A Thank You Message from the WPA President
With our first in-person Congress in two years now safely and successfully completed, I’d like to take the time, on behalf of the Organising and Scientific Committees of the 22nd WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP22), to thank every one of our friends, attendees, and partners who made this event possible.
With the theme “Psychiatry 2022: The need for empathy and action”, we examined and discussed all the critical issues in psychiatry and mental health today and in the future. More than 2370 registered participants from 100 different countries joined us this week and I am delighted that we have yet again managed to offer such a diverse programme of content. With 209 sessions, 600 speakers and 980 ePosters, we all profited from 4 days filled with up-to-date research data, the best lectures from experts in all fields of mental health, high-quality scientific content, valuable knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer networking.
While we were delighted to welcome the majority of participants in Bangkok, we were also aware some colleagues were not able to travel and were therefore pleased to take our learnings from last year and build an exciting hybrid experience. For those unable to join in person, they were able to virtually participate in an enriching online experience and join our exciting scientific programme, meet world leaders in the industry, and establish new professional relationships.
For the first time, we were also happy to be able to present Travel awards to one trainee psychiatrist and two medical students, enabling them to join us in Bangkok and benefit from the in-person learning and networking opportunities. In addition, we were pleased to award 25 fellowships to young psychiatrists from 17 countries to help support them in their careers and research work.
As we now adapt back to in-person events and combine our learnings during the pandemic, we feel that we were able to further build on our WCP21 congress experiences and offer a truly innovative hybrid experience. We are very grateful that you took time out of your busy schedule to join us, both in-person and virtually, and we hope you found the Congress and the scientific programme both stimulating and inspiring.
We would like to say a special thank you to our valued member partners, the Psychiatric Association of Thailand who were supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Thailand & Department of Mental Health, Thailand for making this great hybrid event possible. We would also like to thank our fantastic speakers, presenters, contributors, and moderators, all of whom contributed greatly to the programme. Special thanks to Kenes for their great support as our official PCO.
Please remember the presentations are available on demand until 6 November 2022 on the WPA Congress Hybrid Platform!
Stay safe and healthy.
Author: Prof. Afzal Javed, President, WPA