December 2009

Tuesday May 19th 2009,  San Francisco, CA

NOTE: This draft of the 2009 10^th HAPA Annual Meeting Minutes was approved by the HAPA executive committee and were ratified at the 11th HAPA Annual Meeting on May 25th 2010 in New Orleans, LA

Members Present: Drs. Cassimatis, Cardasis, Markos Emmanouel, Katina Matthews-Ferrarri, Fouras, Isabella Kanellopoulou, Lymberis, Papas, Petrides, Vidalis,  Zaphiropoulos as well as Mrs. Stella Kaliora and Athena Papas.

Members Unable to attend: Drs. Georgopoulos, Stratas, Latoussakis Alexopoulos, Agalianos, Christodoulou (Immediate Past President HPA), Lyketsos, Cardasis, Kalogerakis, Papastrat, Papakostas and Zervas.

Invited Guests: HAPA appreciates the presence of APA President Nada Stotland, MD and Drs. Leah Dickstein, Carol Bernstein who were able to briefly come to our meeting.

Invited Guest Professor J.K.Trivedi of India send his regrets as he was unable to attend.

(1) Introductions

HAPA President Dr Cassimatis opened the meeting at 7:10 PM. He welcomed our members, our guests and our speaker Professor Nemeroff. He noted that this is his first meeting as HAPA President. He noted that we are celebrating our organization’s ten year birthday. HAPA is a small all volunteer organization but it has made considerable contribution by bridging the gap between Hellenic psychiatrists of the US with our colleagues in Greece and in the Diaspora. This anniversary meeting was hoped to be very well attended but the scare about the “swine flu” coupled with more recent global terrorist attacks has made flying to the US problematic for many in Greece and elsewhere. He stressed that HAPA will continue thru these hard times thanks to the committed work of the dedicated members of the HAPA executive committee and expressed his appreciation for their service to HAPA. Among the goals of his presidency  membership development is central.

Dr. Cassimatis announced that he had accepted, with regret, the resignation, for personal reasons, of HAPA President-Elect Vassilios Latoussakis, MD, effective at the conclusion of this meeting. He noted that Dr Latoussakis is a founding member of HAPA who served HAPA in a leadership position with devotion and distinction. He will continue as a HAPA member.

(2) HAPA 2008 Annual Meeting Minutes

Dr Lymberis presented the minutes of the 2008 HAPA Annual Meeting. The meeting was  in San Diego, CA. The Minutes were posted on the HAPA Website and copies were provided at the meeting. They were approved as written.

(3) HAPA Treasurer’s Report

Dr Papas will submit his report for the 2008 and 2009 annual meeting expenses and the dues income for 2008 and 2009.

Dr. Lymberis noted that since 2002 HAPA has had no outside financial support. HAPA is a small APA Affiliate member organization that is entirely supported by member dues and by the generosity of all the HAPA members who made and continue to make voluntary contributions. Specifically, HAPA gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of Drs. Nicolas Stratas and Katina Matthews-Ferrari. Each has contributed $500.00 to HAPA.

Dr. Lymberis noted that since 2007 the cost for dinner meetings has increased dramatically because there is a requirement for a minimum of 25 dinners for a dinner meeting reservation. Since there is no way to predict that we will have 25 or more members attending, HAPA ends up having to pay the full cost of the reservation. Clearly our dues of $50.00 cannot cover our expenses. HAPA had a deficit in 2008. That deficit was covered by a special contribution of $100.00 by each of your HAPA officers. It is anticipated that HAPA will again have a deficit in 2009.

All HAPA work is done by email. HAPA conference calls are at no cost to HAPA because of the generocity of our HAPA Presidents. Special THANKS go to both Drs. Petrides and Cassimatis who personally are arranging the monthly HAPA executive committee conference calls.

Currently, the HAPA Annual dinner meeting is the main expense of HAPA. The publication of the HAPA Newsletter was discontinued in 2005 due to luck of a funding source. In addition we had to discontinue the offering of CME credits because of the costs involved. Given our deficits the cost of the dinners at the Annual meetings will be re evaluated and a decision will be made about continuing this in the future.

The updating of the HAPA website is an essential future project because all HAPA correspondence is by email.  An updated website will help us further improve communications and dues collection. The website was originally donated by Dr. Lymberis in 1999 at the time of the founding of HAPA. Clearly, it now needs to be updated. Hopefully it will be updated by the 2010 HAPA Annual meeting. Finally, we are minimizing mailing costs, trying to keep them to a bare minimum, by moving all communications to the web with an updated HAPA website. Please make sure you give us your email.

(4) Updates on Psychiatry from Greece

I) Report by Professor Christodoulou

Professor Christodoulou is one of the founding members of HAPA. He has been devoted to the growth of HAPA and been present at all of the past HAPA meetings. He and his lovely wife Gabriella were not able to attend this year. He remains a very active member of the HAPA leadership serving as a crucial link for HAPA with both Greek and Europian psychiatric organizations as well as the WPA thru his various leadership positions in national and international psychiatric organizations.

Professor Christodoulou was the Chair of the Program Committee of the highly successful 20th Pan-Hellenic Psychiatric Congress that took place in Crete on 5/14/08 to 5/18/08. HAPA actively participated as cosponsor in this as well as in past Pan Hellenic Congresses.  Our President Dr. Cassimatis as well as Drs. Petrides and Lymberis gave individual presentations and participated in the  HAPA sponsored panel on “Post Graduate Psychiatric Education in the US”. The next Congress is scheduled for 2011. HAPA hopes again be an active participant

Professor Christodoulou has organized several meetings in Greece for the rest of 2009: a) the World Congress of Mental Health which is sponsored by the World Federation of Mental Health. This meeting will be held in Athens in September 2009 (9/02-9/06) For more information check their website: www.wmhc2009.com, b) the Second Congress of Eastern Europe will be held in Moscow, Russia in October 2009 (10/27 –10/30)

For more information check their website:  www.paeeb2009moscow.ru. These are very interesting meetings. HAPA is a cosponsor and members are encouraged to attend.

II) Report by Dr. Vidalis

Dr. Vidalis has also been a devoted, founding member of HAPA. He is HAPA’s link with the psychiatrists in Thessaloniki and the north of Greece.  His presence at our Anniversary meeting was especially appreciated since he was the only HAPA member who was able to come from Greece this year.

Dr. Vidalis is a distinguished leader in the Pan Hellenic Hospital Psychiatry organization. He is the organizer of many highly successful meetings for this group and the editor of the Journal. This year their meeting is taking place in the island of Corfu in late May 2009. HAPA is a cosponsor of that meeting as well of his yearly “Seasons of Psychiatry” psychiatric meetings. These meetings usually take place in beautiful areas in Greece or in other Mediterranean countries. For more detailed information on current and future meetings see their website: www.4sp.gr.

At the 2008 HAPA Annual meeting, Dr. Vidalis had proposed the establishment of the office of HAPA Co-Chair from Greece or VP from Greece. In his view such an office is needed to help promote interest in HAPA among Greek psychiatrists by providing a more direct leadership stake in the organization. It was pointed out that presently all three of the HAPA Councilors are from Greece and that all offices of the HAPA leadership (including President Elect) are open to all HAPA members including Greek psychiatrists.

The HAPA Executive committee reviewed the HAPA By-Laws and drafted, in consultation with Dr. Vidalis, an Amendment. That amendment was presented at this meeting. However, given the absence of any other members from Greece the issue was tabled for a future meeting when more Greek HAPA members would be present.

(5) HAPA Scientific Program

Dr Papas introduced our presenter Charles B. Nemeroff, MD  Professor of Psychiatry at Emory. He made a very scholarly detailed presentation on Neuroscience and psychopharmacology under the title: “Psychopharmacology in the 21^st Century: Towards Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry”.  An open active discussion followed his presentation.

(6) Other Business:

There was no new business

(7) Adjournment

Dr Cassimatis thanked our speaker and all members for their participation. He invited all to the 2010 HAPA meeting. He adjourned the meeting at 10:15PM

The next HAPA Annual Meeting will take place in New Orleans, LA in May 2010 in connection with the APA 2010 Annual Meeting.

Respectfully Submitted

Maria T. Lymberis, MD

HAPA Founder & Past President