The ACLP Board has approved the establishment of a new special interest group (SIG) to provide an opportunity for Hispano-American psychiatrists to share their interest for C-L Psychiatry.

Ricardo Millán-González, MD, requested establishment of the Hispano-American C-L Psychiatry SIG.

“Our group, comprised of more than 40 C-L psychiatrists, have assisted the annual meetings since 2008, coming from all around Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Region, South America and Spain,” says Dr. Millán-González.

“Through time we have naturally affiliated as a team, sharing academic and investigation projects through our universities and workplaces; all made possible by the communication the ACLP allowed us to have.”

At least seven C-L Psychiatry programs currently exist in Latin America: three in Colombia (Bogotá and Medellin); one in Chile (Pontifical Catholic University); and three in Mexico (National Autonomous University of Mexico, University of La Salle and TEC University of Monterrey).

“And we are no less than 60 subspecialists in the field who develop our clinical practice with high complexity teams in general hospitals, have academic activities, participate in resident programs, continuous education year-round regarding C-L Psychiatry, and also publish numerous investigation projects in highly qualified indexed journals,” says Dr. Millán-González.

“We therefore believe that, with the opportunity the ACLP has facilitated us, it is time to bring more formality to our group within the Academy. Furthermore, we have raised some objectives for the new SIG we intend to propose.

“We are excited and looking forward to this project, which we see as an opportunity to promote diversity and inclusion as well as academic growth,” says Dr. Millán-González

The SIG’s Objectives

• Expand ACLP core messages throughout all Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula to guide continuous medical formation and teaching in C- L Psychiatry.
• Collaborate with ACLP concerning our academic and culturally-oriented experience in the field, including our approach to medically-ill patients in Spanish- and Portuguese- speaking populations in the Ibero-American region, and also within the US (who represented 18.1% of the US population, 58.9 million people, in 2019.)
• Establish a close communication bridge between ACLP and local psychiatric associations in the region.
• Enhance Latin-American seminars, medical conventions and meetings, investigations, and study meetings, with ACLP endorsement.
• Open bilateral internship opportunities from the region to US academic centers.
• Host ACLP visiting professors in our regional countries.
• Promote the development of multicentric investigations in C-L Psychiatry.
• Create treatment-approach protocols for C-L Psychiatry in low-income hospitals in our region.