ACPN President Responds to Pothier\'s Commentary

ACPN President Responds to Pothier ’s Comrnentaru

T h a n k you for the opportunity to comment upon and update Pat Pothier’s article, ”Twenty Years: A Great Beginning.” Pother is an esteemed colleague and longtime advocate for the specialty of child and adolescent psychiatric/ mental health nursing. ACPN has experienced much progress and activity since Pothier’s address at the 1991 ACPN National conference. ACPN activity. ACPN is aware of the need to establish regions in the West, Southwest, and rural areas. Recent activities of ACPN suggest further national development is occurring beyond traditional sites. The 1992 ACPN national conference was held in Dallas, Texas, and the 1993 ACPN National Conference will be held in Birmingham, Alabama. Currently, there are two regions in California and new regions are forming in Alaska, mode Island, Pennsylvania Tri-State Area, and Florida. ACPN has a national business office and an 800 telephone number, (800) 352-2441. Our newsletter is published three times a year and is lstributed to members and other organizations. The Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing is published four times a year. These activities reflect ACPN’s desire to be sensitive to the needs of its members. AII ACT” national counal members have the opportunity to host national conferences and national council midyear meetings.Each national counal member has the opportunity to partxipate in telephone conference calls. The latter are scheduled for the convenience of all council members. ACPN’s growing sophx3mtionwith conferenceplanrung includes contracting outside agenaes for d a k d support services and estabhshmg an ad hoc national conference planning committee to standardm conference planrung. These developments may provide the support necessary for rwons to reachdedsionsrelated to hosting nationalconfenmces. Research. ACPN values research and acknowledges the complexity of the issue. There is a paucity of doctorally prepared nurse researchers in this specialty. It has only been in the recent past that NIMH has focused on child and adolescent mental disorders. ACPN has worked to promote the research interests of the specialty at the national level. Outcomes of this activity include the 1991 NIMH-sponsored Child and Adolescent Psychiatric 50

Nursing Graduate Education Workshop in Indianapolis; the NIMH 1992 Third State of The Art Conference of Psychiatric Nursing: Child and Adolescent Mental Heath: Building The Base for Research and Practice; and the 1992 NIMH-sponsored Technical Assistance Workshops, which will include the mentoring of 8-15 child and ad& lescent psychiatric nurse researchers. Other accomplishments of ACPN’s research initiative include the first poster session held at the 1991 National Conference, the estabhhment of the Robert 0. Gilbert trust fund for purposes of securing research money, and a strategic plan that includes attention to research. Cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity. Cultural, ethnic and gender diversity issues were on the agenda at the 1991 NIMH Workshop on Graduate Education in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing. ACPN’s strategc plan includes attention to these concerns. Other issues. Pothier spoke to the need for ACPN to reconnect with nursing,build relationships with other organizations, and consider a symbolic name change. These issues are being addressed by ACPN. In 1992, ACPN joined the Nursing Organization Liaison Forum (NOLF). Membership in NOW provides numerous opportunities for ACPN to interface with other national nursing organizations. ACl” is on record as one of the first of 60 nursing organizationsto endorse Nursing’s Agenda for Health Care Reform. Dunng National Nurses Week in May 1992, the president of ACPN attended the following activities: the ddcation of ANAs new Washington,DC,headquarten; a meeting of endorsing organizations of Nursing’s Agenda for Health Care Reform; and an interdisciplinary conference on healthcarereform. As a member of the Coalition of Psychiatric Nursing Organizations (COPNO), ACPN has been involved with the production of a white paper on mental health issues related to Nursing’s Agenda for Health Care Reform. ACPN contributed information related to the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and affected families,including those experiencing mental illness. Other interdisciplinary relationship-buddingopportunities occur as a result of ACPN’s membership in The National Mental Health Leadership Forum (NMHLF), a JCPNVol. 5, No.4, October - December, 1992