Committee on Ethics
The EPA Committee on Ethics is responsible for giving its contribution to the EPA position statements on ethical subjects (migration, prisons, assisted suicide, psychedelics, transgender, racism), collaborating with the EPA National Psychiatric Associations to promote ethical standards in psychiatric research and care, organising events during the EPA congresses as well as during independent meetings relevant to ethical issues for psychiatry in Europe and actively gathering information through surveys on how ethics in psychiatry is being managed in Europe and elsewhere.
Committee on Ethics Members 2024
Prof. Meryam Schouler-Ocak - Chair
Germany
Prof. Eka Chkonia
Georgia
Prof. Silvana Galderisi
Italy
Dr. Luís Madeira
Portugal
Dr. Sofie Bäärnhielm
Sweden
Dr. Mariana Pinto da Costa
UK
Prof. Thomas Pollmächer
Germany
Dr. Goran Račetović
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Prof. Jerzy Samochowiec
Poland
Prof. Simavi Vahip
Türkiye
Activities
The EPA Committee on Ethics is conducting the following activities:
Creation and dissemination of the EPA Code of Ethics
Events
- Participation in lectures, interactive seminars or courses during National Psychiatric Associations’ local conferences
- Organisation of Ethical CME Courses during EPA European Congresses of Psychiatry
Publications
- Research article: Comparing the World Psychiatric Association and European Psychiatric Association Codes of Ethics: Discrepancies and shared grounds, European Psychiatry, Volume 67, Issue 1, 2024
- “Compulsory admissions of patients with mental disorders: State of the art on ethical and legislative aspects in 40 European countries“, European Psychiatry Journal, 63 (1), e82, 1–9”
- In June 2022, the EPA and the Committee on Ethical Issues issued a statement and call for action to raise awareness on the mental health consequences of the war in Ukraine: “The war in Ukraine: Raising the attention for mental health consequences and call for action“
Surveys
- Survey on Ethics in Psychiatric Practice to collect information from inpatient treatment settings of individual wards in psychiatric hospitals Europe-wide.
- Survey on “The Rights of People with Lived Experience of Mental Ill Health and Informal Carers”