Minutes of the HAPA Third Annual Meeting
May 21 2002 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Members Present:
Drs. Lymberis, Lyketsos, Christodoulou, Zaphiropoulos, Petrides,
Agallianos,Dunkas, Mavromatis, Togias, Pandelidis, Papadimitriou,
Papakostas.Papastrat, Sambunaris, Spanos, Vidalis, Syngelakis Oikonomou,
Latoussakis, Tzevelikos,
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM by Maria T Lymberis, MD HAPA President who welcomed everyone, especially our members from Greece and the President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association and his wife, Dr. & Mrs. Christodoulou.
(1) Minutes of the HAPA Second Annual Meeting
Dr. Lymberis noted that the minutes of the 2001 HAPA meeting are in the January ’02 issue. Upon their approval today, these minutes will also be published on our HAPA Newsletter and website.
ACTION: Motion to approve the 5/02 HAPA minutes was moved and seconded. The minutes were approved as written
(2) President’s Report
Dr. Lymberis noted that the HAPA Newsletter was issued in January 2002 due to numerous unexpected problems, including the 9/11/01 tragedy. It is hoped that there would be another HAPA Newsletter prior to the 2003 Annual Meeting. She urged that everyone should consider items for submission for our HAPA Newsletter. She suggested that an annual report from the Hellenic Psychiatric Association should be a regular feature of our newsletter. She urged our HAPA members from Greece to submit such a report for the next issue of the HAPA Newsletter.
(3) HAPA Treasurer’s Report
Dr. Lymberis noted that our Treasurer regrets that she is unable to be present, but assured that she will be present with her new baby next year in San Francisco. Dr. Wang submitted her written report, dated 5/21/02.
The report stated HAPA’s financial condition from 5/1/01 through 4/30/02.
Income totaled $7,035.95
Expenses totaled $3,195.50
HAPA’s balance from 2000-5/01 $3,195.50
HAPA’s balance as of 4/30/01 $11,091.24
It was noted that Dr. Lymberis was unable to obtain any financial support for HAPA for our 2002 meeting. She urged that HAPA members and officers help in the effort to obtain educational funding for our meetings from pharmaceutical companies for 2003.
(4) HAPA Membership Committee
(5) HAPA Membership Chair, Dr. Cardasis noted that he has a full record of HAPA members on his computer. He has been working with our Treasurer, Dr. Wang, very hard to keep our membership lists current. Dr. Lymberis will obtain from APA names of all Greek speaking APA members for our annual 2002-2003 membership drive.
Dr. Cardasis provided a verbal report noting that HAPA membership is close to 100 members but there is a problem in that not all members renew their membership annually. Dues letter is supposed to be sent annually by the HAPA President in the late summer, early fall. Most members pay their dues at the Annual Meeting. We must all make every effort to increase our membership
(6) HAPA Website
Dr. Lymberis noted that we need to update our website and submitted an estimate of $3,000 from our current host master, Vista View Imagery.
ACTION: Moved and seconded to approve the cost of $3,000. for the HAPA website. Motion was approved unanimously.
(7) Report on the 17th Pan-Hellenic Congress of April 2002 in Halkidiki, Greece
Dr. Lymberis attended the 17th Pan-Hellenic Psychiatric Congress as the HAPA President and Founder. She reported that she was greatly impressed with the scientific content of the meeting and the enthusiasm and commitment of the Greek psychiatrists to patient care. She strongly urged that HAPA actively promote the upcoming 18th Pan-Hellenic Psychiatric Congress of 2004.
(8) Hellenic Psychiatric Association’s President and Report
Dr. Christodoulou expressed his appreciation for HAPA’s continued support of HPA and reported on a number of scientific activities and projects that the organization is pursuing in Greece and abroad. He and a number of HPA members are also very active in the World Psychiatric Association. He emphasized his appreciation for HAPA’s interest in participating in the Pan-Hellenic Psychiatric Congress.
(9) Installation of the New HAPA President
Dr Lymberis expressed her deep gratitude to the members of the original HAPA Steering Committee for helping make the dream of establishing HAPA come true. She especially thanked Dr Christodoulou for his enthusiastic support of HAPA . She noted that as her term of office is now coming to a close, HAPA at age three years has proven to be a solid bridge for our fellow psychiatrists in Greece and through out the Greek diaspora. At our scientific meetings we had presentations from distinguished Greek psychiatrists from Greece, Australia, England as well as the US.. We are attracting young psychiatrists in training as members. They are providing vitality and represent the future leaders of our profession.. HAPA is off on a solid footing and growing.. She emphasized that none of this would be possible without the commitment of the HAPA officers and committee members. She noted that their support and work on behalf of HAPA during these years made it all possible.
Dr. Lymberis introduced Dr. Lyketsos as the next HAPA President. Dr. Lyketsos’ term of office starts at the conclusion of the 2002 Annual Meeting. Dr. Lymberis expressed her appreciation for Dr. Lyketsos’ support in the early efforts to establish HAPA. His assuming the HAPA Presidency means that “”HAPA is here to stay and it is making roots””. Dr. Lyketsos has a distinguished career in American Academic Psychiatry circles and is one of the up and coming young APA leaders. Dr. Lymberis noted her confidence in the future of HAPA as she passed on the HAPA Presidency to Dr. Lyketsos.
Dr. Lyketsos expressed his appreciation to Dr. Lymberis for her vision in establishing and maintaining HAPA. “”Dr. Lymberis is the soul of HAPA.”” “”She has single-handedly run the organization todate, doing the lion’s share of the work with the able support and help from our officers, especially Drs. Wang and Cardasis.”” He noted that, due to unexpected professional demands, he had seriously considered not going through with the HAPA Presidency but Dr. Lymberis graciously and emphatically assured him of her continued presence, support and active involvement in HAPA. She said, “”HAPA has to move forward. You must take office as its next President and I will do all I can to help.”” He emphasized that he’ll be counting on her continued work, at least through the first half of his three-year term.
Dr. Lyketsos then outlined his goals for HAPA which include
· expanding the membership to 100 members so HAPA can become officially an Affiliate Psychiatric organization in the APA Assembly
· cosponsoring with HPA the 18th Pan-Hellenic Psychiatric Congress in the birthplace of the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates in the island of Kos in 2004.
· HAPA’s 2004 Annual Meeting will be in Kos, Greece instead of the United States in connection with the APA 2004 Annual Meeting. HAPA members are urged to plan to come to Greece for this meeting.
(10) Report of HAPA Nominating Committee and Elections
Dr. Lyketsos presented the report of the HAPA Nominating Committee and opened the nominations for submission from the members present. After considerable discussion, the following nominations were moved, seconded and approved unanimously for 2002-2005.
President-Elect:
George Petrides, M.D.
Secretary:
Yannis Zervas, M.D.
Treasurer:
Dora Wang, M.D.
Councilors
Kanellos Charalambous, M.D. 2000-2003
William Cardasis, M.D. 2001-2004
George Papadimitriou, M.D. 2002-2005
(11) New Business
The Fourth Annual HAPA Meeting will be on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 in San Francisco in association with the APA Annual Meeting.
(12) Scientific Program
Dr. Lymberis noted that Dr Nesci was unable to be with us and sends his regrets and apologies. Since there were two presentations for this evening we had more time for the presentation by Dr Lymberis on the Psychiatric Aspects of Traumatization from Acts of Terrorism and Torture.
Dr Lymberis noted that this was an unusual presentation. She deceided to present this for a number of reasons. First, both the APA and the World Psychiatric Association have declared a strong committment to addressing the psychiatric aspects of such issues. Second,in the United States, (a country where victims of political oppression from abroad have traditionally sought refuge), psychiatric interest in treating victims of political torture is strong and has a long history. The events of 9/11/01 have shaken the widely shared view of the USA as a “”safe haven”” and “”sanctuary””. Psychiatrists, along with all types of the mental health professionals, made a major effort and provided acute treatment, consultation and counsel to organizations and people affected by this tragedy. . Issues of PTSD and its treatment became real and acceptable which helped greatly in the fight against the stigma associated with our field.
Trauma, tragedy and war have now hit America directly. ÒWe have lost our innocenceÓ. The US has now joined the countless countries whose histories are full traumas due to political violence and war. HAPA is the right place to present a video that has been circulating among U.S. mental health circles for many years as part of presentations on PTSD. The video presents political torture during recent Greek history, the dark years of the Military Dictatorship of 1967-1973.
The video, “”Your Neighbors’ Son”” was made by Amnesty International in Denmark in 1982. The HAPA presentation involved an edited version of the 65-minute original film. The film is about the training of conscripts at KESA, the Greek military police training center during the Junta years. The film has direct interviews and testimony (in Greek with English translation) from actual former conscripts and torture victims. The film reconstructs the process whereby normal young Greek men were systematically transformed into torturers. It also deals with aspects of the effects of the torture on the actual victims and the torturers..
After the video presentation, there was an extensive and lively discussion. It was an intensely emotional experience for all present. Dr. Christodoulou stressed the psychiatric work of WPA and focused on the psychiatric political aspects of this so intensely political period of Greek history. Members who attended found it to be a quite moving and provocative evening.
Dr. Lymberis closed the meeting, emphasizing that, as psychiatrists, we are all called upon to study and understand all aspects of human experience including aspects which elicit powerful reactions in us. We are, after all, often asked to take care of both the perpetrators and victims of various human tragedies..This film involved us, as Greeks, in a highly personal way because traumas it depicted related to our recent history. As Greeks we know all too well that war and traumas are an integral part of the Greek experience.
The meeting was closed at 10:15PM
Respectfully Submitted
Maria T Lymberis, MD
HAPA Founder and Past President”
