Europe
Salzburg Seminar on Global Health Recommendations for WHO
WFMH Senior Consultant Eugene B. Brody was an invited participant at a
“Salzburg Seminar Special Session” held from 8 to 12 July 2000 on “Critical
Issues in Global Health: Leadership Challenges in the 21st Century.” The
session held at the Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria, was convened
by C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General and director of the Office
of International Health. It was organized by the U.S. National Center for
Health Education of New York, headed by Clarence Pearson who, with his staff
and internationally experienced colleagues from the Academy for Educational
Development in Washington, D.C., served as the faculty secretariat. The
seminar was funded by the W.K. Kellog Foundation with additional support
from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Seminar participants examined the context for “transformational leadership
to influence global health,” discussed the requirements for future leaders
and methods of training them, and produced recommendations to help WHO
achieve its goals and objectives for global health. The bulk of the
participants were academicians in the fields of medicine, epidemiology,
nutrition, population, public health, and health policy.
Dr. Brody was the only mental health specialist at the seminar. WHO was
represented by several past and current officers, including Derek Yach,
Executive Director in charge of the departments concerned with
non-communicable diseases and mental health. Dr. Yach gave one of the
keynote addresses, representing WHO Director General Brundtland. Keynote
messages were also delivered by Dr. Koop and by political scientist Harlan
Cleveland, former Marshall Plan administrator after World War II, U.S.
Undersecretary of State, U.S. Ambassador to NATO and holder of many
distinctions including the U.S. Medal of Freedom. Among other notable
participants were the Director of the Public Health Research Institute in
Moscow, Russian Federation; the Chairman of the Technical Committee for
Health Reform of Lebanon; the Chairman of the Global Forum for Health
Research based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and
the former Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research in New
Delhi.
SIND in Kosovo
SIND, the Danish Mental Health Association, recently received a one-year
grant to help the mentally ill in Kosovo by developing day centers and other
alternatives to psychiatric care in hospitals. Kosovo, formerly a region of
Yugoslavia, suffered intensely during the civil war. It has 2.2 million
inhabitants, most of them Muslims. An administrator for the SIND project,
Karen Reiff, moved to the capital city, Pristina, at mid-year. She was
followed soon after by a Danish social worker, Linda Bregendorf, who will
stay for at least six months.
Between 1994 and 1998 SIND supported another initiative in the region in
cooperation with the Hamlet Trust, London, to establish a day center for the
mentally ill in Tirana, Albania. The center continues to operate
successfully and its director, Adriatik Bicaku, has been a valuable source
of advice for the new project. He will visit Pristina at least monthly to
consult with the Danish workers.
A delegation from SIND led by its President, Bente Djorup, went to Pristina
on 4-8 September. It included Executive Director Kim Christensen; Knud
Jensen, chair of the SIND International Committee (and a WFMH Board member);
and the adviser for developing countries, Hans Wulffsberg.
In addition to planning the development of their project they also visited
HANDIKOS, an organization which works with handicapped people but lacks
experience in helping the mentally ill. They visited an institution for the
mentally handicapped supported by the Norwegian Red Cross, STIMJE, and
thought it was being run along very old-fashioned principles. On their
return to Denmark they recommended to the Norwegian Red Cross that it should
support collectives for the mentally handicapped instead. SIND
representatives will return to Pristina in December for another review of
their team’s work.
WHO is active in helping to build up a mental health system for Kosovo, with
plans which generally follow the structure of the community psychiatry
system in Trieste. While in Pristina the Danish delegation attended a
seminar on mental health legislation arranged by WHO.
Meetings
Netherlands
The annual meeting of Mental Health Europe-Sante Mentale Europe will be held
in conjunction with “European Conference on Mental Health 2001 – Visibly
Improved, Improved Visibility” in Rotterdam on 7-9 March 2001. This
conference is being organized by GGZ Nederland and the Trimbos Institute.
For information, contact Maurice Galla, European Project Manager at the
Trimbos Institute by email at [email protected]
Israel
Following the first International Conference on Violence and Adolescence in
Jerusalem in November 1999, a second Conference on the same theme will be
held there on 17-19 July 2001. The main theme is “Prevention of Violence in
Adolescence.” The meeting is being organized by the WFMH Committee on
Adolescents chaired by Emanuel Chigier. For information, contact: ISAS
International Seminars, POB 574, Jerusalem 91004, Israel. Tel: 972 2 652
0574. Fax: 972 2 652 0558. Email: [email protected]