Spring 2003, Vol. 11, No. 1

Letter from the President

By Ronald Schouten, MD, JD
Boston, MA

April, 2003

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to send you this edition of the AOOP Bulletin. A great deal has happened in the world since our fall Bulletin, and at no time has the importance of organizational and occupational psychiatry been clearer. Changing threat levels, war in Iraq, and SARS have had a tremendous impact on the business world. This impact has been emotional as well as financial, and our organizational and clinical skills have been called upon to help organizations and their employees manage during these difficult times. At the organizational level, there are issues as to appreciation of risks and how corporate policy is made. At the individual level, there is concern about how well the organization is taking care of its employees, as well as anxiety over travel and the risks of coming to work. As organizational and occupational psychiatrists, we can help define and address these issues, sometimes individually, and sometimes through the coordination of greater occupational health resources.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of organizational and occupational psychiatrists is the capacity to combine clinical and organizational knowledge with an understanding of the workplace, providing a novel approach to problem solving in the workplace. This perspective allows us to see how interventions can be applied in seemingly unrelated areas. For example, in this issue of the Bulletin, Dr. Steve Pflanz describes how support can be provided for individuals who are about to undergo a condition of extreme stress: military deployment into a combat situation. Dr. Scott Boots discusses a program for stress management and support for those who are working with the chronically ill. The concepts they describe in these different areas have applications in any situation where employees are potentially exposed to high stress. Parenthetically, I want to thank Scott for accepting our offer to all members to contribute to the Bulletin.

Also in this issue, Dr. Steve Heidel begins his series on Dealing with Problem Employees, focussing this time on narcissism. Finally, Dr. Don Williams provides us with an excellent summary of some of the essential elements of success in building any business, including an organizational and occupational psychiatry practice.

Speaking of stress, April 14 marked the beginning of the HIPAA era. Based on my observations, one can determine the amount of confusion and anxiety about an issue by the number of flyers that appear in regular and email, offering enlightenment on the subject. For those of us who practice in nontraditional areas, like OOP and forensics, the application of HIPAA is even more perplexing. Over the coming months, AOOP will do its best to clarify the implications of HIPAA for our work. In the meantime, we encourage all of our members to seek out what information they can find, ask probing questions of the Department of Health and Human Services, and share your information with the rest of the organization. Information about HIPAA can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/ and http://www.samhsa.gov/hipaa/.

To close, I want to thank all of you who contribute to AOOP through your membership, ideas, writing, and offers to speak. We look forward to hearing from all of you over time and encourage you to contribute to the Bulletin and our meetings.

Ronald Schouten, MD JD
President, AOOP

 
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