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By J. Michael McGuire, CPNP Foundation President

Well 2020 has certainly been an interesting year so far…I hope the second half is more predictable than the first half. Since my newsletter in February, our country has gone through so much. As I wrote the newsletter in February, I would never have thought that so many of our lives would be turned upside down in so many ways including a virtual CPNP Annual Meeting. Despite all the challenges, the CPNP Foundation (CPNPF) has been hard at work. The Foundation was able to support 825 students attending the Annual Meeting at no registration cost and awarded 4 Defining the Future grants which were all presented at Virtual CPNP 2020 (a list of recipients and their posters is available at https://cpnpf.org/grants). The Foundation was also able to provide support for Dr. Jeffrey Swanson’s presentation entitled, “Violence and Mental Illness” and Ms. Bethany Yeiser’s presentation entitled, “Full Recovery from Schizophrenia and Homelessness (Patient Perspective)” Furthermore, thanks to the support of many donors, we collected hundreds of supplies for CenterPointe in Lincoln, NE through the Why Care Campaign (https://aapp.org/ed/meeting/2020/whycare).

The Foundation Board of Director’s work in 2020 has centered on the strategic planning process which began in 2019. We are happy to announce our new Mission, Vision and Core Purpose:

Our Mission: As the philanthropic arm of CPNP, our mission is to advance the psychiatric pharmacy profession by supporting research, scholarship, and practitioner development.

The Foundation’s mission complements that of our affiliated association, the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP), which focuses on serving psychiatric pharmacists and aspiring psychiatric pharmacists and advancing their reach and practice.

Our Vision: A world where individuals with mental health disorders receive optimal care because psychiatric pharmacists are an essential member of the health care team.

Core Purpose: CPNP Foundation initiatives and activities will be guided by the following purpose statement as agreed upon by both the CPNP Board and CPNP Foundation Board. The CPNP Foundation shall support or conduct initiatives which:

  1. Demonstrate the value of psychiatric pharmacists
  2. Contribute to the development of future leaders in the profession
  3. Support new practitioners
  4. Support the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) relationship as well as similar patient advocacy organizations through modest mental health related campaigns and events at CPNP Annual Meetings

The CPNP Foundation Board and the CPNP Board of Directors met on May 29, 2020, to discuss the Foundation goals and strategies for 2020-2023, and both boards jointly agreed on the above statements. CPNP and the CPNP Foundation are seeking to be closely aligned with each other as both are planning for the future. The Foundation has established several subcommittees to work through goals and strategies for 2020-2023, and we look forward to providing you with more details on the work of those subcommittees in the near future.

Like many of you, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the finances of the CPNP Foundation. Currently, we have only raised $1300 for student registration and travel grants for CPNP 2021, down from the $10,000 raised in 2019. You will see in another newsletter article that although the state of the world is currently volatile, the Board of Directors feels that it is our responsibility to continue fundraising so we can support psychiatric pharmacy in the areas of research, scholarship, and practitioner development. We would appreciate donations in any amount from anyone who is able to give so we can carry out our mission. Thank you for your continued support of the CPNP Foundation through this unprecedented year.

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