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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On behalf of the IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health, it is both an honor and a pleasure to invite you to attend the 10th IEPA International Conference in Milan. I sincerely appreciate the conveners’ great effort to make this 10th international conference of IEPA with the theme of “Looking back moving forward” memorable.
Soon after the last conference in Tokyo 2014, we decided to change the name of our association. The new name, IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health, stresses our strong thought of expanding the implementation of early intervention in psychiatry in the real world. This targets the broad spectrum of mental health from severe psychosis to the very beginning of mental dysfunction as well as the healthy stages. The mission of our association is not only for the prevention of severe cases but also to promote literacy in the importance of mental health for the young generation. The earlier this intervention is launched, the better the outcome. There is evidence and also beliefs among psychiatric professionals there is belief that is so. Now we should make our best effort and cooperate in the implementation of early intervention.
The new task force team for the fidelity of early intervention service has started and they will open the window which could be the landmark for the global service development. Stigma against mental illness and the mentally ill can be eradicated only by all of us working together with the subjects and their families, policymakers, and the people next to the subjects. We need to ensure that physical health and mental health coexist. There is no health without mental health. This is definite concept in many medical models and we need to incorporate this message.
Twenty years ago, I was a visiting professor at Padua, Italy for two years and know that Italy has rich and varied history and has a lot to teach the world. Spirituality runs deep since the Roman era. The drastic and enterprising reforms in psychiatric services have led to the development of new integrated mental health services in the community now known around the world. In spite of the limited resources, excellent services are being delivered in many communities in Italy. We need to see how these models work.
We must attract the best and brightest young professionals to the field of early intervention in psychiatry and ensure that all health professionals are aware of the impact that mental illness has on our society and culture. It is imperative that we gather here together in order to learn from each other.
We look forward to meeting with you in Milan, Italy and wish the conference get a great success. Again, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to the local conveners, Prof. Angelo Cocchi and Dr. Anna Meneghelli. To our regret, Angelo passed away on May 2015, but his passion for early intervention will be succeeded by his gentle Italian colleagues. I am sure that the 10th memorable conference will be a great success and very special.
Sincerely,
Prof. Masafumi MIZUNO, MD, PhD
President, IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health
December, 2015