Date: Friday 10 th January 2014
Venue: Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Present:
Peter Hughes (Chair) (PH), Mandip Jheeta (Secretary) (MJ),Victor Doku (VD), Khurram Sadiq (KS),
Ashok Singh (AS), Zainab Al-Rubie (ZAR), Abbass Mohammadinasab (AM), Emmanuella Akande (EA)
Minutes from previous meeting
2 amendments, minutes otherwise accepted:

Burma trek going ahead next month

Normal summer school, not mhGAP, to be amended
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Composition of Executive Committee
Agreed:
Chair: Peter Hughes
Finance: TBC (elections later held, confirmed as Mandip Jheeta)
Secretary: Victor Doku
Conference leads: ST & AS
Fundraising: ST + TBC
PTC rep: KL
Trainee rep: MJ + Silvia Khan
Medical student rep: TBC (KS to advertise position)
Newsletter: TBC
Volunteer UK: TBC
CAMHS: Heather Hannah

Media & Public Relations nic website & social media: TBC & Veena Verdi as liaison
Retirees: Sally Browning
Project Development: TBC
Diaspora: VD
Research & audit: TBC
Non-psychiatry lead: TBC
We can ask Deji Oyebode if he wishes to remain involved.
Agenda

Essay prize approved. We will check it is on trainee website. We need to promote this

Discussion of various email options and communication options

We will aim to get twitter account running again

Facebook, yahoo and/ or google groups to be considered at later date

KS will research facebook options and logistics and yahoo group for executive committee
GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING
Conference

Agreed current priority is conference

Agreed to aim for Friday in May, either 9 th or 16 th , aiming for 100 delegates, including students and affiliates. Agreed pricing structure of £60-80 main delegates, £30-40 trainees,
£15-20 FYs & students. Agreed theme of disasters & spirituality

Various ideas discussed inc: Asking MSF, considering role of psychiatrist in acute phase disaster setting, workshops, poster and audit opportunities, discuss potential spirituality speakers w/ ST, invite religious groups, case studies was well received at last conference, fundamentalism, terrorism and mental illness, prize for best poster, debate, diaspora invitation
Projects
Gambia (PH)

Has mhGAP type projects. Positive aspects discussed of being able to fly there cheaply. But logistically quite difficult. Imogen Kretchmer has contacts. They also have MRC Research
Centre and good potential for volunteer activities.

Iran (AM)

Middle income country with poorer areas. Having 25*medical schools & 2*psychiatric subspecialists (CAMHS & psychotherapy). 1000 psychiatrists for 75 million people, mainly located in big cities. Substance misuse a large problem. Previously mainly opiates, now also cystal meth, cocaine and legal highs throughout country. There is political will to help as well as funds. They would like mhGAP & ToT programme esp. re: substance misuse.
Iraq

Health minister keen for ToT/ mhGAP training. PH has done training with WHO, Iraqi government & Kurdish government. Primacy care structure exists less so in Iraq & Kurdistan cf. Iran. Kurdisatan is easily accessible and safe. Standards of Iranain psychiatry quite good.
Rural areas often have poor coverage by psychiatrists. May be best to train trainers, perhaps in rural area(s) as part of projects. Interested parties are present in Iran e.g. Iranian
Psychiatry Society. MA would like joint training with head of psychiatry in Iran, preferably with multidisciplinary teaching. PH will follow-up.
Pakistan (KS)
 mhGAP initiative started 2 months ago. There are aims for VIPSIG, BPPA & WHO to do mhGAP training. The WHO local lead is interested. Prof Minhas, head of WHO collaborative centre is interested, and willing to help with training in 6 districts. Local possibilities also exist for funding and logistics. KS has spoken to BPPA lead. Enquiries made if VIPSIG can provide UK training. Business plan would need to be submitted to WHO. Issues include: how to facilitate in 6 districts; where finances will come from and sensitisation programmes.
India (PH)

Discussion of India experiences, Kashmir, Kupwara district. There is often a cultural norm of people in villages wanting and expecting a prescription. Interestingly, Pakistan seems to have the highest no of injections per person per year.
Nigeria (EA)
 mhGAP project already in place in Nigeria. Biggest problem seems to be skills shortage amongst seniors. There is some CAMHs expertise, in all the states. Often background of lots of theoretical, but little practical, teaching. There is a demand for learning disability and psychotherapy skills improvement. Suggestions made to contact Shiva Kaure fro learning disability (from learning disability links group), and IPT could be most appropriate for

psychotherapy (could onctact psychotherapy faculty). Other suggestions included supporting postgraduate skills development, and for more practical experience (cf. e.g. online).
Therefore, probably distance supervision may be helpful. Suggestion to contact Ellen Cook to see if this could be a volunteer project. Medicine Africa may be an appropriate online forum to conduct supervision, and Daniel Wolde-Giorgis also does online supervision. Also discussed possibility of vice-versa programme of foreign clinical attachments here e.g. empty eye programme, though obtaining visas may be an issue. Various potential contacts discussed e.g. Nigeria Medical Association.
UK volunteering

Quite a lot of distance supervision activities. We will aim to develop this area more
Website

Nos. of relevant papers and resources e.g. Turning the World Upside Down. Education for
Kids projects is a prize winner.
Diaspora conferences

Various discussions between VIPSIG & diaspora groups. Noted that College stamp highly regarded in many parts of world.
Meetings attended

KS attended College award steering group, and has set up new prize of volunteer of year award. Proposal got good feedback, and is likely to be formally accepted. ZAR will email PH re: membership. Various Iraqi group meetings attended.
Other activities:

PH due to visit Central African Republic at some point. And due to go to Beirut, for Syria refugees training of Trainers project in next couple of months.

MJ: went to Somaliland for teaching medical student project with KTSP, went very well.
Aidrous Yousuf & Lynne Jones have excellent Somaliland blogs. Ongoing weekly supervision on Medicine Africa going well.
AOB


We will aim to put names of formalised committee onto website.

Reiterated we will aim to meet 4 times per year

Would be good to find out how many hits we have on our website
Upcoming committee meetings:

Friday 17 th October 2014, 2-4pm, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary

Friday 16 th January 230-430, venue TBC