See www.texmed.org to register and for details of the Psychiatry CME sessions

All DFW area psychiatrists and psychiatry residents/fellows invited!  Also spouses, colleagues welcome.  
Tarrant and NTSPP Territories
THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 15TH, 6:30 PM  (Reserve by April 1^st) 
Guest Speaker: Greg Phillips, M.D.  Fort Worth internal medicine private practice
TOPIC: “LABORATORY DATA IN PSYCHIATRY”

Catered full dinner buffet with beverages served with (2) entrée choices, $20.00, residents free, retires $10.00, spouses/colleagues welcome; wine and beer extra cost

Location available from Dr. Dan Goggin, President, dagmdpafw@sbcglobal.net   Clue:  “Our meeting room will be spacious and in an attractive part of the new building.” 

 RSVP deadline April 1:       We will need a head count by April 1st, earlier than usual.  Please let us know whether or not you will come, (817) 338-0808, fax (817) 338-0809, or email to Dr. Dan Goggin, President at dagmdpafw@sbcglobal.net, or contact Dr. Roger Robinson.

 Tarrant Chapter:  This is a good time to pay your $40.00 dues for 2010, and 2009 if not paid.
__________________________________________________________________________

SCHEDULE
5:30 – 6:30 pm officers’ Executive Council (interested members welcome)
6:30 – 7:00 pm meet and greet
6:45 pm buffet supper begins
7:00 – 7:15 pm Chapter business (includes election of officers for 2010-2011)
7:15 – 8:15 pm  Dr. Phillips’ talk

JOURNAL CLUB UPDATE:       Attendance was small, but Drs. Gary Malone and Mustafa Husain (UT Southwestern) conducted a superb discussion about TMS and other somatic therapies as they emerge as to clinical effectiveness and availability.  Please let us know if you would like more journal club formats attempted next year.

April 14, 2010 NTSPP Past President Fred Griffin, M.D.

Psychiatry Grand Rounds: “The Psychotherapeutic Process: Some Integrative
Models from Neurobiology and Neuroscience .”

UT Southwestern Medical School, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m

See www.txpsych.org

SEE www.psych.org for details     Meeting ends WEDNESDAY this year.

From NAMI Collin County:

There will be a Town Hall Meeting for the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority (NTBHA) to gather information and input on the Public Sector Behavioral Health program (NorthSTAR) on Tuesday, March 9, from 6 to 8 PM at Custer Road Methodist Church.  The church is located on the west side of Custer Road north of Spring Creek and south of Legacy. 

We hope to see you all there!

Sharon DeBlanc
President NAMI of Collin County

All female psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training are warmly invited to:  DAWP:   Saturday March 13,  10 am to 12 noon

Geetha  Shivakumar MD.     “Update on the treatment of depression  during pregnancy and postpartum”.  

Hostess Bagya Arumugham MD* 

10 A   Brunch and Confidential Fellowship
11 A   Speaker & Q & A

*Location and directions will be sent shortly to all email addresses on file for DAWPers.  If you do not receive them, please send your e-address to NTSPPchapter@gmail.com to be added to the DAWP e-list.

 RSVP to dawpnews@gmail.com if you are attending and have not done so.

Last minute changes to program will be posted  at this link on this website and sent to your e-mail address whenever possible.  Please check before attending.  Become a Facebook Fan of NTSPP to have NTSPP, DAWP & Tarrant Chapter info sent directly to your Facebook account.

All psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training and all members of the Dallas Psychoanalytic Center
are warmly invited to attend

The Dallas Psychoanalytic Center and NTSPP Joint Dinner Program   Thursday March 25 at 6:30 pm

Treatment of the Powerful: Complexities, Fantasies and Realities.
Mark Unterberg MD, Richard Roskos MD  and Joe Gaspari MD ~ Panelists

6:30 pm Socializing and Cash Bar
7:00 pm Seated Dinner Begins
7:30 pm Program Begins

 *Location:  Usual lovely dining and meeting location near Toll Road and Northwest Highway*

**CME 1  sponsored free for all by DPC ~ Thank you DPC!!!**

PAY & RESERVE NOW HERE:   

COST to you (actual cost to NTSPP is $50 per person):

$30 per person for:
All NTSPP Chapter dues-paid members
All  UTSWMC and Tarrant Chapter psychiatry residents/fellows

$50 per person for:
All psychiatrists who are not NTSPP chapter dues-paid members
All DPC members who are not NTSPP chapter dues-paid members

RESERVE your spot with number attending by e-mailing  NTSPPrsvp@gmail.com THEN PAY by Tuesday noon, March 23 (please look for directions and confirmation by return e-mail from this address. Set your spamblocker to receive from this address).

To pay online: Please complete the form below.  You will then be directed to a secure website to complete the transaction. All credit card transactions are handled safely and securely via PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay. You do not need a PayPal account to make a payment. No financial information is stored on the ntspp.org web servers.

Membership Status

NTSPP dues-paid member $30.00 UTSW or Tarrant Chapter Resident/Fellow $30.00 non-NTSPP chapter dues paid psychiatrist $50.00 non-NTSPP chapter dues paid DPC member $50.00

Name

To pay by check: Make checks payable to NTSPP and send to arrive before March 23  to Treasurer Margaret Balfour MD PhD, PO Box 192401, Dallas, TX 75219.  Reserve your spot by emailing NTSPPrsvp@gmail.com before noon March 23.

To sponsor a UTSWMC psychiatry resident/fellow, please consider a donation to our Memorial and Honor Fund in honor or memory of a colleague.  Each dinner actually costs NTSPP $50 at this location.  As contributions arrive, we will alert the residents and fellows and tell them of your generosity and the name of the honoree of your donation.

Cancellations: Must be received by NTSPPrsvp@gmail.com 2 days prior to the event (by 12 noon Tuesday, March 23, our location’s deadline) for refund or transfer to another dinner program.

Requests for Late Reservations: NTSPPrsvp@gmail.com

*RSVP and location information have been emailed.    Psychiatrists, PGYs & DPCers:  Please write NTSPPchapter@gmail.com to be added to the e-invite list.

**CME  1 Objectives:
1) The participants will learn of common transference/counter transference dynamics involved in the treatment of this group of individuals.
2) The participants will learn about the treatment expectations that may impede progress toward recovery.
3) The participants will be able to distinguish pathological versus non-pathological resistances/narcissism.

Last minute changes to this program will be posted  at this link on this website and sent to your e-mail address whenever possible.  Please check before attending.  Become a Facebook Fan of NTSPP to have NTSPP, DAWP & Tarrant Chapter info sent directly to your Facebook account.  Psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training:  Send your email address to NTSPPchapter@gmail.com to be added to the basic list.

Dallas Area Women Psychiatrists warmly invite all female psychiatrists and female psychiatrists in training to

2nd Saturday DAWP: April 10 Saturday 10 am to 12 noon
10 am Confidential fellowship and brunch
11 am Program

Speaker: Katie Shea Verplank is Vice President- Financial, Consultant of CHARLES SCHWAB. 972-788-7837

Program: Presentation: Winning Investment Strategy. The Way Smart Money Invests Today.

Hostess: Shashi Motgi MD

RSVP if attending only dawpnews@gmail.com. You should have received location by email.

Day of the event? Any changes? Check the www.ntspp.org website for last-minute changes. If possible, we will email you, but changes WILL be posted on the website.
–

President’s Column from the Winter 2010 NTSPP Newsletter*

            The city of Seattle saved $4 million in hospital, jail and other public services after 95 homeless people moved into one housing project. These 95 people’s visits to hospitals and jails before had cost tax-payers nearly $8.2 million. Other facts concerning the wisdom of providing permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless can be found in Kim Horner’s Dallas Morning News article of Sunday December 13, 2009. This article focuses on Dallas’s empty Plaza Hotel which a developer has been attempting to make available for permanent supportive housing. The state rejected this developer’s application for tax credits in March 2009, most likely because of neighborhood opposition. As a result, the twelve-story Plaza building remains empty and thousands of people in Dallas remain on the streets or in jail or emergency rooms, incurring costs of tens of millions of dollars, not to mention the human misery.

            Politics and bureaucracy seem to overrule humanitarian and common sense solutions. The American Heritage Dictionary defines bureaucracy as “administration of the government chiefly through bureaus or department staff with unelected officials”; “management or administration marked by diffusion of authority among numerous offices and adherence to inflexible rules of operation”; “an administration in which the need or inclination to follow complex procedures impedes effective action”. The dynamics of a bureaucracy can promote self-protection and self-serving behaviors at the expense of the actual mission of the bureaucracy.

            Can we as individual citizens and physicians, or as a small organization such as NTSPP, have some influence? I think we can but it does require patience, time and study of the issues. Should we not as a medical organization speak more loudly in the interest for permanent supportive housing? I hope that we will and I would welcome your thoughts on what NTSPP could do.

              Along similar lines, the possibility of the transfer of authority for mental health services may arrive in north Texas under the aegis of the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority. It is premature to assume that this is a done deal as the authority for mental health services resides in Austin in the Department of State Health Services. Several of us think it is critical that the authority be local, i.e. with the seven north Texas counties served by the NorthStar system. Should this transfer take place, it will be critical that the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority (NTBHA) have sufficient funds and personnel to do the job. NTBHA has a very strong board under the leadership of Judge Michael Chitty and has recently hired and effective executive director, Mr. Alex Smith. In my opinion, an additional positive step would be the creation of a NTBHA medical director’s position. This has existed in the past but not in recent years. Again, the issue of bureaucracy is relevant as the needs of the chronically and persistently mentally ill and addicted in the north Texas area needs to be a focus of concern and not issues of bureaucratic infighting. The Department of State Health Services allocates 38% of its $2,942,000,000 budget to mental health and addiction services. Yet, the Department of State Health Services does not have a psychiatrist with line authority. There is a psychiatrist on board but the position is more that of a consultant than one with authority to design appropriate services. If a psychiatrist or, more appropriately, several psychiatrists were to be included in the Department of State Health Services organization with real authority; it would behoove our professional organizations to consult with such psychiatrists and help assure that bureaucratic procedures do not impede what needs to be done for the individuals for whom the bureaucracy actually has been created to serve. 

            I believe we, as citizens and physicians as well as a relatively small professional organization, can play a constructive role if we are willing to relate to these issues and interact with the entities which carry the responsibility. What is your point of view?

                                                                        Edgar P. Nace MD,  President NTSPP,   NTSPPpresident@gmail.com

*Note:  All psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training  in the Dallas Area for whom we have email addresses  receive the complete newsletter by e-mail.  Didn’t receive one?  Send your name with degree and email address to NTSPPchapter@gmail.com.