June 2016 President's Letter: Change is in the Air

Raymond C. Love, PharmD, BCPP, FASHP, CPNP President

There is nothing so stable as change – Bob Dylan

It was a great pleasure to see so many of you at our Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs. Despite the spring snow storm, we still had a record attendance at CPNP 2016. Thank you again to our staff who struggled to rearrange flights and speakers to accommodate changing itineraries, our members who filled in for those who couldn’t make it, our committees for an excellent program, and all of you who persevered and were able to attend. CPNP 2016 was once again a success!

This spring has been a busy one. Since CPNP 2016:

• We have presented to the Joint Commission on Pharmacy Practice (JCPP) and, in concert with the Hematology Oncology Pharmacists Association (HOPA), are presenting to them again in August.
• Our ACCP-CPNP coalition hosted a successful Congressional briefing in May.
• Deanna Kelly and I represented CPNP at an open house at the FDA as members of the FDA Network of Experts.
• We have just followed up that meeting with a letter to the FDA providing additional feedback on ClozapineREMS (see the letter in this edition of Perspectives).
• We also joined the Partnership for Part D Access, a coalition working to help make sure that antipsychotics, antidepressants and anticonvulsants maintain their status as protected classes under Medicare.
• Carey Potter, our Governmental Affairs consultant has been helping to monitor some of the mental health and substance abuse bills winding their way through Congress.
• Our USP Chapter 800 Task Force has been busily meeting to develop recommendations on how mental health facilities can comply with the mandates of this chapter.
• We are also about to release a guide on the role of the pharmacist in opioid abuse in conjuction with the PCSS-O, and
• The Curriculum Task Force is finishing a paper on psychiatry and neurology in pharmacy school curricula.

We also have two major initiatives focusing on the future of CPNP. This week we will be launching a membership survey that will help shape our future and determine how best to serve you, our members. We have also been engaged with District Policy Group in an audit of our governmental affairs and policy needs. We expect this audit will help structure to better address these areas in the future. We realize that we need to reassess the best way to make sure that CPNP’s voice is heard on the various issues that impact our membership.

Last but not least, congratulations to incoming President Chris Thomas and our new Board of Directors! I look forward to the continued evolution of CPNP under their guidance.

I want to thank our terrific staff, our hard working committee chairs and members, the Board of Directors, past presidents and all of you for a wonderful experience as CPNP President. Your participation, cooperation, hard work, enthusiastic responses to my calls for information, and your encouraging notes and comments made my job easy. Your efforts have continued to demonstrate the importance of psychiatric pharmacy and CPNP.

With great appreciation,

Ray Love