WPA NEWS
Report on WPA activities in the triennium 2014-2017 The WPA has delivered on almost all major aspects of the Action Plan 20142017 as had been agreed and approved by the General Assembly in Madrid in September 2014. Public mental health. A curriculum and policy statements on the following topics have been produced: a) genderbased interpersonal violence and mental health (chaired by P. Chandra and D. Stewart); b) children’s physical, emotional and sexual abuse (chaired by G. Milovic and B. Leventhal); c) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals (chaired by P. Levounis and K. Eckstrand); d) migrant mental health (chaired by M. Schouler-Ocak and M. Kastrup)1; e) individuals with intellectual disability and their mental health (chaired by S. Bhaumik)2; f) prisoners’ mental health (chaired by A. Forrester and M. Piper); g) mental health promotion (several short films about mental illness have been produced by A. Sharma). All these documents and films are available on the WPA website. World Mind Matters Day. September 5 of each year has been identified as World Mind Matters Day. In 2015, the WPA launched statements on migrant mental health. This had major implications as globally there are several million migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The Second World Mind Matters Day in 2016 saw the launch of our findings from a global survey covering 193 countries (which are member states of the United Nations) on discrimination against persons with mental illness. The WPA looked at discrimination against people with mental illness in four areas: political, social, economic and personal in the laws of each country. The levels of discrimination remain a cause of worry across the globe. Nearly one third of the countries do not allow people with mental illness to get married. Fewer countries provide supported employment or right to vote. As a result of these findings, the WPA produced a
World Psychiatry 16:2 - June 2017
Bill of Rights. Over 60 organizations around the globe have signed up their support for this. This Bill of Rights was launched in the House of Lords in London in October 2016. The logo of Blue Butterfly is the campaign symbol for Social Justice for People with Mental Illness3. A special issue of the International Review of Psychiatry4 has published these findings in details along with examples of minimum standards of service as well as good clinical practice5. Round table meetings. We had a very successful round table meeting on violent radicalization hosted by the WPA Collaborating Centre in London in October 2016 and another one on early interventions in psychiatry hosted by the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists in December 2016. These have been in addition to round table meetings in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico and Guatemala6. There was a follow-up round table on migrant mental health in Oslo in March 2017. Position statements. The WPA has launched several position statements which are available on the WPA website. These include those on migrant mental health in Europe (with Careif), on migrant mental health in Latin America (with the Latin American Psychiatric Association, APAL), on high quality training in psychiatry, on five reasons to be a psychiatrist, on gender identity and samesex orientation, attraction and behaviours7, on environmental sustainability, on recruitment in psychiatry, on suicide prevention, on preventive psychiatry, and on spirituality and religion in psychiatry8. Joint declarations on migrant mental health were launched following round table meetings in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Dominican Republic. Other statements included the Bucharest Declaration on Primary Care Mental Health (2015), the Manila Declaration on Mental Health Promotion (2016), the Kochi Declaration on Collaborative Care (2015), and the Tbilisi Declaration on Integrated and Collaborative Care (2016). On International
Children’s Day in 2016, WPA launched a Bill of Rights for Children and Young People. On International Women’s Day in 2017, WPA launched a position statement on perinatal mental health. Translations. As part of the Action Plan, it was agreed that papers from other languages should be translated into English. Papers from Spanish and Portuguese have been translated in special issues of the International Review of Psychiatry that have been published or are in publication9,10. Papers from Italian, Mandarin and Russian are being translated. WPA-Lancet commission on psychiatry. This commission has completed its data analysis and six writing groups were set up to explore and discuss these findings. The first draft of the report will be ready by September 2017 and the full report will be published in time for the World Congress of Psychiatry in October 2017. Diplomas in psychological medicine and in mental health. This initiative, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, aimed at psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, continues apace and we hope to have it ready later this year. WPA collaborating centres. These centres have been established in London (K.S. Bhui), Naples (M. Maj), Nairobi (D. Ndetei), Cape Town (D. Stein), Cairo (T. Okasha), Hong Kong (L. Lam) and Bangalore (S. Chaturvedi). Each centre is focusing on training, research or policy and will also act as repository for information for the region11. WPA goodwill ambassadors. WPA goodwill ambassadors have been identified in India and three major figures have agreed to take on this role which focuses on disseminating messages on mental health promotion. M. Agashe (psychiatrist and film actor/director); M. Shivani (a religious leader) and S. Oberoi (a Bollywood actor) have consented to take on this role. We are looking for goodwill ambassadors in other countries.
221
Dinesh Bhugra President, World Psychiatric Association 1.
2.
Schouler-Ocak M, Wintrob R, Moussaoui D et al. Int J Cult Ment Health 2016;9:21632. Bhaumik S, Kiani R, Dasari MM et al. Int J Cult Ment Health 2016;9:417-29.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Bhugra D. World Psychiatry 2015;14:254. Bhugra D. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:335-419. Bhugra D. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:342-74. Javed A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:191-2. Bhugra D, Eckstrand K, Levounis P et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:299-300. Moreira-Almeida A, Sharma A, Janse van Rensburg B et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:87-8.
9.
Villasenor-Bayardo S, Rojas-Malpica C, Romero A. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:129-230. 10. Moreira-Almeida A, Oliveira e Oliveira F. Int Rev Psychiatry (in press). 11. Bhui KS, Fiorillo A, Stein D et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:300. DOI:10.1002/wps.20435
News from WPA Scientific Sections The current triennium has seen an increasing visibility of Scientific Sections as important and integral components of the WPA, especially in supporting the Association’s promotion and dissemination of scientific knowledge around the globe. We are now having 72 Sections and there is still an interest in having more of them to cover some other scientific sub-specialties. During the triennium there has been a noticeable increase in the number of WPA co-sponsored meetings, joint intersectional activities and other related intersectional accomplishments1,2. Sections’ participation in the recently held WPA International Meeting in Cape Town has been outstanding, with more than 26 sessions in the programme. The Sections also organized training workshops, round table discussions and educational activities in that well attended meeting. Scientific Sections have continued to produce position statements and discussion documents on important topics that correspond to their expertise. Adding these documents to the WPA website did generate a lot of interest among the WPA membership3,4. Several of these position statements have been published in World Psychiatry, such as those on spirituality and religion in psychiatry5; gender identity and same-sex orientation, attraction and behaviours6; and recruitment in psychiatry7. The Sections on Education and Early Career Psychiatrists have prepared a key document for promoting psychiatry as an inspiring medical specialty and as a prospective career for medical students. This work was presented in Sections’ business meeting at Cape Town. It is hoped that Sections will prepare further materials for promotion of psychiatry in undergraduate medical education and explore
222
innovative ways of engaging medical students to increase their interest in the specialty. There has always been an added value of the contributions from the newly established Sections. Current interest in promoting intersectional work is equally evident from activities of many of the new Sections. Furthermore, several Sections – including those on Early Career Psychiatrists, Education in Psychiatry and Transcultural Psychiatry – are actively involved in organizing teaching and training workshops aiming to develop leadership skills of young psychiatrists. The WPA Action Plan for 2014-20178 has continued to be a focal action point for many Sections’ activities. Sections have adapted the theme of promotion of mental health as a priority in their work along with initiating various programmes in the areas of preventive psychiatry by producing educational materials for the WPA website3. Whereas Sections enjoy a great degree of independence within the framework of the statutes and by-laws of the WPA, the relevant Operational Committee is considering some revisions in the bylaws that would make the work of Sections more in line with current needs and expectations. There have also been some initial discussions on clustering of Sections on the basis of common interests and activities. This will hopefully promote further collaboration and links among various Sections. As we are approaching our next World Congress, Sections are also preparing their triennium activity reports for the General Assembly along with plans for their new elections. We are encouraging all the Sections to involve younger members in officer and committee positions, to enhance
their enthusiasm for future contributions towards WPA’s work. Section officers and members are also contributing extensively to the WPA official journal World Psychiatry9-11. Their interest and participation in the development of the chapter on mental disorders of the ICD-11 is another ongoing effort to improve classification and nosology in psychiatric practice12-15. It is hoped that the current enthusiasm of Sections’ leadership and their committed work will keep on contributing to enhance the quality of scientific knowledge in different fields of psychiatry. Whereas this requires dedicated expertise, it is anticipated that the Sections will offer valuable additions to the profession’s changing perspectives. It is trusted that Scientific Sections will also continue with their current contribution to the development of pioneering approaches in psychiatric practice. Afzal Javed WPA Secretary for Sections 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Javed A. World Psychiatry 2015;14:255-6. Javed A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:191-2. Kallivayalil RA. World Psychiatry 2015;14:374-5. Riba M. World Psychiatry 2016;15:88. Moreira-Almeida A, Sharma A, Janse van Rensburg B et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:87-8. Bhugra D, Eckstrand K, Levounis P et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:299-300. Shields G, Ng R, Ventriglio A et al. World Psychiatry 2017;16:113-4. Bhugra D. World Psychiatry 2014;13:328. Wahlbeck K. World Psychiatry 2015;14:36-42. Kasper S, Dold M. World Psychiatry 2015;14: 107-8. Young A, Colasanti A. World Psychiatry 2016; 15:239-41. Luciano M. World Psychiatry 2015;14:375-6. Gureje O, Reed GM. World Psychiatry 2016;15: 291-2. Jablensky A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:26-31. Maj M. World Psychiatry 2016;15:1-2.
DOI:10.1002/wps.20434
World Psychiatry 16:2 - June 2017
Report on WPA activities in the triennium 2014-2017 The WPA has delivered on almost all major aspects of the Action Plan 20142017 as had been agreed and approved by the General Assembly in Madrid in September 2014. Public mental health. A curriculum and policy statements on the following topics have been produced: a) genderbased interpersonal violence and mental health (chaired by P. Chandra and D. Stewart); b) children’s physical, emotional and sexual abuse (chaired by G. Milovic and B. Leventhal); c) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals (chaired by P. Levounis and K. Eckstrand); d) migrant mental health (chaired by M. Schouler-Ocak and M. Kastrup)1; e) individuals with intellectual disability and their mental health (chaired by S. Bhaumik)2; f) prisoners’ mental health (chaired by A. Forrester and M. Piper); g) mental health promotion (several short films about mental illness have been produced by A. Sharma). All these documents and films are available on the WPA website. World Mind Matters Day. September 5 of each year has been identified as World Mind Matters Day. In 2015, the WPA launched statements on migrant mental health. This had major implications as globally there are several million migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The Second World Mind Matters Day in 2016 saw the launch of our findings from a global survey covering 193 countries (which are member states of the United Nations) on discrimination against persons with mental illness. The WPA looked at discrimination against people with mental illness in four areas: political, social, economic and personal in the laws of each country. The levels of discrimination remain a cause of worry across the globe. Nearly one third of the countries do not allow people with mental illness to get married. Fewer countries provide supported employment or right to vote. As a result of these findings, the WPA produced a
World Psychiatry 16:2 - June 2017
Bill of Rights. Over 60 organizations around the globe have signed up their support for this. This Bill of Rights was launched in the House of Lords in London in October 2016. The logo of Blue Butterfly is the campaign symbol for Social Justice for People with Mental Illness3. A special issue of the International Review of Psychiatry4 has published these findings in details along with examples of minimum standards of service as well as good clinical practice5. Round table meetings. We had a very successful round table meeting on violent radicalization hosted by the WPA Collaborating Centre in London in October 2016 and another one on early interventions in psychiatry hosted by the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists in December 2016. These have been in addition to round table meetings in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico and Guatemala6. There was a follow-up round table on migrant mental health in Oslo in March 2017. Position statements. The WPA has launched several position statements which are available on the WPA website. These include those on migrant mental health in Europe (with Careif), on migrant mental health in Latin America (with the Latin American Psychiatric Association, APAL), on high quality training in psychiatry, on five reasons to be a psychiatrist, on gender identity and samesex orientation, attraction and behaviours7, on environmental sustainability, on recruitment in psychiatry, on suicide prevention, on preventive psychiatry, and on spirituality and religion in psychiatry8. Joint declarations on migrant mental health were launched following round table meetings in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Dominican Republic. Other statements included the Bucharest Declaration on Primary Care Mental Health (2015), the Manila Declaration on Mental Health Promotion (2016), the Kochi Declaration on Collaborative Care (2015), and the Tbilisi Declaration on Integrated and Collaborative Care (2016). On International
Children’s Day in 2016, WPA launched a Bill of Rights for Children and Young People. On International Women’s Day in 2017, WPA launched a position statement on perinatal mental health. Translations. As part of the Action Plan, it was agreed that papers from other languages should be translated into English. Papers from Spanish and Portuguese have been translated in special issues of the International Review of Psychiatry that have been published or are in publication9,10. Papers from Italian, Mandarin and Russian are being translated. WPA-Lancet commission on psychiatry. This commission has completed its data analysis and six writing groups were set up to explore and discuss these findings. The first draft of the report will be ready by September 2017 and the full report will be published in time for the World Congress of Psychiatry in October 2017. Diplomas in psychological medicine and in mental health. This initiative, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, aimed at psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, continues apace and we hope to have it ready later this year. WPA collaborating centres. These centres have been established in London (K.S. Bhui), Naples (M. Maj), Nairobi (D. Ndetei), Cape Town (D. Stein), Cairo (T. Okasha), Hong Kong (L. Lam) and Bangalore (S. Chaturvedi). Each centre is focusing on training, research or policy and will also act as repository for information for the region11. WPA goodwill ambassadors. WPA goodwill ambassadors have been identified in India and three major figures have agreed to take on this role which focuses on disseminating messages on mental health promotion. M. Agashe (psychiatrist and film actor/director); M. Shivani (a religious leader) and S. Oberoi (a Bollywood actor) have consented to take on this role. We are looking for goodwill ambassadors in other countries.
221
Dinesh Bhugra President, World Psychiatric Association 1.
2.
Schouler-Ocak M, Wintrob R, Moussaoui D et al. Int J Cult Ment Health 2016;9:21632. Bhaumik S, Kiani R, Dasari MM et al. Int J Cult Ment Health 2016;9:417-29.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Bhugra D. World Psychiatry 2015;14:254. Bhugra D. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:335-419. Bhugra D. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:342-74. Javed A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:191-2. Bhugra D, Eckstrand K, Levounis P et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:299-300. Moreira-Almeida A, Sharma A, Janse van Rensburg B et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:87-8.
9.
Villasenor-Bayardo S, Rojas-Malpica C, Romero A. Int Rev Psychiatry 2016;28:129-230. 10. Moreira-Almeida A, Oliveira e Oliveira F. Int Rev Psychiatry (in press). 11. Bhui KS, Fiorillo A, Stein D et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:300. DOI:10.1002/wps.20435
News from WPA Scientific Sections The current triennium has seen an increasing visibility of Scientific Sections as important and integral components of the WPA, especially in supporting the Association’s promotion and dissemination of scientific knowledge around the globe. We are now having 72 Sections and there is still an interest in having more of them to cover some other scientific sub-specialties. During the triennium there has been a noticeable increase in the number of WPA co-sponsored meetings, joint intersectional activities and other related intersectional accomplishments1,2. Sections’ participation in the recently held WPA International Meeting in Cape Town has been outstanding, with more than 26 sessions in the programme. The Sections also organized training workshops, round table discussions and educational activities in that well attended meeting. Scientific Sections have continued to produce position statements and discussion documents on important topics that correspond to their expertise. Adding these documents to the WPA website did generate a lot of interest among the WPA membership3,4. Several of these position statements have been published in World Psychiatry, such as those on spirituality and religion in psychiatry5; gender identity and same-sex orientation, attraction and behaviours6; and recruitment in psychiatry7. The Sections on Education and Early Career Psychiatrists have prepared a key document for promoting psychiatry as an inspiring medical specialty and as a prospective career for medical students. This work was presented in Sections’ business meeting at Cape Town. It is hoped that Sections will prepare further materials for promotion of psychiatry in undergraduate medical education and explore
222
innovative ways of engaging medical students to increase their interest in the specialty. There has always been an added value of the contributions from the newly established Sections. Current interest in promoting intersectional work is equally evident from activities of many of the new Sections. Furthermore, several Sections – including those on Early Career Psychiatrists, Education in Psychiatry and Transcultural Psychiatry – are actively involved in organizing teaching and training workshops aiming to develop leadership skills of young psychiatrists. The WPA Action Plan for 2014-20178 has continued to be a focal action point for many Sections’ activities. Sections have adapted the theme of promotion of mental health as a priority in their work along with initiating various programmes in the areas of preventive psychiatry by producing educational materials for the WPA website3. Whereas Sections enjoy a great degree of independence within the framework of the statutes and by-laws of the WPA, the relevant Operational Committee is considering some revisions in the bylaws that would make the work of Sections more in line with current needs and expectations. There have also been some initial discussions on clustering of Sections on the basis of common interests and activities. This will hopefully promote further collaboration and links among various Sections. As we are approaching our next World Congress, Sections are also preparing their triennium activity reports for the General Assembly along with plans for their new elections. We are encouraging all the Sections to involve younger members in officer and committee positions, to enhance
their enthusiasm for future contributions towards WPA’s work. Section officers and members are also contributing extensively to the WPA official journal World Psychiatry9-11. Their interest and participation in the development of the chapter on mental disorders of the ICD-11 is another ongoing effort to improve classification and nosology in psychiatric practice12-15. It is hoped that the current enthusiasm of Sections’ leadership and their committed work will keep on contributing to enhance the quality of scientific knowledge in different fields of psychiatry. Whereas this requires dedicated expertise, it is anticipated that the Sections will offer valuable additions to the profession’s changing perspectives. It is trusted that Scientific Sections will also continue with their current contribution to the development of pioneering approaches in psychiatric practice. Afzal Javed WPA Secretary for Sections 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Javed A. World Psychiatry 2015;14:255-6. Javed A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:191-2. Kallivayalil RA. World Psychiatry 2015;14:374-5. Riba M. World Psychiatry 2016;15:88. Moreira-Almeida A, Sharma A, Janse van Rensburg B et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:87-8. Bhugra D, Eckstrand K, Levounis P et al. World Psychiatry 2016;15:299-300. Shields G, Ng R, Ventriglio A et al. World Psychiatry 2017;16:113-4. Bhugra D. World Psychiatry 2014;13:328. Wahlbeck K. World Psychiatry 2015;14:36-42. Kasper S, Dold M. World Psychiatry 2015;14: 107-8. Young A, Colasanti A. World Psychiatry 2016; 15:239-41. Luciano M. World Psychiatry 2015;14:375-6. Gureje O, Reed GM. World Psychiatry 2016;15: 291-2. Jablensky A. World Psychiatry 2016;15:26-31. Maj M. World Psychiatry 2016;15:1-2.
DOI:10.1002/wps.20434
World Psychiatry 16:2 - June 2017
