The World Psychiatric Section on Quality Assurance (QA) in Psychiatry focuses on quality improvement initiatives internationally. Recognising that there are significant gaps between what is known to be effective (best practices) and what is actually delivered, the QA Section attempts to define barriers and explore solutions to improve the quality of care rendered in different social and economic settings.

Over the last decade one important focus has been on defining the optimal characteristics of Practice Guidelines and Measures and reviewing and disseminating established Practice Guidelines and contrasting guidelines for the same disorder from different countries. Other efforts has explored QA initiatives of systems of care and the impact these projects have had on outcomes. The QA Section has had minimal success in intra – section collaboration and it is goal of the Section to increase these collaborative efforts.