PAs confront "denial disease"

At last year's Annual Conference, the AAPA House of Delegates formally convened, for the first time, a task force to study the problem of chemical dependency among PAs, and to help constituent chapters develop identification and intervention programs. The Task Force on the Impaired PA makes its first report to the HOD at this year's conference. In addition, a special symposium on impaired practitioners is being offered for CME credit. The task force's chairperson reviews efforts made during the past year to raise the profession's awareness of the problem. She focuses on the first-person accounts of six PAs who are recovering alcoholics and addicts (see "The Chemically Dependent PA: Role models for Recovery" on page 115).