Monday, 23 July
You may wonder why I’ve been so silent over
the last week given that we had the International Congress. And
that is indeed part of the reason in that I was extremely busy, but
busy in the most happy and productive of ways. As some of you
will have seen through Twitter, this was the most successful
Congress I think that we have ever held, with 16% of delegates
being psychiatrists from overseas.
We had extremely positive comments about the
form and content, the venue and the whole general spirit and morale
of the meeting. I am therefore obviously going to give a great
thanks to all those who contributed to organizing the conference:
staff and psychiatrists led so ably by Dr Helen Miller, and
Professor Nick Craddock coordinating the programme.We have already
had a meeting about what the next conference will look like and
there was an agreed title that it will be the Ascent of
Psychiatry.
For me, it was absolutely wonderful to be able
to present the President’s Medals and to give the Honorary
Fellowships to such worthy friends of psychiatry who have made such
a difference in the field of mental health.
I have to add that there were many fantastic
talks and sessions across the conference - too many to mention
individually but I particularly enjoyed the session on
neuroscience. Colleagues told us how we don’t get our fair share in
working with new physical treatment interventions with either
repurposing of drugs or the role that immunology can play - this is
having a massive impact across cancer and other branches of
medicine.
On the last day at Congress, I went to one of
the final sessions chaired by our Honorary Archivist Dr Fiona
Subotsky. The fascinating session showed how we can use the history
of psychiatry in a really innovative way. We heard about
neuroscience and psychiatry in Babylonian times, and the life and
times of De Clérambault. The talks were given by amazing physicians
and psychiatrists who spoke with such absolute erudition, and it
was so good to see a complete mixture of people in the audience –
both the more mature members of the College and young
trainees!
Spending the week at Congress gave me time to
reflect. I feel I’ve spent my first year in office trying to
reach out to as many members as possible, and introducing the theme
of Resilience and Recovery which we need not only for our users and
carers in the new configurations of health services across the UK
and internationally, but also for ourselves. We need resilience to
cope with what will undoubtedly be a difficult forthcoming two
years. In the second year of my Presidency, I want to move on
to look at the place of psychiatrists and psychiatry across and in
medicine and how we work across and into social care. This will be
a theme I’ll be taking to Council to do some more defined work on,
and it will be greatly assisted by the fact that we’ve been asked
to lead on parity of esteem between physical and mental health. I’m
very pleased to say that we’ve got John Bowis as our new champion
around parity in Europe.
Last week – the week after Congress – was
almost indescribably busy, including a very productive meeting with
the GMC. On a personal front, I think my roof problem is now
resolved. So now you’re going to hear about not only the life and
times of us finding a new home for the College, but me finding a
new home for myself back in Manchester.
Over the weekend, there was more travelling on
behalf of the College – this time to Paris for an International Association for Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP)
meeting. I had the privilege of chairing a session delivered
by past and present child and adolescent psychiatrist members of
the European Federation of
Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT), where we heard of the amazing work
they are doing in understanding the training child psychiatrists
receive across Europe, and how we can help drive up standards to
improve quality of mental health care for children and
families.
Excitingly, I managed to grab a few minutes to
race (well, more of a speed walk!) out to the crowded streets of
Paris to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Tour de France cyclists as
they reached the end of their heroic journey. What a moment for one
amazing man and for the UK. The streets were a mass of Union flags.
After that, I returned to the meeting to take a look at a fantastic
project that has been co-ordinated by Deeta Kimber, a psychiatrist,
writer and textile artist from Australia. ‘Becoming...’ is a
textile and sculpture exhibition where 10 children tell their
stories and, as I hope you can see from the photographs, it shows
yet again how visual images can tell us so much more than we can
communicate in words.
I want to finish this blog entry by thanking
each and every member of the College who has been so supportive to
me over the last twelve months. It has been a privilege to be your
President, and it will continue to be a privilege. I can honestly
say that 99% of the time it’s a pleasure, and the remaining 1% of
the time I know I just have to grit my teeth and deal with it! So
thank you one and all.
Sue
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