Mental Health and Work
(Left to right) Ms. Deborah Wan, Mrs. Rosalie Kwong, Ms. Doris Fong
and Mr. Charles Yu at the World Mental Health Day event in Hong Kong.
Ms. Wan is Chief Executive Officer of the New Life Rehabilitation Association,
which has organized a Regional Seminar on mental health and work on 31 January-1
February 2002, with co-sponsorship from the International Labour Organization and the
World Federation for Mental Health.
In 2000 the World Federation for Mental Health launched its first two-year World Mental Health Day campaign, selecting the
topic “Mental Health and Work” as one that particularly deserved a long review. This new arrangement also recognized that
World Mental Health Day (normally observed on 10 October) is far from being a one-day event, as it requires months of
advance planning and coordination from local organizers.
A two-year campaign facilitated local planning that was more extensive than before, and that in many cases dovetailed neatly
with the World Health Organization’s special initiative on mental health in 2001. There was an unprecedented year-long
opportunity for the examination of mental health issues, and a number of WFMH member organizations took advantage of it.
The “Mental Health and Work” campaign was launched with a Symposium on 10 October 2000 at the International Labour
Organization’s headquarters in Geneva. The event was jointly co-sponsored by the ILO, WHO and WFMH, to highlight the
relationship of work situations to the mental health of individuals, and also of their families. Another event on this
topic, a Regional Seminar in Hong Kong on 31 January-1 February 2002, has been jointly organized by the ILO, WFMH and the
New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.
World Mental Health Day was observed in many different ways internationally with local programs which reflected particular
circumstances. As usual, some organizers adopted the WFMH theme while others used their own topics, and a number publicized
the WFMH theme and a local one together. Programs lasted for one day or several, a week, and sometimes spanned a month.
Large or small, they represented a major commitment of time and effort by their organizers. Many reports were received,
and some of them are noted in this survey to salute the international support for the Day and permit an exchange of ideas
about programs.
The Effects of Trauma in the Workplace
Sadly, a new dimension was added to the workplace theme in 2001. People from 86 countries died in the World Trade Center
disaster in New York on 11 September. This catastrophe at a major international business center opened up powerful emotional
issues affecting employees, family members and companies in New York and in other, widespread locations. Many companies,
organizations and individuals in New York and elsewhere sought mental health support afterwards.
In some places,World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2001 was used to address matters which could not have been imagined a
month before.
The program for the annual observance of the Day arranged at the UN by the NGO Committee on Mental Health in New York was
hastily abandoned to focus instead on the need for a mental health response in disaster relief, and to recognize the
distress of workers in New York – survivors of the attack, employees of local companies and of the UN, rescue workers, and
mental health professionals as well. Gaston Harnois, M.D., WHO consultant and director of the Douglas Hospital in Montreal,
Canada, was a keynote speaker, together with Dr. Jack Saul, who founded the international trauma studies program at New York University. Jean-Guy Morisett, staff counselor in the office of human resources management at the UN Secretariat, described the troubled reactions among many UN employees and their families. In an open discussion which followed, people who had worked to counsel those directly affected by the 11 September attack talked about their experiences and their own reactions.
At the Pan American Health Organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., WFMH’s Regional Vice President for South America,
Paulo Alterwain, M.D., had been invited from Uruguay to discuss workplace issues in South America, and Prof. Eugene Brody, M.D.,
WFMH’s senior consultant and former Secretary General, was scheduled to talk about the Federation. After 11 September, when
the attack on the Pentagon affected many Washington workplaces, PAHO recognized that the event would also provide a useful
opportunity to address its own staff’s concerns. Extra speakers were added to the program to talk about matters including
the current anxieties of family members, especially children. The Director of PAHO, Dr. George Alleyne, opened the meeting
to express his support for the staff. He also referred to the heavy stress intrinsic in the work of those who participate
in relief efforts, as PAHO experts do after natural disasters in Latin America.