Advocacy - CSAP

The Power of One Voice.

CSAP’s robust advocacy agenda advances mental health policies that support the needs of the psychiatric profession, allied fields, and the patients you serve. Our success stems from the strength and collective power of members’ voices like yours.

Our policy agenda focuses on ensuring that psychiatrists in California are able to deliver the best care to their patients, and that mental health and psychiatric care are recognized as essential services within the total health care delivery system.

It takes resources to run a Political Action Committee.
Anything you can contribute helps!

Advocating for Mental Wellness in the Midst of a Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has generated uncertainty and hardship for communities, families, and businesses on an extraordinary scale. Almost no other employment sector has been more directly affected and overwhelmed than health care, and especially frontline workers in the medical care and mental wellness arenas.

Psychiatrists have had to completely reimagine how and where patients receive treatment. At the same time, the pandemic has caused a dramatic and widespread increase in mental health diagnoses and a greater need and higher demand for behavioral health services across the spectrum.

CSAP’s policy priorities for 2022 are under development and will be designed to help psychiatrists and their patients navigate current challenges. Please check back here later this year (most likely by 12/1/21).

To learn more or to get involved, contact us at info@calpsychiatrists.org

Access

CSAP maintains direct access to members of the California Legislature and United State Congress. CSAP actively engages in efforts in local, state and national arenas.

Alliance

CSAP is the only California association for psychiatrists allied with the the American Psychiatric Association.

Advancement

CSAP is leading the way in California on issues such as parity, alternative (non-law enforcement) responses to mental health crises, state budget allocations, and assisting psychiatrists with new requirements on their practices.

GA Chair - Dr. Steve Koh

Steve Koh, MD, MPH, MBA is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is current Director of Outpatient Psychiatry (Hillcrest) and Community Psychiatry Program. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and medical school from UCSD. He received a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business. He finished his internship at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, general psychiatry residency at UCSD and geriatric psychiatry fellowship at UCSD.

Dr. Koh is Past President of the San Diego Psychiatric Society, Association of Korean American Psychiatrists, and Board of San Diego NAMI. He is on the executive board at San Diego County Medical Society. Other organizational associations include Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, and American Association of Community Psychiatry. At the American Psychiatric Association, he is member of the finance and audit committee and SDPS representative to the Assembly.

Dr. Koh’s clinical and research interests lie in older adults with cognitive deficits, underserved patient population, mental health systems, clinical delivery models and technology enabled patient care.

Vice-Chair - Dr. Ilse Wiechers

Ilse Wiechers, MD, MPP, MHS is a geriatric psychiatrist with additional expertise in health policy and health services research. She serves as the National Director for Psychopharmacology & Somatic Treatments in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in VA Central Office, where she advances quality and access to psychopharmacology and somatic treatments (such as ECT, rTMS, and ketamine) for Veterans. She is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at University of California San Francisco and adjunct faculty at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Wiechers specializes in providing clinical care for Veterans with late-life mood, anxiety and trauma-related disorders. She teaches extensively to interprofessional health care audiences at all levels of training and experience. She is a collaborator on several grants focused on improving the quality of psychotropic prescribing and serves as an operational partner for several VA-funded studies. Dr. Wiechers is also deeply engaged in advocacy and policy work through her service to professional organizations. She currently serves as the Secretary/Treasurer-Elect on the AAPG Board of Directors and as the AAGP representative to the American Psychiatric Association Assembly. For the past 8 years she has chaired the Public Policy Committee of the AAGP.

Dr. Wiechers earned her MD and Master of Public Policy at Duke, did her psychiatry residency at MGH and McLean Hospitals, and her geriatric psychiatry fellowship and Master of Health Science at Yale. She is an alumna of the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, the Yale RWJF/VA Clinical Scholars Program, and the John A. Hartford Foundation’s Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry Training Program. Dr. Wiechers is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has been elected to the membership of the American College of Psychiatrists.