Find out what is happening at Congress 2021 to celebrate our 180th Anniversary!

This year we’re celebrating 180 years of the College and its predecessor organisations and we couldn’t let this pass without marking it at Congress this year. Whilst we won’t be able to raise a toast together, we are celebrating in a number of ways around the Congress Platform. 

A message from our Patron, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales 

On-demand, Lobby 

Our Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales has recorded a very special message for us on our anniversary. The message will be available to view from the Lobby of the Congress Platform from Friday 18 June. 

180th Celebratory Session 

Tuesday 22 June, 16.45 - 18.00, Auditorium 

This specially commissioned session will begin with George Ikkos and Nick Bouras reflecting on 'Mind State and Society: Social History of Psychiatry and Mental Health in Britain 1960-2010' a brand-new book published to celebrate the anniversary. Mind, State and Society examines the reforms in psychiatry and mental health services in Britain during 1960–2010, when de-institutionalisation and community care coincided with the increasing dominance of ideologies of social liberalism, identity politics and neoliberal economics. 

The session will then move on to what promises to be a very interesting panel discussion on 'Psychiatry in my time', chaired by Dinesh Bhugra and featuring Nicol Ferrier, Eve Johnstone and Aggrey Burke on the panel. 

180th Anniversary Scavenger Hunt

Wondering why there is a grandfather clock in the Help Desk?! To celebrate 180 years of the College and our predecessor organisations, we have hidden five items around the virtual Congress for you to find. Click on each item and earn points on the Congress Leaderboard and be in with the chance of winning a free place at next year’s Congress.

Take a look in your virtual Congress Briefcase to find out more. 

The HoPSIG Future Archives Award ceremony 

On-demand, RCPsych Lounge 

Our knowledge about mental healthcare all those years ago is limited - because it lacks the perspectives of everyone giving and receiving mental health care. We can't change the resources we have about mental health in the past - but we can make sure that people in the future can access a wide range of perspectives about what mental health practices, politics, services and research were like in 2020/2021. 

The HoPSIG Future Archives competition welcomed submissions in any format: prose, poetry, drama, film, paintings, cartoons, and music. The stories we received will supplement and complement the institutional records that are created by the various departments, committees, faculties, divisions and devolved councils and special interest groups of the College.  

The closing date was 30 April 2021 and entries were assessed by a diverse panel of judges, including a journalist, a clinician, a patient, and a historian.  

I am not sure what our predecessors would have made of an entirely online Congress but we hope that our history-making first-ever virtual Congress will be looked back on as a success in 180 years time!