european psychiatric association

Women's Mental Health

Section committee

KURIMAY Tamás KURIMAY Tamás , Chair
SUTTER Anne-laure SUTTER Anne-laure, Co-Chair
WIECK Angelika WIECK Angelika, Councillor
SöNMEZ Ekin SöNMEZ Ekin, First Other Councillor


Section mission

This Section's mission is to:

  1. enhance attention to gender-sensitive aspects of psychiatric research, education, treatments, and services
  2. promote and support research into gender and sex differences in all fields of scientific expertise
  3. foster the inclusion of women in psychiatric research and gender-sensitive handling of data
  4. encourage research topics of special needs and interest to women over the lifespan and women in different contexts and living situations
  5. improve education and training about gender-specific psychiatric knowledge
  6. disseminate information on topics pertinent to women’s mental health
  7. advance the development of gender-based effective psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and psychosocial treatments ad women-friendly services
  8. share information of different practices and legislation in different parts of Europe
  9. fight stigma and discrimination of women
  10. strengthen women’s empowerment, resilience, and positive mental health
  11. aspire to gender parity in the professional fields of research, practice, education and leadership roles in European psychiatry

Section objectives

  1. Presentation of information and activities pertinent to its mission within the EPA’s organizational bodies, meetings, and publications
  2. Collaboration with other EPA sections
  3. Collaboration with the WPA section of women’s mental health
  4. Networking with other organizations, with a focus on women’s issues within medicine and mental health, such as the Marcé Society and the International Association for Women’s Mental Health (IAWMH
  5. Organization of scientific and educational symposia, meetings, and curricula

Annual reports

Future Activities

other meetings

Future activities
Future activities
31 December 2024 - 31 December 2024 / Virtual and various meeting venues
Description :

Publications:

Book chapter on perinatal psychopharmacology for Seminars in Perinatal Psychiatry, Cambridge University Press.

Clinical Practice Update in perinatal psychopharmacology for the British Journal of Psychiatry

Prevention and Treatment Perinatal Mental Disorders Guidance (in Hungarian)

Perinatal Psychiatry. Medicine journal

 

Lectures:

Masterclasses of the British Association of Psychopharmacology, various courses and conferences in perinatal psychiatry and women's mental health.

PSF 2024 (Paris, France)

French Mother and Baby Units bisannual congress (Bordeaux, France)

 

Organizing any conferences 

French Mother and Baby Units biannual congress (Rennes, France)

Annual congress of the French Marcé society in Bordeaux, 30 may 2024

 

Other

Development of a cooperation with Euskadi (Spain) on training in perinatal psychiatry

Recommendation on perinatal psychiatry for the HAS (French Health Authority) finishing in 2024

other meetings

Webinar Series
Webinar Series
31 December 2024 - 31 December 2024 / virtual
Description :

FIRST WEBINAR SERIES

OF THE SECTION OF WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

WITH EPA SPONSORSHIP

BACKGROUND

The topic of women’s Mental Health is wide-ranging covering disorders unique to women and the many differences between men and women in the epidemiology and biopsychosocial causation of mental illness in general. It also includes differences in women’s and men’s experiences of mental disorders, how they respond to somatic and psychological treatments, their experiences of care delivered by mental health services and what they require from them.  

Based on the recent growth of research evidence it is being increasingly recognized that a gender/sex-sensitive approach to mental health is one of the most significant contributors to developing individualized or ‘precision’ mental health care.  

However, this awareness has largely not been translated into practice. Recent evidence shows that mental health professionals feel ill-equipped when they encounter gender/sex-related conditions or issues in their day-to-day practice and identify a lack of specific knowledge and skills (Rose et al 2011, Stanley et al, 2016, Bick et al 2017, Williamson et al 2020). At the same time, we also know from surveys that hardly any training is offered to mental health professionals and medical students on topics related to women’s mental health (Rose et al, 2011, Stanley et al, 2016, Bick et al, 2017, Potter and Feder, 2018, Arulrajah et al, 2018, Williamson et al, 2020, Casanova Dias et al, 2022).

However, our experience shows that whenever mental health professionals are offered ad hoc scientific or CME events in women’s mental health, they are oversubscribed, particularly among early career psychiatrists.

PLANNING THE SERIES

With this background in mind, we planned a pilot webinar series on Women’s Mental Health with the aim of enhancing awareness and knowledge of recent evidence and its application in clinical practice. The target audience was any interested psychiatrist or allied mental health professional across Europe and further afield.

Since EPA Sections do not hold their own budget the WMH Section obtained permission from the EPA Board to organize, put on and finance the events themselves but using the logo of the EPA to indicate sponsorship. We set up a small company called Mehlowa (Mental Health of Women : Awareness and Continuing Professional Development for European Psychiatrists) to manage any financial transactions.

We were also able to obtain a one-time grant support from the University of Cardiff to cover expenses for a webinar on postpartum psychosis.

TOPICS OF WEBINARS

We organized three events:

- Menopause - a neglected factor influencing women's mental health

Chair: Dr Angelika Wieck; Speaker: Prof Anita Riecher-Rossler

- Providing psychiatric care for Ukrainian refugees: early experiences with women and children

Chairs: Dr Liz McDonald; Dr Angelika Wieck; Speakers: Prof Meryam Schouler-Ocak; Prof Judit Balazs

- Postpartum psychosis: lived experience; research underpinnings; key implications for clinicians

Chair: Prof Ian Jones; Speakers: Dr Sally Wilson; Prof Ariana Di Florio: Dr Marisa Casanova Dias

                                  

                     

OUR EXPERIENCE

The webinars were very popular with several hundred colleagues registering for each event and up to 200 attending.  Two of the three events were free. When we made the last webinar available online post-event over 970 further colleagues accessed the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA2ug9EDs3k

Delegates gave enthusiastic feedback. 95-100% of their ratings of quality of the presentations were excellent or good and ratings of the organization were excellent or good in 89 – 98 %.

Comments included -

Great presentation on an important topic, very informative

I was very interested in this topic but I have never had the time to read about it and this webinar was informative and stimulating

Very moving account of experiences. Presenters have highly flexible approach to provide support for refugees. The q and a session added quite a bit of interesting information that didnt come out in the presentation, especially about how to maintain resilience in staff

Thank you very much for organising the webinar. It was really informative and I enjoyed it very much. I look forward to the next event.

Seeing forward to further webinars

I enjoyed the session. I wish it could have been longer I was really interested

Excellent topic and Speaker and one that has been very timely

THE FUTURE

Administrative and financial resources are an issue, but we are planning to simplify these and are hoping to commence a second series in the near future.