WPA Secretary for Education work plan
Authors: Roger Man Kin Ng
Journal: World Psychiatry (2018)

WPA vision is to advocate for “a world in which people live in conditions that promote mental health and have access to mental health treatment and care that meet appropriate professional and ethical standards, integrate public health principles and respect human rights”. To achieve the aim of ensuring equitable access to mental health care for people in different parts of the world, high-quality mental health education for professionals taking care of people with mental health problems must be provided. Driving sustainable changes in mental health services also requires collaborative partnerships with service users, carers, and other community stakeholders1, 2. Therefore, my WPA education vision is “Education for all: no matter who you are, where you are, and how you are, with a strategic intent to improve mental health of all people around the Globe”. Service users and carers, as well as the general public, should have access to evidence-based mental health information. With the assistance of Member Societies and early career psychiatrists, the WPA website will provide hyperlinks to websites with high-quality mental health information3. As of today, we have identified websites with this information in seven languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu. Another initiative is to form a work group to establish a simple guideline for Member Societies and interested individuals to standardize the translation of important WPA documents into major languages. A related project is to compile a list of recommended, evidence-based mental health apps for mobile devices through the support of the Section of e-Mental Health and other relevant WPA Scientific Sections. Besides, future WPA meetings will be expected to include free public forums for service users, carers and community stakeholders on topics of major concern to the host countries. A global survey of training provisions involving WPA Member Societies was conducted in 20174. The survey revealed that 30% of respondent countries provided less than 36 months of psychiatric training. A framework for psychiatric training has been developed and released on the WPA website5. The next step is to assist those countries to enhance their psychiatric training and education through different educational initiatives. Given that many psychiatrists with limited training are working in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), an online psychiatric education programme will be an important educational tool6. The WPA has recently collaborated with the University of Melbourne to develop a completely online diploma programme on International Psychiatry7. The syllabus aims at enhancing knowledge and skills in psychiatric and risk assessment, essential psychopharmacology, basic psychotherapy, and social and cultural psychiatry. Potential sponsors are currently being identified to provide scholarships for these target participants, particularly those from Member Societies with less than 36 months of psychiatric training. Collaboration with other regional psychiatric associations is also underway to promote this online programme. Apart from online education, face-to-face experiential training remains an important mode of education. A network of volunteer psychiatrists with different psychiatric expertise is now being developed in collaboration with major national psychiatric associations. The WPA will serve as a platform to coordinate continuous training and supervision by experts addressing the identified needs in the recipient countries, and to find potential sponsors to support travel and accommodation costs for the visiting scholars. Such travel fellowships have been found to be valuable in other medical specialties8. This programme is now under development in Asia in collaboration with the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA). Apart from supporting psychiatrists who have completed psychiatric training, the WPA is determined to support and develop talents for mental health at the start of medical career. In collaboration with the International Federation of Medical Students, a global survey on the psychiatric curriculum in basic medical education has just been completed. The survey results will inform the WPA on how undergraduate psychiatric curriculum can be enriched in medical school education9. The WPA also recognizes early career psychiatrists as our next generation in promoting the betterment of global mental health. Therefore, every work group on education will have at least one early career psychiatrist being involved as a regular member. Apart from having their voices and ideas being heard in these work groups, early career psychiatrists may also benefit from learning the leadership styles of senior members. Last but not least, future WPA congresses will endeavor to identify possible means to support medical students and early career psychiatrists to participate in educational symposia and academic exchanges. The educational needs of other professionals working in mental health will also be addressed. The aforementioned WPA online diploma also targets primary care doctors working with patients with mental health problems. Separate scholarships will also be identified for this target group of potential applicants. Furthermore, joint educational activities will be developed in collaboration with the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA). Given the high prevalence of common mental disorders in the community across the world and the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for these disorders, health professionals taking care of patients with these disorders in the primary care sector should be equipped with the relevant basic CBT skills10. Existing evidence-based CBT manuals targeted for health professionals at various levels of clinical experience in different languages will be identified. CBT therapists and supervisors from the relevant WPA Scientific Sections will be recruited to disseminate these CBT skills during their travel fellowships to LMIC and WPA courses organized in WPA meetings.