APA’s Expertise in Global Psychiatry Reflected in Numerous Sessions

Part of APA’s organization is a council that recognizes the importance of international psychiatry domestically and abroad. Its members collaborate with psychiatrists, mental health systems, and psychiatric societies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and—especially—the World Psychiatric Association.

The APA Council on International Psychiatry has 25 members and works closely with APA’s Global Mental Health Caucus, which has reached nearly 900 members involved in different activities globally. Council members are distinguished academicians, residents, fellows, program directors, private practitioners, and APA past presidents whose work has resulted in over 40 submissions accepted by the APA Scientific Program Committee for the 2019 Annual Meeting. Among the topics to be discussed include migration, human trafficking, violence and cultural identity, deportation, climate change, refugees, asylum seekers, rural psychiatry, mental health issues in low-income settings, forced family separation, racial and ethnic diversity, and health disparities.

In addition to involvement in scientific sessions, council members will be working with international poster presenters and international medical graduates entering postgraduate training in the United States. The council will also be presenting the Chester M. Pierce Human Rights Award. Past recipients include Jeffrey Geller, M.D., Bryan A. Stevenson, J.D., Alfred Freedman, M.D., David Satcher, M.D., the Carter Center, the National Association for Multicultural Mental Health, Mental Disability Rights International, the Validity Foundation, the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs, and, of course, Chester Pierce, M.D.

The Council on International Psychiatry recognizes that a third of American psychiatrists are international medical graduates and that all psychiatrists in this country need to enhance their understanding of international issues, given the growing diversity of our patients. The best way to do that is by enhancing our training programs, for which the council is developing recommendations for a curriculum in global mental health.

Keeping in mind the diversity of our society and the worldwide mobility of people in the 21st century, APA is celebrating its 175th anniversary and the impact it has had not only in the United States but also on the international stage.

See sidebar for a sampling of sessions in which members of the Council on International Psychiatry are participating.  ■