Collaborative opportunities for psychiatric trainees and young psychiatrists in Europe: The Early Career Psychiatrists Committee of the European Psychiatric Association

Dear Director,

In the past century, biological, psychological and social sciences have brought significant progresses to psychiatry, building it is a broad medical specialty, closely linked to somatic medicine, psychology and society. Many psychiatrists early in their career have understood that it is easier to face these challenges in a collaborative way, and therefore there has been in the last decades a growth of local and national associations of psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists across Europe.

In 2007, the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) has integrated in its programme the “Young Psychiatrists Committee”, an informal network of young psychiatrists, most of them past representatives of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT). This Committee since 2010 has been known as the Early Career Psychiatrists Committee (ECPC).¹

EPA has been making remarkable efforts towards supporting early career psychiatrists’ education and participation in scientific congresses, promoting their professional growth and integration into the international professional community. Likewise, early career psychiatrists contribute to EPA with their motivation, enthusiasm and creative ideas, proving this initiative as an effective win-win cooperation.

Why the early career psychiatrists committee?

You may consider joining the network of European Early Career Psychiatrists if you are a trainee in psychiatry, or if your work experience does not exceed 5 years from completion of professional training or your age is under 40. Your membership in the network will promote fruitful cooperation with other young psychiatrists sharing similar education and research interests. EPA promotes early career psychiatrists in developing networks, mentoring, and academic opportunities. Furthermore EPA provides young psychiatrists with an opportunity to voice their opinions in regard to training, research and practice standards as well as empowering them in their professional development and career progress.

Activities

The ECPC activities include four task forces – research, publications, professional development, and meetings and associations.

The “Research Task Force” aims to promote international scientific projects in European countries and to facilitate young psychiatrists to develop research skills. The task force has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, it provides assistance to find necessary resources to launch research activities.

The “Publications Task Force” focuses on various online educational materials posted on the EPA official website. One major outcome has been the publication of two books written by early career psychiatrists.

The “Professional Development Task Force” cooperates with different organizations to hold courses, workshops, seminars and other educational activities, such as the Gaining Experience Programme. In addition, the Task Force conducts relevant surveys to assess young psychiatrists’ needs.

Last, but certainly not the least, the “Task Force on Meetings and Associations” collaborates actively with other organizations such as the Early Career Psychiatrists Section of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT)² and the Young Psychiatrists’ Network (YPN), contributing to liaise with other early career psychiatrists, inviting them to participate in the EPA Congress and in other collaborative professional meetings and events. It also represents the ECPC in meetings, such as the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), and has been promoting ECPC activities in our partners’ newsletters.

Opportunities

The ECPC objectives also include organizing a high-quality scientific track for early career psychiatrists within the annual EPA Congress, where young colleagues have the opportunity to share ideas, experiences and to inspire others. We are proud to see that many world-known senior psychiatrists enjoy greatly participating in these activities. Also, since 2007 a scholarship programme has been initiated for European early careers psychiatrists, supporting their registration, travel and accommodation expenses.

ECPC is proud to promote the “Gaining Experience Programme”, a short observership placement of between 2 and 8 weeks in various psychiatric institutions across Europe, offered to those that have finished their psychiatry training already, supporting with scholarships for those selected.

If you are an Early Career Psychiatrist, ECPC warmly invites you to join our network by subscribing to the Early Career Psychiatrists mailing list. By doing so, you will receive information about our activities as well as other exciting projects and programmes aimed at early career psychiatrists. We would be very honoured if you keep in touch with us. If you are interested, please contact: http://[e-mail]

The ECPC is always open to being contacted by Early Career Psychiatrists who are willing to contribute to develop activities intended for young psychiatrists. Further information is available at www.europsy.net/what-we-do/early-career-psychiatrists/.