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Welcome Address
SGPP – Swiss Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Hans Kurt
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Colleagues and Congress Delegates,
Epidemiological data from Switzerland indicates that the group of adolescents and young
adults on one hand and of old people on the other hand are poorly provided for in terms of
psychiatry and psychotherapy. In the case of young people who are ill, the difficulty is that
child and youth psychiatry is no longer responsible for people over the age of 18, and adult
psychiatry does not yet feel responsible for these young adults. This fact is bemoaned both
by community based psychiatrists and also those colleagues working in institutional care
where, for example, there is a lack of beds for young adults with their specific requirements.
When it comes to older mentally ill patients, their out­patient care is provided almost exclusively
by primary carers and there is a huge backlog of demand for psychiatric and psychotherapeutic
treatment. The growing number of suicides in older people, for example, is
alarmingly high. Another area which causes us a great deal of concern in Switzerland is the
lack of upcoming specialists and consultants in psychiatry and psychotherapy, a topic which
will also be given appropriate consideration during the congress. Here too, it is partly a
problem of lifespan.
Switzerland has the highest density of psychiatrists in Europe but, as a specialist group,
psychiatry also has the highest average age of its specialists. There is a lack of young psychiatrists
in training in psychiatric institutions and it is only possible to guarantee the ongoing
functioning of these institutions by recruiting colleagues from abroad. Many tasks,
but not all by a long way, can be carried out by non­medical specialists such as psychologists.
Why is the highly interesting profession of psychiatrist and psychotherapist not
attractive, and what relationships and reasons can we find for this, given that the problem
of needing new blood exists throughout Europe.
Where the lifespan of our specialist associations is concerned, we are proud in Switzerland
that the SGKJPP, the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
(Fachgesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie), and the SGPP, the
Association for Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Fachgesellschaft der Erwachsenenpsychiatrie
und Psychotherapie), have been working increasingly close in recent years. Since
child psychiatry broke away from adult psychiatry with its own specialist doctor’s title a
little more than 50 years ago, we are now working together again under the auspices of
a strong umbrella organisation. Together, but with each association having its own identity,
we attempt to lobby for the whole range of individuals with mental illness from children to
the elderly as well as for their dependents and families, be it in matters of science, therapy
or health policy. Particularly in our public relations work, in questions of health policy and
also in the case of problems which affect our professional status, we are able to achieve
more with our united forces, have become more powerful and are accordingly taken more
seriously by other partners in the public health sector.
I am looking forward to an exciting congress in Berlin, to meeting many colleagues from
Germany, Austria and many other European countries as well, and naturally to the contact
between colleagues of all age groups, between young and old, a unique opportunity to learn
from one another.
Dr. med. Hans Kurt
President of the Swiss Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (SGPP)
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DGPPN Congress 2009 – English Programme