Welcome to the EPA 2022 Interactive Programme 

The resilience process received much interest in mental health, where you gain from negative experience instead of getting worst. The concept has now broaden to encompass all aspects of positively dealing with stressful situations. We all had a vivid and concrete experience with COVID-19 and associated seclusions, but patients with mental disorders were especially at stake for many reasons. The first speaker, Pr Andrea Fiorillo, the EPA treasurer, will describe how the Italian population managed, and how efficiently some subjects were able to cope. Stress is also part of life, especially of work life. Working in the field of mental health is very rewarding because of the importance of the demand and the pleasure to help those that need it most, but this work is also associated with negative aspects such as frustration and grief. The president of EFPA will share with us why wellbeing in mental health workforce matters and how to develop it. Childhood trauma is much more invasive and deleterious source of stress, frequently constituting the ground for later mental health diseases. But once again, if detected early, and if efforts are really invested in prevention strategies, Doctor Eleni Karayianni will demonstrate that resilience is not only possible but also feasible. Because psychiatry is at the border of so many aspects, it is important to understand how our genes are involved in such resilience process. In this regard, we will have a nice example developped by Doctor Boris Chaumette of how our genetic material explains why some ultra-high risk patients switch, or do not switch to schizophrenia.