The UEMS Section of Psychiatry elected Dr. Marisa Dias as the new President
at the Spring 2022 meeting in Zagreb, Croatia.
Marisa, what was the first thought that came to your mind when you were confirmed as the new President of the Section?
I felt beyond grateful for the confidence of my colleagues to elect me as the new UEMS Psychiatry Section President.
Sir Isaac Newton’s famous quote came to mind “Standing on the shoulders of giants”. And luckily, I have an excellent group of Officers to rely on whom I look forward to continuing working with.
What best defines your mission and vision as President of the UEMS Psychiatric Section? What is top priority?
My aim is to continue the Section’s outstanding contributions to the work and reputation of UEMS. My vision is a Section with engaged members and engaged external stakeholders who together champion “Quality in Training and Practice.”
In the next four years, I look forward to progressing our
equality, diversity, and inclusion agenda,
engaging with members across Europe as well as new partners,
supporting the European Board Exam project,
and working to harmonise not only training but the human rights aspects of psychiatric practice.
The post COVID era, volatile geopolitics and a string of global crises meant demanding times for everyone. What do you think is the most challenging aspect, in terms of activities of the Section, for the next few months?
We are still living with COVID-19! These are indeed challenging times for everyone and will inevitably have an impact on the Section’s work. We will need to continue to work in our spirit of collaboration and inclusion.
When the pandemic started, we created a repository of COVID-19-related educational materials to help people in different countries to adapt to the changing situation. We also participated in advocacy campaigns and policy work to champion the interests of our patients. We have done this by making sure that the most up-to-date evidence was translated into policy. For instance, we advocated for people with severe mental illness to be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccines in line with the evidence that they were at higher risk of severe outcomes. This work, which we published in The Lancet Psychiatry , has been shortlisted for an award because of its impact. We continued to work with our colleagues from European psychiatric organisations, including patients and families, to develop policies to that effect, the most recent one published in the scientific journal European Psychiatry.
We have supported our colleagues directly and indirectly affected by the war in Ukraine, signposting to links and initiatives of interest and took a practical decision to donate money to a support fund. We regularly linked up with colleagues from EPA (European Psychiatric Association) and UEMS Child and Adolescent Section to ensure we’re united in our advocacy for colleagues in Ukraine. We held a plenary on support for refugees and asylum seekers at our last meeting and disseminated our Section document on ‘knowledge, skills and professionalism required for the care of refugees and asylum seekers’.
We’re very happy to have the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association attend our Section meeting as observers. This will help us better understand their needs on-ground and how we can meaningfully contribute to the speciality’s relief efforts.
Furthermore, UEMS-EACCME (the UEMS body that accredits educational events) has now adopted a flexible approach and will allow postponements or cancellations without costs of any event; and encouraged providers across Europe to allow free registration for Ukrainian colleagues.
You’ve had some presidential practice before, as you’re a past president of the EFPT (European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (2013-2014)) and current Secretary for the Women’s Mental Health Section of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA). Will your experiences from these roles influence your Psychiatry Section leadership?
I feel I have gained valuable experience inside and outside of the UEMS orbit, which I feel has moulded me into a President who is practiced in navigating mental health advocacy at national and international levels and to lead further impactful work that supports the promotion of excellent patient care across Europe.
This past decade of experience really helps, as I gained such priceless insight into dealing with issues related to diversity of training and practices across Europe. I became well acquainted with some of the challenges in policy making and the importance of respecting the diversity of cultures we have within Europe.
EFPT benefits from a particular position within the Section, not just because they’re dear to my heart, but also because they are fully integrated as Members with voting rights. And this is because trainees are naturally very critical stakeholders in issues of training, assessment, and education.
Relationship with our partner organisations is also very important, and I have worked very closely with a number of them on several projects and aim to continue that close collaboration in all areas of common interest. I am also keen to put patients and families at the forefront, to strengthen their presence in all our projects, especially the European Exam project.
Thanks to your initiative, the topic of diversity, equality and inclusion is broadly discussed within the Section. Do you have any other topics you’d like to incorporate to the Section’s business as usual?
In my previous role, as a Vice-President for CME, I identified serious biases in the events that we were accrediting. For example, only 14% of psychiatry eLearning module presenters are women. Which is a figure in correlation with what the academic community has come to realise – that during peak COVID, there were significantly lower number of publications put forward by women. We raised this with UEMS-EACCME, who have now included an assessment of equality, diversity, and inclusion in their criteria for the accreditation of educational events. We also held a plenary discussion at our Section meeting which attracted enthusiasm from our members and shared good practice examples that we have compiled in a repository.
Fortunately, the UEMS central is now also looking into the issues of diversity, equality and inclusion, with the help of a newly established Thematic Federation. Our Section will actively contribute to this group to not only address issues related to inclusion of people with mental illness, but also make sure that all medical training and continuous medical education takes it into account, regardless of specialty.
Are there any new initiatives in the pipeline?
We have a very active Section, which despite the challenges faced by all in the last couple of years, managed to remain responsive to events. The core business of our Section is about promoting the highest standards of care, by encouraging excellence in psychiatric education and training. This is done by contributing to the work of harmonisation, producing guidance, setting standards as well as monitoring how those are met. To recognise excellence, we are planning to launch the UEMS Psychiatry Excellence Awards and will be proposing this as a pilot for other medical specialties.
This is a way to recognise and further engage with our members, make our Section more visible and promote as well as reward good practices for the benefit of our patients.
Our Section is made by our members, who in exchange benefit from the amazing pool of shared learning we foster and essentially make it all happen. I’m sure new initiatives are coming – stay tuned!