Dear colleagues and friends,

We are pleased to announce the WPA Thematic Congress on Early Intervention in Psychiatry across the Life Span which will take place in Athens, Greece on June 23-25, 2022.

WPA Thematic Congresses are focused on one or more topics of interest, serving the purpose to address special subjects that WPA wishes to pursue. While primary prevention of psychiatric disorders remains largely a future goal for public psychiatry, secondary prevention, defined as the reduction in morbidity and disease burden achieved via early detection and intervention strategies, is well within the reach of our discipline. Early detection and intervention are not only critical for preventing or reducing the progression of a mental illness, but for improving a person’s mental and physical health, community participation and socioeconomic outcomes. Despite exciting advances in our field, implementation of the basic principles of early intervention lag woefully behind that of other medical disciplines such as cardiology and oncology.

WPA aims at tackling this unmet need in Psychiatry worldwide through this thematic conference. The conference is devoted to the principles, advances, effectiveness, and challenges of Early Intervention across diagnostic classification boundaries of psychiatric disorders and across the life span, drawing on progress within at least three subspecialties: child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry and old age psychiatry. A pre-congress workshop day focusing on the study and treatment of the early phases of psychotic disorders encompassing a trans-diagnostic approach, will be organized by IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health international Network, on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022 at the same venue.

At this point, we invite the submission of proposals for the organization of bespoke thematic symposia on the above topics, to be evaluated by the Scientific Committee for inclusion in the main program of the Congress. Soon we will also open the platform for the submission of abstracts for oral or poster presentation.

WPA’s first thematic congress in the term 2020-2023 had been scheduled to take place in Athens but due to the pandemic it was eventually presented in a virtual format, in December 2020. Therefore, we take this opportunity of the 2022 WPA Thematic Congress to make the historic, cultural and hospitable city of Athens the meeting point of the global psychiatric community.

Let us mark the return to live meetings after the “virtual reality” of the pandemic and make this congress a success. We look forward to seeing you all in Athens!