Young psychiatrists’ meetings in Eastern Europe - Networking for the development of psychiatric training, education and service

Abstract

Although it is heartening that training activities in Europe have been evaluated 1, and robust standards set 2,3, discrepancies still exist between Eastern and Western Europe 4. Undoubtedly, some of this relates to economic factors, though this is only part of the story. In some Eastern European countries, formal psychiatry residency programmes are shorter than a year, and trainees acquire most of their knowledge through courses outwith their training programme 3. Furthermore, national trainee organizations do not exist in every country, but even if they do, low membership numbers may impede any progress. It is also crucial to integrate trainees’ organizations into educational and specialists’ organizations to feedback concerns and implement change. Technical problems like lack of Internet access may make trainee interaction difficult. One possible solution is the inception of pan-European trainee meetings, and promoting trainees’ contributions to curriculum development in their own countries 5. Sweden has for several years had a specific interest in Eastern European psychiatry, evidenced by projects funded by the Swedish Eastern Europe Committee (SEEC). Until recently, however, few projects have involved trainees or young psychiatrists (YPs). Through a SEEC initiative, a pilot meeting discussing needs of YPs in Eastern Europe took place in Kaliningrad in May 2009. YPs from Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden agreed to organize meetings to promote networking and the exchange of experiences, facilitating YP education. Using existing networks such as the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) and the WPA Early Career Psychiatrists Council 6, an organizing committee was created, and a grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) facilitated the inaugural meeting. Entitled “Ways to exchange knowledge and experiences of Young Psychiatrists”, the conference took place in May 2010, involving YPs from the Baltic states, Belarus, Greece, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia and the UK. The contents of the conference included clinical topics, in addition to research and health care development issues. There were lectures, workshops, case and poster presentations, with Russian translation. A visit to local psychiatric institutions was arranged by the local organizing committee. The cultural diversity of participants was exemplified by a quote from one of the delegates, when giving feedback, “we look at the same but we see different things”. The evaluation of the conference showed workshops were identified as the most popular aspect, probably due to the possibility to discuss and exchange points of view. On a 5-point Likert scale (1 very poor to 5 excellent), 33 (100%) people described their general impression from the conference as “excellent” or “very good”. More than twenty topics for future meetings were suggested, including skills for YPs (education, leadership and working within teams). Latvian colleagues kindly offered to organize the 2011 meeting in Riga, from 6 to 8 April 2011. Thanks to financial support from WPA and SIDA, about 90 delegates from 15 Eastern and Western European countries will be participating. It is rewarding that YPs have been able to organize these meetings and we hope it will lead to continuous collaborations, facilitating future conferences as well as personal international contacts.