The World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) promotes the exchange of scientific and educational information on the role of culture in psychological wellbeing, emotional stress and illness, and mental health care around the world. WACP provides a forum for mental health professionals to network across geographical regions and to build clinical expertise as mental healthcare providers. WACP aims to strengthen the influence of cultural psychiatry in mental health care and health systems development overall.
Congresses
WACP organizes World Congresses of Cultural Psychiatry (WCCPs) every three years in different world regions.
The first WCCP was held in 2006 in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, followed by Congresses in Norcia, Italy (2009), London, United Kingdom (2012), Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (2015), and New York, United States of America (2018), Rotterdam, Netherlands (2021).
The next World Congress will be held in September 2025, in Tokyo, Japan.
More information about these congresses will arrive shortly on the WACP website.
All psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social and behavioral scientists, and workers and investigators in mental health-related fields who are interested in cultural psychiatry or culture and mental health are invited to become members of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry.
WACP members will have the opportunity to network with colleagues around the world to exchange information and share knowledge and experiences relating to cultural psychiatry.
As a member of WACP you are entitled to participate in several Special Interest Groups (SIGs). New SIGs are developed regularly and include the following partial listing:
- Science, Faith & Mental Health
- Art, Media & Mental Health
- Culture & Psychiatric Diagnosis
- Culturally Adapted Treatments
- SIG for Trainees/Students
WACP publishes a Newsletter and the online World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review (WCPRR), an open-access international journal comprised of original and review articles on culture and mental health. WCPRR includes articles from colleagues working in locations with limited opportunity to publish their work in international journals.
Additional benefits of membership include discounts on the registration fees for International Congresses and the WCCPs. Paid-up members will also have the right to vote in the elections for the Board of Directors, which are held every three years.
In addition, members will have access to the Members-Only Section of the website, where they can find scientific material and the minutes of the Board Meetings. Members are able to comment on the postings in this Section to discuss developing scientific advances and the progress of the WACP.
