[The future of the Belgian psychiatric patient according to the WPA-Lancet Commission]

In 2017, the World Psychiatric Association-Lancet Psychiatry Commission on the future of psychiatry identified several priority areas for the next decade. Six major domains were distinguished, namely the patient and his treatment, psychiatry and healthcare systems, psychiatry and society, the future of mental health legislation, digital psychiatry and training the psychiatrist of the future. This essay examines the state of affairs in Belgium seven years after the publication of the above-mentioned document.

Testing the situation in Belgium based on scientific literature and policy documents, and on experience and opinion of the authors.

Psychiatry training and research are slow to keep up with demographic changes such as aging and cultural diversity. There is also a stark lack of capacity and competencies in clinical practice. The reforms within Belgian mental health care have received international appreciation in recent years. However, multi-stage care is still not getting off the ground. There is also insufficient capacity for outpatient care for patients with serious psychiatric disorders. In addition to the law on compulsory admission, the law on patient rights was renewed. Digital psychiatric care has hardly been rolled out. Finally, the training and education for the future psychiatrist is still based too much on knowledge transfer and not enough on the acquisition of skills.

The World Health Organization and Europe praise the Belgian reforms regarding the socialization of healthcare. However, compared to future expectations for our field, a lot still needs to be done.