Welcome to the EPA 2022 Interactive Programme 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an important impact on mental healthcare worldwide. This led to a change in the daily life and working conditions for many psychiatrist and psychiatric trainees. Next to the implementation of the rules on social distancing and teleconsultations, the COVID-19 pandemic required adaptations to psychiatric education practices. Since the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to an increase in mental health problems, an adequate psychiatric training is of the utmost importance. In this symposium we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric education across Europe. This symposium encompasses presentations of surveys led by the European Psychiatric Association Early Career Psychiatrists Committee (EPA-ECPC) and the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT). Tomasz Gondek and Asilay Seker will discuss the final results of an EPA-ECPC and EFPT led questionnaire among early career psychiatrists taking both the General Adult Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry perspective on COVID-19 into account.

The issues of involuntary treatment in psychiatry have been the subject of a new round of legal, ethical and clinical discussions both within the professional community and in society since the publication of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities authoritative interpretations. The symposium will present general data on the involuntary admission procedures of patients with mental disorders in 40 European countries, but also focus on what changes early career psychiatrists can make in their clinical practice to implement alternatives to coercion in mental health care, as well as efficacy of interventions to reduce coercive treatment in mental health services. The symposium will also focus on the less studied topic of involuntary hospitalization in children or adolescents, and will attempt to answer the question of whether the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in the use of involuntary treatment in psychiatry. As an outcome of the symposium, attendees will become more familiar with both the general aspects of current involuntary psychiatric practice in Europe and those practical changes that clinicians can implement in their practice to continue the efforts to reduce coercion in psychiatry.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder connected with life-long persistent difficulties with social communication and social interaction in the presence of repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities. The prevalence of the ASD has been steadily growing as a result of increased scientific interest, various changes in diagnostic criteria, improved availability of the services and variety of awareness programs. Onset of the ASD occurs in the early childhood, however a number of comorbidities beyond the scope of mental health can be present throughout the lifespan. Only recently the focus of researchers and clinicians has been directed to adverse effects of the disorder on adult lives. According to published studies, 4 in 5 adults with ASD report difficulties in accessing proper diagnostic services. It is diagnosed more commonly in males, however differences in presented symptoms according to sex may contribute to blurring the wider epidemiological perspective. The workshop is designed to enhance knowledge and practical skills of Early Career Psychiatrists to understand the course of this disorder and manage patients with ASD in a holistic and individual manner, addressing at the same time existing gaps in the educational curricula. An international survey has been designed to assess the capabilities of ECPs in managing ASD in adults and the results of the study will be presented. The speakers will discuss the most crucial issues raised by the ECPs, from diagnostic difficulties in adults and differential diagnosis, through differences between males and females with ASD, psychoeducation, to potential treatments.

The pandemic has caused major disruptions to psychiatric training programmes and therefore trainees across Europe. A particularly vulnerable group has been the senior trainees transitioning to specialist roles during this uncertain and highly challenging period. While trainees had to go through major difficulties with completing their clinical, academic and leadership requirements, trainers also struggled to find adaptive methods to ensure good quality training and clinical exposure. In this workshop we aim to bring together junior specialists with senior training leads to offer top tips to facilitate a smoother transitioning from trainee to specialist roles with or without the pandemic. The target audience will be psychiatric trainees as well as young specialists and academics. The Workshop will offer the enriching insight from Dr O’Loughlin who is leading one of the best reviewed psychiatry schools in the UK who will interactively discuss the projects they developed to maintain and improve training throughout the pandemic in a very severely affected western European country. Dr Kuzman will then share ways to manage academic activities and mentorship for psychiatric training despite the pandemic and discuss their learning outcomes with the Workshop participants. We will also hear from Dr Seker and Dr Zaja who themselves had to go through this transition during the height of the pandemic and are heavily involved with initiatives for European psychiatric training including the EFPT, EPA-ECPC, ESCAP and UEMS. Dr Seker will speak about how to maintain research involvement despite the disruption of the pandemic and interactively discuss methods to create new trainee-led training opportunities locally and on a European scale. Dr Zaja will recount his local and international experience going from the chief specialty trainee to the start-up specialist and focus on the clinical aspects of the process in a central European setting. The workshop will offer a lively, interactive experience overall and bring different perspectives from speakers with backgrounds as trainees, trainers, clinicians and academics.

Stigma attached to mental disorders represents a significant obstacle to the recovery process of affected people. Furthermore, stigma and stigmatization have a detrimental impact also on patients’ family members and caregivers as well as on mental health care professionals. Due to stigmatization, the physical health of people with mental disorders is very often overlooked and healthcare providers are not keen to take care of patients with severe mental disorders. Therefore, it has been repeatedly claimed the need to challenging stigma attached to mental disorders. Several initiatives have been promoted worldwide, aiming to change levels of knowledge, behaviours, attitudes in the general population. In this symposium, the long-term experience carried out in UK with the Time To Change programme will be presented as well as the results of a similar Antistigma campaign promoted in Czech Republic. Early career psychiatrists will actively participate in this symposium highlighting the role of digital tool in challenging stigma as well as the impact of stigmatization on their career.

" Early career psychiatrists often face the choice of devoting their careers to clinical practice or to academic practice. Meanwhile, in recent years, more and more educational projects have been initiated by early career psychiatrists, which makes improving scholarly communication skills especially important, and will attract new early career psychiatrists to the Academia. While the benefits of working in the clinic are obvious, this symposium will focus on the aspects of research and academic practice that every early career psychiatrist who turns to the academy faces. The symposium will successively cover several important aspects of building an academic career in psychiatry - the productive use of available resources; the challenges an early career psychiatrist may face in academia and how to deal with them; useful tips on how to begin to prepare a publication; and the importance of building a network of academic contacts and using digital technologies for doing cutting edge research. The knowledge gained in this symposium will greatly improve the basic training of early career psychiatrists with little experience in research, and will hopefully inspire those who are still inexperienced to begin their own research."

Mariana Pinto da Costa will present the preliminary findings of the barriers of professional development of early-career psychiatrists survey. Ozge Kilic will present the comparison between males and females in the Barriers of Professional Development early career psychiatrists survey. Dr. Helen Fisher will address the ‘ask me anything sessions’ that are regular and open to any staff/students at King’s College London. interesting concept of having an open door and promoting the development of colleagues early in their careers. Last but not least, it will be interesting to hear Prof Norman Sartorius talk about what one should not do in their career to thrive.

Although psychiatrists and neurologists value close collaboration, their areas of interest and professional skills differ. Besides, among other psychiatric disorders, Alzheimer's disease has a rather unclear position. So the questions of whether Alzheimer's disease is a neurological or a psychiatric disease and the branch of physicians who will treat dementia are still relevant. Two discussants will present their points of view to broaden the joint discussion on dementia and treating physicians