Chairperson(s): Michaela Amering (Wien, Austria), Stefan Priebe (London, United Kingdom) 16.15 - 17.45, Holiday Inn- Room 4

Major changes in medical and health care culture shape the development of new roles of mental health professionals and their clients. The empowerment paradigm, policy initiatives towards partnership, expert patient-hood, and shared-decision making exert their influence in various ways and to varying degrees. Old and new media give free access to formerly privileged information. Multidisciplinary teams search and find new definitions of professional identity, skills and responsibilities. New forms of patient-professional communication and cooperation take place in different new contexts of mental health care delivery. This symposium will tackle conceptual issues as well as present examples of novel research and practice approaches. The stage will be set by Stefan Priebe/UK with a talk on "Understanding and investigating the therapeutic relationship in psychiatry" with theoretical considerations as well as research data on this issue. Manfred Zaumseil from the University of Berlin will concentrate on the construct of shared-decision making and research on "advanced" forms of patient-professional relationships. Research results and new developments concerning crisis plans in the UK will be presented by Claire Henderson from the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Finally, Michaela Amering from Vienna will inform on research and implementation initiatives of advance directives including her research on consumers deliberating decisions on whether and how to make use of this tool in New York, USA. Diana Rose, Senior Lecturer and Co-ordinator of the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, will enrich the workshop as an expert discussant.