The 10 WPA Collaborating Centres include 9 countries and are located in India, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Qatar, Hong Kong, Italy, Switzerland, UK. Our work to support the WPA Strategic Plan has recently been set out.¹ The work of the centres since 2016 has also been presented at WPA world congresses and publications.²⁻³ We run medical student and trainee essay prizes on behalf of WPA, and also share our respective webinars with the WPA family. New centres include a second in Chandigarh India, focusing on public mental health and prevention, one in Qatar progressing medical student education and training in low- and middle-income countries, as well as the most recent one in Switzerland. In this brief WPA Collaborating Centre Update, we share more of two centres, and hope to feature more of them in future newsletters. We welcome collaboration across WPA partners and other, so do please contact me or any of the Directors for further information and opportunities.

The WPA CCs are develop and deliver educational activities for mental health specialists around the world. This includes supporting medical students, nursing students, psychologists, psychiatrists, as well as experienced clinicians and practitioners working with WPA. We hope to provide a more interdisciplinary offer suited to high- and low-income countries.

The WPA CCS each lead programmes of research, to support evidence-based practice, including adapting interventions to local contexts. We promote wider awareness of the evidence among the public, politicians, policy makers, commissioners and practitioners. Our research activities include genetic studies, epidemiology in populations, clinical trials, and participatory research and co-design working with lived experience experts.

The WPA CCS also contribute to editorial work of national and international journals; we promote research integrity and editorial independence, and excellence in research cultures that promote equity, ambition, and success among early- and mid-career researchers and practitioners.

1. Fiorillo A, Azeem MW, Basu D, et al. The role of the WPA Collaborating Centres in promoting mental health education and policy worldwide. World Psychiatry 2025;24(1):151-52. doi: 10.1002/wps.21298
2. Bhui KS, Fiorillo A, Stein D, et al. Improving education, policy and research in mental health worldwide: the role of the WPA Collaborating Centres. World Psychiatry 2016;15(3):300. doi: 10.1002/wps.20360
3. Fiorillo A, Javed A, Azeem MW, et al. Education, policy and clinical care in mental health: an update on the activities of WPA Collaborating Centres. World Psychiatry 2023;22(3):495-96. doi: 10.1002/wps.21144

Please contact the Directors if you wish to participate or have suggestions or want to learn about their specific centres and how you can be involved.

Below you can see the WPA Centres from around the world, their representatives and read the latest news.