American Association of Community Psychiatrists
Encyclopedia
The American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP) is a member organization of recovery-oriented and recovery focused psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

s, psychologists and social workers who primarily work in community-based settings. Founded in 1985, the AACP is based in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and its founding president was Gordon H. Clark, Jr., M.D. Currently it is led by its President and a Board. Its most prominent publication is the Community Mental Health Journal.http://www.springer.com/medicine/psychiatry/journal/10597/.

The AACP hosts a vibrant e-mail-based listerv that fosters communication and peers support for its members who work in community mental health.

Mission

"The mission of the AACP is to encourage, equip, and empower community and public psychiatrists to develop and implement policies and high-quality practices that promote individual, family and community resilience
Psychological resilience
Resilience in psychology refers to the idea of an individual's tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to produce a “steeling effect” and function...

 and recovery
Recovery model
The Recovery Model as it applies to mental health is an approach to mental disorder or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports each individual's potential for recovery...

."

Leadership

AACP is led by a President, an Executive Committee and a Board. Its Board meets three times per year. Its fall meeting coincides with the American Psychiatric Association's Institute on Psychiatric Services. Its winter meeting is linked to a continuing education meeting that is unrelated to the American Psychiatric Association. The spring Board meeting runs concurrent with the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...

.

Its Board members represent seven regions of the US, and there are at-large Board members as well.

American Orthopsychiatric Association

The AACP offers a joint membership with the American Orthopsychiatric Association ("Ortho.")http://www.aoatoday.com/ Ortho aims to apply interdisciplinary approaches to mental health and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

.

Institute on Psychiatric Services

The AACP is strongly affiliated with the American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...

's Institute on Psychiatric Services (IPS), http://www.psych.org/ips an annual meeting that targets services research and programming for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses. Very often, the Chair of the Scientific Program Committee of the Institute on Psychiatric Services is a member of the AACP. In addition, members of the AACP are frequent contributors at IPS. AACP members lead workshops, symposia, and offer lectures at IPS.

Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Mentally Ill Homeless Person

The Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Mentally Ill Homeless Person [ISBN 978-1-58562-251-1] http://www.communitypsychiatry.org/publications/books/HomelessMHBook.aspx is a book published by the AACP. It addresses the treatment and rehabilitation needs of homeless persons with mental illness.

Community Mental Health Journal

The Community Mental Health Journal is a peer-reviewed publication of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. It "is devoted to the evaluation and improvement of public sector mental health services for people affected by severe mental disorders, serious emotional disturbances and/or addictions
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...

."http://www.springer.com/medicine/psychiatry/journal/10597

Community Psychiatrist

Community Psychiatrist is a quarterly newsletter that keeps AACP members current on news in community mental health.

History of Community Psychiatry Reading List

The AACP works to preserve the history of community psychiatry. To that end, it publishes History of Community Psychiatry Reading List.

LOCUS and CALOCUS

The AACP developed the Level of Care Utilization System
Level of Care Utilization System
The Level of Care Utilization System is a widely used instrument for determining the appropriate level of service intensity for persons with mental illness. It is published by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists and distributed by Deerfield Behavioral Health in Erie, Pennsylvania....

, (LOCUS),http://www.communitypsychiatry.org/publications/clinical_and_administrative_tools_guidelines/calocus.aspx and the Child/Adolescent Level of Care Utilization System (CALOCUS).http://www.communitypsychiatry.org/publications/clinical_and_administrative_tools_guidelines/calocus.aspx

LOCUS and CALOCUS are clinical tools that evaluate and determine level of care placements for psychiatric and addiction services for both adult and child/adolescent populations. They are comprehensive utilization management systems, which are designed to generate various managerial reports, aggregate patient data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...

, track patients, and promote accurate scoring and ease of use.

These tools are designed for use by clinicians and managed care organizations alike. Subsequently, they promote increased communication between providers and payers. When implemented, LOCUS and CALOCUS effectively benefit individuals with mental health and substance abuse issues by quickly and accurately assessing their needs without removing clinical judgement.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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