The Action Plan 2010 of the WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council.

Abstract

The commitment of the WPA leadership toward early career psychiatrists was clear from the beginning of this triennium. In fact, the fourth institutional goal of the WPA Action Plan 2008-2011 was “to promote the professional development of early career psychiatrists world-wide” (1). A series of initiatives was defined by the President, Prof. Mario Maj, to pursue this goal: a) launching, in collaboration with a network of centers of excellence, a programme of one-year fellowships for young psychiatrists from low-income countries, who will commit themselves to apply in their country of origin what they have learnt; b) organizing a series of workshops on leadership and professional skills for young psychiatrists; c) facilitating the participation of young psychiatrists in WPA congresses and other scientific meetings; d) stimulating the participation of young psychiatrists in the activities of WPA Scientific Sections; e) joining and assisting Member Societies in the development and implementation of programmes for young psychiatrists (1). A further initiative was to create an Early Career Psychiatrists Council, which should collaborate with the President and the Executive Committee to pursue the above-mentioned goals. The members of the WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council have been appointed by WPA Member Societies and subdivided into the following five geographic areas: Europe I, which includes Northern, Southern and Western Europe; Europe II, which includes Central and Eastern Europe; Asia/Australasia; Africa and Middle East; Americas. The Early Career Psychiatrists Council has actively started its work. The first activity of the Council was to elect a coordinator for each of the five geographic areas. Andrea Fiorillo from Italy has been elected for Europe I, Zuzana Lattova from Czech Republic for Europe II, Prachi Brahmbhatt from Australia for Asia/Australasia, Hussien El Kholy from Egypt for Africa and Middle East, and Felipe Picon from Brazil for Americas. On December 18, 2009 the five coordinators had a teleconference with the WPA President in order to discuss and finalize the Action Plan of the Council, taking into account the several interesting ideas which emerged during the five teleconferences that the WPA President had with the members of each area in October 2009. According to the WPA normative instruments, the Early Career Psychiatrists Council is expected to: a) upgrade communication concerning early career psychiatrists between WPA Member Societies and WPA governance; b) identify and address problems concerning early career psychiatrists; c) promote the participation of early career psychiatrists in the various sectorial activities of the WPA; d) contribute to the design of activities to promote the professional development of early career psychiatrists. In this paper we will briefly describe the Action Plan for 2010 of the WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council, which consists of the following nine activities.