Activities of the WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council: the Action Plan is in progress.

Abstract

The WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council, whose members have been nominated by the WPA Member Societies according to the WPA Action Plan 2008-2011 1,2, started its activities at the end of 2009 3. In about one year, the Council has carried out several activities, which are reported in the following paragraphs. The three sets of slides of the WPA Programme on Depression and Physical Diseases have been translated in several languages and adapted to various national contexts. In particular, the slides on depression and diabetes have been translated in 14 languages (Azeri, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish). These slides are now available on the WPA website (www.wpanet.org). A survey on psychotherapy training and practice in Europe has been completed. The results indicate that training in psychotherapy, although mandatory in almost all European countries, takes place in a very diverse way throughout Europe. Both the content of the training (e.g., the techniques which are taught) and the structure (e.g., supervision, number of patients to be treated, etc.) are extremely different. Anyway, early career psychiatrists seem to be confident in treating patients using their psychotherapeutic skills. The results of this survey are going to be presented at the WPA Thematic Conference in Istanbul in June 2011. The Council has developed, in collaboration with the WPA Headquarters, a specific section of the WPA website, which will include information about the activities of the Council as well as other materials (papers, documents, announcements of meetings or publications, reports about personal professional experiences), which may be of interest to early career psychiatrists worldwide. The Council has organized a Regular Symposium for the 15th World Congress of Psychiatry to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 2011, on “New challenges and new solutions for early career psychiatrists: the role of the World Psychiatric Association”. Moreover, scientific symposia and international conferences have been organized by members of the Council in Vilnius, Lithuania (coordinator: M. Bendix, Sweden), Riccione, Italy (coordinator: A. Fiorillo, Italy), Cairo, Egypt (coordinator: H. Elkholy, Egypt) and St. Petersburg, Russia (coordinator: Y. Kochetkov, Russia). In particular, the special workshop organized in Cairo, in collaboration with the Early Career Psychiatrists Section of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association, during the January 2011 WPA Regional Meeting, has been very successful in terms of participation and contents. Among the activities planned by the Council for the year 2011 are a survey on career choice after training in psychiatry, carried out in Europe I zone countries and coordinated by F. Riese (Switzerland), C. Oakley (UK), M. Bendix (Sweden) and P. Piir (Estonia); a paper on stigmatization of people with mental disorders and of psychiatrists, produced by the Asia/Australasia components, and papers on psychiatric training worldwide and on choosing psychiatry as a career, coordinated by the America and Africa/Middle East components, respectively. The translation of the slides of the WPA Programme on Depression and Physical Diseases will continue, especially in the Asia/Australasia area, and the Council will contribute to the section on public education of the WPA website. The first personal meeting of the Council will take place on September 20 in Buenos Aires, during the 15th World Congress of Psychiatry.