The ESCAP Online Events 2022
Professor Carmen Schroder presenting on sleep disorders
Dr. Vera Celmens presents on childhood trauma and complex PTSD
Professor Johannes Hebebrand presenting at the lunchtime session
Professor Joerg Fegert also presenting at the lunchtime session
Professor David Nutt presenting on psychopharmacology
Report written by Konstantinos Kotsis, Laura Kehoe, Milica Pejovic Milovancevic
As COVID-19 is hugely affecting the way we meet, communicate, and share knowledge, the 19th International ESCAP Congress in Maastricht is postponed until 2022 (19-21 June). ESCAP are determined not to let the restrictions affect how often we meet, therefore we hosted two virtual events on the 24th and 25th June 2021, one dedicated to trainees and the other provided keynote presentations from renowned experts in child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP). Both days were very well received and has given ESCAP scope to do more of these events in between our biennial main congress.
ESCAP, EFPT and UEMS-CAP Training Day 24th June 2021
The “Training Day” event took place on the 24th June and was co-organized by ESCAP, EFPT and UEMS-CAP. The aim of this event was to foster training and education in young trainee child and adolescent psychiatrists, and ESCAP offered this day for free to registered attendees. Over 223 CAP trainees from 31 countries registered for this one-day event. The day was divided between the three societies and included eight interactive workshops and one clinical lecture by European experts in the field of CAP. The first of three parallel sessions saw ESCAP focusing on the treatment of anorexia nervosa (by Johannes Hebebrand), EFPT on integrating research into clinical CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) training (by Petrus J de Vries and Eugene Davids), and UEMS-CAP on advocacy tips for political actions in CAMH (by Sue Bailey and Marc Hermans). The second session allowed participants to choose between workshops covering genetic testing in CAP (ESCAP – by Franziska Degenhardt), medically unexplained symptoms in CAMHS (EFPT – by Elena Garralda Hualde), and active life-long learning in CAP (UEMS-CAP – by Thorsten Schumann, Marit Hafting and Ioanna Giannopoulou). The final parallel session had workshops on clinical high-risk for psychosis model (ESCAP – by Marco Armando), organizing digital consultations (EFPT – by Alka Ahuja), and administrative overload for CAP trainees (UEMS-CAP – by Peter Deschamps and Gyri Hege Vorren).
A clinical case seminar was also included in the event and hosted by all three organizations, titled “Impact of COVID-19 through case examples” in which two cases were presented by trainees who submitted their real cases that they managed before the event, Dr Eszter Wittmann from Hungary and Dr Enver Bami from Albania (special thanks for them to take the time to work with us on these cases). The impact of COVID-19 in all aspects of CAP (clinical manifestations, interventions, health system) were discussed by a panel of experts and it was followed by an exciting discussion on how COVID-19 impacts psychopathology of children and adoelscents and how CAPs (experienced and trainees) can adjust to the current situation.
During the day, Prof. Manon Hillegers announced the 19th International congress of the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Maastricht 2022. In the last session, a presentation by Asilay Seker and Konstantinos Kotsis introduced the newly established ESCAP Early Career and Trainee CAP Committee and encouraged participants to get involved in its activities.
ESCAP Expert Day – Changing Perspectives 25th June 2021
The ESCAP Expert Day, which accredited six training credits issued by ESCAP, was structured around five keynote lectures from Samuele Cortese, Carmen Schroder, Vera Clemens, Argyris Stringaris and David Nutt, all discussing diverse topics relevant in CAP in today’s challenging world. Over 300 participants from 34 countries across the globe attended the event, and interactively posed stimulating questions to all the speakers.
Prof. Samuele Cortese gave ana thorough overview about how evidence-based approach reach clinical practice in the treatment of one of the most prevalent disorder of childhood, ADHD. Prof. Carmen Schroder followed with a journey into the importance of sleep, what is sleep need, chronotypes and the impact of sleep disturbances in ADHD, autism, suicidal behaviour and how to correctly evaluate sleep in child patients. Prof. Argyris Stringaris as he described his “unorthodox talk” on the history and heterogeneity of depression, the difficulties arising from the term considering the clinical point of view, and prompted for an open mind in all aspects of depression; research, training and clinical practice. Dr. Vera Clemens, based on her own research, discussed childhood trauma and its long-term outcome, as well as the newly categorised ICD-11 disorder of complex PTSD. The last keynote speaker was Prof. David Nutt put psychopharmacology in CAP into an App (NbN and VPMlibrary) and described his London underground map techniques to simplify and understand pharmacology to improve treatment decisions.
Moreover, in the lunchtime sessions, ESCAP focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and its current and future impact on children and adolescent mental health. Prof. Johannes Hebebrand presented the initial findings about the consequences of the pandemic on psychiatric services, the impact of school closures and social distances. Prof. Jorg Fegert complemented Prof. Hebebrand’s findings by strongly advocating that more is needed in child protection services in the current situation, and that policy issues must be at the forefront of all European government institutes decision-making to protect and meet the demands on child and adolescent psychiatrists. Their presentations are available for free on the dedicated Coronavirus page.
We’ve had lots of feedback from people completing the online survey after the event, some stating that the events were “professionally executed with excellent presenters, well done!”, others stated that these online events are great at this time, but many are looking forward to when we can meet again in person, hopefully it won’t be long; ESCAP 2022!
The ESCAP expert day is currently available On-demand to all those who registered before and after the event, until 30th September 2021, find out more on our the Expert Day page.
Special thanks
We would like to thank again the excellent speakers of both days who took the time to present and interact with the ESCAP community. Their presentations were key to the success of these events. ESCAP thanks the organising team Organizers Schweiz GmbH, especially Martina Speiser and Andreas Lampart who headed the team. Also, Asilay Seker from EFPT, and Peter Deschamps from UEMS-CAP for their fruitful collaboration and all the participants of both events and to those who provided us with much needed feedback. Additional thanks to all the ESCAP board members for their critical decisions in creating these events. We are looking forward to meeting again in person at the next ESCAP congress in Maastricht, The Netherlands on the 19-21st June 2022 with the theme ‘Networks in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’. Find out more here, abstract submission is now open.
