61st National Congress of Psychiatry

Dear Colleagues,

Psychiatric Association of Turkey, 61. We look forward to meeting you at the National Psychiatry Congress between 22-26 October 2025 at the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center in Ankara. We have determined the theme of this year’s National Psychiatry Congress as ’From Individual to Society, Preventive Mental Health and Equal, Accessible Treatment’. In the age we live in, the burden of time is heavy; While the spirit of our age bears the traces of violence and destruction, the human spirit is also suffering deeper and deeper wounds. The network of relationships starting from the family, which is the smallest unit of society, to the most comprehensive social institutions, often turns into a destructive force on mental health instead of protecting the mental integrity of individuals. However, man heals when he is most understood; It is most empowered when it is heard. In this period, it is of great importance to prevent mental illnesses, to identify risk factors in advance, not to leave individuals in need of mental support alone, to support them and to improve mental health at the social level. Because mental health is the guarantee of the future of not only the individual but also societies. In a society where one can embrace it with a sense of belonging, one can more easily heal one’s own wounds and the pain of others.

The fact that social injustices, which are experienced as a result of the interaction of many different dynamics, affect the right to access health, which is the most fundamental right of individuals, is a situation that needs to be carefully handled in accordance with our professional and humanitarian responsibilities. Since remaining silent in the face of loss of rights is not only against human dignity but also against professional ethics, we need to go beyond words and produce action with a common conscience. The way to achieve this is to think and produce together. Because only with a collective mind and a common heart can we reinstill hope in a society whose soul has been hurt. We think that a society that heals together will walk into the future with more resilient and more humane steps. At the 61st National Psychiatry Congress, we believe that with your valuable contributions, we will turn a meeting where experiences are shared, awareness grows and thoughts are discussed in the light of ethical principles into a ground that opens to hope with the power of science and solidarity.

With this congress, we are taking steps to adopt and make applicable the approach of not using sexist and discriminatory language, which the Psychiatric Association of Turkey has always attached importance to, for all our scientific activities and publications. While preparing your event proposals, abstracts and presentations, we expect you to benefit from our guide that we will share with you for this purpose. We think that adding this awareness to our written and verbal expressions and visual content will make a very meaningful contribution to preventive mental health with all the changes it will create, and we are excited to make this contribution with all our members.

2025 and 61. The National Psychiatry Congress has another feature that makes us proud and happy. The 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Psychiatric Association of Turkey. We are enthusiastic about having brought our association to the year together, with the care and effort of the first day, without compromising ethical understanding and scientificity, as a professional organization that not only watches but also produces and guides, and always prioritizes equality, inclusiveness and the importance it attaches to human rights. In this congress, we hope to be together to share, learn, teach and open new horizons for new questions, with the strength of our past, the confidence and hope of the knowledge we will carry to the future.

Best regards

Serap Erdoğan Taycan
President of the Psychiatric Association
of Turkey

Nalan Kalkan Oğuzhanoğlu
Chairman of the Congress Organizing Committee of the Psychiatric Association
of Turkey