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WONCA President, Dr Anna Stavdal, joined the WPA World Congress of Psychiatry 2022, which tookplacefromAugust3-6inBangkok,Thailand. Over four days, the event brought together—in person and online—experts and health professionals from the broader World Psychiatric Association community, which represents 140 psychiatricsocietiesin120countries. During the second day of activities, Dr Anna Stavdal participated in the Panel Discussion: Task-sharing in mental healthcare; Does it work? Gabriel Ivbijaro, CEO of the World Federation for Mental Health and former chair of the WONCA Working Party on Mental Health, moderated the session.
Dr Stavdal wrapped up her participation with an inter-organisational symposium along with Dr NasserLoza,PresidentoftheWorldFederationfor Mental Health and past WPA President, Dr Juan Mezzich. About her participation in the WPA World Congress of Psychiatry 2022, Dr Anna Stavdal wrote:
This was the second time I attended the annual conference of the World Psych Association, and the first time in person. Was it worthwhile? Indeed it was. I always find it energizing and meaningful to be an ambassador for family medicine. The WPA conference was no exception. Mental health is high on the health policy agenda globally. Family doctors deal with patients with the diagnosis over the full spectrum of psychiatry, from so called lighter conditions of anxiety and depression to chronic conditions of all kinds: attention deficit disorders, bipolar disease, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders and everything in between.
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The group in need of chronic mental care takes up a large portion of the family doctor ` s time. And in primary care based health systems, these patients receive most of their medical care from the family doctor and the primary care team, just like diagnosing and treatment are initiated on the same level.
Despite that, there are silos in mental care in many systems. The only way to overcome them is to learn to know how we can collaborate over the specialityboundaries. I met with president Afzal Javed, President-Elect Danuta Wassermann, and several other key people of WPA. And I gave presentations at two panel discussions.
Besides experiencing an open-minded and welcoming professional environment, we reached an agreement to formalise the collaboration between our two organisations and the World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH). Our CEO will follow up with concrete actions.
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Prof. Afzal Javed, President WPA and Dr Danuta Wasserman, President Elect of WPA
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WONCA CELEBRATES THE ACCREDITATION OF THE FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM OF YUMA REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER IN ARIZONA
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Through its Working Party on Education, WONCA has developed the “Standards for Postgraduate Family Medical Education” , against which academic programs in family medicine can be assessed and gain approval from our global organization. Onthisoccasion,accreditationwasgrantedtothe Department of Family and Community Medicine at Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) in Arizona, which developed and implemented a Family Medicine residency program, initiated in 2013 and with the first residents graduating in 2016. This is the first time WONCA grants accreditationtoaprogramintheUSA. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, the workload of the healthcare professionals and travelling restrictions, WONCA had to adapt its evaluation process accordingly. This WONCA Accreditation was first conducted virtually in March 2021, culminating with an on-site visit in 2022 to confirm the information presented during the virtual assessment and explore the implementation of the recommendations provided. OnbehalfoftheWONCAaccreditationcommittee, Dr Victor Ng attended the on-site visit, highlighting “the friendliness and collegiality of the faculty and with a drive for innovation and getting to better” .Duringhisvisit,DrNg,whois also Chair of the WONCA Working Party on Education, met the core faculty, hospital faculty, hospital leadership staff and residents, who shared their perspectives on the residency program.
The experience was reassuring for Yuma to confirm what we have known for some time now, and that is that we have a unique and great program to train physicians in Family Medicine, it was also very useful because it help us get a new perspective on some of our processes and how we could improve such processes. It also opens doors to our residents and faculty when it comes to networking and enchance education opportunities.
After three days of evaluations, productive discussions and feedback, the assessment team confirmed that the Yuma Family Medicine ResidencyProgrammettheWONCAStandardsfor Postgraduate Family Medicine Education. WONCA congratulates the faculty and leadership at Yuma. As WONCA’s Accreditation is a quality improvement program, we are looking forward to discussing the progress on the recommendations provided. We also encourage the faculty to continue developing their skills and competencies.
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ABOUT WONCA ACCREDITATION
WONCA Accreditation provides a professional, collegialcontextwithinwhichindividualpractices and postgraduate programs can review their standards, improve them where necessary, and gain accreditation if the assessment is judged satisfactory.
WONCA Accreditation schemes were developed with intense inputs from our Working Party (WP) on Quality and Safety and our WP on Education, originally intended to support practices and programs developed in countries which did not yet have their own formal standards or national templates for delivery of comprehensive primary care.
As a global organization representing general practitioners and family doctors, WONCA Accreditation can help to consolidate the specialty and to support those professionals who are delivering the range of services which make upfamilymedicine. AdaptingthestandardsoftheWorldFederationof Medical Education (WFME) to fit with the needs specific to family medicine training, the WWP on Educationsetoutstandardsacrossnineareasand 38sub-areas.
Theareasaredefinedasbroadcomponentsinthe structure, process and outcome of postgraduate medicaleducationandtraining.Theyinclude: •Missionandoutcomes •Trainingprocess •Assessmentoftrainees •Trainees •Staffing •Trainingsettingsandeducationalresources •Evaluationoftrainingprocess •GovernanceandAdministrationand •Continuousrenewal A variety of applications are possible, including self-assessment and program quality improvement; new program development; peer review;orrecognitionandaccreditation. Find more information about WONCA AccreditationandCertificationhere.
