Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Arts, Mental Health & Human Rights
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Erminia Colucci, Alberto Velasco
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
To Integrate arts and arts-based methods into cultural psychiatry; create networks exploring arts-based methods in research and healing; support collaborators from arts/media; network artists willing to work with mental health institutions; promote interfaces between cultural and mental health institutions; and promote arts-based healing practices.
Activities & Events
Arts and Psychiatry Conference in 2024.
Future Plans
Develop contacts with health institutions, artists, and funding bodies; constitute network; offer short-courses and workshops; and editing book on Arts, mental illness and human rights with contributions from other SIG members.
Family & Culture
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Vincenzo Di Nicola, Riyadh al Baldawi
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
Bring together WACP members interested in cultural aspects of families and family therapy and emphasize contextual and relational parallels between family therapy and cultural psychiatry.
Activities & Events
Two worldwide webinars: “Family and Culture in Times of Globalization – Mobility, Migration and Virtual Relations on 30th Sep 2021”; & “Culture, Families and Psychosis on 2nd April 2022”
Future Plans
Arrange more webinars and plan symposia at the WACP World Congresses.
Trainees & Students
- Chair(s)/ Membership: William Affleck
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
Build on-the-ground research capacity in transcultural psychiatry and increase training in cultural psychiatry for mental health students.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Repeat the successful student/trainee meetup and start a Gmail account for SIG correspondence instead of Facebook or LinkedIn.
Culture & Psychiatric Assessment & Diagnosis
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Hans Rohlof
- Co-chairs: Sofie Bäärnhielm, Vasudeo Paralikar.
Mission & Objectives
Advance culturally valid assessment and diagnosis with special focus on the Cultural Formulation Interview in diverse countries and populations.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Develop cultural competency in diagnostics; Investigate initiatives and propose needed research and seek funding for such research.
Culturally Adapted Interventions
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Shanaya Rathod, Muhammad Irfan, Laura Ospina Pinillos
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
To bridge universal evidence-based mental health treatments with local cultural realities, and develop/ validate a standardized WACP adaptation framework; establish efficacy criteria against non-adapted models, and create train the trainer curricula that empower local clinicians and communities to co design sustainable, socially meaningful interventions that are both clinically effective and contextually acceptable.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Launch an open access digital repository of adaptable intervention manuals and toolkits; Partner with organizations to embed WACP adaptation standards into global action plans; and establish regional “Adaptation Hubs” for rapid prototyping during crises and introduce an annual Innovation Award for pioneering adaptation projects.
Culture, Stigma & Discrimination
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Maosheng Ran (China)
- Co-chairs: Jie Li (China), Albert Persaud (London, UK)
Mission & Objectives
To develop culture-specific anti-stigma interventions by facilitating the research on culture, stigma and discrimination in order to improve understanding of their relationship and impacts; and provide a forum for clinicians and researchers.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Recruit members from within WACP; publish a newsletter of recent articles and member updates; and organize symposia in the international conferences.
Cultural Psychiatry, Mental Health & Human Rights
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Albert Persaud
- Co-chairs: Rachel Tribe, Samrad Ghane, Hans Rohlof
Mission & Objectives
Develop and publish a formal WACP Policy Statement on Cultural Psychiatry, Mental Health, and Human Rights; and Produce a practical, actionable set of WACP Quality Standards for clinical and service delivery use.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Strengthen cultural psychiatry in mental health care and health systems; make WACP an active global reference in policy, legislation, research, and clinical practice by generating high impact publications, conducting conferences, and provision of set of tools for best practice.
Culture & Biomedicine
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Daina Crafa
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
To structure core discussions surrounding the relevance of culture and biomedical models; and provide a forum for professionals working with biomedical models, the neurosciences, and technological approaches to culture and mental health.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Recruit members; develop and publish newsletter with ideas for responsible integration of biomedical technologies in Global Mental Health.
Culture & Sexuality
- Chair(s)/ Membership:
- Co-chairs: Sofie Bäärnhielm, Vasudeo Paralikar.
Mission & Objectives
To explore implications for clinical practice and public health with focus on sexual development, orientation, preferences, gender identity, and legal/societal issues.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Provide a platform to discuss key topics; plan collaborative research on cultural assessment tools, cultural formulation of sexual health problems, cross-cultural treatment of sexual dysfunctions and paraphilias; and clarification of cultural psychiatry frameworks.
Ethnic Minorities in Cultural Change
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Xudong Zhao
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
To address the mental health vulnerabilities of ethnic minorities navigating acculturation stress, discrimination, and identity dissonance; and build clinical competencies to treat minority stress, microaggressions, and intergenerational trauma while actively championing community resilience.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Create a WACP Minority Mental Health Global Observatory to track longitudinal well-being and policy gaps; and establish peer mentorship networks and launch anti stigma campaigns co designed with minority media outlets using storytelling and digital arts.
Global Issues Affecting Refugees & Asylum Seekers
- Chair(s)/ Membership: Rachel Tribe
- Co-chairs:
Mission & Objectives
To uphold the mental health and psychosocial rights of refugees and asylum seekers across all displacement phases by developing a WACP Humanitarian Charter with minimum care standards, create cross border clinical pathways to ensure diagnostic and medication continuity during resettlement.
Activities & Events
None
Future Plans
Establish a permanent WACP Refugee Mental Health Taskforce for mass displacement events; publish a multilingual mental health first aid guide for non specialists; and develop a secure tele psychiatry network linking specialists with clinicians in remote transit zones.