Invitation for your Members to join the WHO’s Global Clinical Practice Network for ICD-11 Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Dear Professor Andrzej Rajewski,

Dear President of the Polish Psychiatric Association,

The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently developing the next version of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), scheduled for publication in 2015. The European Psychiatric Association is working with WHO in various ways to contribute to the ICD revision.  As a part of this effort, we are requesting that you reach out to your members and invite them to participate in the internet-based field studies of the proposed ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines for Mental and Behavioural Disorders.  This would involve sending your members the attached file entitled “GCPN invitation_President to the members of the Polish Psychiatric Association”. Please feel free to edit or modify the message, as appropriate for your particular organization.

The invitation message describes the process of participating in the internet-based field. Briefly, it explains to your members that the first step in participating in these studies is to join the Global Clinical Practice Network (GCPN) an international and multilingual online network of mental health and primary care professionals, which, as of September 2013, includes approximately 10,000 practitioners worldwide. After registering for the GCPN, your members will be sent specific internet-based studies based on their clinical expertise, experience and areas of interest.  Members would receive such requests no more than once per month, and each study would take only about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

If you would like to register for, or obtain more comprehensive information on, the GCPN please click on the link below, or paste it into your internet browser:

http://www.globalclinicalpractice.net

Once you access the link, you have the option of selecting the language in which you wish to participate.

By encouraging your members to register for the GCPN, and to participate in the internet-based studies, your organization will be engaging in a crucial international revision process which will help ensure the clinical utility, validity and global applicability of the diagnostic guidelines on Mental and Behavioural Disorders in the ICD-11.

Your members’ input is vital to the ICD-11 development process, and we sincerely hope that we have your assistance in soliciting their engagement in this important project.  

If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please feel free to e-mail: [email protected] Thank you very much for your anticipated participation and support.

Sincerely,

Professor Dr. Wolfgang Gaebel    

President elect, European Psychiatric Association  WHO Advisory Group for ICD-11    

Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed

Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse

World Health Organization

cc: Professor Jerzy Samochowiec, representing member of the EPA Council of NPAs