Conference on psychiatry opens: call for improving mental health conditions in developing nations

Mental health professionals have called for making dedicated efforts by the governments in particular and society and medical professionals in general to improve the mental health conditions in the developing countries by allocating maximum resources to rehabilitate the mentally ill people.
They also demanded that special attention must be paid in remote areas of developing countries where situation with regard to mental health services is dismal.
They further said that the concept about mental illness was not fully developed and majority of people in developing countries was unable to comprehend the true nature of illness, especially in terms of causation and treatment approaches.
They expressed these views while speaking at the inaugural session of the four-day World Psychiatry Association (WPA) Regional & Inter Zonal meeting that formally started at a local hotel on Friday.
The moot has been organised by Pakistan Psychiatric Society (PPS) in collaboration with South Asian Division, Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK, South Asian Forum on Mental Health & Psychiatry, UK Chapter, World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR), Mental Health Resource Centre (MHRC), Pakistan.
As many as 250 mental health professionals are participating in this moot from around the world, including 65 delegates from India, 130 from UK, and 55 from USA, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Philippine, Japan, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Egypt, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Italy and Argentina.
Among the foreign participants, there are around 55 women mental health professionals who will deliberate on women issues in psychiatry and new trends in a special session on Saturday.
This is the first time that such a mega event of psychiatrists has been organised in the South Asian region.
The Indian delegates said that they were extremely happy, as their dream of visiting the culturally rich and historic city of Lahore, has come true through attending this moot.
They stated that both Indian and Pakistani people were facing almost similar health problems and psychiatric problems of people of the two countries are common with almost same ratio.
An exhibition of different Pakistani items has also been arranged at the venue of the moot in a bid to introduce Pak products amongst the foreign participants. Stalls of handicrafts, leather products, jewellery, carpets and garments have been established.

In the inaugural session, Professor A. Okasha, President WPA, Professor Khalid A. Mufti, Chairman MHRC, Professor J. K. Trivedi, President Indian Psychiatric Association, Professor P. Ruiz (USA), Dr Mike Shooter (UK), Professor R. N. Mohan (UK), Dr A. Barbato (Italy), Dr Afzal Javed (UK), Professor Juan Mezzich (USA), and Professor Haroon Rashid Chaudhry (Pakistan) highlighted the objectives of the event.
They said the event would provide an opportunity to the participants to exchange views on latest trends in psychiatry, apart from benefiting from each other's experiences.
Professor A. Okasha in his keynote lecture spoke on WPA initiatives for promotion of mental health in developing countries. He stated that WPA has planned to organise different programmes to address psychiatric issues in children as well as improving diagnosis in the developing countries.
He stated that 90 percent health budget of the world goes to 10 percent population while rest of the population, have share of only 10 percent in this allocation.
According to him, there are apprehensions that by the year 2020, depression would be rated as the second major cause of death after heart diseases.
Later, in a plenary session, Professor Juan Mezzich (USA) spoke on the quality of life in comprehensive diagnosis and care, while Professor Dinesh Bhugra of UK addressed on globalisation and mental health.
Professor Dinesh said that globalisation has caused surge in mental health problems in different countries. In another session, Professor Pedro Ruiz addressed on acculturation and migration while Professor G. Christodoulou of Greece spoke on the relevance of the psychiatric approach in modern medicine.
In a session on mood disorder, Dr E. Mohandas of India highlighted different aspects of this problem. There is evidence that educating primary healthcare personnel in the identification and treatment of people with mood disorders may effectively result in cut in suicide rate among those at risk, he added.
Speaking on suicide Dr Murad Musa said that poverty, unemployment, loss of loved ones, arguments with family or friends, breakdown in relationships, early marriages and legal or work-related problems are risk factors for this act.
In another session, Dr S. M. Masud spoke on bipolar disorders in children and adolescents while Dr M. Shah Alam of Bangladesh addressed with reference to cultural context of young mania rating scale.
In another session on changes in postgraduate medical education & assessment in the UK, Professor N. Mendis (Sri Lanka), Professor N. Desai (India), Professor Khalid Mufti, Professor P Udomartn (Thailand) addressed on the occasion.
Moreover, President General Pervez Musharraf in his message on the occasion said that the concept of mental health in developing countries has undergone remarkable changes in terms of diagnosis and management.
He said that he is confident that this international meeting will provide a useful platform to save the humanity from psychosocial and psychiatric problems, especially in developing countries. He congratulated Pakistan Psychiatric Society for organising this event.
Punjab Governor, Lieutenant General Khalid Maqbool (Retd), in his message said that psychiatry is an emerging field of medicine and in the years ahead its importance will increase in proportion with the complexities of human life.
He hoped that the conference would provide a useful forum for discussion of recent advances and innovations in the sphere of psychiatry and mental ailments.
He also hoped that the participants of the conference would share their knowledge, ideas, experiences and disseminate improved and affordable methods of prevention and cure of psychiatric disorders.