Position Statements

Dorothy & Irving Bernstein Reference Center •  Melvin Sabshin Library & Archives

              "Policy documents are approved by the APA Assembly and Board of Trustees… These are …position statements that define APA official policy on specific subjects…"     APA Operations Manual             

Retired position statements (members only)

2009 Abortion and women's reproductive rights
Access to comprehensive psychiatric assessment and integrated treatment
Adolescent substance abuse
Atypical antipsychotic agents (
HTML)
Discriminatory disability insurance coverage
Employment-related psychiatric examinations
HIV and adolescents
HIV and inpatient psychiatric services
HIV and outpatient psychiatric services
HIV antibody testing
HIV/AIDS and confidentiality, disclosure and protection of others
Interference with scientific research and medical care (
HTML)
Marijuana as medicine  (HTML)
Provision of psychotherapy for psychiatric residents
Psychiatrists practicing in managed care: Rights and regulations
Psychotherapy by psychiatrists
Regarding hypnosis
Statement on medication substitution (
HTML)
Tobacco dependence
Use of animals in research
Xenophobia, immigration and mental health
2008 Capital Punishment, Adoption of AMA Statements on (HTML)
Principles for Health Care Reform for Psychiatry (
HTML)
State Mental Health Services (
HTML)
HIV and Crystal Methamphetamine (
HTML)
HIV Infection and People over 50 (
HTML)
2007 Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (HTML)
Insanity defense (
HTML)
Patient access to treatments prescribed by their physicians (
HTML)
Pharmacy benefit management (
HTML)
Psychiatric disability evaluations by psychiatrists (
HTML)
Release of patients’ records to State Medical Boards (
HTML)
Treatment of substance use disorders in the criminal justice system (
HTML)
Use of jails to hold persons with criminal charges who are awaiting civil psychiatric hospital beds (
HTML)
2006 Psychiatric participation in interrogation of detainees (HTML)
Resolution against racism and racial discrimination and their adverse impacts on mental health (
HTML)
2005 Adjudication of youths as adults in the criminal justice system (HTML)
College and university mental health (
HTML)
Death sentences for persons with dementia or traumatic brain injury (
HTML)
Mentally ill prisoners and death row (
HTML)
Publication of findings from clinical trials (
HTML)
Support of legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage (
HTML)
Use of the concept of recovery (
HTML)
2004 Diminished responsibility in capital sentencing (HTML)
HIV infected psychiatrists (HTML)
HIV infection and pregnant women (
HTML)
Mental health, substance abuse and aging: Three resolutions (
HTML)
Occupational HIV exposure: Protocols and protections (
HTML)
Psychiatric implications of HIV/HCV coinfection (
HTML)
Recognition and management of substance use disorders and other mental illnesses comorbid with HIV (
HTML)
Same sex unions (
HTML)
Universal access to health care (
HTML)
2003 Concensus statement on quality of care in nursing homes, Endorsement (HTML)
HIV antibody testing (
HTML)
Needle exchange programs (HTML)
Recognition and management of HIV-related neuropsychiatric findings and associated impairments (
HTML)
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) research (
HTML)
2002 Access to comprehensive psychiatric assessment and integrated treatment (HTML)
Adoption and Co-parenting of Children by Same-sex Couples (
HTML)
Carve-outs and discrimination (
HTML)
Charter on medical professionalism (forthcoming)
Declaration of professional responsibility: Medicine's social contract with humanity (
HTML)
Inclusion of substance-related disorders as psychiatric disorders in any program designed to assure access and quality of care for persons with mental illness (
HTML)
Minimum necessary guidelines for third-party payers for psychiatric treatment (
HTML)
Pharmacy benefit management/Pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) (
HTML)
Reactive attachment disorder (
HTML)
2001 Assessing the risk for violence (HTML)
Care of pregnant and newly delivered women addicts (
HTML)
Core principles for end-of-life care (
HTML)
Discrimination against International Medical Graduates (
HTML)
Doctors against handgun injury (revised) (
HTML)
Domestic violence (
HTML)
Juvenile death sentences (
HTML)
Precepts of paliative care (
HTML)
Prevention of violence (
HTML)
2000 Moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States (HTML)
Medical Necessity Definition (
HTML)
Therapies focused on Memories of childhood physical and sexual abuse  (
HTML)
Preventing violence in America: A commitment from health professionals (
HTML)
Sexual orientation, Therapies focused on attempts to change (reparative or conversion therapies) (
HTML)
Violence in America can and must be prevented: A call for action from medicine, nursing, and public health (
HTML)
1999 Attending psychiatrists in charge of hospitalized psychiatric patients (HTML)
Psychotherapy and managed care (HTML)
1998 Abuse and misuse of psychiatry, Identification of (HTML)
Sexual harassment litigation, Misuse of psychiatric examinations and disclosure of psychiatric records in (HTML)
Sexual orientation, Psychiatric treatment and (
HTML)
1997 Bill of rights: principles for the provision of mental health and substance abuse treatment services (HTML)
Codification of medical evaluation and management services in psychotherapy (
HTML)
Confidentiality of computerized records (
HTML)
Consistent treatment of all applicants for State Medical Licensure (
HTML)
Discrimination against person with previous psychiatric treatment (
HTML)
Ensuring access to an appropriate utilization of psychiatric services for the elderly (
HTML)
Relationship between treatment and self help (
HTML)
Religious persecution and genocide (
HTML)
Vision, Mission, Values and Goals of the Association (
HTML)
 
1996 Legal proceedings and access to psychiatric care for juvenile offenders (HTML)
Newborn infant adoptions (
HTML)
1995 Any willing physician statement (HTML)
Ethical use of telemedicine (
HTML)
Guidelines for handling the transfer of provider networks (
HTML)
Medical psychotherapy (HTML)
Patient-Physician Covenant (
HTML)
Substance related disorders (HTML)
Training needs in addiction psychiatry (
HTML)
1994 Abuse and misuse of psychiatry (HTML)
Elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation (
HTML)
Psychiatrists from underrepresented groups in leadership roles (HTML)
Resolution opposing any restriction on the number of IMG's entering graduate medical training (
HTML)
Use of psychiatric institutions for the commitment of political dissenters (
HTML)
1993 Domestic violence against women (HTML)
Driving ability, Role of psychiatrists in assessing (
HTML)
Homicide prevention and gun control (
HTML)
Human rights abuses, Denial of (
HTML)
Resolution condemning the role of Psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic in human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia (
HTML)
TV violence (HTML)
1992 AIDS policy: HIV and discrimination (HTML)
Bias-related incidents (HTML)
Homosexuality (
HTML)
Human rights (
HTML)
Sexual harassment (
HTML)
1991 Child abuse and neglect by adults (HTML)
Day care for preschool children (
HTML)
Homosexuality and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (
HTML)
Medical use of psychotherapeutic medications in the nursing home (
HTML)
Peer review of expert testimony (
HTML)
Reproductive rights, APA actions on (
HTML)
Right to privacy (Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues) (
HTML)
1990 Homosexuality and the armed services (HTML)
School-based health clinics (
HTML)
Use of stigma as a political tactic (
HTML)
1989 Corporal punishment in schools (HTML)
Psychiatric hospitalization of children and adolescents (
HTML)
1988 Psychiatric services in jails and prisons (HTML)
Statement on discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation (
HTML)
 
1985 Joint resolution against torture (HTML)
Patient-Physician Covenant (
HTML)
1984 Employment-related psychiatric examinations (HTML)
Homosexual issues concerning the military (
HTML)
1980 Confidentiality of medical records: physician right to privacy concerning his/her own health records (HTML)
Separation of children and adolescents from adult patients in state mental hospitals (
HTML)
Substance abuse (
HTML)
Use of addictive medications with terminally ill patients (
HTML)
1978 Active treatment (HTML)
Chronic mental patient, A call to action for the (
HTML)
1977 Abortion (HTML)
Affirmative action (
HTML)
Discrimination against persons with previous psychiatric treatment (
HTML
1976 Support for psychiatric research (HTML)
1975 Desegregation of hospitals for the mentally ill and retarded (HTML)
Minority psychiatrists, training of (
HTML)
 
1974 Long-term mental hospital facilities, the need to maintain (HTML
1973 Antisubstitution laws and regulations (HTML)
Family planning (
HTML)
Homosexuality and civil rights (
HTML)
 
1971 Political dissenters, Use of psychiatric institutions for the commitment of (HTML)
1970 Hospital privileges for psychologists (HTML)
1969 Transcultural psychiatry, Delineation of as a specialized field of study (HTML)
1968 Drugs, generic versus proprietary (HTML)

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