Jeffrey Akaka MD for Area VII Trustee

• President
  Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association
• Associate Clinical Professor
  University of Hawaii Dept. of Psychiatry
• Medical Director
  Diamond Head Community Mental Health Center
• Past Speaker of the Assembly of the APA
• Past Vice Chair Area VII Council
• APA-AMA Delegation
  Delegate of the American Psychiatric Association
• Board of Directors APAPAC
• Five Time Hawaii Ironman Triathlete
• View Entire CV

Position Statement

Please vote for me, Jeffrey Akaka, MD, DFAPA, for Area 7 Trustee.

The future of the APA lies in Area 7. From Denali to Denver, Calgary to the Grand Canyon, Area 7 has some of the most beautiful locations and opportunities in which to live and work in North America, if not on earth. It also bears some of the greatest burdens of providing psychiatric care in America. As a clinical psychiatrist, carrying a full load of patients at my community mental health center and serving as it's Medical Director (including training medical students and residents there as a Department of Psychiatry voluntary clinical faculty member), I understand what many of you are going through in fighting for the reimbursements you are denied, being kept on hold waiting for a clerk to approve the decisions you spent over a decade learning to make, or having to spend more and more time getting forms signed rather than focusing on your patients psychiatric distress. I deal with that every day. Vast physical distances between many of us and our patients exacerbate access problems. For decades, our District Branches have been a favorite target of crash course prescribing proponents. Low numbers of us per square mile in our largely rural states and provinces can lead to a sense of too much to do among too few of us, overtaxation, and isolation. This needs to be changed.

A good leader is someone who listens to you, envisions what is most important to be preserved, or changed, develops a plan of action, decides how to best utilize limited resources to accomplish it, and then takes action. I have been such a leader of yours from my election as an Alternate Delegate to the Assembly in 1992, to becoming the Area 7 Dep Rep in 2003 and then Speaker of the Assembly from 2007-2008. (Please see my extended CV.) Through it all I have been a leader of vision, integrity and tenacity. I walk the talk. I get things done.

While Speaker of the APA I had the extraordinary privilege of working with then APA President Carolyn Robinowitz, MD. Together we relentlessly advocated for our patients and our profession through every venue possible, including as delegates to the AMA and to the Congress of the United States. We spent countless hours in budgetary meetings, making the kinds of tough choices necessary to ensure financial sustainability in view of our limited financial resources. I worked to insure transparency of the DSM-V process, and that the scientists and the process were free from any perception of industry bias. I mentored talented colleagues into leadership positions. I also arranged, for the first time known, that not only a sitting U.S. Congressman, but a sitting U.S. Senator, both supporters of Parity, personally addressed the Assembly of the APA.

As Vice Chair of APAPAC, not only did I work to develop an energetic and effective advocacy policy, but I personally implemented it by meeting with members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to lobby for parity, liability reform, and fixing the SGR. As a senior member of the APA-AMA delegation, I organized meetings between our Psychiatrists, elected officials of Hawaii including the Governor, and the leadership of the AMA. Subsequently, the number of our psychiatrists elected or appointed into leadership positions in the AMA increased, our influence into the policies of the AMA including parity increased, and crash course prescribing legislation was relentlessly defeated.

13 years ago I launched the effort to bring the Annual Meeting to Hawaii, in part to welcome you, not only to the meeting, but to the restorative power of the Aloha State. I arranged for 5 elected officials to participate in our meeting. Governor Neil Abercrombie presented to the Assembly his proclamation declaring May 2011 "American Psychiatric Association Month,"; House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro (author of a civil union law that the governor signed) was the discussant on a 3 hour symposium on Gay Marriage; House Health Chair Ryan Yamane (who did not pass any crash course prescribing bills out of his committee) gave the Assembly a legislative certificate, was the discussant on a workshop on scope of practice, and was given a Legislator of the Year Award by the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association; Representative Jerry Chang and Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland accepted awards of appreciation at the Assembly Reception. I organized a golf tournament to benefit both the American Psychiatric Foundation and the Waipahu Aloha Club (a clubhouse for people recovering from Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder.) I set up a lunch for the APA Alliance.

Many of you told me it was the best APA meeting you had ever attended, largely because of your welcome by the people here.

Vision. Integrity. Tenacity. These are the qualities I employ to get jobs done. Please vote for me, Jeffrey Akaka, MD, so that I can bring them to the office of Area 7 Trustee. Thank you.

Jeffrey Akaka, MD

Please don't hesitate to contact me via email or phone through my listings in the APA Members Corner Members Directory.