, anxiety disorders and sexual
trauma across the life span. Recent
studies have shown that 14 million women of child bearing age have no medical
insurance and are more likely to be uninsured than men because so many are
part-time employees. We should
adopt a public health focus that promotes public awareness of issues of
particular concern for women such as spouse abuse, child sexual abuse, and the
psychological consequences of single parenthood, sexual harassment and sexual
discrimination. Since women of
color are the fastest growing cohort of persons infected with HIV, we must
continue our important efforts for public education in this area.
I will actively advocate to ensure that APA focuses its resources in the
legislative and public affairs arenas in order to accomplish these goals.
AWP: What strategies would you use to promote the retention and recruitment of women in APA?
Bernstein: Issues of recruitment and retention are of particular concern among early career psychiatrists, a majority of whom are women. With combined national and local dues approaching $1000 in some areas, younger members are dropping out at a high rate. As Treasurer, I have worked diligently to examine our budget and to focus priorities on key concerns of the membership such as legislative initiatives, public relations and the need to secure adequate access to competent treatment for our patients. Dues must remain within reason, and the association must make difficult decisions regarding priorities.
As
many women (and men) struggle to combine family with career, it is also
important that the APA be more “member” friendly, by encouraging the use of
conference calls and electronic media to involve the membership in its
activities. Frequent “face to
face” meetings contributes to
increased stress for rising leaders who are juggling career and home commitments
with their participation. From both
fiscal and personal perspectives, it is essential that the APA make more
effective use of telecommunications if it wishes to foster involvement of the
next generation of psychiatrists in the Association.
Frances Bell
info@womenpsych.org
http://www.womenpsych.org/new.html
Last updated March 29, 2006 08:05 PM
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