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December 10, 2008, Washington DC —Psychiatrists from community behavioral health organizations in 15 states met last week in Washington, DC to share learnings as they graduated from a year long Psychiatric Leadership Program. The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (National Council) conducted this mentoring and training program as part of its wide-ranging efforts to address behavioral healthcare’s most pressing workforce challenges and to improve the quality of care for people with mental illness.

“Psychiatrists in executive positions in community behavioral health organizations are often asked to juggle administrative duties and caseloads. Time to attend to their leadership development is in short supply. At a time of increasing demand for behavioral health services, the National Council is committed to bringing attention to the critical role of psychiatry in providing effective services and to supporting member organizations in recruiting and retaining psychiatric leadership,” said National Council President and CEO Linda Rosenberg.

The Psychiatric Leadership Program provided a year of training and mentoring to help psychiatric leaders lead clinical practice improvement efforts and recruit and retain psychiatrists. The program also emphasized the need for psychiatric leaders to engage with their local communities and to shape public policy.  

Participants in the “Class of 2008” Psychiatric Leadership Program included staff psychiatrists, directors of psychiatry and behavioral health, medical directors, and chief medical officers. As they met in Washington, DC December 4–5 to mark the end of the program, they concurred that the top three items on their “wish list” were to recruit and retain more medical staff, improve access to care for the mentally ill, and provide integrated behavioral and primary care for their patients.

“Medical school does not offer much business training, so it was helpful to be part of the Psychiatric Leadership Program. I can now see the business side of medicine with more clarity and better represent medical interests to the rest of my executive team,” said Dr. Maulik Trivedi, MD, Medical Director of Peace River Center for Personal Development, Inc. in Bartow, FL.

Dr. Cuneyd Tolek, MD, Medical Director of Harbor Behavioral Healthcare in Toledo, OH reiterated, “Doctors who step into leadership roles are really challenged — we have little or no training and guidance in handling administrative responsibilities. The National Council’s Psychiatric Leadership Program showed me how I can be an effective leader and stay connected with day-to-day realities.”

The psychiatric leaders implemented a range of clinical practice improvement projects that carefully identified a clinical issue, the internal and external customers impacted by the issue, the key staff involved in implementing a quality improvement program, and methods for tracking and evaluating performance outcomes. The projects included:

• Reducing “missed” recurring injection medications
• Increasing effective and appropriate use of psychiatric hospital beds
  
• Improving engagement in an adult mental health partial hospital program
  
• Comparison of three long-acting antipsychotic injections in patients with schizophrenia
  
• Implementing use of outcome measures for patients
  
• Improving the care of high utilizing patients
  
• Improving access to child psychiatric services
  
• Maximizing billable units in behavioral health services
  
• Retaining physicians
  
• Increasing client retention
  

 
Faculty for the National Council Psychiatric Leadership Program was led by Anita Everett, MD, Johns Hopkins University and included Deborah Agus, JD, Mental Health Policy Institute; Paul Gurny, MBA, MS, InforMed Healthcare Solutions; Douglas E. Hough, PhD, Johns Hopkins University; Noel A. Mazade, PhD, Mazade & Associates; David Pollock, MD, Oregon Health Sciences University; Cheryll Bowers-Stevens, M.D., Schopenhauer Group; Hunter McQuistion, MD, St Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center; and Ken Thompson. MD, Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA.

The Psychiatric Leadership Program enjoys the ongoing support of SAMHSA. The National Council is currently soliciting nominations from psychiatrists for the class of 2009 and is developing alumni programming for first year and future cohorts.

The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare is a not-for- profit, 501(c)(3) association of 1,600 behavioral healthcare organizations that provide treatment and rehabilitation for mental illnesses and addictions disorders to nearly six million adults, children and families in communities across the country.