The fall is upon us and CPNP is already gearing up for the Annual Meeting in April. It is hard to believe that we are just six months away from CPNP 2019 to be hosted in Salt Lake City on April 7-10. This issue of the CPNP Perspective highlights all the exciting activities planned for CPNP 2019-Where Pharmacy and Psychiatry Meet. Registration is live and we invite you to attend as well as encourage you to invite your peers and colleagues to join us. A preliminary schedule of speakers is also available. You can see it is an excellent and varied line-up again. It is an amazing feat that, year after year, the hard-working program and recertification committees create a meeting that is spot on for us as psychiatric pharmacists. CPNP 2019 promises to be no exception to this rule.
I also encourage you to submit a scientific poster and/or a clinical pearl for consideration and selection by your peers. Scientific poster and clinical pearl submissions are accepted through January 7, 2019. These are excellent opportunities to share knowledge and network with colleagues from around the country.
In addition to the Annual meeting planning, the CPNP staff and Board have been hard at work to continue to increase the recognition of our profession. For more than 20 years now, board certified psychiatric pharmacists (BCPPs) have expanded their impact on patient care through innovative practice models and through tight integration into the health care team. As we prove ourselves, even more opportunities for training and jobs become available. That virtuous cycle has led to a 40% increase in the number of BCPPs over the last 5 years.
Against that optimistic backdrop of change and growth, CPNP is investing in expanding the reach of psychiatric pharmacists through a public relations initiative. The Professional Affairs Task Force will be working with KidGlov, a marketing agency, to clearly communicate the role and value of psychiatric pharmacists on the health care team. The goal of the project is to illustrate the importance of psychiatric pharmacists through stories and statistics that simplify the complex role you play.
You can help in this effort by watching for emails detailing new resources and publications. More importantly, you can help by responding when we reach out for feedback or survey input. We will need high response rates to generate some statistics, and we will need your feedback to ensure that we provide a representative look at our diverse membership.
While we are working on these materials, you can still find some useful resources to distribute by going to our Resources for Patients and Caregivers.
Finally, I would like to congratulate and welcome the new members to the Board who will assume their offices July 1, 2019:
I look forward to working with each of them. I know we will all benefit from the expertise they bring to the Board. Additionally, congratulations to Gary Levin, PharmD, BCPP, FCPP as this year’s Saklad Memorial Award winner. Thank you for all who participated in the nomination and voting process.
I hope you all enjoy the final days of Fall. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions and concerns at board@cpnp.org.