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Presidents Blog: Living in the Now While Casting an Eye to the Future

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the months and years pass. Seems like yesterday we were at AAPP 2024 with many of you, and now we are in the final weeks of 2024 fresh off our November Board retreat where we evaluated goals, strategies, and measures of success for your association. During the retreat, we set our eyes on the future and acted to evolve our strategic planning processes to be more fluid and continual to support quick reaction and shifts as needed. Early next year, we will start to introduce the components of this iterative strategic planning process which you will play a critical role in as AAPP members.

President Column: Driving the Future of Psychiatric Pharmacy

We know you are living and breathing the rapidly changing health care and pharmacy environment we operate within, and we urge you to plan for how you and your organization can best position psychiatric pharmacy. As AAPP enters this strategic planning cycle and begins to consider future directions and actions, we will be working to define the role of psychiatric pharmacists in these areas so that others don't do so on our behalf. As we traverse this journey together, be prepared to share your thoughts and opinions with Board members via surveys and/or focus groups that may be scheduled.

Volunteers = AAPP’s Workforce; Join Us!

Complete your volunteer interest profile/application on or before November 19! AAPP is truly a member-driven organization with 1 in 6 members volunteering for AAPP in some capacity. From now through November 19, AAPP is encouraging members to sign up to serve on one of over 25 committees, councils, editorial boards, and/or task forces. These opportunities range from well-known committees like our Program Committee to more narrowly focused task forces such as our Employer Resource Center Task Force.

Rx for Research: Psychiatric Pharmacy Fellowships

Completion of a quality improvement or research project is a common requirement of all ASHP-accredited pharmacy residencies. While many residents seem to dread this aspect of postgraduate training for various reasons, it stood out as one of my favorite components. Over and over, my patient encounters energized me with ideas of innovations I could explore to improve the quality of psychiatric care. That excitement helped me realize my goal of integrating research into my career as a clinical psychiatric pharmacist. I leaned on my mentors to gain a better understanding of how to accomplish this and ultimately chose to pursue a research fellowship after finishing my PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy residency. I’m delighted to share some of the insight I learned along the way.

NaloxoneSC: Bringing More Awareness to Harm Reduction

Opioid overdose deaths remain a prevalent issue throughout the United States, with over 81,000 reported deaths due to opioid overdose in 2023 (CDC, 2024). There is an urgent need to spread awareness regarding drugs of abuse and counterfeit drugs, as well as to reduce harm in our communities. The AAPP-University of Southern California (USC) student chapter has established our NaloxoneSC Program to do just that.

Building Connections through Virtual Precepting

Though the introduction of telehealth into modern medicine was inevitable given recent technological advancements, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a health care system-wide change to prioritize telehealth care modalities to minimize health and safety risks for patients and providers alike. This dramatic shift led to lasting changes in patient care delivery models and, as a result, impacted trainee/learner rotations. Telehealth, along with hybrid or fully virtual rotation models, are here to stay. This new reality comes with its own hurdles for preceptors to navigate in order to ensure successful rotation experiences.

Meet the Newly Elected Members of the AAPP Board

The AAPP membership has elected three members to serve on the 2025-2027 Board of Directors. Assuming their positions effective July 1, 2025, will be Drs. Kelly Gable, Suzanne Harris and Danielle Stutzman. These 3 new members will join Drs. Jolene Bostwick, Julie Cunningham, Jennifer Dress, Michelle Geier, and Kristina Reinstatler on the Board for 2025-2026.

AAPP Perspective: October 2024

As a growing specialty working in a profession where there are exponentially more and more patient care needs, the importance of attracting and training pharmacy students to the field has never been greater. AAPP members are critical in supporting this growth through precepting and educating students and/or by advising an AAPP Collegiate Chapter. This special edition of the AAPP Perspective demonstrates the impact of Collegiate Chapters and the numerous ways members are incorporating students into their practice, not only by educating them in psychiatric pharmacy but also in enhancing their understanding of those living with mental illness.

Member News: August 2024

Congratulations to Elayne Ansara, Dana L Chiulli, Tera Moore, Mark Schneiderhan, Megan Ehret, Christ Herndon and all the other members making an impact in psychiatric pharmacy!

Navigating Loss by Suicide as a Clinician-Survivor a Focus at AAPP 2024

Almost 1 out of 5 mental health providers will experience patient loss to suicide in their career, and, although many providers will note this as a career-defining moment, those clinicians may not receive support in navigating patient suicide loss. The AAPP Foundation sponsored the presentation “Living Through Loss- Navigating Loss by Suicide as a Clinician-Survivor” by Dr. Julie Cerel, Professor of the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky, and Director of the Suicide Prevention and Exposure Lab (SPEL), to educate the AAPP membership on what it means to be a “clinician-survivor”, to identify appropriate postvention strategies for suicide loss, and to describe the impact that suicide loss may have on professional practice.

Membership Guides Event Site Selection Policy

Over the past 9 months, the AAPP Board has completed a thorough review of the association’s site selection processes and the event landscape. Through this process, the Board gained valuable input, learned how significantly event site selection is heavily influenced by market forces, and realized the delicate balancing act involved in weighing available/bidding venues with overall value, convenience, and member experience to find the best option available.

Prioritizing Wellbeing and Impact at AAPP 2024

AAPP hosted psychiatric pharmacists, psychiatric pharmacy residents, and pharmacy students of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, genders, and sexual orientations at AAPP 2024. Aligning with our core values, AAPP partnered with Social Offset to make a positive impact in Orlando by supporting local nonprofit organizations.

Psychotropic Stewardship Implementation Furthers the Conversation at AAPP 2024

At the AAPP 2024 Annual Meeting, Dr. Chelsea Di Polito, PharmD, BCPP presented “The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown of Psychotropic Stewardship Implementation: A Focus on Antipsychotics”. Dr. Di Polito is the Assistant Director of the Peer Review for Mental Health Drugs Program through the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and works in the Peer-to-Peer program with Medicaid to reduce unnecessary antipsychotic prescribing to children and adolescents. She was a member of the Psychotropic Stewardship Taskforce and a co-author of AAPP’s paper on psychotropic stewardship.

Insomnia Session Delivers on Clinical Relevance at AAPP 2024

As experts in psychiatric pharmacy, few disorders keep us up at night wondering how to tackle treatment for our patients quite like insomnia does. There are so many factors to consider when choosing non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic treatments for these patients. We also have those tough cases where first and second-line options have been exhausted and we just don’t know how best to manage this patient. Insomnia can be one of those unsuspecting difficult disorders to treat, especially for those who are treatment-resistant or are part of a population that has even more considerations to think about. Because of this, the Program Committee invited our resident expert on the matter, Dr. Megan Maroney, to untangle the intricacies of treating insomnia.

Member News: June 2024

Congratulations to Michelle Geier and all the other members making an impact in psychiatric pharmacy!

AAPP Perspective: June 2024

We thoroughly enjoyed hosting many of you at AAPP 2024 in Orlando. The only downside is that we won't see many of you for another full year! In this edition of AAPP Perspectives, join us in reliving a successful AAPP 2024 while also looking forward to AAPP 2025, to be held April 25-28 in Salt Lake City, UT.

Investing in Change

AAPP’s Forum on our Future held during AAPP 2024 and available to members as a recording, reported on the major initiatives occurring within AAPP. With a very full agenda, reflections on AAPP’s financial health were not able to be included and, as such, are overviewed in this article.

AAPP Fellow Program Launching Third Quarter 2024

The lead off goal in AAPP’s strategic plan is a lofty and important one: Establish the BCPP credential as the practice standard in psychiatric pharmacy and expand professional opportunities for BCPPs. Since no one particular activity will achieve this, the Board and strategic planning committee crafted several objectives that flowed from this priority goal. The development of the AAPP Vision Paper and the Employer Resource Center (ERC) are examples of several of the objectives that have been realized to support this goal.

Environmental Scan a Cornerstone of Committee and Strategic Plan Work

Today’s rapidly changing health care environment requires flexibility, fluidity, and responsiveness. As the home of psychiatric pharmacy, AAPP strives to stay ahead of this ever-evolving landscape to serve members, the profession, and ultimately, the patients our members care for. Though AAPP has a thorough, member-driven strategic plan providing strong direction, it is monitored and tweaked as needed to adjust or pivot in this dynamic environment. One method recently employed by AAPP to identify and prepare for change was an environmental scanning session.

AAPP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan Finalized

Just completing its second year, the AAPP DEI Committee is pleased to announce its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan. Though spearheaded through the DEI Committee, this strategic plan represents the contributions and efforts of many committees, the Board of Directors, and staff who are working on DEI initiatives across the organization. A significant number of the objectives are already assigned to the pertinent and committees and work is underway.

My People, My Community at AAPP 2024

Research has shown time and again that as social beings we are designed to be part of a community, a tribe, a group of humans that we can call “our people.” I have tribes of people in all aspects of my life, with AAPP being one of them and one of my most valued. Thanks to the work of dozens of volunteers, the AAPP staff, and the Board of Directors, the AAPP Annual Meeting offers the blended opportunity to expand our knowledge and horizons through education and research but also to connect and expand our community.

Significant AAPP Papers Published in Last 6 Months

With the formation of the Commission on Innovation and Advancement within AAPP, we have seen growth in the number of AAPP papers published in our very own Mental Health Clinician as well as other high-impact journals. The topics are tightly aligned with our strategic goals as outlined in our strategic plan. While some of our newest additions are highlighted below, check out all of the other important publications over the last few years under our AAPP papers web page.