Initiators of the Congress
Marek Balicki – Specialist psychiatrist. Co-chairman of the Expert Committee on Mental Health Protection at the Ombudsman,
Member of the Council for Health Protection at the President of the Republic of Poland, Member of the Council for Mental Health at the Minister of Health, Chairman of the Council of the Foundation Polish League for Fighting Cancer.
Long-term president of the Warsaw Society for Medical Aid and Care of the Mentally and Nervously Ill. He managed several Warsaw hospitals, including the Psychiatric Hospital „Drewnica”. From 2013 to 2018 he was the head of the Wolski Centre for Mental Health, and from 2018 to 2021 he headed the Office for the Piloting of the National Programme for Mental Health Care at the IPiN. Twice Minister of Health (2003 and 2004-2005), advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland (1998-2001), long-time parliamentarian.
Andrzej Cechnicki – Professor, Doctor of Medicine, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, psychotherapy supervisor of the Polish Psychiatric Association, employee of the Centre for Environmental Psychiatry and Psychosis Research of the Department of Psychiatry at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, deputy president of the Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Environmental Care, member of the Scientific Council of the Polish Society of Environmental Psychiatry and chairman of the Scientific Council of the Environmental Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Section of the Polish Psychiatric Association, chairman of the All-Poland Alliance for the Implementation of the NPOZP in Poland. Originator and implementer of the Kraków system of treatment and rehabilitation of people with schizophrenia and of the professional integration programme: Pensjonat „U Pana Cogito” and „Zielonego Dołu”, where people after mental crises find employment. Co-founder and Honorary President of the Polish-German Association for Mental Health. Board member of Enmesh. Former National Coordinator of the Programme against Stigmatisation and Exclusion of People with Mental Illness in cooperation with WHO. Author of more than a hundred publications in the field of schizophrenia, rehabilitation and social psychiatry, including the monograph „Schizophrenia – a multidimensional process. A Krakow-based prospective study of the course, prognosis and outcome of treatment” and together with Anna Liberadzka „Empowerment and recovery. To give hope”
Jacek Wciórka – professor of psychiatry.
Director of 1st Department of Psychiatry and vice-president of the Board of the Insitute of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Co-author of the National Mental Health Protection Programme.
Vice-president of the Mental Health Board to the Minister of Health. Health Minister’s advisor on community psychiatry within the National Mental Health Protection Programme.
President of the Committee for Psychiatric Care Reform and the National Mental Health Protection Programme to the General Board of the Polish Psychiatric Association.
Editor of the quarterly „Developments in Psychiatry and Neurology”.
Author of numerous publications on clinical psychiatry, community psychiatry, and humanist and social aspects of psychiatry.
