WPA’s achievements 2005-2008: institutional consolidation, global impact, and Psychiatry for the Person

Midway on the third year of the triennium 2005-2008, it is useful to reflect on the emerging patterns of institutional achievement. To this effect, we can build on the ongoing evaluations of the current WPA Strategic Plan and Presidential Theme (Institutional Consolidation and Global Impact: Towards a Psychiatry for the Person) divided into major areas of WPA’s work.

GENERAL GOVERNANCE

A first in WPA’s record has been the WPA Governance Plans 2005-2008 1. It encompasses the Strategic Plan approved by the General Assembly in Cairo and the triennial workplans prepared by each of the members of the Executive Committee, Zonal Representatives, and chairs of Standing Committees and Institutional Programs. Yearly evaluations of the Plans fulfillment have been carried out.

The appointment of Standing and Operational Committees was an exercise in participatory governance involving a call for proposals sent to all our Member Societies. As a result, colleagues of very high professional experience and stature, including more women and representatives of all four WPA Regions than ever before, were appointed.

The Fourth Edition of the Manual of Procedures 2 was completed and then immediately posted on WPA Online. The Manual reflects amendments of the Statutes and By-Laws approved at the latest General Assembly as well as laboriously gained operational experience, and constitutes a major tool for enhancing institutional effectiveness and transparency.

The Standing Committee on Nominations, building on the recommendations of an ad-hoc taskforce, elaborated enhanced operational guidelines. The Committee has also recommended the establishment of an independent Electoral Commission and is exploring mechanisms for electronic voting. The Planning Committee has proposed a set of innovative amendments of the Statutes and By-Laws for the consideration of the General Assembly as well as a substantial Action Plan for the next triennium. The Ethics Committee has elaborated recommendations for enhancing our guidelines on challenging topics such as relations with industry and has also cooperated with the review of the World Medical Association (WMA)’s Guidelines for Ethics in Medical Research (Declaration of Helsinki).

The implementation of our Permanent Secretariat in Geneva has been completed. WPA News has grown in content and elegance. The WPA Directory has gained in clarity. Enhanced versions of the Informational Leaflet and Informational Booklet have been prepared. WPA Online, already informationally rich and punctually updated, is poised to achieve new capabilities as its administration moves in 2008 to the Secretariat. The General Survey for this triennium, now on its fourth edition, is completing a systematic appraisal of all WPA components’ performance.

WPA’s finances are in quite a good shape. The core budget is fully balanced and we enjoy a reserve fund of over half a million US dollars.

PROMOTION OF MEMBER SOCIETIES

The pace of leadership meetings with large as well as with grouped Member Societies increased substantially during this triennium, covering literally all world regions. In a related effort, the WPA President has visited each year over 20 national or regional congresses.

Zonal Representatives are increasingly prominent leaders in our Association, and they have produced outstanding workplans and annual progress reports. The reality and presence of our continental Regions achieved high marks. Through the dedication of the corresponding Zonal Representatives, they have held productive Regions meetings and are publishing electronic bulletins.

Also noteworthy has been the careful preparation of procedures for opening to all Member Societies the opportunity to bid for WPA International Congresses. Support for our societies in developing countries continued growing through sectoral activities and special programs. Large societies are using WPA as preferred channel for international initiatives and small societies are increasingly affirming themselves.

SECTORAL ACTIVITIES

In the Educational area, work on personality and depression programs have advanced substantially as well as that on curricular updating in collaboration with pertinent institutional programs. Particularly valuable is a recently expanded set of CME credits. WPA educational programs are being translated to various languages.

In the Publications arena, World Psychiatry has achieved international indexation and is now edited in English, Spanish and Chinese. Volumes on Evidence and Experience in Clinical Psychiatry, Images of Psychiatry in different world areas, Anthologies of Psychiatric Texts, and one series on Psychiatry for the Person continued growing. Steps have been initiated to establish co-publication agreements with Wiley-Blackwell, which promise to enhance substantially our publication capabilities.

Concerning Scientific Meetings, sponsored events take place across the world in the form of World, International and Regional Congresses and Conferences, and many meetings of relevant organizations are granted co-sponsorship. Efforts are being made to evaluate carefully our major events to increase their quality.

The WPA’s 65 Sections have been systematically evaluated. Stronger communication and publication tools are being prepared. Many Sections are individually prominent, as is the case of the Classification Section, which has established an impressive WPA Global Network of Classification and Diagnostic Groups collaborating with the development of ICD-11 and related diagnostic systems.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS AND TASK FORCES

Among the Institutional Programs approved by the General Assembly, that on Psychiatry for the Person (IPPP) has been particularly active. Their motto of promoting a psychiatry of, for, by, and with the person has been warmly received wherever presented. Its conceptual, diagnostic, clinical care and public health components have been quite productive. Specially noteworthy events have been the Conferences on Psychiatry for the Person in London, October 2007 (in collaboration with the UK Department of Health) and in Paris, February 2008 (in collaboration with our French Member Societies and European Zonal Representatives). A Geneva Conference on Person-centered Medicine has been organized for May 2008 under the auspices of the Geneva University Hospital and in collaboration with the WMA and six other major international health organizations. A Pinel Prize on Psychiatry for the Person: Articulating Medicine’s Science and Humanism has been established. The Book Series on Psychiatry for the Person includes volumes on Psychiatry and Sexual Health: An Integrative Approach 3, Recovery: Das Ende der Unheilbarkeit 4, Psychiatric Diagnosis: Patterns and Prospects 5. Additionally, a number of editorials and journal papers have been invited to introduce several IPPP aspects 6-12

The Institutional Program on Disasters and Mental Health has been instrumental in the preparation of a WPA-World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Statement 13 and the implementation of our Disaster Response plan which includes the coordination of Taskforces on the South Asian Tsunami, the Kashmir Earthquake, the North American Hurricanes, the Peruvian Earthquake and the Bangladesh Cyclone. The resources of the Section on Disasters and of a Disasters Fund have been also helpful.

The Institutional Program for Young Psychiatrists has continued to collaborate with the organization of Fellowship programs at several WPA major events. It is also assisting the establishment of the WPA Young Psychiatrist Council and the presence in WPA Online of the WPA Young Psychiatrists Network.

The Institutional Program on Perinatal Psychiatry and Infant Mental Health is increasingly collaborating with the Scientific Section of similar name. Also, it has recently engaged the corresponding units of WHO.

The Institutional Program on Asian Psychiatry and Mental Health is active through its efforts with regional developing countries and special attention to disasters and their psychosocial consequences.

Three special Task Forces have been established by the Executive Committee on Brain Drain, Mass Violence and Mental Health, and Physicians’ Health. They all have prepared substantial work plans and are in the process of implementing them.

COLLABORATION WITH THE WHO AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Cooperation with the WHO has been quite productive. In 2006, the WPA President and Secretary General paid a highly successful visit to J.-W. Lee, WHO Director General, C. Le Gales-Camu, WHO Assistant Director General for Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health, and B. Saraceno, Director of the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. The expanded WPA-WHO collaborative program currently includes the Atlas Project in its various versions, the Clinical Comorbidity Project, Disaster Response, and a series of WPA-WHO Joint Statements. Moreover, cooperation on classification and diagnosis includes joint efforts for the revision of the ICD Classification of Mental Disorders as well as for the development of a Person-centered Integrative Diagnostic Model and Guide.

The WPA and the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) signed in 2007 for the first time a formal inter-institutional agreement. In line with this, the WFMH leaders have offered lectures and symposia at each of our major congresses and the WPA President delivered the Mary Hemingway-Reese Memorial Lecture at the WFMH World Congress in Hong Kong. Collaboration has also included the WFMH World Mental Health Day and the WPA Program on Psychiatry for the Person, among several other projects.

Interactions with the WMA have included invitations for the WPA President to attend WMA Council Meetings and a General Assembly in 2007, as well as collaboration of WPA in reviewing WMA’s Declaration of Helsinki.

The World Federation of Neurology (WFN) is being represented by its President at two major WPA Congresses. They invited the WPA President to speak at the WFN Jubilee Congress in Brussels in 2007. Collaboration is focusing on articulating science and humanism.

The Presidents of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and WPA met for the first time in 2007 at our Melbourne International Congress. Collaboration is emerging on comorbidity and person-centered care. WPA is a full member of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS). Our leaders are participating in CIOMS Executive Committee Meetings and General Assembly. Working sessions with several of the above organizations and others such as the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation and the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry have taken place at our recent Con- gresses. Also important is the dialogal process we have started with a range of patient/user groups, including those critical of psychiatry. A WPA Thematic Conference in Dresden, June 2007 was a landmark in this regard 14.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The review outlined above documents the considerable fulfillment of the Strategic Plan 2005-2008 thanks to the dedicated work of all WPA components. It has become clear that WPA’s identity, institutional capacity, and global impact have gained in both depth and recognition. The Institutional Program on Psychiatry for the Person has earned the adherence of many WPA components and is attracting the attention of a number of international health organizations towards the exploration of person-centered medicine and health care.