As CPNP's fiscal year and my term as president wind down, it's impossible not to reflect on this past year's events. It has been a distinct honor and privilege to serve as president of our organization. Our engaged membership, the other volunteer leaders, and the CPNP Staff make that task seem almost easy. With the help of all of those people, CPNP has moved forward in a number of arenas during the past year. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the significant developments and accomplishments from the last year.This year started with a concerted initiative in the legislative affairs arena. Starting with numerous conversations and dialogue at the 2012 Town Hall Meeting in Tampa, Florida, momentum has been gained in our efforts to achieve provider status and eventual reimbursement for pharmacists' direct patient care services. This began with contracting with Carey Potter as a Government Affairs Consultant and the formation of the Comprehensive Medication Management Reimbursement (CMMR) work group. The efforts of that group led to CPNP's endorsement of Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) as a practice model for psychiatric pharmacy. Along with that endorsement came an organizational commitment to present ongoing education about this practice model to our membership and to partner with other organizations to promote CMM. Subsequently, ACCP announced their legislative initiative to seek provider recognition for qualified clinical pharmacists who provide direct patient care services. After careful consideration, CPNP decided to partner with ACCP in this effort. Activities to seek legislative support have begun. Our CMMR work group and our legislative committee have now been merged into a Government Affairs Council (GAC) with responsibility for coordinating our efforts in seeking provider recognition as well as other legislative and government affairs activities. These other activities involve a strong CPNP presence on the Pharmacy Stakeholders group and advisory groups related to Long-Term Care among others.CPNP's online, open-access journal, The Mental Health Clinician (MHC) has made impressive progress and achieved notable growth. MHC now has an ISSN, a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication, which allows for worldwide identification of periodicals. The editorial board for MHC has grown. Perhaps most significantly, MHC now contains significant (and growing) peer-reviewed content. Our members and others now have an additional avenue in which to publish scholarly works and research. The readership of MHC, based on website “hits”, is growing; and MHC is clearly drawing attention to the CPNP website.CPNP's membership has grown and there are significant opportunities for members to be involved in our organization. Throughout the year, there are literally hundreds of opportunities for individual members to contribute the success of CPNP. These include committee positions, membership on our three editorial boards, acting as authors or peer reviewers for MHC submissions and recertification products, helping field test and identify cutoff scores for recertification product examinations, and serving in various other ad hoc volunteer positions. Our recent 16th Annual Meeting is an example of the important role member involvement plays. Without the volunteer efforts of the Programming Committee, the Recertification Editorial Board, and our members who were Roundtable Facilitators and award judges, exciting, successful meetings like that would not be possible. CPNP members who served as speakers also played a significant role in the Annual Meeting's success. There is also growth in the student membership of CPNP. The number of student chapters has increased to nine. These members represent the future of our organization.As I described in an earlier presidential letter, CPNP has begun the process of developing a new strategic plan. Significant effort went into the initiation of this process in January at a retreat meeting. We now have workgroups actively developing the objectives that will drive achievement of the strategic goals of this new plan. That process will be ongoing through the summer and fall and will result in a new plan enabling CPNP to be positioned to take advantage of opportunities and leverage its resources including our members who are applying their skills and efforts through CPNP to improve the care of those affected by mental and neurologic illnesses.In closing, I thank all of the membership for the support and enthusiasm you bring to our organization. It has made my year as president rewarding and enjoyable. At the end of June, Dr. Julie Dopheide will assume the presidency of CPNP. I know that she too will benefit from your ongoing support and enthusiasm. I will, of course, continue to be involved as immediate past-president. I know that Dr. Dopheide will lead us through another great and successful year.Thank you all for a great year. Be well.Rex Lott
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