APA Advocacy Finds Success by Staying Measured

When it comes to advocacy, APA has scored some significant victories over the past year while also pushing back against the Trump administration when called for. Those were some of the takeaways from yesterday’s CEO Listening Session on Advocacy. Joining CEO and Medical Director Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A., for this session were outgoing and incoming APA Presidents Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera, M.D., and Mark Rappaport, M.D., as well as members of APA’s Advocacy, Policy, and Practice Advancement team.

This session was the first of five planned listening sessions during the Annual Meeting where members can learn what APA is doing for them and provide feedback on what more they would like. The others are:

• Resident and Fellow Listening Session: May 17, 3:45 p.m.
• Hispanic Psychiatrist Listening Session: May 18, 8:30 a.m.
• Listening Session on the APA Strategic Plan: May 18, 3:45 p.m., and May 19, 3:45 p.m.

Advocacy, Not Activism

Kicking off the session, Wills said that APA put out more public statements in 2025 than the previous three years combined—yet some members felt APA still wasn’t being forceful or frequent enough in its responses to Trump administration health policy actions. Wills noted that the organization has made a strategic choice to pursue a path of advocacy—not activism—based on a set of guiding principles. Among these are keeping public responses focused on psychiatry and mental health, and attacking positions and not people using science- and evidence-based medicine. “Our personal beliefs may differ from the beliefs we have to advocate as a fiduciary organization,” Wills said.

Miskimen Rivera echoed that sentiment when talking about her role as “advocate-in-chief” while serving as APA president. Because the Trump administration’s many actions and statements made could be seen as a deliberate effort to destabilize opponents, she said, APA needed to develop thoughtful guiding principles to stay steady in a turbulent time.

“Health advocacy is part of the professional responsibility of a physician,” Miskimen Rivera said, adding that physicians often advocate on behalf of patients, communities, and populations who can’t advocate for themselves. As such, advocacy “is not an opportunity to express personal political beliefs.”

Notching Victories

Maintaining a focus on core, bipartisan issues affecting psychiatric practice and patient care may not be glamorous, but the process has been effective, according to Mikael Troubh, associate vice president of government relations.

Among APA’s notable victories this past year was avoiding any of the proposed significant cuts to mental health research or services when the final appropriations bill was passed in February. That bill also extended key telemental health flexibilities and mandated that Medicare Advantage plans verify that their provider networks regularly weed out “ghost” providers.

APA also worked toward passage of the SUPPORT Act, which ensures continued federal support for several substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery services through 2030. And 2025 saw the formation of a bipartisan Mental Health Caucus as part of the 119th Congress, with APA being present at the launch event.

Looking ahead, APA is focused on the 2026-2027 federal appropriations cycle, which recently kicked off with President Donald Trump’s proposed budget plan—which once again is calling for significant cuts to mental health funding and a reorganization of the organizations that oversee this funding.

To learn more about APA’s advocacy efforts and find ways to get involved, visit the “Advocacy & APAPAC” homepage. ■