On a personal level, I have always looked for responsibilities and opportunities to shape and develop organisations and institutions of which I am part. With my national and international leadership positions, my EPA membership and my responsibility for the EPA Guidance Project, I feel it will be a challenge to bring in my expertise and experience to serve EPA as President.
On a professional level, EPA is a rapidly and successfully developing association. There is a need to continue, consolidate and amplify EPA's aims, objectives and actions in line with the EPA mission to "Improve Psychiatry and Mental Health Care in Europe." Starting with my proposal for and the development of a strategic action plan 2015-2016, we will now enter full force into its implementation, working for the harmonisation of Psychiatry in Europe towards a European Psychiatry, a strengthened EPA leadership and the accomplishment of various goals.
We are only 23 days into the New Year, and already good progress has been made on a variety of these goals.
• EPA has opened an office in Brussels for a stronger presence amongst the European institutions and for a better representation of European Psychiatry in the political arena.
• We have welcomed our 37th National Society/Association Member (Swedish Psychiatric Association) which helps to advance the process of developing EPA into a unified organisation by intensifying the dialogue with the Council of NPAs and by stimulating professional exchange across Europe.
• We are continuing the development of documents and tools for clinical guidance through the EPA Guidance Project. The 3rd series of EPA Guidance Papers will be published and released at the 23rd European Congress of Psychiatry in March.
• In order to exchange ideas with professional associations outside of Europe, we are starting a new collaboration with the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA). The first joint symposium will take place during the 5th World Congress of Asian Psychiatry (Fukuoka, Japan; 3-6 March 2015). The second joint symposium entitled "Europe meets Asia: Lessons to be learned" will take place on 30 March at EPA 2015 Vienna.
I will be pleased to work with you on these and other initiatives and will keep you up-to-date on the latest advances.
I would also like to take this occasion to invite you and your colleagues to attend the upcoming EPA Congresses:
• 28-31 March 2015 - Vienna (Austria) - 23rd European Congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2015 Vienna)
• 12-15 March 2016 - Madrid (Spain) – 24th European Congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2016 Madrid)
Finally, let me close by saying what a great privilege it is for me to serve EPA as its President. I look forward to our continued collaboration over the next two years.
Wolfgang Gaebel
EPA President
