San José, Costa Rica. January, 2016.

The American Psychiatry Association (APA) is an organization that works to ensure human care and effective treatment of all the persons with mental disorders, including disorders due to the use of substances. Dr. Mercedes Rivas Torres has been designated its honorary ambassador in Costa Rica.

Dr. Rivas Torres works at the Clínica Bíblica Hospital since 1994. She has been dedicated for more than 20 years to disseminating her knowledge in the field of psychiatry as professor and has been a member of the APA for 14 years. In this time, she has actively participated in its activities and congresses, with the purpose of updating and acquiring knowledge related with new discoveries in the field of psychiatry.

This synergy has allowed her to help her patients in various ways, according to their individual characteristics, “We are obligated to give the best of us and a higher scientific knowledge to the people who arrive daily to our hospital center,” indicated Dr. Rivas Torres, who stated that her position “is a great opportunity to promote psychiatry and mental health in our region, strengthening the academic ties that nurture professionals in psychiatry with an excellent medical-psychiatric information, to benefit more effectively our patients, to whom we owe ourselves.”

This international association trains and offers continues counseling to each one of its members around the world, allowing them to share their experiences and knowledge on different topics, with the purpose of interacting and improving the quality of the patient with a mental illness. “I consider it an honor to accompany my colleagues, so that they have the same opportunities I once had, through the APA”, added Rivas.

The APA is the main organization of professionals in psychiatry in the United States that seeks to influence, study and analyze the mental disorders in the rest of the world. Its vision is a society with access and availability for a quality diagnosis and a psychiatric treatment.

Among its main purposes is to promote psychiatric education and training. Also, to promote research of mental diseases, including the causes, prevention, and treatment of psychiatric disorders, as well as developing collaboration with other specialists.

In 1844 in Philadelphia, USA, the Superintendence of Physicians of American Institutions for Mental Issues (AMSAII) was founded, which later in 1921, became APA, institution in charge in the USA of creating a standardized system of psychiatric classification which was concluded in 1952, with the first classification manual of mental disorders known as the DSM.

In 1965, the DSM II appears and is published in 1968. 12 years had to pass so that in 1980, after a long period of development involving several specialists, the DSM III appeared, and which would be improved in 1987 with the DSM III R. In 1994, the DSM IV and in 1913 the DSM V appeared.

The purpose of these classifications is to help the clinician make a better diagnosis, study and treatment for the patient.

This association of American origin has more than 150,000 members of different nationalities. Currently, the APA is led by a President and its Executive Committee, its members are distinguished psychiatrists of the USA, accredited to practice in that country, having ambassadors they select by reference and appoint during their annual meeting.

Today the APA has 37 ambassadors in 22 countries and six continents, representing an effort to provide people with knowledge and credibility in countries such as: Argentina, Chile, India, Norway, Italy, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Japan, Philippines, Island, France, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Nigeria, United Kingdom and Costa Rica.

To obtain further information, or to request an appoinment in any of the medical specialties with the best doctors of Costa Rica, you may contact the private Hospital Clínica Bíblica at telephone number 2522-1000, at email citas@clinicabiblica.com or vía chat on the website www.clinicabiblica.com