The pre-Christmas meeting of the Psychiatric Departments involved in the EU Interreg funded CAT (Child to Adult Transitions) project took place in Lübeck in mid-December. The historic surroundings of the ZIP psychiatry (part of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein) provided the perfect backdrop for two days of insightful discussions on current and future collaborations.
The Translational Psychiatry team (Stefan Borgwardt, Léon Franzen and Frederike Schröpfer) welcomed experts from Danish child and adolescent as well as adult psychiatry, led by Pia Jeppesen and Sidse Marie Arnfred and complemented by Rikke Engberg Mortensen and David Mark Larsson. Additionally, participants from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Kiel, part of Alexander Preen-Kristensen’s team, joined the fruitful meeting.
The time, as always, was short but put to good use. The conference room became the hub of exchange among multiprofessional specialists focused on the critical transition from childhood to adulthood for those with potentially chronic conditions. Topics covered a broad spectrum, ranging from adolescent mental health challenges to effective strategies for navigating one of the most difficult phases of life. The smaller setting, with its focus on psychiatry, provided the perfect environment for delivering in-depth overviews of the interests of the young patients and clinicians across countries and divisions.
As a brief interruption to the highly productive meeting, the CAT psychiatrists decided to embrace a “hyggelig” interlude with a tour of Lübeck’s famous Christmas market. Wandering through cobblestone streets lined with wooden stalls and handcrafted stars. The experts could not help but to enjoy a warm Glühwein and nibble on plenty of Mutzen.
