College Affairs

Asia Pacific Mental Health Workshop 2014 The second Asia Pacific Mental Health Workshop was held in Kuala Lumpur on 23–24 May, as a component of the joint 18th Malaysian Conference on Psychological Medi­ cine and the 1st Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations Regional Meeting in Malaysia. The workshop was attended by 31 delegates representing the following 19 nations: Thailand, Iran, Japan, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, UK, Bhutan, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the main challenges facing the delivery of mental health services in the region and to identify actions that can be implemented to address these issues. The first day was chaired by Dr Maria Tomasic, the RANZCP’s immediate past President, with welcome addresses given by A/Prof Victor Storm; RANZCP Board Director on behalf of the RANZCP President, Dr Murray Patton; Professor Pichet Udomratn, President, Asian Feder­ ation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA) and Professor Mohd Fadzilah, Malaysian Psychiatric Association.

Delegates at the Asia Pacific Workshop in Kuala Lumpur •• How to better share resources regionally; •• How to tackle the lack of mental health workforce and services in the region; •• How to best use psychiatric expertise in areas where there is relatively little psychiatrist workforce, or where the mental health workforce generally is relatively under-developed.

Four key topics were addressed at the workshop:

Day two of the workshop was opened by Dr Murray Patton, who also chaired the session and provided each group with the opportunity to present the issues they had brainstormed the previous day.

•• Mental health legislation and involuntary treatment;

Dr Patton says that, as a region, although we are culturally and

geographically diverse, we face a number of common challenges as we all seek to improve the delivery of mental health services in the region and advance the profession of psychiatry. ‘Over the coming months, delegates that attended the event will hopefully implement some of the ideas that came out of the workshop in their home nation. ‘It is also important that regular regional meetings continue to be held into the future. ‘This will ensure partnerships and links between organisations are strengthened and relationships are firmly established that will bring about improvements in mental health across the region.’

409 Downloaded from apy.sagepub.com at UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN LIBRARY on March 17, 2015

Australasian Psychiatry 22(4)

Asia Pacific Portal An Asia Pacific Portal was also launched at the Asia Pacific Mental Health Workshop. The portal is an online resource which will initially be hosted by a link from the RANZCP’s webpage. It will contain relevant and up-to-date data and information that will be accessible to psychiatrists and other

mental health workers/teachers in the Asia Pacific region. At the inaugural Asia Pacific Mental Health Forum held in Sydney last year, forum delegates expressed a desire to have a centralised online resource, designed with the objective of increasing regional collaboration and communication.

While the portal currently holds resources relating to the RANZCP, it is designed to include information from other regional organisations. As a live site, the portal will be regularly updated and refreshed, with new information provided by psychiatrist associations from across the Asia Pacific region.

410 Downloaded from apy.sagepub.com at UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN LIBRARY on March 17, 2015

Asia Pacific Mental Health Workshop 2014.

Asia Pacific Mental Health Workshop 2014. - PDF Download Free
113KB Sizes 2 Downloads 3 Views