The Cummings Psyche Award

In order to create a centrifugal force toward the importance of behavioral health within primary care in organized settings that are innovative and integrated, The Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation established and awarded over 8 years The Cummings Psyche Award. This was given annually from 1996 to 2003 in recognition of the pioneers who have in some significant way furthered integrated, collaborative practice. The Cummings Psyche Award included a $50,000 prize and a bronze statue of the Grecian Goddess Psyche, sculpted by the celebrated San Francisco artist Maxi Harper. Awardees were recognized for their significant and enduring contributions to behavioral healthcare practice, especially for pioneering efforts that made possible the new organized systems of behavioral/primary healthcare. The recipients must have been licensed (or certified) healthcare professionals who had made a major career commitment to practice.

The Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation concluded after the 2003 award to Dr. Rodriguez the pioneers who had made possible the current thrust toward behavioral care as primary care had been honored. It was time to recognize those who are currently moving the profession forward in that direction. Accordingly, the Cummings Psyche Award was discontinued in 2004 and was reconstituted as the APF Cummings Psyche Prize.

The previous awardees established The Cummings Psyche Award as the premier recognition in behavioral healthcare, and are:

1995 Arnold A. Lazarus, Ph.D. of Rutgers University, for being the “father of behavioral therapy.”

1996 Aaron T. Beck, M.D. of the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, for being the “father of cognitive therapy.”

1997 Leonard L. Stein, M.D. of the University of Wisconsin, for the Madison Model of community-based treatment of the chronically mentally ill.

1998 Don Lipsitt, M.D. of Harvard, for establishing the pioneering integrated program at Boston’s Beth-Israel Hospital.

1999 Simon H. Budman, Ph.D. of Harvard and Innovative Training Systems, for his monumental contributions to our knowledge of brief therapy.

2000 Morris F. Collen, M.D. for providing the setting at Kaiser Permanente for the first program (1963) in which behavioral care providers were co-located in primary care.

2001 Donald A. Block, M.D. of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association and the Ackerman Institute, for a lifetime of contributions to collaborative family healthcare.

2002 Alex Rodriguez, M.D. for his relentless insistence on accountability and outcome measures in managed behavioral care.