European Psychiatry - Volume 33 - March 2016

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24th European Congress of Psychiatry
Early career psychiatrists programme
Conversations – the political and social mission
of psychiatry
EECP 01
The political and social mission of
psychiatry
S. Priebe
Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Queen Mary – University
of London, London, United Kingdom
Psychiatry is based on values and scientific evidence. The presen-
tation will argue that both bases come with a social and political
mission.
The values require a commitment to help those in need of support,
which cannot be fully achieved without social and political action.
The scientific evidence points to the central role of societal fac-
tors, such as inequality and poverty, for the development of mental
disorders. Influencing these factors requires political decisions.
It will be concluded that taking up the social and political mission
is a moral imperative for both psychiatrists as a professional group
and individual psychiatrists, and may make the profession more
relevant in society, more attractive to medical students, and more
effective in helping patients with mental distress.
The discussion will address the challenges and practical options for
such a mission.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
EFPT/ECPC-EPA Symposium – Identity or
competency: how to train the modern day
psychiatrist
EECP 02
The tension between identity and
competency: Comparing behavioural
and constructionist approaches to
professional formation
A. Brittlebank
The Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, United Kingdom
Contemporary approaches to medical education emphasize the
importance of doctors in training demonstrating the acquisition
of competencies. This approach to educating doctors has been
criticized on a number of grounds, not least because a solely
behavioural focus risks trivializing medical professionalism. An
alternative approach is to look at the formation of professional
identity as a legitimate goal of training.
In this presentation, I will describe the behavioural and construc-
tionist approaches to medical education and their implications for
psychiatry training. I will make a plea for psychiatry training to
renegotiate the balance between the two approaches.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
EECP 03
Should all psychiatrists be skilled to
practice psychotherapy?
T. Gargot (Master de sciences cognitives) ∗, E. Sonmez
1 Service de pédopsychiatrie, école normale supérieure, hôpital de la
Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
2 Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital,
Psychiatry, Istanbul, Turkey
∗ Corresponding author.
Psychiatrists have a unique place in the spectrum of mental
health services, as being able to integrate psychotherapy and
pharmacotherapy in clinical practice. It is through psychother-
apy training that a trainee gains optimal communicative skills and
competence in establishing therapeutic alliance with a patient. It
helps developing empathic understanding, which is very impor-
tant for a good collaboration and enable understanding, diagnostic
and treatment. It improves trainees’ own insight. All are these
fundamental aspects of a biopsychosocial approach of psychia-
try.
In many countries psychiatry trainees have a positive attitude
towards psychotherapy during their training. Moreover, patients
often prefer and adhere to combined psychotherapy and med-
ication than split-care treatments. Research in psychotherapy
provides ample evidence that these treatments are effective. The
UEMS considers psychotherapy education as mandatory. EFPT
advocates that all trainees must gain competence in at least one
recognized form of psychotherapy and have a basic knowledge
for other forms. Altogether, there is a consensus among all actors
of mental health services that psychotherapy training is essential
and should be improved. Yet, it is still far from being a priority
in psychiatric training and is subdued by biological training and
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