During APA's annual meeting each spring, the Council on Global Psychiatry (CGP) hosts a number of discussion groups, each focusing on a different part of the world (see Learn More About Your International Neighbors).

"The discussion groups have several purposes," explained Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., chair of the CGP and a former APA president." The many visitors to the national meeting from the rest of the world have a place to meet with one another and to talk about issues of mutual, regional concern. The discussion groups also offer opportunities for American psychiatrists to become more aware of and connected to the practice of psychiatry in other places in the world."

Indeed, keeping American psychiatrists abreast of what their colleagues are doing in other countries is an overarching goal of the CGP, and for good reason.

"A lot of good ideas are tested in other countries," said Hartmann, but "international research is often not read much by American psychiatrists." They need to learn and appreciate that there is a great variety around the world in the delivery of psychiatric care, Hartmann said." A lot of things having to do with service training, availability [of services], and financing [of care] vary enormously internationally."

The CPG is composed of 19 members, eight of whom are voting members. The rest are nonvoting members of which one is a consultant, five are corresponding members, and five are psychiatric fellows. The group forges positive relations and information exchanges with psychiatrists the world over and with such international organizations as the World Psychiatric Association and the World Federation for Mental Health. The council advocates against the misuse and abuse of psychiatric principles and interventions, and it studies the human response to and recovery from manmade or natural disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Indonesia tsunami. ▪