Experiences from newly created trainee associations in Spain And Macedonia

Abstract

Until July 2016, Spain was not member of European Forum of Psychiatric Trainees. Why? Because Spain did never have Association of Psychiatric trainees. In July 2015, 2 Spanish trainees were invited to attend EFPT meeting in Porto. There, they connect with other European trainees and with the help of MENTA group they starting the foundation of Spanish Psychiatric Trainees Society, now known as SERP. In just 1 year, SERP has increased in number of members and have successfully developed numerous initiatives such as the establishment of our founding documents, the constitution of a democratic board through an Elective General Assembly, the design and update of a website and profiles in the social networks and the organization of the 1st Meeting for National Psychiatric Trainees, which was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz on March 2015 and had as topic Research on psychiatric training period. Last July, Spain was accepted for first time in history as full member of EFPT and we are actively participating in several working groups, even chairing the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry one. This year, Spain is also participating in international exchanges, offering two destination for European trainees. We must acknowledge that during the foundation process, the support of the Spanish National Psychiatric Associations (SEP and SEPB) and EFPT (specially its ENTA group since the first meeting of some of our now board members in the Annual Forum in Porto in 2015), has been crucial.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.