Report on the WPA Action Plan at the end of the triennium 2017‐2020
Authors: Helen Herrman
Journal: World Psychiatry (2020)

One of the tests of an organization is its response in a crisis. As we review the current triennium, the world is experiencing turmoil and change with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As governments struggle to support and stabilize the health systems and economies in countries, psychiatrists and their colleagues in the health professions face extraordinary challenges. WPA's work over the last three years has been guided by a strategy for expanding the contribution of psychiatry to improve mental health for people across the globe1. We have emphasized working with women and men living in adversity, and those with long-standing mental illnesses and psychosocial disabilities and their caregivers; and the role of psychiatry as a discipline central to medicine and health care and vital to sustainable development in each country2, 3. The emergency we now face draws on these perspectives, the work we have done, and the new face of the WPA over the past three years. Mobilizing for the emergency response began in March 2020. We founded the Advisory Committee for Response to Emergencies (ACRE) to facilitate practical and concrete aid to Member Societies in need, as well as foster education, information collection and the development of local, national and international strategies to cope with the mental health consequences of emergencies. We established an emer-gency assistance fund in April 2020 and in May provided funding to colleagues in Nepal for outreach services to support child and adolescent mental health. We have since, for example, provided aid in cash and in-kind for personal protective equipment in Ukraine and other parts of the world. Our online library of COVID-19 mental health resources (www.wpanet.org/covid-19-resources) has developed rapidly, with the support of WPA Member Societies and Sections. It provides access to the resourc-es curated by them and other trusted part-ners, with materials in several languages. Accelerated development of the WPA education portal and learning management system has promoted the launch of new education and training modules to support the emergency response. The first of these modules supports psychiatrists in using e-mental health tools. The portal also gives ready access to WPA's existing training materials, including the International Competency-Based Curriculum for Mental Health Providers on Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence against Women, available in several languages4. During the triennium, the WPA has work-ed closely with people with lived ex-peri-ence and their families, has built gen-der and geo-graphic diversity in its leadership and scien-tific face, and engaged with international or-ganizations and policy-mak-ers. The Action Plan has provided a clear strategic intent that is framed by and builds on three char-acteristics. WPA's ability to promote sustainable change in our field of work – in the midst of an emergency or at any time – depends on two main factors. The first is the capacity to collaborate successfully with other organizations. The second is its potential to engage psychiatrists in new challenges. The WPA has engaged in both these endeavours and has been fortunate in the support received from its Member Societies and all other components, its Secretariat and consultants, and from the new sources of philanthropic and development support we set out to attract. Just as fortunate is the message of continuity, as the preparation for the new triennium encourages the extension of current initiatives, including the emergency responses.