1. For Information Contact:
Eve Herold, 703-907-8640 October 31, 2011
press@psych.org Release No. 11-54
Erin Connors, 703-907-8562
econnors@psych.org
American Psychiatric Association Honors Four Innovative Psychiatric Services Programs
ARLINGTON, Va. (Oct. 31, 2011) — The American Psychiatric Association presented four outstanding mental
health programs with APA Gold, Silver, and Bronze Achievement Awards on October 27 at the APA Institute on
Psychiatric Services meeting in San Francisco, CA. Descriptions of the award-winning programs are presented in
the November issue of Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
Gold Achievement Award – Community-based Programs. The Burke Center’s Mental Health Emergency
Center in Lufkin, TX, was honored for bringing comprehensive psychiatric emergency services to rural
communities in 12 counties in eastern Texas. The Burke Center is the first freestanding comprehensive
psychiatric emergency program with psychiatric services performed by telepsychiatrists. The use of
telepsychiatry makes possible a level of services often not available in rural areas. The center provides
psychiatric care that would have previously resulted in inpatient referral and reduces the burden on overcrowded
emergency departments in the region. The center employs a multidisciplinary team including nurses, licensed
counselors, mental health technicians, and a case manager, along with the psychiatrists available via
teleconference.
Gold Achievement Award – Academically/institutionally sponsored programs. The South Cove Community
Health Center in Boston was honored for its Culturally Sensitive Collaborative Treatment Program providing
treatment of depression in a primarily Asian population in primary care. Every patient is screened for depression
using a bilingual screening tool, and actively contacting patients is a key component of the program. Of those
with positive depressions screens, 43 percent entered treatment, a significant increase over the 6.5 percent before
the program. In additional to being a promising way of recognizing and treating major depression in ethnic
minority populations, the program has also served as way of educating the Chinese community about depression.
Silver Achievement Award - The Statewide Telepsychiatry Initiative, a collaboration of the South Carolina
Department of Mental Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, was presented the Silver
Award. The program provides emergency psychiatric care 24 hours a day seven days a week, thereby improving
access to emergency care and reducing overcrowding in emergency departments. The psychiatrists provide
assessment and recommendations and work with the emergency physician to identify community resources for
follow-up care.
Bronze Achievement Award – The bronze award winner is the White Mountain Apache Suicide Surveillance
and Prevention System, a program of the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Whiteriver, AZ, in consultation
with the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. This unique and innovative approach to suicide
includes four components: 1) mandated reporting; 2) in person follow-up; 3) risk assessment and intervention
development; and 4) Apache community mental health specialists.
The winning programs were selected from among 28 applications reviewed by the 2011 Achievement Awards
Committee, chaired by Gerard Gallucci, M.D., M.H.S. Costs of administering the award program were supported
by a grant from Pfizer Inc. View the full articles about the award winning programs and the challenges they have
overcome to provide high-quality care.
The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose physician members specialize in the
diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses, including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at
www.psych.org and www.HealthyMinds.org and for information on APA online publications at http://psychiatryonline.org.
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