Elayne Ansara, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP, Fellowship Committee Chair
The lead off goal in AAPP’s strategic plan is a lofty and important one:
Establish the BCPP credential as the practice standard in psychiatric pharmacy and expand professional opportunities for BCPPs
Since no one particular activity will achieve this, the Board and strategic planning committee crafted several objectives that flowed from this priority goal. The development of the AAPP Vision Paper and the Employer Resource Center (ERC) are examples of several of the objectives that have been realized to support this goal.
Another objective established to reach this goal was the establishment of a program to recognize psychiatric pharmacists who have advanced the profession. We are proud to announce that this objective has morphed into the offering of a fellow designation through AAPP, Fellow of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (FAAPP), to launch in August of 2024.
A task force of AAPP members started working in late spring of 2023 to develop a program that recognizes psychiatric pharmacists who have advanced:
Task Force members (see figure below) conducted significant research of other fellow programs and consulted with other associations about their fellow programs. Ultimately, they sought to propose a fellow program that:
After testing FAAPP criteria with several focus groups of members from all types of practice settings, the task force proposed and the AAPP Board approved the following FAAPP criteria:
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Criteria 1-Sustained Membership: Applicants must have 10 or more years of active category membership in AAPP and maintain current membership. Applicant must meet this criteria to proceed through the application. |
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Criteria 2-Service to AAPP: Applicant must have significant service to AAPP achieving a specified minimum score through award recognition and volunteer service. The minimum score must be achieved to proceed through the application process. |
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Criteria 3-Expertise: Applicant must be a: 1) BCPP, OR 2) Provide, through a narrative essay, evidence of knowledge, experience, and expertise that is comparable with the BCPP. The first class of applicants will be used to establish cutoff scoring for those seeking fellowship without the BCPP. |
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Criteria 4-Leadership: Applicant must demonstrate their leadership in the specialty by specifying contributions as leaders in education, research, and advocacy. The first class of applicants will be used to establish cutoff scoring for those seeking fellowship. |
An FAAPP informational session will be held this summer for members interested in learning more about the process and designation. Be watching for announcements soon. The automated FAAPP application will be available in August of 2024 with applications closing in October of 2024. Fellows will be announced no later than January of 2025 and will be installed at AAPP 2025 in Salt Lake City.
We look forward to dialoguing with you more about this designation soon and seeing applications from many members within AAPP.
Thank You Fellowship Task Force!
Elayne Ansara, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP
Joshua Caballero, PharmD, BCPP
Michael Kotlyar, MS, PharmD
Gary Levin, PharmD, BCPP, FCCP
Karen Moeller, PharmD, BCPP
Troy Moore, MS, PharmD, BCPP
Roger Sommi, PharmD, BCPP, FCCP
