American Orthopsychiatric Association Information

The American Orthopsychiatric Association provides a common ground for collaborative study, research, and knowledge exchange among individuals from a variety of disciplines engaged in preventive, treatment, and advocacy approaches to mental health. Ortho fosters development of theory, practice, research, and social action, from psychological, biological, social and cultural prospectives. It facilitates a shared commitment to scholarship and clinical expertise in the interest of informing professional practice and public policy. In 1924, a small group of psychiatrists with a common cause - to unite the work force of those engaged in the study and treatment of human behavior - blended the prefix "Ortho" (from the Greek "to straighten") with "psychiatry". Over the years through annual meetings, publications, interest groups, and other activities, Ortho has applied a multidisciplinary perspective to a broad range of issues affecting children, adolescents, adults, families, schools, community mental health, and life span development. Traditionally and characteristically, Ortho had been at the forefront of new approaches to enduring problems: it has provided a scholarly platform for new theories and modalities. Family therapy, group therapy, the community mental health movement and a range of initiatives in services and treatment for children were born in Ortho. Ortho's members embody a breadth of viewpoints and perspectives that cannot be incorporated in any single discipline or orientation.