NPA Mission

The objectives of the District Branch shall be to foster the science and progress of psychiatry in cooperation with and as a constituent part of the American Psychiatric Association, to serve as an influence toward the maintenance of high professional and administrative standards thereto released, and to assist the American Psychiatric Association in promoting its aims and objectives. These are (a) to promote the common professional interests of its members; (b) to improve the treatment, rehabilitation, and care of persons with mental disorders (including mental retardation and substance-related disorders); (c) to promote research, professional education in psychiatry and allied fields, and the prevention of psychiatric disabilities; (d) to advance the standard of all psychiatric services and facilities; (e) to foster the cooperation of all who are concerned with the medical, psychological, social, and legal aspects of mental health and illness; (f) to make psychiatric knowledge available to other practitioners of medicine, to scientists on other fields of knowledge, and the public; (g) to promote the best interest of patients and those actually or potentially making use of mental health services; (h) to advocate for its members.

A Brief History of the NPA

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.

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