CONGRESS REPORT OF 3rd INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON PREVENTIVE PSYCHIATRY

AND 4th PSYCHIATRIC CONGRESS OF EASTERN EUROPE

 

The Society of Preventive Psychiatry in collaboration with the Psychiatric Association for Eastern Europe and the Balkans and the Hellenic Psychiatric Association has organized the WFMH co-sponsored 4^th Psychiatric Congress of Eastern Europe www.paeeb.com and the 3^rd International Congress on Preventive Psychiatry in Athens on 12-15 November 2015 (Topics of congress: www.preventive-psychiatry2015.com).

All three organizers are member societies of the WFMH.

The congress was a great success.

Highlights were the following:

• A “five-minutes” panel discussion on “Dignity in Mental Health”, the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, coordinated by Prof. George Christodoulou, immediate Past President of the WFMH.

• Five symposia on Psychiatric Prevention:

• Genetic Psychiatric Counseling
• Prevention in Childhood and Adolescence
• Prevention in the Family
• Prevention in the Armed Forces
• Prevention in the Workplace

There was a wrap-up symposium at the end with a representative from each of the five symposia, coordinated by George Christodoulou

• A symposium organized by the European Psychiatric Association under the leadership of Wolfgang Gaebel, Manuel Carrasco and Nikos Christodoulou on the Mental Health consequences of the current economic disaster

• A symposium on the psychosocial methods of Prevention organized by Dimitris Ploumpidis

• Three impressive exhibitions of photographs and paintings:

• A photographic exhibition by Ms Dimitra Stasinopoulou on the issue of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan in the islands of Greece

• An exhibition of paintings by psychiatric patients of the Athens State Psychiatric Hospital, Daphni, organized by Ms Eleni Lazaki

• An exhibition of paintings and photographs by physicians – artists

• A film (“The double life of Veronica” by Krzysztof Kieślowski) with comments by psychiatrists Stelios Krasanakis, Nikos Tzavaras and Chrysi Yiannoulaki

• A key-note speech by Academician Prof. Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, President of the Serbian Psychiatric Association, a member society of the WFMH, on “Psychiatry in Eastern Europe and the Balkans”
• The Section of Preventive Psychiatry of the WPA played an important role in the congress. Section officers Nikos Christodoulou, Olga Karpenko, Jennifer Newton and Rodrigo Ramalho organized a special symposium of the Section
• The WFMH was represented by George Christodoulou, Mohammed Abou-Saleh and Spyros Zorbas, the EPA by Wolfgang Gaebel and Manuel Carrasco, the WPA by the Secretary for Sections Afzal Javed, the University of Athens by Prof. G. Polymeneas, Deputy Rector of the University and the WAPR by Afzal Javed.
  • An Administrative Meeting of the PAEEB took place during which there have been elections for President, President-elect and Secretary and the following have been elected :

  • President : Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, Serbia
  • President-elect : Nikos Christodoulou, Greece
  • Secretary : Louiza Veresie, Cyprus

• A special symposium on “Problems of mental health in Eastern Europe and the Balkans” under the leadership of Dusica Lecic-Tosevski and George Christodoulou had great impact. F. Elezi (Albania), P. Gökalp (Turkey), D. Lecic-Tosevski (Serbia), O. Karpenko (Russia), D. Ploumpidis (Greece) and L. Veresie (Cyprus) participated.

 

Prof. George Christodoulou