Committees | 23rd World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions

July 24, 2019

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Department of Public Health, Paul Brousse Hospital, Université Paris-Sud, France

After some initial training in mathematics and fundamental physics (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris), Bruno Falissard engaged in medical studies and specialized in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1991. His PhD was in biostatistics and his post doc in psychometrics and exploratory multimensional methods. He was assistant professor in child and adolescent psychiatry in 1996-1997, associate professor in Public Health in 1997-2002 and full professor in Public health from 2002. He is at the head of the Master in Public Health of South-Paris University (600 students) and at the head of the “Center of Epidemiology and Population Health” (400 members). He is co-author of about 400 papers and author of 4 books. He has a clinical activity in child and adolescent psychiatry. His personal areas of research are about methodology and epistemology of mental health research. Since 2015 he is the president of IACAPAP (International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions) and member of the French Academy of Medicine.

Organising Committee Chair

Michal Goetz

Charles University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital, Czech Republic

Michal Goetz, MD, PhD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Charles University, Second Faculty of Medicine in Prague and the head of the Diagnostic Unit at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital in Prague. He is an elected member of the board in the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Czech Psychiatric Association. Dr. Goetz as a principal investigator and co-investigator obtained peer reviewed research grants on offspring of parents with bipolar disorder, children with neurodevelopmental disorders and preterm born infants. Dr. Goetz authored and co-authored over 30 scientific articles and four book chapters. He is a member of editorial boards of pediatric and mental health scientific journals. He is very grateful for the opportunity to gain experiences during observerships at the Boston Children’s Hospital and at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. In 2016 he spent time as a visiting professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary.

Honorary Congress Chair

Ivo Paclt

Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

I completed my medical education in 1973. I was a junior research assistant in forensic psychiatry. I became the houseman and junior consultant in the child psychiatry department of 2. Medical Faculty of Charles University. Title of validiation avarded PhD.- 2001, associate professor 2004, professor 2013.

I completed my postgraduate doctoral study in neuroscience. I obtained scientific education in biological psychiatry and neurophysiology. My PhD. and associated professor theses were about the biological basis of ADHD. I also wrote papers on genetics, EKG maping in antidepressants, drugs and clinical psychopharmacology in children. The h-index 17 number of citations 1319. My clinical interests are in child and adolescent psychiatry in the outpatients department.

Program Committee Chair

Pavel Theiner

Masaryk University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic

Dr. Theiner is the head of the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Ward of the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic. Dr. Theiner graduated in 2000 from Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic and since then he has dedicated his professional life to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has worked with hospitalised children and adolescents with a broad spectrum of diagnoses, mostly eating disorders, ADHD and OCD. His PhD thesis in 2006 dealt with genetic correlates of ADHD phenotypes, and biological research in child and adolescent psychiatry has been his research field up to now. He also has an outpatient practice for child and adolescent sexology. In 2009 he finished his CBT training. Dr. Theiner has organized Czech national congresses in child and adolescent psychiatry since 2000. He is a member of the Czech Psychiatric Society and Czech Neuropsychopharmacological Society. He is a lecturer in psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry at Masaryk University.

Congress Organizing Committee

Michal Goetz

See biography above.

Ivo Paclt

See biography above.

Pavel Theiner

See biography above.

Per Anders Rydelius

Adjunct from IACAPAP; Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Senior Professor /Consultant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden.1971, MD; 1978 Specialist diploma in CAP; 1981 Ph.D. , Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. – Thesis: “Children of alcoholic fathers – Their social adjustment and their health status over 20 years”. Acta Paed Scandinavica Suppl 286, 1981. 1982, Associate professor and 1989 – 2012, Professor, Chairman, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Summer 1994, visiting professor at the research program on juvenile delinquency run by Professor Felton Earls, Harvard School of Public health, Boston, Ma. USA . Sept 2003 – Jan 2004: Guest professor at the Nagoya University Center for Developmental Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, Director: Professor Shuji Honjo, Nagoya, Japan, 2007-2012, Guest professor, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

1982-1990, Vice president and President of the Swedish Association for child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1983-2002, Secretary and Chariman , the Swedish Medical Research Council’s Planning Group for Child and Adolescent and Social Pediatric Research. 2005-2013 Scientific Reviewer – The Swedish Council of Sciences. 2004 – 2014, Secr General, President and vice President of IACAPAP, the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions.

Supervised 21 Ph.D.- exams and 5 lic.med.sci-exams 1991-2012. More than 170 articles and chapters in peer reviewed scientific journals, other journals and textbooks.

Füsun Çetin Çuhadaroğlu

Adjunct from IACAPAP; Hacettepe University, University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

After completing medical, general psychiatry and CAP training at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, she studied Adolescent Psychiatry in Edinburgh and did a research fellowship on NIH-FIC MH/DD Program in Boston. She had further training in individual and group psychodynamic psychotherapy and in the Professional Education Program of Harvard Macy Institute. She and her colleagues founded the Turkish Association for CAP and by their efforts CAP was established as a separate medical discipline in Turkey. She organized the 18th Congress of IACAPAP (2008) and Regional Conference of ISAPP (2013), taught courses on the International Certificate Programs of the International Children’s Center; directed and participated in projects supported by NIH-FIC, UNFPA, UNICEF, World Bank and Willow Foundation . She has articles, books and book chapters published in English and in Turkish. She is currently working at Hacettepe University, is a member of ESCAP Board, vice president of ISAPP and Secretary- General of IACAPAP.

Sigita Lesinskiene

Adjunct from IACAPAP; Vilnius University, Center of Child Psychiatry and Social Paediatrics, Vilnius, Lithuania

Professor Sigita Lesinskiene is a child and adolescent psychiatrist working in Medical Faculty of Vilnius University – researcher, lecturer and practitioner. Defended dissertation for Ph.D. in 2000, title of thesis “Autistic disorder among children of Vilnius”. Fields of scientific activity and research: epidemiological studies, autistic spectrum, tics, hyperkinetic disorders, depression, suicide, self-injuirous behaviour, eating disorders, child psychiatric services, mental health, art therapy. Coordinates residency program for Child and adolescent Psychiatry in Vilnius University, organizes postgraduate courses. Regularly participate at the National and International Congresses of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. Since 2001 specialist-consultant for Child and adolescent psychiatry to the Lithuanian Ministry of Health. 2008-2012 has been President of Lithuanian Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, since 2014 board member of Lithuanian Society for Art Therapy Application and vicepresident of Lithuanian Psychiatric Association, since 2010 – member of IACAPAP Executive Committee (assistant), since 2014 vicepresident.

Martin Anders

Charles University, Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic, Chair of the Czech Psychiatric Association

Associate Professor Martin Anders, MD, PhD graduated from the 1st medical faculty of the Charles University in Prague. In 2002 he successfully defended his thesis ‘Phospholipids During the Treatment of Depressive Disorders’. As a physician at the Department of Psychiatry of the General Teaching Hospital in Prague, Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine, he provides care to patients with a wide variety of diagnoses at both inpatient and outpatient services. He is the head of the center for biological diagnostics and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation treatments. His main scientific interests include mood disorder therapy and organization of psychiatric care. He presents regularly at national and international professional events and has published numerous scientific articles within peer reviewed journals. He has been the main investigator or co-investigator of research grants. He chairs the Psychiatric Society of the Czech Medical Association of Jan Evangelist Purkyně for the season 2016 – 2019 and is also a member of The board of the Czech Neuropsychopharmacological Society.

Petra Uhlíková

Charles University, Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic, Chair of the Section for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Czech Psychiatric Association

Jaroslav Matýs

Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ostrava, Czech Republic, Chair of the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Jaroslav Matýs, MD graduated from the Military Medical Academy in Hradec Králové of Charles University. He passed board in psychiatry (1992) and in pediatric psychiatry (2011). He was the main expert for addictology of the Slovakia Army and a member of the inter-resort governmental commission of the Slovak Republic for addictions. He was also the head of the Civil Service company focusing on addicted people Renarkon and the main therapist for community therapy of youth with addition. He setup systematic care for young addicts in the Ostrava region, including community centers, groups of street workers for therapeutic communities, an aftercare center and shelter housing. For the first time in Czech Republic he organized a project for Roma street workers. Since 2006 he has worked in his own private pedopsychiatric practice. He is a member of the board committee of the Ministry of Health for pediatric psychiatry and addictology. He is a member of the working groups of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for development care for children and adolescents with mental illness. He is the head of the government project “Reform of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic“, long term head of Association for child and adolescent psychiatry and the deputy chairman of the board of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Czech Psychiatric Association.

Iva Hodková

Child Psychiatric Hospital, Oparany, Czech Republic

Dr. Hodková has been working in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry for more than 30 years. She has gained medical clinical practice, both in-patient and out-patient, including work in forensic medicine as an expert. She has experience with a wide diagnostic and age spectrum, especially in the field of in-patient care and with organizing symposia as well. As a member, she operates in a range of working groups, contributing to long-term reform changes on the central level, and participates in the popularization and de-stigmatization of this field. She is an elected member board of the Section of Child and Adolescent Section of Psychiatry within the Psychiatric Association, a Vice-chair of the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and a member of the Psychiatric Hospitals Association. Working as a director of the state hospital – Children’s Psychiatric Hospital Opařany, largest and oldest children’s in-patient psychiatry in the Czech Republic, comprises a big part of her professional career.

Martin Hollý

Psychiatric Hospital in Bohnice, Prague, Czech Republic

Martin Hollý is the general manager of the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice in Prague. From 2013 to 2016 he was chairman of Czech Psychiatric Association. Now is vice chairman for the reform of psychiatric care. He is guarantor of the mental health transition process for the Ministry of Health since 2012. He is also member of the Board of Czech Sexological Society. From 1996 he worked in the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice. He was a head of Crisis intervention department till 2005 and then a head on Sexological department (inpatient rehabilitation programs for sex offenders). From 2008, besides the work of the general manager he focuses on outpatient care. The main objective in recent years is to support the process of transformation of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic, the transition from institutional to community care. He was a member of the organizing committee of the congress of the European Federation of Sexology in Prague in 2006, the Congress of the European Psychiatric Association in Vienna in 2015.

Jakub Kerner

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Dr. Kerner graduated from the Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. During his studies, he participated in the research of memory disorders at the Prague Psychiatric Centre, but his main concern was the mental health of children and adolescents. He succeeded in a tender for the position as a physician at the Department of Child Psychiatry, University Hospital Motol in Prague. Here, he has had training in child psychiatry. Apart from clinical practice that focuses on the entire spectrum of mental disorders in children and adolescents, he is also devoted to lectures in psychiatry and communication for nurses and also for medical students of the Second Faculty of Medicine. Since 2016, he has also been working as a physician at the Department of Adult Psychiatry of the Military Hospital in Prague. He gives lectures about resistant depression in adolescents and deals with the theory and practice of mindfullness in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.

David Kolouch

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

David Kolouch, received his M.D. from the Charles University, Second Faculty of Medicine. He started his medical career at the Psychiatric Hospital Horni Berkovice where he worked as a physician mostly at the acute psychiatric unit and gained experience in adult psychiatry. In 2014 he succeeded in a tender for the position as a physician at the Department of Child Psychiatry, University Hospital Motol in Prague. Here, he has had training in child psychiatry. Dr. Kolouch also engages in lecturing communication skills to medical students. Externally he works at the Department of Psychiatry of the Military University Hospital Prague. He is interested in role of information technologies and social media in mental health of children and adolescents.

Jiří Koutek

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Dr. Jiří Koutek graduated from the Faculty of Pediatrics of the Charles University in Prague. Having started as a physician at the Child Psychiatric Clinic of the Motol University Hospital, he also worked in the children and adolescents’ outpatient service. As of 1991, he has been lecturing psychiatry and psychotherapy at the 2nd Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. Starting in 2001, he was appointed as the Medical Director of the Department of Pediatric Psychiatry of the Motol University Hospital. He is the board member of the Pedopsychiatric section of the Psychiatric Society of the Czech Medical Association of Jan Evangelist Purkyně. His special and research interests are mostly focused on eating disorders, suicidal behavior, self-harming and forensic problematics in child psychiatry. He has been involved in scientific projects focused on these areas, publishes in both national and international professional magazines and lectures at conferences.

Vanda Lukáčová

Department of Psychiatry, Military Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Vanda Lukáčová MD graduated from the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and after graduating she joined as a secondary physician at the Department of psychiatry at the Military Hospital in Prague. She works at the inpatient unit with broad spectrum of patients including adults with psychosis, mood and anxiety disorder anxiety, cognitive disorders and others. Dr. Lukáčová is a postdoctoral student of medical psychology and psychopathology at the First Faculty of Medicine at the Charles University. The topic of her thesis is Sexuality of People with High-functioning Autism. She is dedicated to medical sexology since her time of studies, participates in and actively lectures on Czech-Slovak expert fora, attends international conferences, and was granted several travel grants from the European Society for Sexual Medicine. She has authored and co-authored several articles on sexology issues and would like to continue on in this direction. In 2016, she started a 5-year training program in Gestalt Psychotherapy Institute Dialog.

Jiří Podlipný

Charles University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital in Pilsen, Czech Republic

Jiří Podlipný MD, PhD is a research assistant at Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen (Plzeň) in West Bohemia. He is a tutor and senior consultant for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Hospital in Pilsen. He is also active in the first line of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in an outpatient clinic in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně). The main focus of his research activities covers metabolic issues when using psychopharmacological treatment in children, interdisciplinary research in psychosomatics (e.g. preventive cardiology) as well as the use of virtual reality in psychiatry (e.g. exposure therapy).

Michal Považan

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital in Bohnice, Prague, Czech Republic

Michal acquired specialized qualifications in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry in 2007. As part of this qualification he also has a license from the Czech Medical Chamber. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Psychiatric Society ČLS JEP. In 2005, he was the co-author of the project “EUNOMIA” and he received the National Psychiatric Prize of professor Vladimir Vondráček. He completed his training in cognitive behavioral therapy. Michal’s psychiatric practice started in 2001, at the Clinic of Child Psychiatry LF UK in Bratislava. From 2003, he worked in a Psychiatric Hospital in Bohnice. In 2006, he switched to the Child Psychiatric Clinic 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Motol where from 2009 he worked as the chief physician of the department. In 2010, he won the audition for the head of the children’s department of the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice, where he still currently works. Michal’s clinical experience is applied in several clinical studies aimed at the treatment of schizophrenia, affective and anxiety disorders. Within the outpatient practice, he is devoted to the entire spectrum of mental disorders in children and adolescents from disorders of attention, hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorders, schizophrenia, affective disorders, anxiety disorders to eating disorders. Michal’s therapeutic procedures are based on pharmacotherapy and individual psychotherapy, often in combination with family therapy.

Antonín Šebela

National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Antonin Sebela, MD graduated from Charles University in Prague, Second Faculty of Medicine in 2015. After receiving his MD, he joined a postdoctoral study program at Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine. The theme of Dr.Sebela’s thesis and his research interest is focused on the early identification of vulnerability markers among children at a high-risk of mental illness. Recently, he has been working as a junior clinician – scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health – Czech Republic.

Daniel Švarc

C-IN, Prague, Czech Republic

Alice Trägerová

C-IN, Prague, Czech Republic

Research and Scientific Program Committee

Pavel Theiner

See biography above.

Ivana Drtílková

Masaryk University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic

Prof. Ivana Drtílková, M.D. is a Professor in Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Her research interests are focused on mental disorders and their biological causes, brain development, neurodevelopmental disorders, electroencephalography and psychopharmacotherapy in children. She has mostly specialized in diagnosing, treatment and research of ADHD. She is an author and active member of the Czech group for Clinical guidelines for treatment of ADHD and Clinical guidelines for treatment of depression in children. She is a consultant for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and she worked many years as active member of the Czech Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and was elected for its president several times. Prof. Drtílková has been repeatedly chosen for president of the Czech national congress in child and adolescent psychiatry. Her teaching activities in the Department of Psychiatry of the Masaryk University include courses and lectures of psychiatry and pedopsychiatry for pre-gradual and post-gradual students of medicine.

Michal Goetz

See biography above.

Michal Hrdlička

Charles University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Motol University Hospital, Czech Republic

Michal Hrdlicka, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Department of Child Psychiatry at Charles University Second Faculty of Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. He received his M.D. from Masaryk University Medical School in Brno (1989) and his Ph.D. from Charles University First Faculty of Medicine in Prague (1996). Prof. Hrdlicka’s academic and professional careers in the Czech Republic have been complemented by his time spent at the Vienna General Hospital (1991), the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (1998) and the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven (2001, 2004). He has published more than 200 scientific publications (including over 40 articles in renowned international journals). He is the editor or main author of six Czech language textbooks and monographs, e.g.: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2000, 2nd ed. 2008), Childhood Autism (2004, 2nd ed. 2014) and Psychiatry and Pedopsychiatry (2015). In 1998, Prof. Hrdlicka launched the first systematic diagnostic program for autism spectrum disorders in the Czech Republic.

Lenka Lacinová

Masaryk University, Faculty of Social Studies, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Brno, Czech Republic

Lenka Lacinová, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Department of Psychology responsible for the bachelor programme of developmental psychology and a researcher and vice-director of the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family, Faculty of Social Studies at the Masaryk University, Brno. Lenka Lacinová’s research interests are about attachment, and family and romantic relationships. Her current projects are focused on evaluating how attachment hierarchy develops during adolescence and how maternal behavior and emotions can influence the behavior and attachment in toddlers. She is the founder of the Attachment Research Work Group of the Czech-Moravian Psychological Society and a member of the editorial board of E-psychologie.

Bertrand Lauth

University of Iceland/Landspitali-University Hospital, Reykjavík, Iceland

Bertrand Lauth, MD, PhD, is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the faculty of medicine of the university of Iceland, and consultant at Landspitali University Hospital of Reykjavík. Born in France, he graduated in 1989 at university of Lille, France, and has worked until 1998 as a specialist at University Hospital Fondation Vallée, Gentilly (Paris-sud), France. Adjunct professor at university of Iceland in 2002, PhD in 2011, he is author of 12 book chapters and 21 articles in peer-reviewed periodical journals. Research fields: cross-cultural adaptation and validation of diagnostic interviews, autism, emergency requests and services in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychopharmacology, neuronutrition. Currently member of the scientific board of the French society for child and adolescent psychiatry and associate disciplines, and member of the board of the Icelandic society for child and adolescent psychiatry (president from 2008 to 2013).

Jana Najmanová

Masaryk University, Department of Psychiatry, Brno, Czech Republic

The medical specialty of Jana Najmanová, MD is pediatrics and child & adolescent psychiatry. She currently works at the Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Psychiatric Department of the University Hospital Brno. Her professional focus is on treatment of eating disorders, she is a therapist and supervisor of the complex residential treatment program for patients of these types of symptoms, and individual, group and family therapy is included. She provides relapse prevention for outpatients in her specialized ambulance. She is particularly interested in causes, symptoms and treatment of pre-teen anorexia.

Hana Ošlejšková

Masaryk University, Department of Child Neurology, University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic

Assoc. prof. Hana Ošlejšková, MD, PhD has been a chair of the Clinic of Pediatric Neurology at the Children’s Medical Centre and the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic since 2005. The Clinic warrants all services for children with neurological diseases as well as education and research. The super-specialized serviced include epileptology, epileptosurgery, complex care for neuromuscular diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and electrophysiology. Dr.Ošlejšková has been a member of the Committee of the Society for Pediatric Neurology of the Czech Republic since 2004 and she presided over the committee between 2007 and 2010. She is a member of several editorial boards and an organizer of national congresses. Her scientific research aimed at epilepsy and autism. She published about epilepsy in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Ivo Paclt

Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Hana Papežová

Charles University, Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Hana Papežová, MD, PhD is profesor of psychiatry at Psychiatric Department of the 1st Medical School, Charles University where she has been working since 1986. In 1993 -1995 as a research scientist at Nathan S. Kline Institute, Clinical Research Division, NYU – Orangeburg, New York, she had been involved in studies of violence in schizophrenia. She started her clinical and academic training at the Department of Epidemiology, Psychiatric Research Institute, Prague. In the last decades, in the position of the Head of Eating Disorders Center at Psychiatric Department she developed a Center of Clinical Excellence involved in several international projects on treatment and prevention of eating disorders and training programmes for pregradual and postgradual czech and foreign students in psychiatry. Since 1997, she has been organising Czech bi-annual conferences on Eating Disorders and Obesity with international attendences. Dr. Papezova he is member of organisation committee of Academy for Eating Disorders for ICED 2017 conference in Prague.

Radek Ptáček

Charles University, Department of Psychiatry, General Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic

Radek Ptacek is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor of medical psychology. His primary clinical and research interest is focused on children and adolescents. He works at the Department of Psychiatry, 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University as a clinical psychologist, researcher and a member of Ph.D. committee. He has been an investigator or co-investigator of numerous scientific research grants and projects in the social sector. Most of the current research focuses on ADHD and developmental issues of children in foster and institutional care.

He is a founder of a nonprofit organization the National Institute for Children and Family and the Czech Society for Child Psychology. He has been a member of the editorial boards of several journals – Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Medical Science Monitor, Neuroendocrinology Letters.

Andrea Raballo

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Psychology, Childhood and Development Research Group, Trondheim, Norway.

Andrea Raballo, MD, Spec. Psych., PhD is Associate Professor of Psychopathology and Development at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He was previously, post-doctoral researcher at the Norwegian Centre of Excellence for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, psychiatric consultant at the Department of Mental Health of Reggio Emilia (Italy), and affiliated researcher to the Center for Subjectivity Research (CFS), University of Copenhagen (Denmark). He is currently co-chair of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Section for Clinical Psychopathology, board member of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) and board member of the IEPA Early Intervention in Mental Health (formerly International Early Psychosis Association).

His main research interests are phenomenological and developmental psychopathology, with a specific focus on child-adolescent vulnerability and related trajectories towards more severe mental disorders. He is also interested in developing innovative frameworks for service implementation. These interests played a major role in shaping the design and implementation of the Reggio Emilia At Risk Mental States (Re ARMS) project – a specialized, program for the early detection and treatment of clinical high risk states and first episode psychosis.

Mabel V. Rodriguez M.

National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic

Dr. M. Rodríguez is a licensed clinical psychologist. As senior researcher, she leads a research group on Neurocognition at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). At the same time she acts as clinical psychologist in her own clinical practice. Her experience is mainly on neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders and psychotic disorders. She actively participates in leadership, planning, organization and implementation of national and international research. Systematically investigates long-term cognitive function (its deficit and remediation options) in neuropsychiatric disorders, and in bilingualism.

Dr. Rodriguez studied psychology at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, at Charles University, finished his residence in clinical psychology and is registered with the Ministry of Health. For several years she worked as an assistant clinical psychology at the Department of Psychology Faculty of Arts, with which she still works closely, leading many research opportunities for pre-graduate, and post-graduate students of psychology, and also provides professional supervision for graduated psychologist. She also worked as clinical psychologist at the Psychiatric Centre of Prague (now NIMH) and for the Crisis Centre of Bohnice psychiatric hospital, and also for the SOS villages in selecting adoptive mothers. She is author and co-author of numerous publications. Dr. Rodriguez speaks fluently Spanish, Czech, English, and Greek.

Norbert Skokauskas

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Trondheim, Norway

Dr. Norbert Skokauskas MD PhD is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Child Protection, Institute of Psychiatry, NTNU, Norway. Previously he held a Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry post at the Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; and worked as a Senior Psychiatrist at the Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.

Prof. Norbert Skokauskas is a Secretary General of the World Psychiatric Association, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry section and the editor of “World Child and Adolescent Psychiatry”.

Jana Spilková

Head sexologist in an outpatient clinic in Prague, Czech Republic.

She graduated from Paediatric Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague in 1974. She started his professional life as a paediatrician with special interest in social paediatrics and later she aimed at children with the child abuse and neglect syndrome (CAN). She has been specialised in sexual health in the last twenty years. She worked in the Psychiatric Hospital in Prague, at the ward for the involuntary treatment of sex offenders. She has also experiences from emergency psychiatric services and organizations for victims of home violence. Recent medical position includes consultations with men and women suffering from sexual dysfunctions, sexual preference disorders, egodystonic sexual orientation and partnership problems. She keeps working with the victims of sexual abuse. She is specialized in working with children and adolescents with risky sexual behaviours and sexual problems co-morbid with ADHD, ASD and other mental disorders.

Dr. Spilková has finished a training in psychotherapy aimed at interpersonal communication.

Libuše Stárková

Palacky University, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Libuse Starková, MD, PhD is an Associated Professor of Psychiatry at Medical Faculty Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Having extensive clinical experience working as a child and adolescent clinical psychiatrist, she focuses mainly on eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and anxiety disorders.
In 1995, she passed a systematic training programme in CBT and obtained a European Certificate in Anxiety and Mood Disorders (State University of Limburg/Maastricht). Dr. Starkova has been involved in several national as well as international research projects in psychiatry. She has been working as a member of the board of Child psychiatric section of the Czech Psychiatric Society for the last several years. Her motto is: a dialog is the base for everything.

Miroslav Světlák

Masaryk University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic

Dr. Svetlak is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the Children´s department of Psychiatric Clinic of University Hospital in Brno, Czech Republic. He is also an associated professor at Department of Psychology and Psychosomatics of Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University. He received his M.A. in clinical psychology from Faculty of Arts in 2003, and continued his graduate studies in the Department of Physiology at Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, where he received his Ph. D. in 2010. He studied at Czech Institute for Training in Gestalt Psychotherapy and received the diploma of the gestalt psychotherapist in 2008. He emphasizes his clinic’s focus on child and adolescent clinical psychology. His research focus is on emotion regulation deficits in eating and dissociative disorders.

Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková

Czech Society for Inclusive Education, Chair

Graduated at Charles University in special education, specialization on support and education of people with behavioural disorders. Within further education she has completed accredited psychotherapeutic training and numerous courses focused on trauma, case management and progressive methods of interventions in education and social work. In her professional activities she is focused on social protection of children a development of inclusive education. Mrs. Šimáčková Laurenčíková is former Deputy Minister of Education for special education, prevention of risk behaviour and institutional care. Since 2015 she has been Ashoka Fellow in social entrepreneurship for the Czech Republic. She has worked with children in asylum homes for families in danger and in Jedlicka institution – school and home for people with physical disabilities. She volunteered as therapist at Social Clinic in Prague. Mrs. Šimáčková Laurenčíková is currently member of advisory body of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. She lectures at Department of Special Education at Charles University. She is member of monitoring committee for the reform of psychiatric care at the Ministry of Health. She chairs the Committee for the Rights of Children at Government Council for Human Rights. She actively supports system changes aiming at interdisciplinary cooperation in children at risk care and equity in education.

Igor Škodáček

Comenius University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bratislava, Slovakia

Assoc. Prof. Igor Škodáček, MD, PhD, is a former Chair of the Department of Child Psychiatry at the University Children’s Hospital Bratislava, Comenius University Medical School and founder and chairman of the Postgraduate Institute of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 1990 he opened a branch of the “International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry“, later renamed the “Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry“. His clinical and research interests include substance use and addictions in youths, neurobiology and pediatric psychopharmacology, social psychiatry and CAN syndrome. In 1997 he gained a certificate from the Training Institute on the Treatment of Child Abuse from the Children Mental Health Alliance, New York. Dr. Škodáček has collaborated within international research groups on various projects on pediatric mental health (e.g. project MILESTONE). Dr. Škodáček is an author of five monographs in the field of child psychiatry, he authored or co-authored more than 230 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and has contributed to several textbooks.

Petra Winnette

NATAMA foundation, Prague, Czech Republic

Petra Winnette, PhD, is a comparative scientist, pedagogue (Charles University, Prague) psychotherapist and a specialist in early development and trauma. Dr. Winnette is a founder and director of Natama Institute for Family Care Development (established in 2003). Since its inception, the goal of Natama has been to use scientific knowledge and research to enhance the quality of practice in the field of child care services and to inform policy makers. She has been engaged in the studies in developmental psychology, attachment theory and in its implications in effective therapeutic practice with families, children and adults. Dr. Winnette’s main interest is exploring the consequences of severe early trauma and adverse care giving, especially in cases of no primary care giver in early years. She has extensive experience with clinical work with children with developmental trauma and severe attachment disorders, parents and adults with unresolved childhood trauma.

Helmut Remschmidt Research Seminar

Petrus J de Vries

University of Cape Town, South Africa

Petrus de Vries is the Sue Struengmann Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Director of the Centre for Autism Research in Africa and the Adolescent Health Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. He trained in Medicine at Stellenbosch University in South Africa before moving to the UK where he completed his clinical training in Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and a PhD in Developmental Neuropsychiatry at the University of Cambridge.

Prof de Vries returned to South Africa in 2012 with the main purpose of building research and research capacity in Child & Adolescent Mental Health in Africa. He organized and led the 2013 Helmut Remschmidt Research Seminar in Stellenbosch, South Africa and was vice-chairman of the Scientific Committee for the 2014 IACAPAP congress, held in Durban, South Africa. In 2015 he was elected onto the IACAPAP Executive Committee to co-lead future Helmut Remschmidt Research Seminars with Prof Per-Anders Rydelius from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Prof de Vries is chairman of the Society for the Study of Behavioural Phenotypes (SSBP), an international, interdisciplinary research organization, and is on the WHO ICF-CY steering group for autism spectrum disorders and ADHD, under the chairmanship of Prof Sven Bolte. He is a scientific advisor to a number of international organisations in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.

Per Anders Rydelius

Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Supervised 21 Ph.D.- exams and 5 lic.med.sci-exams 1991-2012. More than 170 articles and chapters in peer reviewed scientific journals, other journals and textbooks.

Donald J Cohen Fellowship Program

Joaquín Fuentes

Chief of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at the Policlínica Gipuzkoa in Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain

Joaquin Fuentes is Chief of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at the Policlínica Gipuzkoa in Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain, and Research Consultant (Pro bono) of the Gautena Autism Program in the Gipuzkoa region, Spanish Basque Country. He is a clinician and benefits from diverse opportunities to develop research projects, usually in neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and adolescence. He has been playing an advisory role to stakeholders, non-for-profit and public initiatives for children with difficulties in different countries. He is the Autism Field Advisor of ESCAP (European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), and has served, first as one of the Vice-presidents of IACAPAP, and now as a Counselor of the IACAPAP Executive Committee. For a number of years, he has truly enjoyed the role of co-coordinator of the IACAPAP Donald J. Cohen Fellowship Program, along with his close friend and colleague, Andrés Martin.

Naoufel Gaddour

University of Monastir, Tunisia

Naoufel Gaddour is an Associate Professor in Child Psychiatry at the University of Monastir in Tunisia. He is the Founder and Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at the University Hospital F. Bourguiba Monastir, with a focus on neurodevelopmental disorders. He is an active member of the Tunisian Association for the Promotion of Mental Health, and co-founder and scientific counsellor for several community-based facilities for autism.
Dr Gaddour has conducted research on autism, learning disorders and ADHD. He is the current President of the African Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (AACAMH) and Secretary General of the Tunisian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He began his international involvement in IACAPAP as a Donald J Cohen Fellow and is now very proud to be coordinating the program.

Andrés Martin

Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Andrés Martin is the Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, where he serves as medical director for the Children’s Psychiatric Inpatient Service of Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Martin is active in medical student and child and adolescent training and education at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Martin co-led with Dr. Joaquin Fuentes the IACAPAP Donald J. Cohen Fellowship Program from its inception in 2004 until 2014. As a clinician-editor, Dr. Martin has served as editor of the IACAPAP Bulletin, deputy editor of the IACAPAP e-Textbook, and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 2008 to 2017. A native of Mexico born to Slovak parents, Dr. Martin is eager to visit Prague, the iconic city so close to his family’s origins.

Ayesha Mian

Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Ayesha Irshad Mian is an M.B., B.S. graduate from the Aga Khan University. She then went on to complete her residency and fellowship in General Adult Psychiatry and Pediatric Psychiatry, respectively, from the University of Texas -Houston. She joined Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas as a faculty member and worked there for 7 years before returning to Pakistan. Currently she is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Aga Khan University. Her academic and clinical interests focus on child mental health and medical education.