Up until the late 1970’s, psychiatrists in Nevada were part of the Inter-mountain Psychiatric Association, IPA, which was a district branch that included Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada The main membership activity was a regional educational meeting put on once a year in diverse locations such as Great Falls, Montana, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho and Reno. Speakers, members of the district branch, spoke about their special interests, and attendance was quite good, allowing psychiatrists in those four western states to get acquainted and to work together in various ways.

 

In 1978 the Montana psychiatrists broke away after poor support of those in the other states when Montana decided to host the educational meeting in Banff. At the same time, Wyoming psychiatrists contemplated and ultimately completed the same move. Nevada then proceeded with the formation of the Nevada Association of Psychiatric Physicians (NAPP) in 1979 with Thomas Stapleton as the first president. Bill O’Gorman, the unofficial “Dean” of Nevada’s psychiatric community was the second president. The NAPP was represented in the APA initially by Paul Miller, head of psychiatry at the Medical School, and later by Hal Orchow.

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Meanwhile, in the South the Las Vegas Psychiatric Society was meeting at the local hospitals once a month with the hospitals furnishing the meal. Dr. Bill Stone arranged the speakers who were local psychiatrists who volunteered their time and expertise. The Las Vegas Psychiatric Society joined the NAPP after the break from the northern states and became the Southern Chapter. The organization later changed its name to the Nevada Psychiatric Association.