Castle Craig is a Scottish treatment centre with an international reputation for excellence
Many patients and staff members come to Castle Craig from around the world, and we travel to events and develop partnerships abroad. Within the last few months staff members at Castle Craig have travelled to events in Greece, Turkey, Germany and Belgium which are reported on here:
Greece
Castle Craig’s consultant psychiatrist Dr Florian Kaplick recently attended the “Art & Therapy” Conference that was hosted by Kethea – one of the largest addiction treatment organisations in Europe. The conference was attended by therapists, doctors, counsellors and also artists and musicians.
The conference was about “creative aspects of therapeutic work” such as music, clay or painting. Dr Kaplick delivered a talk about how Castle Craig uses creative tools as part of our addiction treatment, in particular the unique Art Group run by Ingrid Christie, our artist in residence. Dr Kaplick described the conference as “a great event with a personal touch and it was nicely focused on the subject itself”.
Turkey
On the other side of the Mediterranean Glynis Read, Castle Craig’s head of training, was in Antalya attending an international symposium on psychopharmacology – the use of medicines in mental health care. It was a huge conference with a total of 900 delegates, taking place over four days. Most of the conference was about the use of drugs in treatment and Glynis gave a presentation about the use of 12-steps in residential addiction treatment. Glynis told us it was a “good opportunity for mutual learning and very good that Castle Craig has a profile in these events”.
Germany
In Bad Herrenalb, Germany Gordon Hogg, Castle Craig’s head therapist, attended the 54th Annual European Conference of the American Counselling Association. The event is mainly for American counsellors working in Europe and Gordon told us that “it was a great networking opportunity and I attended some very interesting workshops.”
Belgium
In Belgium, Castle Craig organised a reception and dinner at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Brussels. This event was organised in partnership with the British Embassy, and over 60 professionals working in psychiatry and occupational health attended the event to hear talks given by Castle Craig staff – Dr. Margaret Ann McCann, Dr. Florian Kaplick, Ed Zuiderwijk and Peter McCann – on the launch of the EU Cross-Border Healthcare Directive (click here to read more about it). The purpose of the event was to present Castle Craig’s services to relevant professionals working in Belgium. Castle Craig has recently launched new Flemish and French language websites.
“The event was highly successful and enjoyable”, said Peter McCann, Chairman of Castle Craig Hospital. “I was particularly pleased that the British Ambassador hosted the event and joined us for the whole evening. And I would like to thank the embassy staff for putting in so much effort into making it a memorable event”.
