Luxembourg

October 7-12, 2018
Week of mental health 2018 – Depression

The ’Ligue Luxembourgeoise d’hygiène mentale’ organize this year's annual seminar of the ‘Santé Mentale’ in Luxembourg.

This event is for professionals working in the Health sector, but also for the public and will take place from 7 to 12 October in five communes.

During these six days 50 different activities, conferences, cultural and social events are held. The aim is to raise awareness with the public in Luxembourg about issues of mental health. This edition is under the topic of depression and refers to the national prevention campaign "Depression - let's talk about it".

Malta

The Psychotherapy Bill has its final approval

In June 2018 – after many months of negotiations - the psychotherapy law was passed in Maltese parliament. Whilst the Malta Chamber of Psychologists (MCP) supported the introduction of an Act that regulated the psychotherapy profession locally, we staunchly objected to a law which by its’ very definition was attempting to preclude psychologists from freely practicing psychotherapy – even those adequately trained in it.

As a Chamber we became very involved in negotiations with the legislator insisting that the new law would not impinge on the work of the psychologist in Malta. MCP had the full support of EFPA in this and a letter was written by Dr.Telmo Mourinho Baptista to the Minister in charge of the law.

In the end - after a number of meetings and intense lobbying - with members of parliament as well as a strong collaboration with the Malta Association of Psychiatrists, the law was passed with the changes we had requested to the Bill - as it had originally been presented.

The law now states its provisions do not apply to other professions that are regulated by their own Law, thereby safeguarding the psychology profession in Malta which has been regulated by the Psychology Profession Act since 2004.

Roberta Farrugia Debono

President Malta Chamber of Psychologists

Civil society becomes active, because state allows supply gap

Four out of ten refugees in Switzerland are mentally ill.
Dedicated psychotherapists have decided not to look away any longer.

Source: Article Joël Frei - Psychoscope 4/2018

Read the article in French  Read the article in German 

Swedish colleagues visit the British BPS office in Leicester 

United Kingdom – British Psychological Society
September 2018 – Leicester

According to Sarb Bajwa, Chief Executive of the BPS

"It was a pleasure to welcome colleagues from the SPA (Swedish Psychological Association) to Leicester, and to see ideas being shared and potential collaborative work developed with our own staff members.

Our hosting of the EFPA European Semester of Psychology this year has presented us with the opportunity to build stronger relationships with our sister organisations overseas, and to work collaboratively to advance our discipline.”

Organised by former Director of Membership Standards, Andrea Finkel-Gates, the visit saw some of the British staff members lead workshops to encourage ideas to be exchanged and both organisations to learn from each other’s methods.

Jon Sutton, Editor of The Psychologist magazine, led the communications and publications workshop:

"It was interesting to see the commonalities between our operation and that of the SPA, but also to learn about the ways in which we differ and can learn from each other. The workshop was useful for both parties, and has given me new ideas and inspiration to take back to the team.

We also arranged a visit to the University of Leicester, where our guests met with the programme team for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology."

More information  

iDGPs (German Society for Psychology) signs Memorandum of Understanding with our British colleagues

September 21, 2018.

Nicola Gale, past President of the British Psychological Society (BPS), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Professor Dr Conny Antoni, past President of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs), this week.

Both the BPS and DGPs are working towards the advancement of the discipline and profession of psychology in the public interest, and recognise the benefits of mutual working and cooperation to promote this aim.  

Through the memorandum, the two organisations commit themselves to work together to:

• Explore the possibility of developing reciprocal access arrangements for their members.
• Develop and sustain learning opportunities surrounding organisational structures, activities, operations, and DGPs or BPS work.
• Organise collaborative events dedicated to subjects of common interest.
• Share best practice.
• Provide a small joint grant to encourage collaboration between British and German psychologists and researchers.  

Original story: BPS News