Welcome to the EPA 2021 Interactive Programme
The viewing of sessions and E-Posters cannot be accessed from this conference calendar. All sessions and E-Posters are accessible via the Main Lobby in the virtual platform.
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Fully Live with Live Q&A 
On Demand with Live Q&A 
ECP Session 
Section Session 
EPA Course (Pre-Registration Required) 
Product Theatre
Sessions with Voting 
Ask the Expert 
Live TV
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ECP0022 - Pro Perspective
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Abstract Body
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact not only on the ordinary lives of people worldwide, but also on the access to mental health care system. In particular, in the first months of the global health emergency, a drastic reduction in the number of access to healthcare system has been recorded. In the “Phase 1” of the emergency, the fear for the contagion, the strict containment measures and the lack of adequate information regarding the virus have been listed as possible factors contributing to this phenomenon. In the “Phase 2”, mental health care has been completely reorganized in order to compile with requirements for physical distancing and reducing overcrowding. The visits in outpatients’ units have been rescheduled, healthcare professionals have received information regarding the adequate use of protective personal equipment and patients have learnt how to protect themselves. Furthermore, telemental health approaches have been fostered worldwide, although several obstacles still persist such as the lack of adequate training for healthcare professionals for using telemental health instruments, the uncertainties regarding the legal implications of telemental health and the difficulties for older patients to access those systems. During this critical period, mental healthcare systems have been proven to be resilient. The pandemic has speed up the process of transformation of mental health care system and we are learning how to further improve the system in order to sustain these changes in the long-term.
ECP0023 - Con Perspective
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Abstract Body
Psychiatry is facing major challenges during times of a pandemic as illustrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges involve its actual and perceived role within the medical system, in particular how psychiatric hospitals can maintain their core mission of attending to the mentally ill while at the same time providing relief to general medicine. Although psychiatric disorders are the top leading causes of global burden of disease, we can witness mental health care being de-emphasized in the wake of the massive onslaught of the pandemic: psychiatric wards are being downsized, clinics closed, psychiatric support systems discontinued etc. in order to make room for emergency care. While nobody can deny the need to act decisively and swiftly and ramp up intensive care readiness, we believe that there is no need to do this at the expense of psychiatric care. Using the pandemic COVID-19 contingency plan developed at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital of LMU Munich as a case in point, we demonstrate how a psychiatric hospital can share in the acute care of a health care system facing an acute and highly infectious pandemic like COVID-19 and at the same time provide for the mentally ill, with or without a COVID-19 infection, and develop mid and long-term plans for coping with the aftermath of the pandemic.
Live Q&A
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