Section Board

Davor MUCIC, Chair

Zvi ZEMISHLANY, Co-Chair

Umberto VOLPE, Secretary

Herbert SCHWAGER, Treasurer

Objectives

The overall objectives and goals of the Section are as follows:

• Demonstration of the TeleMental Health applications and their potential in various mental health settings by describing concrete clinical examples and applications inclusive novel strategies in the use of technology
• Enriching scientific and informative knowledge about opportunities of TeleMental Health services and its various applications
• Documenting new clinical related ideas and concepts in order to encourage mental health professionals to produce original and creative research subsequent to clinical work related to use of new technology
• Improved education of the professionals and psycho-education of patients and their family members via TeleMental Health provided supervision and education
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness through improved performance
• Provide new and innovative ideas regarding the accommodation of technology to current needs of mental health care users and providers in order to contribute positively to achieve the comprehensive development
• Promote and promulgate guidelines and standards for the ethical practice of TeleMental Health servicesDeveloping skills in mental health care delivery on distance through concrete examples of best practices worldwide
• Familiarizing mental health care providers and users with clinical and research achievements in the field of TeleMental Health
• Co-operating on global level through exchange of expertise and knowledge across the national boundaries

Activities

The activities of the section aim to facilitate networking as well as promote research, education and discussion about the use of telecommunication technologies in mental health care provision. It is crucial for the section to share experiences and research data and promote best practices and innovation in mental health delivery today. Furthermore, national and international projects are the aim of the section in near future.

The section has been launched at EPA 2011 and the first workshop has been hold at EPA 2011.

At International conference in Cambridge 6-8-th september 2011, the chair of the section presented telepsychiatry as the representative of the EPA TeleMental health section.

At WPA in Argentina the section collaborated with cultural psychiatry section and submitted the abstract accepted for presentation at the symposia held in Buenos Aires.

8-10-December 2011,at International psychiatric conference in Wisla (Poland), the chair of the section presented telepsychiatry on behalf of the EPA TeleMental health section.