‘There was an urgent need to update these statements to improve their intelligibility and clarity as part of our organizational development’
ACLP has a new strapline, and new mission and vision statements.
The new strapline is: Advancing integrated psychiatric care for the medically ill
It replaces: Psychiatrists Providing Collaborative Care Bridging Physical and Mental Health
Five Board members, chaired by immediate past-president Michael Sharpe, MD, FACLP, made proposals to the full Board, which were agreed.
“As ACLP evolves from a club to a major professional organization, we needed to ensure that our messaging is fit for the new purpose,” says Dr. Sharpe. “Unfortunately, informal testing of our previous strapline, vision, and mission statements suggested that, whilst they were familiar to us, they were profoundly opaque to many non-ACLP members, physicians, and patients. There was an urgent need to update and shorten these statements to improve their intelligibility and clarity as part of our organizational development. The group who helped me with this task did a great job.”
The review group—also comprising Amy Bauer, MD, FACLP, E. Sherwood Brown, MD, FACLP, Terry Rabinowitz, MD, FACLP, and Maryland Pao, MD, FACLP— found the task interesting but also challenging. “We concluded that there is unlikely to be a perfect solution, nor indeed a permanent solution, to the problem of crafting non-dualistic statements,” says Dr. Sharpe. “Rather, we have aimed to create shorter, punchier statements which are better than those we have now. We anticipate that they will need to be reviewed in future years to best reflect the evolving nature of our work and organization. In the meantime, we hope that these new statements will help to clarify and communicate what we do.”
The new vision statement is: Optimal health through integrated medical and psychiatric care
It replaces: The Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry vigorously promotes a global agenda of excellence in clinical care for patients with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions by actively influencing the direction and process of research and public policy and promoting interdisciplinary education
The new mission statement is: Education, research, and advocacy to advance integrated psychiatric care for the medically ill
It replaces: The Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry represents psychiatrists dedicated to the advancement of medical science, education, and health care for persons with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions, and provides national and international leadership in the furtherance of those goals
The strapline and statements will be rolled out across web pages and documents over coming weeks.