(English) Activities & Initiatives

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Functioning

The Early Career Psychiatrist Committee (ECPC) is made of five people, selected among the most active and proficient European early career psychiatrists. Their participation to the Committee’s activities is totally made on a pro bono basis. When a member reaches the age of 40 years or ends his/her triennial mandate, another member is appointed.

The ECPC physically meets twice per year: one meeting is usually scheduled within the EPA Congress days; the other one is usually held in early Autumn, at EPA Headquarters in Strasbourg (France), at the presence of EPA Leaders (President or Chair of the Committee on Education of EPA). During such meetings all major decisions concerning EPCP functioning are taken and the scientific tracks for young psychiatrists are designed, to be forwarded to EPA Executive Committee for approval. Besides physical meetings, the ECPC meets virtually a couple of time per year to further refine educational goals and monitor

Activities

All major activities of ECPC are planned for the next triennium. A short version of ECPC action plan 2011-2013 is provided here.

For this triennium, four different task forces have been appointed. The chairpersons for each Task Force are listed below:

  1. Meetings and Associations (Umberto Volpe, Italy) contact me
  2. Professional Development (Alexander Nawka, Czech Republic) contact me
  3. Publications (Amit Malik, UK) contact me
  4. Research (Martina Rojnic Kuzman, Croatia) contact me

Initiatives

Along the last years, Early Career Psychiatrists Committee has been involved or has supported several research, editorial and educational activities dedicated to European young psychiatrists.

Educational initiatives

  • Forum of European Young Psychiatrists: A special Forum named “New Directions in Psychiatry”, is going to be organized in Sorrento, Italy on 23-25 May 2012, under the auspices of EPA. The Forum will cover the most salient aspects of our discipline, which are likely to change in the upcoming years and will probably constitute the most relevant items of an early career psychiatrists’ agenda for the next decades. The Forum will also include the 2012 EFPT Forum. For more detailed information, please see the first announcement of the Forum.
  • EPA Summer School: The first EPA Academia Summer School on Comorbidity between mental and physical disorders was organized on July 6-10, 2011 in Nice, France. The Summer School was aimed at developing skills to recognize physical comorbidity and at managing patients with both physical and mental disorders in practice. It was directed to 25 European psychiatrists and other medical specialists, within or 2 years after their specialization. For more information, please visit the Summer School web page.
  • Young Psychiatrists Network meeting: The second meeting of the Young Psychiatrists Network was held in Riga (Latvia) on April 6-8, 2011. Around 100 participants, mostly from Eastern European and Scandinavian countries, participated into the meeting and ECPC representatives were invited to describe the EPA activities for Early Career Psychiatrists.
  • AIMHP Courses: In the year 2010, a course aimed to develop leadership skills was organized in Italy for 20 early career psychiatrists, in collaboration with the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes (aim-mental-health.org). Fololow-up educational workshops are planned, covering all Italian regions, in the upcoming months. A detailed report of the educational event is available here.
  • Mentoring Programme: The EPA Alumni-Mentors programme is an educational activity organised by EPA, in order to facilitate the contact between selected junior members of EPA (”alumni”) and international experts in different fields of psychiatry (”mentors”), identified among the leaders of the Association. The programme includes a face-to-face interaction during the European Congress of Psychiatry (the “Alumni-Mentors Luncheon”) and a further follow-up, based both on e-mail contacts and first person meetings.

Scholarships

  • Within each European Congress of Psychiatry, a scholarship programme for Early Career Psychiatrists and trainees provides grants (which include travel assistance, hotel accommodation for 4 nights, complimentary congress registration, complimentary registration for 1 CME Course, 1 year free EPA membership) to selected participants. The selection process usually takes place in the Autumn months, preceding the European Congress of Psychiatry. Please check the Prizes & Awards web site for further information.

Surveys

  • Psychiatric Training Questionnaire (PTQ): The EPA Early Career Psychiatrists Committee is performing a study on difficulties and perspectives related to psychiatric training residency.