From: David Elkins [mailto:davidnelkins@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 2:34 PM
To:; Aldwin, Carolyn;
Subject: TO: APA DIVISION PRESIDENTS AND BOARDS --- IMPORTANT
Dear Division Presidents and Boards:
I promised not to write you again but I did not anticipate the overwhelming responses (all positive) that we have received to the "open letter." So please forgive me.
The "Open Letter to the DSM-5 Committee and the American Psychiatric Association" has garnered more than 400 signatures after only two days at our petition website: see URL http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dsm5/
We expect hundreds more. It seems we have tapped into longstanding concerns, and perhaps frustrations, with the DSM.
In The Psychiatric Times, Allen Frances, chair of a previous DSM Committee and public critic of the DSM-5, as currently proposed, has written about our "open letter" and urged people to sign.
See his article in The Psychiatric Times at URL
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog/dsm-5/content/article/10168/1976081
I urge all APA Divisions to consider, or reconsider, signing the "open letter."
Thanks to Divisions 27 (Community) and Division 49 (Group) and other groups at APA for joining us in this historic opportunity to make
a difference for vulnerable populations and our field.
David N. Elkins, PhD, President of Division 32
on behalf of the "DSM-5 Open Letter Committee -- Dave Elkins, Brent Robbins, PhD., and Sarah Kamens, Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology, Fordham University,
and Student Representative to the Div. 32 Board, and the Division 32 Board
P.S. The "open letter" on the petition website has been modified slightly for format reasons but it is the same letter as was originally sent to you.
Please check it out and the signatures at URL http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/dsm5/
We invite individual signatures as well as Division signatures at the petition website. Please let your members and board know.
