The presentation will focus on elements of leadership that have been shown to be useful on local and more comprehensive levels. It will be based on experience gained in leadership positions in international and national organizations and during leadership and professional skills courses which were conducted in more than 40 countries over the past thirty years. Among the topics that will be addressed for discussion and further action will be the need to introduce leadership training in the course of postgraduate education and to provide career advice at the beginning and during early years of service.

None Declared

Stigma continues to be the main obstacle to the improvement of mental health care and to a life of good quality for people with mental disorders or with the experience of a mental disorder. It affects all that is related to mental illness, not only the person who has the disorder but also the institutions in which people with mental disorders receive treatment, treatment means, such as medications, staff working in mental health care and the family of the person with mental disorder.

Recent years have witnessed effective programs against stigma in various countries and it would be logical to expect that work against stigma will be a crucial part of mental health programs. This unfortunately is not the case.

The presentation will focus on interventions that have been successful in reducing stigmatisation or its consequences and propose action to reduce stigma.

None Declared

The comorbidity of mental and physical disorders is gradually becoming recognized as a major problem for health care. Its public health importance is vast and growing for a variety of reasons including the extension of life expectancy, the imperfection of currently available treatments of mental and many physical disorders and the tendency of fragmentation of medicine into ever more limited specialties. The problems related to comorbidity are also rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries where in addition to the issues mentioned above there is also a scarcity of means to deal with them.

The presentation will remind the audience of the complexity of the problems and draw attention to action that could be taken by public health authorities and the medical profession in the areas of teaching, organization of service and research.

None Declared

The UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities (UN CRPD) raised awareness of the need to find alternatives to coercion in the process of care for people with mental illness and/or mental impairment. In order to promote the application of the CRPD the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) has undertaken to produce a document listing possible alternatives to coercion and proposed to the General Assembly of the WPA to support the recommendations of that document by a WPA Position Statement on the matter.

The presentation will discuss the suggestions included in the Position Statement and in the review of options to reduce coercion in the WPA materials.

None Declared

The European Psychiatric Association (EPA) Summer School allows psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists (ECPs) from all over Europe to meet, network, and learn together. After the 2020 edition being cancelled due to COVID-19, the 10th edition in 2021 focused for the first time on research and was conducted remotely.

To provide an overview and feedback about the first Virtual EPA Research Summer School as a new way to encourage international networking during COVID-19.

The School was organized by the EPA Secretary for Education, and 4 Faculty members. It started with a “breaking the ice session” one week before and then a two-days meeting on 23-24 September 2021 using an online video-platform. This was preceded by all the 21 participants (from 18 different countries) recording a short 4-minute video presentation, which was uploaded and shared with other participants and Faculty.

Participants were divided on a voluntary basis into three working groups: 1) “Drug repurposing: overcoming challenges in pharmacoepidemiology” 2) “Psychopathological research in psychiatry”; 3) “How to conduct a cross-sectional survey?”. The Summer School program was composed of plenary sessions with lectures by the Faculty members, discussion sessions, and working groups time. At the end, each group presented a summary of the work done to the rest of the participants.

Although the remote format limits social interactions during the Summer School, overall participants’ high satisfaction and productivity indicate that not only online formats, but also the topic of research might be covered in future editions.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

There are several sets of skills first set of skills which psychiatrists should acquire before or as early as possible after starting their career. THe first of those are communication skills – including those of listening, speaking clearly and convincingly, negotiating and writing scientific and other types of documents. A second set of skills are those that will enable psychiatrists to understand and use legal documents and materials. The third set of skills that is likely to be useful are skills necessary to function as a physician. These sets of skills combined with the knowledge of the subject of psychiatry should help in building a career in any of the areas open to psychiatrists.. Yet, more important than any of the skills or bits of knowledge that a candidate psychiatrist should have to build a career and be happy with it are the motivation to do psychiatry and the acceptance of a style of work marked by empathy, willing acceptance of ethical principles of medicine and if at all possible infectious optimism. The above array of skills, knowledge style of work are not easily developed and those educating future psychiatrists should be careful in their selection of trainees and resourceful in the provision of training that will create psychiatrists who can advance the health of their patients as well as their discipline and will have a chance to live a rewarding life.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.

Compulsory admission procedures of patients with mental disorders vary between countries in Europe. The Ethics Committee of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) launched a survey on involuntary admission procedures of patients with mental disorders in 40 countries to gather information from all National Psychiatric Associations that are members of the EPA to develop recommendations for improving involuntary admission processes and promote voluntary care.

The survey focused on legislation of involuntary admissions and key actors involved in the admission procedure as well as most common reasons for involuntary admissions.

We analyzed the survey categorical data in themes, which highlight that both medical and legal actors are involved in involuntary admission procedures.

We conclude that legal reasons for compulsory admission should be reworded in order to remove stigmatization of the patient, that raising awareness about involuntary admission procedures and patient rights with both patients and family advocacy groups is paramount, that communication about procedures should be widely available in lay-language for the general population, and that training sessions and guidance should be available for legal and medical practitioners. Finally, people working in the field need to be constantly aware about the ethical challenges surrounding compulsory admissions.

To examine the factors that are associated with changes in depression in people with type 2 diabetes living in 12 different countries.

People with type 2 diabetes treated in out-patient settings aged 18–65 years underwent a psychiatric assessment to diagnose major depressive disorder (MDD) at baseline and follow-up. At both time points, participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the WHO five-item Well-being scale (WHO-5) and the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID) scale which measures diabetes-related distress. A composite stress score (CSS) (the occurrence of stressful life events and their reported degree of ‘upset’) between baseline and follow-up was calculated. Demographic data and medical record information were collected. Separate regression analyses were conducted with MDD and PHQ-9 scores as the dependent variables.

In total, there were 7.4% (120) incident cases of MDD with 81.5% (1317) continuing to remain free of a diagnosis of MDD. Univariate analyses demonstrated that those with MDD were more likely to be female, less likely to be physically active, more likely to have diabetes complications at baseline and have higher CSS. Mean scores for the WHO-5, PAID and PHQ-9 were poorer in those with incident MDD compared with those who had never had a diagnosis of MDD. Regression analyses demonstrated that higher PHQ-9, lower WHO-5 scores and greater CSS were significant predictors of incident MDD. Significant predictors of PHQ-9 were baseline PHQ-9 score, WHO-5, PAID and CSS.

This study demonstrates the importance of psychosocial factors in addition to physiological variables in the development of depressive symptoms and incident MDD in people with type 2 diabetes. Stressful life events, depressive symptoms and diabetes-related distress all play a significant role which has implications for practice. A more holistic approach to care, which recognises the interplay of these psychosocial factors, may help to mitigate their impact on diabetes self-management as well as MDD, thus early screening and treatment for symptoms is recommended.