President’s Season’s and New Year’s Message 2026

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The year 2025 has been marked by resilience, collaboration, and a renewed commitment to advancing global mental health. Guided by the WPA Action Plan 2023–2026 and the EDIT principles—Equity, attention to Developmental stages, Inclusivity, and Transcultural Awareness—the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) has responded with purpose and responsibility to a rapidly changing world.

As profound crises and armed conflicts continue across many regions, protecting and promoting mental health remains a global priority—particularly for traumatised populations, most notably children and young people. Throughout the year, the WPA, through its Scientific Sections, the ACRE Committee, and the dedication of individual members, has provided both online and in-person training and supervision for professionals supporting survivors of violence, torture, terrorism, and war-related atrocities.

At the same time, the WPA has strengthened its collaboration with the World Health Organization. The societal and economic impact of mental disorders underscores the need for sustained governmental investment proportionate to their prevalence and burden. Equally vital is the optimisation of existing services and the alignment of efforts around a shared vision of integrated brain health.

Within this framework, the WPA Action Plan 2023–2026 seeks to enhance the mental health of patients, psychiatric professionals, and the wider public by empowering psychiatrists to prioritise communication, prevention, international cooperation, and renewed leadership within society. Through collective engagement, we extend beyond the boundaries of psychiatry, promoting mental well-being through healthy lifestyle choices, as reflected in the WPA Healthy Lifestyles Hub.

Education remains essential to improving the quality of care and meeting the growing global demand for excellent psychiatric services. Accordingly, the Action Plan emphasises the implementation of evidence-based treatments through the Specialist Corner, which translates scientific advances into clinical practice.

The first series of Specialist Corner sessions—made possible by the contributions of more than sixty experts—was held during the WPA’s 25th World Psychiatric Congress in Prague in 2025. Core diagnostic areas, including affective disorders, intellectual disability, substance use disorders, schizophrenia, and other psychoses, were addressed by leading specialists. These sessions were complemented by seven Expert Groups, which delivered follow-up webinars offering diverse perspectives on major diagnoses from the viewpoints of culture, comorbidity, public mental health, lived and family experience, ethics and law, digitalisation, physical exercise, and healthy lifestyles.

The WPA Executive Committee, Board, and Council served as the Scientific Committee and played a decisive role in shaping the outstanding scientific programmes of the World Psychiatric Congresses in Mexico (2024) and Prague (2025), in close collaboration with local host member societies and in accordance with the EDIT principles. The WPA Scientific Sections also made invaluable contributions, delivering more than thirty high-quality State-of-the-Art lectures.

The WPA further expanded its highly successful Medical Students Essay Competition in collaboration with the United Nations Secretariat, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development Goals. This year’s theme—Reducing Inequalities and Promoting Inclusion to Improve Mental Health—invited medical students worldwide to propose innovative, equity-focused solutions aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10.

The WPA remains deeply committed to advancing psychiatric knowledge through its flagship journal, World Psychiatry. For the tenth consecutive year, the journal ranks first in Psychiatry and among the top five journals across all clinical medicine disciplines. Published in ten languages, it continues to be the most widely circulated psychiatric journal worldwide, reaching mental health professionals in every region.

Over the past year, the WPA Secretariat has worked with exceptional dedication to launch the new WPA website and Educational Portal, further enhancing global access to education, collaboration, and shared resources.

I extend my sincere gratitude to the Executive Committee, Board, Council, Scientific Sections, Collaborating Centres, committees, working groups, National Psychiatric Associations, and individual members for their unwavering commitment throughout 2025. Despite the challenges posed by a reduced Executive Committee, a stable and reliable economic foundation for the WPA was secured. I also wish to express my special thanks to Dr Saul Levin, who resigned from his role as Secretary General due to health reasons, and whose contributions are deeply appreciated.

The vision of global psychiatry transcends borders. It embraces cultural diversity, strengthens shared responsibility, and recognises the unique challenges faced by different regions. Together, we will continue to build resilient and inclusive mental health communities, create safe spaces, and empower individuals to improve lives around the world.

I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, healthy, and fulfilling year ahead.