VII CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL y XII NACIONAL de
PSICOLOGÍA CLÍNICA

Mental disorders have a high prevalence worldwide and are often associated with substantial psychosocial impairments. Many mental disorders have their onset in in childhood or adolescence. They have a high likelihood of persistence or recurrence of symptoms and are risk factors for other psychiatric disorders in adulthood. To fight the devastating consequences of mental disorders, substantial efforts have been made to detect them as early as possible and, thereby, to reduce the duration without treatment. Against this background this symposium will first outline the importance of prevention in mental health care. Afterwards, promising starting points and examples for early detection and intervention will be described and discussed.

Richard Pemberton will outline the background to the UK Division of Clinical Psychology’s recent groundbreaking Position Statement on Classification, which states that ‘... it is timely and appropriate to affirm publicly that the current classification system as outlined in DSM and ICD, in respect of the functional psychiatric diagnoses, has significant conceptual and empirical limitations and there is ... a need for a paradigm shift in classification in relation to these diagnoses, towards one which is no longer based on a “disease” model.’ He will draw out some of the implications for theory and practice in clinical psychology and health and social care services and outline a conceptual and political path forward towards personalised, effective and compassionate psychological care.