The movement toward subspecialization picked up speed in 1943 when the American Psychiatric Association converted its section on Mental Deficiency to the Section on Child Psychiatry. Six years later, the Section was elevated in status to the Standing Committee on Child Psychiatry. In 1947, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry appointed a Committee on Child Psychiatry. In 1951, the presidents of AAPCC and AOA--George Gardner, M.D., and James Cunningham, M.D.--called together 17 psychiatrists who worked with children to discuss the formation of a separate organization for child psychiatrists. The following year, 96 psychiatrists met in Atlantic City, N.J. They agreed to form the American Academy of Child Psychiatry (AACP) and have membership by invitation only. There were 107 charter members. Subsequent members were required to have three member sponsors and American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) certification. Members applying were also required to have made an "outstanding contribution to the field of child psychiatry," as reflected by unanimous approval by the AACP Council and a two-thirds majority of the members. (The requirements have changed; for more information, please visit <www.aacap.org/membership/joinaacap.htm>.)
In 1948, Frederick Allen, M.D., proposed that child psychiatry be recognized by the ABPN; however, nothing came of his proposal. Although some child psychiatrists favored an autonomous specialty, similar to pediatrics' break from internal medicine, this did not seem feasible. There was some debate as to whether the new specialty would be pediatric psychiatry or child psychiatry, but a vote by AAPCC clinic directors overwhelming favored a link to psychiatry rather than to pediatrics.
In 1958, six child psychiatrists met with the ABPN's president and secretary to discuss the possible particulars for a new psychiatric discipline. There was agreement on a two-year child psychiatry residency, with the option to replace the third year of general psychiatry residency with the first year of child psychiatry training. The subspecialty was approved in February 1959. As a result, a six-person ABPN Committee on Certification in Child Psychiatry was formed. The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), through the American Board of Medical Specialties, demanded that there always be an ABP non-voting observer on the committee to ensure that the ABPN treated child psychiatry right, and an ABP observer remains today. About 160 clinicians were grandfathered into the subspecialty.
The first certifying exam was in the form of essay questions. The committee found them impossible to grade, so it announced there would be a follow-up oral examination. There are those today who are still hot with anger about first missing the cut to be grandfathered, then taking the essay exam, and then being forced to take a not previously announced oral exam. Nonetheless, in April 1960, 101 candidates passed the first child psychiatry boards. Also in 1960, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's Residency Review Committee (RRC) in Psychiatry approved 11 child psychiatry residency programs. The stipulation that child psychiatry residencies must be linked to psychiatry residencies and that these must be linked to medical centers was an occurrence of extreme importance. It forced child psychiatry, sometimes kicking and screaming, from community child guidance centers to hospitals and medical schools. In my opinion, this saved child psychiatry from being marginalized. If it had not been pulled into medicine, it would have been replaced by a new iteration born in medicine.
During the 1960s, the AACP struggled with its identity. The Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry was launched in 1962, granting the field its own publication. However, as more and more clinicians were trained and certified, they wanted to have an organization of their own. Regional organizations formed, and there was the beginning of a push for an open, not invitation-only, national association. The AACP, after much debate and a 176-11 vote, opened its organization in 1969 to include members on the basis of their practice and training in child psychiatry (Bemman, 1970). That year, its membership tripled from 218 to 688.
Although leadership of the American Psychiatric Association was ambivalent about this somewhat unexpected "child," in 1969, then Medical Director Walter Barton, M.D., offered rental space in the APA building, and eight file drawers of records were moved in. In 1973, Virginia Anthony was hired and she remains the academy's executive director. In 1983, the academy published Child Psychiatry: A Plan for the Coming Decades. It was the summary of five years' work by 100 consultants to, and members of, six task forces. These were not only child psychiatrists, but also included nationally known general psychiatrists; pediatricians; deans; professors of epidemiology, nursing, psychology and law; leaders of the NIMH; and various child advocates. Recommendations were made for man power, clinical service delivery and training; the most important recommendation, however, was the challenge to develop research strategies that would allow data-based understanding and treatment of the mental illnesses of children. While child psychiatry had long gathered anecdotal data, particularly about social and psychodynamic influences, it was 10 years behind general psychiatry in biological and epidemiological research. Indeed, this document changed the field.
In the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in residents who choose child psychiatry, and academy membership now numbers almost 7,000. In 1986, the academy voted to expand its name to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and within a few years, this expansion was approved by the ABPN and the Psychiatry RRC.
Besides its journal, the AACAP has published books, both for professionals and the laity, approximately 50 policy statements and over 200 "Facts for Families." The latter are available to families and are printed in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish and Icelandic. The AACAP collaborates closely with the APA, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations in regard to clinical, policy and research issues. During the past decade, the academy was awarded funding from both the NIMH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to oversee five-year K-12 training grants for young investigators in child and adolescent psychiatry.
