Public psychiatrists' perceptions of changes over the past five years.

This study examines which issues public psychiatrists perceive as having most impacted their careers over the past five years and whether this impact was differentially experienced by staff psychiatrists and medical directors. The authors sent a questionnaire to all members of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP) in clinical practice for at least 5 years. Surprisingly, public psychiatrists report that the impact of recent changes have been primarily positive, except in the domain of economic developments. Both program and agency medical directors report experiencing about the same amount of change, though significantly more positive overall impact, compared to staff psychiatrists. This finding should encourage psychiatrists to become program medical directors, a feasible next step for many staff psychiatrists.