Report on WPA activities in the triennium 2014‐2017

The WPA has delivered on almost all major aspects of the Action Plan 2014‐2017 as had been agreed and approved by the General Assembly in Madrid in September 2014.

• Public mental health. A curriculum and policy statements on the following topics have been produced: a) gender‐based interpersonal violence and mental health (chaired by P. Chandra and D. Stewart); b) children's physical, emotional and sexual abuse (chaired by G. Milovic and B. Leventhal); c) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals (chaired by P. Levounis and K. Eckstrand); d) migrant mental health (chaired by M. Schouler‐Ocak and M. Kastrup)1; e) individuals with intellectual disability and their mental health (chaired by S. Bhaumik)2; f) prisoners’ mental health (chaired by A. Forrester and M. Piper); g) mental health promotion (several short films about mental illness have been produced by A. Sharma). All these documents and films are available on the WPA website.

• World Mind Matters Day. September 5 of each year has been identified as World Mind Matters Day. In 2015, the WPA launched statements on migrant mental health. This had major implications as globally there are several million migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The Second World Mind Matters Day in 2016 saw the launch of our findings from a global survey covering 193 countries (which are member states of the United Nations) on discrimination against persons with mental illness. The WPA looked at discrimination against people with mental illness in four areas: political, social, economic and personal in the laws of each country. The levels of discrimination remain a cause of worry across the globe. Nearly one third of the countries do not allow people with mental illness to get married. Fewer countries provide supported employment or right to vote. As a result of these findings, the WPA produced a Bill of Rights. Over 60 organizations around the globe have signed up their support for this. This Bill of Rights was launched in the House of Lords in London in October 2016. The logo of Blue Butterfly is the campaign symbol for Social Justice for People with Mental Illness3. A special issue of the International Review of Psychiatry 4 has published these findings in details along with examples of minimum standards of service as well as good clinical practice5.

• Round table meetings. We had a very successful round table meeting on violent radicalization hosted by the WPA Collaborating Centre in London in October 2016 and another one on early interventions in psychiatry hosted by the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists in December 2016. These have been in addition to round table meetings in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico and Guatemala6. There was a follow‐up round table on migrant mental health in Oslo in March 2017.

• Position statements. The WPA has launched several position statements which are available on the WPA website. These include those on migrant mental health in Europe (with Careif), on migrant mental health in Latin America (with the Latin American Psychiatric Association, APAL), on high quality training in psychiatry, on five reasons to be a psychiatrist, on gender identity and same‐sex orientation, attraction and behaviours7, on environmental sustainability, on recruitment in psychiatry, on suicide prevention, on preventive psychiatry, and on spirituality and religion in psychiatry8. Joint declarations on migrant mental health were launched following round table meetings in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Dominican Republic. Other statements included the Bucharest Declaration on Primary Care Mental Health (2015), the Manila Declaration on Mental Health Promotion (2016), the Kochi Declaration on Collaborative Care (2015), and the Tbilisi Declaration on Integrated and Collaborative Care (2016). On International Children's Day in 2016, WPA launched a Bill of Rights for Children and Young People. On International Women's Day in 2017, WPA launched a position statement on perinatal mental health.

• Translations. As part of the Action Plan, it was agreed that papers from other languages should be translated into English. Papers from Spanish and Portuguese have been translated in special issues of the International Review of Psychiatry that have been published or are in publication9, 10. Papers from Italian, Mandarin and Russian are being translated.

• WPA‐Lancet commission on psychiatry. This commission has completed its data analysis and six writing groups were set up to explore and discuss these findings. The first draft of the report will be ready by September 2017 and the full report will be published in time for the World Congress of Psychiatry in October 2017.

• Diplomas in psychological medicine and in mental health. This initiative, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, aimed at psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, continues apace and we hope to have it ready later this year.

• WPA collaborating centres. These centres have been established in London (K.S. Bhui), Naples (M. Maj), Nairobi (D. Ndetei), Cape Town (D. Stein), Cairo (T. Okasha), Hong Kong (L. Lam) and Bangalore (S. Chaturvedi). Each centre is focusing on training, research or policy and will also act as repository for information for the region11.

• WPA goodwill ambassadors. WPA goodwill ambassadors have been identified in India and three major figures have agreed to take on this role which focuses on disseminating messages on mental health promotion. M. Agashe (psychiatrist and film actor/director); M. Shivani (a religious leader) and S. Oberoi (a Bollywood actor) have consented to take on this role. We are looking for goodwill ambassadors in other countries.

Dinesh Bhugra
President, World Psychiatric Association