News From the Region (Last Updated On: ) 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]