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International Workshop on Mental Health Education and Service Development

Southeast Asia

Calcutta, India, 7-8 February 2000

WFMH helped to convene an International Workshop on Mental Health Education and Service Development in Calcutta, a meeting which continued the Federations support for attention to mental health needs in West Bengal. The workshop followed an earlier Calcutta meeting in 1998, the International Conference on Psychiatric Care in Developing Nations, which celebrated WFMHs 50th anniversary and examined developments in psychiatric care in underserved populations.

This years workshop was a mixture of information exchange and exploration bringing together participants from West Bengal with other experts to discuss future development plans. The meeting was opened by the Health Minister of the Government of West Bengal, Sri Partha De, who had convened it with professors Chowdhury and Dutta. It was supported by a small UNESCO grant to WFMH. A focus group format was used to facilitate the discussion, with groups covering services, research, education and World Bank proposals.

Recommendations from the workshop included working to identify and increase common goals among the participants; developing a local network of mental health associations; and developing plans for advocacy and service in the region. Future work in West Bengal will be carried forward by a consortium of NGOs in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry, the Ministry of Health and the Medical School.

WFMH Secretary General Marten deVries participated in the workshop and also addressed a special session of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the topic of Mental Health and Work.

Two weeks after the Calcutta meeting Professor Chowdhury visited Maastricht University in the Netherlands to develop further initiatives for research and services in West Bengal and East Asia.