Continuing Professional Development

Report of the CPA's 9th Annual ICPD Conference

More than 100 psychiatrists from across Canada escaped bitter weather to earn continuing education credits at the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s 9th ICPD conference, which was held from Feb. 23 to 27, 2004, at the Melia Caribe Tropical hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Dr. Jon Davine and Dr. David Goldbloom, the program co-chairs, assembled a group of experts to lead plenary and workshop events on topics such as the mental health of psychiatrists, boundary violations in professional practice, interpersonal psychotherapy, motivational interviewing and early psychosis treatment.

Delegate feedback was instrumental in shaping the conference content, and the conference organizers drew heavily on suggestions received last year in developing the program and in recruiting facilitators. This year’s faculty members included Dr. Donald Addington, Dr. Adrian Grek, Dr. Elliot Goldner, Dr. Phil Klassen, Dr. Michael Myers, Dr. Paula Ravitz, Dr. Peter Selby and Dr. Michael Teehan.

On the last day of the meeting, Dr. Goldbloom announced that he would be stepping down as co-chair of the conference to permit what he described as a fresh perspective on the meeting. Dr. Harry Karlinsky, the new meeting co-chair, will assume his new role by working with Dr. Davine to plan the 2005 conference.

“The CPA has been very fortunate to have had David on board as the conference co-chair for the past three years. During his tenure, we’ve had three very successful meetings that were highly rated by delegates. In addition to his conference planning abilities, we’ve also had the pleasure of having a pictorial record of faculty members by way of his sketching expertise. He will be missed,” said Mr. Alex Saunders, chief executive officer.

The ICPD is an annual week-long meeting, held in a warm climate, that offers delegates an opportunity to fuse formal learning with informal networking and discussion opportunities via its innovative, half-day format. As of press time, the date and location for the 2005 ICPD have not been confirmed. Watch for updates and details in future Bulletin articles. KH