Guidance for fellows at the 9th IACAPAP Helmut Remschmidt Research

Seminar (HRRS2023)

Dear Fellows

Firstly, many congratulations on being selected as a HRRS2023 fellow! We hope that

you will be proud to have been selected from a large group of international applicants.
The mentoring team is therefore very excited to meet you and to work with you in
Brazil.

Prof Schwenck and I thought it would be useful just to explain the basics of the
HRRS2023 so that you would all feel confident about the expectations. Needless to
say, we are a small group, so whenever anyone is not sure, please just ask.

Overview of the programme and the Seminar

The IACAPAP Helmut Remschmidt Research Seminars (HRRS) are intended for early
career child and adolescent mental health professionals with an interest in an
academic/research career. The aims are to provide basic knowledge on key aspects
of research design in child and adolescent mental health, skills in presenting research
to colleagues, and skills in commenting on the research of others. These aims are
achieved in a five-day course that combines lectures by mentors in the mornings and
mentored small research groups in the afternoons. The HRRS also provides an
opportunity for emerging researchers to meet with colleagues from across the world,
and there is therefore a programme of social events that include a gala dinner and a
trip to local attractions.

Introductory Session
On Sunday afternoon (17 September 2023) we will all meet for the first time. We will
ask all mentors and mentees to introduce themselves in 2 minutes and 2 slides. One
minute/one slide is for our professional stories; the second minute and slide is to
introduce our personal stories. Please prepare two PowerPoint slides and email them
to Pamela (pamela.silva@ccmgroup.com.br) by 10 September 2023 at the latest.
This will allow us to assemble all the slides into a single slideshow. No animations
allowed in slides, please.

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Morning Lectures
Lectures usually last for around 45 minutes, with an additional 45 minutes for
discussion. We have deliberately made lectures 90-minute sessions so that there is
enough time for discussion and engagement of the group. The HRRS takes place in
English.

Although many of you will have an excellent command of English, some may find it
harder to understand complicated phrases or to communicate your thoughts in
English. The majority of us will be participating in a language that is not our first
language, so we will all be very aware of that. We will ask all mentors if we can share
their presentations with you – and will do that at the end of the week.

Small groups – your role as fellow

Seminar participants will be divided into small groups of 3-4 HRRS fellows at the start
of the week and you will stay in these groups for the whole week. Some groups will
have one mentor, and some will have two. These groups meet in the afternoon, for
two hours at a time. You should have a session on Monday afternoon, Tuesday
afternoon and Thursday afternoon.

At the start of the afternoon the mentors will do a general introduction and might get
all of you to introduce yourselves and your research journey to one another. Typically,
two fellows per session will have a chance to talk about their projects and to get
feedback from the group and from mentors. Please make sure that you prepare what
you want to talk about – we will give you maximum 20 minutes to talk before we do
discussions. If you want to bring your project on slides, that will be fine – you can show
it to your small group on your laptop in the small group rooms. If you don’t want to
bring slides, that would also be fine. Mentors will try to give helpful advice and
reflections on your projects, and will try to do this mindful of the context that you work
in. For instance, the advice and recommendations may be quite different for a fellow
from a high-income academic institution versus one from a low-income clinical setting.

Large-group feedback sessions

At the end of each day, we will ask all groups to provide some topline feedback on
their mentoring discussions. We will ask that each group identifies a rapporteur (one
of the fellows) to do this. It is helpful to rotate the rapporteur so that most participants
get a chance to feed back to the group. In this session, we are keen to share universal
themes or specific questions or points that emerged in your mentoring session.

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1:1 Mentoring sessions
After very successfully using one-to-one career advice sessions at two conferences in
South Africa, Prof Christina Schwenck suggested this addition. On Wednesday
afternoon you will therefore have about 30 minutes to meet with one of your mentors.
During this session you will have the opportunity of an informal, confidential discussion
about any aspects of your research, career or career development, or about work-live
balance and interference. It is entirely up to you to decide what you would like to talk
about.

However, 30 minutes can go quickly, so we would like to encourage you to prepare

for this session and to decide in advance what you would like to discuss. It is often
useful to write it down to make sure you don’t forget.

The ‘Ask us anything’ session

This session was introduced in 2022 in Dubai for the first time. On Friday morning,
fellows will have a two-and a half hour session for a panel discussion between mentors
and fellows. This session will be entirely open for you as a fellow group to use as you
would like. We would recommend that you start discussing early in the week what you
would like to do, how you would like to use the time and so on. The only ‘rule’ is that
mentors should not have to prepare anything in advance for the session.

Final feedback session

On Friday, the last day of the seminar, all participants (mentees and mentors) will be
asked to provide short feedback and personal reflections on the week. You do not
need to prepare slides for this.

Social Activities
You will see that the programme is filled with academic activities and social activities.
The philosophy of the HRRS is to acknowledge that social engagement is just as
important as the academic work. We also strongly believe in the importance of the
group process that takes place over the course of the week. We would therefore
strongly encourage you to participate academically and socially as much as possible
in all the activities. You will find that the HRRS can be a hugely enjoyable and
rewarding experience!

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Other practical issues
Travel and accommodation:
We will all arrive at the HRRS venue at the same time. Check-in will be from 5pm, so
we will first have our introductory session and then check in and settle in our rooms.
We have accommodation at Grand Hotel Senac Campos do Jordão (Av. Frei Orestes
Girardi, 3549 – Campos do Jordão – São Paulo) arranged from Sunday till Friday (17-
21st September 2023). We will all check out on Friday, 22 nd before 1 pm. Please make
contact with Pamela (pamela.silva@ccmgroup.com.br) from the organising team if you
have any uncertainty about your accommodation and/or travel.

Airport Transfers:
We will all meet up at Guarulhos Airport on Sunday, 17th September 2023. Please
make sure that you get to the rendezvoux by 12noon at the latest. Pamela and the
organising team will let us know exactly when and where we should meet in due
course. From the airport we will all travel in a bus to Campos do Jordao. Apparently,
the trip can be between 2-3 hours long, so please come prepared. We will arrange for
a bottle of water for everyone.

Food and Travel Sunday afternoon till Friday afternoon:

The HRRS team will arrange for all transfers to and from venue where we will have
our HRRS programme. We will get breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and you will
not have to pay for it. Our excursion on Thursday afternoon will also be included and
will not cost you any money.

Food and travel before Sunday afternoon and after Friday afternoon:
If you will be in São Paulo before and/or after the HRRS programme, you will be
responsible for your own food, travel and activities. If you have any worries about
expenses while you will be in Brazil, please let us know. We want to make sure you
will be OK.

Clothes to bring:
During the day we will work indoors as a team, and will wear smart but casual clothes.
There is no need for suits and ties. For the Thursday evening Gala Dinner, it might be
nice to dress a bit more smartly for the special occasion. Of course, we realise there
are huge cultural variability in dress codes around the world, so the main thing is for
you to feel comfortable. We are told that Campos can be a bit chilly in September and
that there may be some rain, so please bring umbrellas and raincoats if you have them.
Comfortable walking shoes would be great for the excursion. And of course,
sunglasses and a cap/hat would also be a good idea!

Visas:
Hopefully most of you will not require a visa to enter Brazil. If you have any queries
about this please check your country guidelines.

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If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email Pamela
(pamela.silva@ccmgroup.com.br) or Sue Wong (suewong.iacapap@gmail.com). Código de campo alterado

We look forward very much to meeting you all in Brazil!

Prof Petrus de Vries and Prof Christina Schwenck

August 2023

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