Abstract Body

Mental disorders linked with the menstrual cycle, childbirth and the menopause are unique to women and have their specific requirements for identification, assessment, treatment and service provision as well as appropriately trained staff. Mental disorders that are linked to domestic violence, sexual abuse or victimisation and affect more women than men, also have their own specific requirements.

This is increasingly being recognized by policy makers and health care planners. In the case of perinatal mental health some countries have set up specialised inpatient and community services. In the UK this was followed by the development of National competencies for different professional groups and National training programmes. This project and the current clinical training in perinatal mental health for psychiatric trainees will be described. Nationally recognized qualifications are currently being developed.

Developments in other areas of women’s mental health appear less advanced. The presentation will discuss current guidelines and opportunities for training that are being offered in the UK and what we can learn from perinatal mental health for further development in these areas.

Abstract Body

In the world of medical education, there is generally a lot of emphasis on following procedure and tradition, and a reluctance to challenge the norm. It takes insight and courage to question traditional approaches and paradigms: why are psychiatric training programs done the way that they are?

Reverse engineering involves taking something apart and analysing its workings to figure out how it does what it does and how it can be improved. In education, reverse engineering implies one determines learning outcomes upfront and then works back from them. Applied to postgraduate psychiatric training, it requires us to determine the basic principles or core concepts resulting in the successful formation of a well-rounded psychiatrist.

In times of crisis there usually is more leeway to challenge the status-quo – hence the saying “never waste a good crisis”. Indeed, if the COVID-19 crisis has taught us anything, it is that education should be meeting learners where their attention is at, and that any healthcare organisation can be transformed within weeks when given the right incentives.

In this workshop, Dr. De Picker will reflect on how post-COVID European psychiatric training can reinvent itself to address long-standing concerns and unmet needs. Innovative approaches will be needed to start shaping the psychiatrists of the future.

Abstract Body

There is still substantial variation in the amount, structure and quality of child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) training across European countries, both in the training process of general adult psychiatry and CAP specialists. Inconsistency, scarcity and low quality of CAP exposure has been consistently identified by psychiatric trainees as one of major issues in organization of training.

In the decades of independence, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Latvia has witnessed a gradual decline in the number of CAP specialists in the country due to chronically low recruitment rates, that has subsequently led to a critical human resource deficit in the field, and rapid deterioration of availability and quality of CAP care.

Only since the year 2018, when the normative regulation, structure and contents of CAP training in Latvia have been significantly reformed, there was a change in recruitment trends, that gives hope for resolution of the human resource crisis in the CAP field in the years to come.

In this talk the author will share his experience of redesigning the CAP training program in Latvia, and discuss the motivations, challenges and successes one might face while trying to improve CAP training in a particular European country.