The professional organization for psychiatry
Promoting the welfare of those with mental illnessand fostering principles of psychiatry.
Arizona Psychiatric Society: Professional Organization for Psychiatry in Arizona
The Arizona Psychiatric Society (APS) is a district branch of the American Psychiatric Association, a medical specialty society recognized worldwide. The objectives of the Arizona Psychiatric Society are to continuously improve the ability of its members to provide quality psychiatric services and access to care to persons in need and their families. The Society strives to promote the welfare of all those with mental illness and to foster the medically-based principles of psychiatry.
APS is the professional association in the state of Arizona that focuses exclusively on the needs of physicians who specialize in psychiatry. APS addresses all aspects of psychiatric care and includes public, academic and private practice psychiatrists, as well as psychiatric residents. Take the important step to protecting your profession and advocating for psychiatry and your patients and join or renew today.
APS is the professional association in the state of Arizona that focuses exclusively on the needs of physicians who specialize in psychiatry. APS addresses all aspects of psychiatric care and includes public, academic and private practice psychiatrists, as well as psychiatric residents. Take the important step to protecting your profession and advocating for psychiatry and your patients and join or renew today.
from our leadership

A Welcome from Stephen (Larry) Mecham, DO, President 2022-2023
We know the months ahead will hold many challenges and opportunities for psychiatry to be engaged in the issues. During my tenure as President, it is my goal to continue to build upon the dedication of the Society to advancing its mission of promoting the highest quality of mental health care through education, advocacy, and fostering principles of psychiatry, towards a vision that all Arizonans will have access to quality mental health care and prevention as a result of the successful advocacy and physician leadership of the Arizona Psychiatric Society.
As an early career physician, with a passion to make a difference for psychiatry and our patients through impactful advocacy and collaboration in our community, I am thankful for each and every member who takes the time to be engaged, get to know their local legislators, contribute to conversations at the state and national level, and work together to promote improvements in care, physician well-being, and patient safety. If you are a non-member psychiatric physician, I invite you to make the choice today to join us in this important work, to be part of making a difference for our patients and our profession.
We invite you to contribute to the work of the Society, through your membership, and engage further by joining our committees, serving as a Chair or executive officer, and working collaboratively with fellow mental health stakeholder advocacy organizations. Together, we can work to make a difference for our profession and the patients for whom we provide care.
As an early career physician, with a passion to make a difference for psychiatry and our patients through impactful advocacy and collaboration in our community, I am thankful for each and every member who takes the time to be engaged, get to know their local legislators, contribute to conversations at the state and national level, and work together to promote improvements in care, physician well-being, and patient safety. If you are a non-member psychiatric physician, I invite you to make the choice today to join us in this important work, to be part of making a difference for our patients and our profession.
We invite you to contribute to the work of the Society, through your membership, and engage further by joining our committees, serving as a Chair or executive officer, and working collaboratively with fellow mental health stakeholder advocacy organizations. Together, we can work to make a difference for our profession and the patients for whom we provide care.
“I want to make a humble request for you to reach out with your ideas, your creativity, your passion, and your support. Because when we reach out through the Arizona Psychiatric Society, or in our communities, we can make our resilience and commitment stronger. Let us continue to share our calling, our challenges, and our successes together.”
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Jasleen Chhatwal, MBBS, MD, Past President and DEI Committee Chair
"Leadership continues the ever important work on advocating for the needs of psychiatry and our patients through COVID-19 and beyond, with outreach on mental health response, advocacy with key Arizona leaders for protecting and preserving your ability to provide psychiatric care and for guidance on critical issues like mental health and substance use parity and health disparities. Our membership has strongly supported these efforts which have resulted in several wins for psychiatrists. For example, we were key participants in passing parity legislation...Our continued success depends on strong membership, and we encourage you to consider joining us as members. We also welcome your ideas and suggestions that would make our organization more appealing and beneficial to you and would love to hear from you..."

Don J. Fowls, MD, Past President and Legislative Chair, Arizona Psychiatric Society, 2020-2021