The Fifth World Conference
on
the Promotion of Mental Health and Prevention of
Mental and Behavioral Disorders
Melbourne, Australia, 10-12 September 2008
The host organization
was the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth),
headed by Chief Executive Officer Todd Harper. The partner
organizations presenting the conference in Melbourne together with
VicHealth were the World Federation for Mental Health, the Carter
Center (Atlanta, USA) and the Clifford Beers Foundation (UK).
Professor Rob Moodie from the Nossal Institute at the University of
Melbourne and
Professor Helen Herrman of ORYGEN Research Centre headed the
International
Program Committee. Within VicHealths Mental Health and Wellbeing
Unit headed by
Lyn Walker, Senior Program Officer Irene Walker headed a very able
organizing team.
At the previous
conferences held in the USA (2000), United Kingdom (2002), New
Zealand (2004) and Norway (2006) the program followed established
themes of research, policy-making, evidence-based programs,
dissemination, and development of training and expertise. For the
Melbourne conference the International Program Committee added
social and community engagement, discrimination, violence in various
forms including violence against women, and access to economic
resources.
Violence and Human
Rights
The theme of violence was supplemented by a notable emphasis on
human rights
throughout the plenary program. Kate Gilmore, deputy director of
Amnesty
International, gave a passionate address on human rights abuses
which started and ended with the genocide in Rwanda. Rob Moodie,
co-chair of the International Program
Committee, began his presentation with a condemnation of the way
that asylum seekers, who have already experienced trauma, are placed
in circumstances during the asylum process that can cause or worsen
mental illness. Mohammed Diaaeldin Omer, UNICEFSudan, described the
high prevalence of common mental disorders among women living in
camps in West Darfur (75.8%), and the low attention paid to it.
Harry Minas of the University of Melbourne described the Pinel 21
Project that is investigating the physical restraint and confinement
of people with mental illness in Aceh and Sumatra (Indonesia). Paris
Aristotle, Director of Foundation House, discussed refugee and
resettlement issues, including the strategies that governments use
to put up barriers for people with mental illness. During the
conference VicHealths CEO, Todd Harper, launched his organizations
new program to combat violence against women by providing grants to
five local service organizations.
In a very explicit
way, too, VicHealth drew attention to human rights close to home.
The closing item of the conference was a performance by the Choir of
Hard Knocks, which has become well known in Australia through a
prize-winning documentary and its two platinum CDs. The choir
features more than 30 people in Melbourne, many of them
homeless, who have experienced extreme disadvantage in life. The
groups intensely
moving performance drew the audience into consideration of basic
themes explored by
the programsocial participation, discrimination and economic
issues.
Choir of Hard Knocks. Photo credit:
Snappy Pics
Furthering the human
rights theme, two plenary speakers spoke about the newly released
report of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health
(www.who.int/social_determinants/en/).
Prof. Fran Baum, a member of the Commission,
noted the influence of the former Surgeon General of the United
States, David Satcher, in seeing that mental health issues were
incorporated in the report. Prof. Carles Muntaner presented research
on labor issues, showing how the way the modern work place is
organized has a heavy impact on mental health.
Youth Engagement
Strategy
The conference incorporated a youth engagement strategy exploring
ways to reach out to young people. On the first morning the State of
Victorias Minister for Mental Health,
the Hon. Lisa Neville, MP, spoke about the need to build up a
mental health platform
in early childhood services and in schools to address perceived
needs and help young
people reach their potential. Elsewhere the conference planners
pointed towards ways to reach young people outside conventional
settings, through social activities and
particularly through the Internet.
Programming on young
peoples issues was incorporated in many sessions and youth was in
evidence to an unusual degree throughout, from the dancers of the
Indigenous Hip Hop Project to the Reach Out! programs
ambassadors. Two young ambassadors from the program, Doug Millen and
Ehon Chan, addressed a plenary session and gave the (much
older) audience an insight into ways to reach young people, while
also showing the
importance of taking their opinions into account. The Inspire
Foundation
and Oxfam Australias Youth Engagement Program
(www.reachout.com.au) were
represented, and VicHealth arranged for young people to
participate in online forums before the conference. Film-makers from
the Student Youth
Network (www.syn.org.au) shot a
witty video giving their view of the conference and
presented it at the closing session. The video and other materials
produced during the
conference were used later in various youth websites.
Measuring Mental
Health
There were several presentations on how to measure mental health, a
particular interest of VicHealth through the work of its McCaughey
Centre
(www.mccaugheycentre.unimelb.edu.au
, which has produced a set of community
wellbeing indicators for the State of Victoria (www.communityindicators.net.au).
A
presentation on Bhutans Gross National Happiness Index attracted
considerable
attention. Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of that countrys Gross
National Happiness
Commission, proposed that measuring GNH is about a balanced and
holistic approach to
development using alternative definitions of wellbeing. A nationwide
survey of one
thousand people, using 300 questions, was used to derive 31 GNH
indicators from which
a single GNH Index will be derived. Apichai Mongkol from the Thai
Ministry of Public
Health spoke about the development of a similar index. The Thai
Happiness Index has
66 items, and looks at areas such as spirituality, health and family
support. As these
indicators were discussed, it was observed that when mental health
is mentioned in
Bhutan and Thailand people think of relative degrees of happiness,
while when it is
mentioned in the West people think first of mental illness.
Karma Tshiteem, Gross National
Happiness Commission, Bhutan, addressing the
conference. Photo credit: Snappy Pics
The special area of
database development was also reviewed. Norways large project to
develop a database for evidence-based interventions in prevention
and health promotion was described by Willy-Tore M?rch, of the
Norwegian Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Activities Attached
to the Conference
As at previous conferences, various activities were attached before
and after the meeting. These included the biennial meeting of the
Global Consortium for the Advancement of Mental Health Promotion and
Prevention in Mental Health (GCAPP); a day-long preconference on
school mental health arranged by the International Alliance for
Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (Intercamhs); and a
meeting of the International Network of Health Promotion
Foundations.
The Arts Program
Throughout the conference VicHealth showcased its belief that the
arts have an important role to play in promoting community mental
health (and fun). Sixteen arts projects were presented, sometimes at
unexpected moments, thanks to special support from Arts Victoria.
Highlights included the vocalists of Black Armband who provided
contemporary indigenous music at the opening, and the closing
ceremony which included the rock music of the BiPolar Bears as well
as the Choir of Hard Knocks.
The Melbourne
Charter
Well before the conference began, consultation was under way on the
drafting of a
preliminary format for the outcome document, a Charter outlining the
principles of
mental health promotion and the prevention of disorders. The
drafting group received
input from the abstracts sent in by those who presented at
concurrent sessions, and from the general audience. Special
arrangements were made to get advance contributions from youth
groups. The Charter will be finalized and edited in the coming
months, then circulated internationally. It will be offered for
review and updating at the Sixth World Conference on the Promotion
of Mental Health and Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders.