Hope, Pride, and Defiance at Opening Session

Speaking at the Opening Session yesterday morning, APA leaders sounded notes of hope, pride, and defiance as they shared an optimistic vision for the future of psychiatry, celebrated APA’s accomplishments, and reiterated the profession’s commitment to evidence-based mental health care. Below are edited excerpts from their remarks:

MARKETA M. WILLS, M.D., M.B.A., CEO and Medical Director: “We gather as a profession at a very consequential moment, a moment that asks us all to dig deep and elevate; a moment that demands clarity, conviction, and purpose. Because, as we all know, this is not an easy time in our world. It’s not a straightforward time in medicine. Across communities, across health systems, and across the globe, people are carrying enormous burdens. They’re living with uncertainty, distress, disconnection, trauma, loss, and fear. People live each day searching for stability in systems that often feel strained. They seek out trust in a culture that can feel fragmented, always striving for healing, and that is where we, the field of psychiatry, enter.

“We are the physicians who know what it means to meet suffering directly, face to face. We know how to listen for what is spoken and for what is unspoken. We know that mental health is not peripheral to human well-being but rather central to it in every part of the world. Here in the United States, that is why this moment calls for leadership from our field—not someday, not the future, but now. And that’s why our beloved APA is moving forward with steady intention.

“And let me be clear: APA is not simply planning. We are building. We’re becoming more agile, more responsive. We’re creating a stronger foundation for the future, one that can support innovation and expand our influence at a time when our voice is urgently needed. This is the work that is driving our beloved organization going forward, and it’s not always glamorous. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes it requires us to rethink old assumptions, revise familiar structures, and make decisions that prepare us for a different future than the one we inherited. But that, of course, is leadership. Leadership is not clinging to comfort when the moment calls for change. Leadership is a willingness to ask what this moment demands and then answer it with honesty, with humility, with discipline, and with action.

“In recent days, when national conversations have taken place without our voice on matters of patients and psychiatry, it becomes clear once again why our role as medical leaders truly matters. When mental health treatment is discussed in ways that oversimplify the complexity of care, stigmatize psychiatric treatment, or risk creating confusion for patients and families, APA must speak with clarity. We must be clear that science and evidence come first, and we must be clear that psychiatric care is medical care grounded in rigorous training, clinical judgment, shared decision making, and the best available evidence. We will engage on supporting rigorous research and training, but we will never support governmental interference with the practice of medicine.

“This is what medical leadership looks like. It is steady, it is principled, it is bold, and rooted in the values that guide this association. Patients first, science and evidence foremost, and an unwavering commitment to improving lives.”

THERESA M. MISKIMEN RIVERA, M.D., 2025-2026 President, APA Board of Trustees: “When I was running for president a couple of years back, I spoke about a defining challenge facing our profession: the psychiatric workforce crisis. I emphasized at that time that rising demand, workforce shortages, administrative burdens, and rapid changes in the delivery of care were unsustainable. I stressed the need for a cohesive, actionable, multiyear strategy to create meaningful and lasting change. Today, I want to come full circle, because what was once a vision is now a plan—and, critically, it is now action.

“Over this past year, together we have taken a critical step forward with the adoption of the Psychiatry 2030 Strategic Plan Framework. This strategic plan is not static document. It is a living roadmap, grounded in four essential questions: Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How will we get there? And how will we measure progress? That last question, measurement is key, because our focus must be on action and outcomes. We are building an APA that is more responsive, more transparent, and more accountable—an APA that supports psychiatrists as medical leaders and ensures that every patient has access to evidence-based mental health care.

“These efforts are driving meaningful change. We saw this very recently in our collective advocacy efforts when proposed cuts to critical mental health SAMHSA grants totaling $2 billion were reversed in response to a strong, interorganizational, unified response—and this happened within 24 hours. It still gives me chills, because this is what happens when we act together.

“We must recognize that advocacy is not optional, it is essential. It must be both strategic and sustained, and it also cannot be reactive but embedded into how we work as an organization. We are advancing one shared goal, protecting access to improving the lives of the patients and communities that we serve. It is also means that we have to defend science itself, because in a time of misinformation and polarization, our responsibility is not only to care for our patients but to uphold evidence, protect standards of care, and ensure that public policy reflects clinical reality rather than ideology.”

MARK RAPAPORT, M.D., 2026-2027 President, APA Board of Trustees: “The APA needs you. We need your feedback about the [in-development] Diagnostic and Scientific Manual. We need your feedback in order to improve our Annual Meeting to better meet the needs of our members. We need your feedback because we’re going to be doing a whole bunch of tests around bidirectional communication.

“We also need your engagement. The only way we’re going to tackle [issues such as] scope creep is if we hear from our members about episodes of scope creep and incidents that are occurring in your community. We need to hear from you about ghost panels and whether you’ve been placed on a panel that you didn’t even know about. We also need to hear from you by joining and being part of our councils, by joining and being part of our committees. We’ve developed a micro-volunteering program, so young people can gain the skills and the experiences that allow them to participate in committees and councils as we go forward.

“As you heard from Theresa, advocacy is critical. We need your advocacy in your cities, in your health systems, in your counties, in your states, and we need your advocacy nationally. Together, we can change the dialogue: Mental health is an investment, it’s not a cost.” ■