CORONAVIRUS & MENTAL HEALTH

ESCAP president calls for more collaboration with national societies

ESCAP president, Professor Dimitris Anagnostopoulos, calls for all national societies to come together, collaborate and combine efforts during this pandemic. In a sincere letter to ESCAP members, he describes the national societies as "the backbone of ESCAP". He goes on to say "We [ESCAP] have clear goals of being the leading force in European child and adolescent psychiatry. Our aims will be accomplished only with close collaboration with national member societies to configure common European visions, values and initiatives".

As coronavirus is preventing meetings throughout the world, we are aware that member national conferences are being postponed to 2021. ESCAP would like to draw your attention to the upcoming 19th International Congress of ESCAP 2021, from 27 – 29 June 2021 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Theme of the conference is: 'Networks in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry'. We encourage all members to be part of the ESCAP congress, just as we want to support and actively participate in their meetings, thus we would like to prevent organizing national conferences with overlapping dates. Contact us to advertise your meetings on our site.

 CORONAVIRUS AND MENTAL HEALTH IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT

We have a dedicated page on dealing with COVID-19 aimed at the public and professionals, with a resource page, position statement, resources in various languages, a newly launched publication page and a president statement. Please visit the pages for more information and if you have anything to contribute or to discuss matters concerning child and adoelscent psychiatry in your country, contact our editor. 

We want to build up a connected community where we can share advice and guidance on dealing with mental health during this pandemic, both for the public and professional healthcare providers.

 

 

 
2020 ESCAP Research Academy meeting going VIRTUAL
 
The Research Academy will be running a meeting on August 26-27th on the subject of "Innovative treatments in child and adolescent psychaitric disorders: from bench to bedside". The meeting was originally going to be held in Zurich in collaboration with the Swiss National meeting, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organisers have decided to still do the meeting but over an interactive Zoom group. To find out more and to take part please use the following link 2020 Research Academy.

 
It is never too early to start planning your future congresses. ESCAP is pleased to announce that our next congress will take place in Maastricht, The Netherlands on 27-29th June 2021. The ESCAP 2021 Congress theme in Maastricht will be: ‘Networks in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’. The congress website is up and running and more information will be added over the coming year. Check it out www.escap2021.eu
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ESCAP 2019 Vienna congress post-presentation interviews
Check out the post-presentation interviews from the 2019 ESCAP Vienna congress
Dr Dickon Bevington about mentalization and the AMBIT program for child and adolescent psychiatrists and allied professionals. We asked, what should these professionals keep in mind when working with 'hard to reach' youth? View his video interview. 
Professor Franz Resch on his key messages on environmental risk factors, emotional adaptation and parent-child interactions View his video interview
Dr Lucia Valmaggia on virtual reality and its potential use in treating psychiatric disorders View her video interview
 
 
ESCAP first and second residential courses
The first ESCAP Research Academy residential course was held in Catania, Italy on 2-5th October. The course was a huge success consisting of 28 participants from 13 countries. As a result, the organisers are now launching the second residential course on the 'Assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents' in Catania, Italy on the 30th Sept to the 3rd Oct 2020. More information will be available soon, meanwhile, read the report from the first course here.   
 
 
 

  • ECAP July issue

    Social distance and child development

    The articles presented in this July issue were written before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, however, findings from several articles resonate their impact even more so in todays situation. Maria Melchoir summarises several articles highlighting the importance of sociability and the quality of ties in child development, as well as the importance of the school system on a child’s social and psychological wellbeing, plus the role schools play in referring children to psychiatrists. Social distancing is becoming the norm in our societies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but we mustn’t forget the importance of social ties in early development and despite these new measures we must promote a safe and healthy environment for children to continue to interact with family, friends and educational staff.

     View the complete issue.

     
     

  • Did you attend the meeting and want to recap on what happened? Or were you unable to attend but want to find out more? ESCAP have put together a small congress report to summarise the key events, lectures, and board meeting outcomes for everyone to appreciate.
    Click to read the Congress Report.