The Fifth World Conference
onthe Promotion of Mental Health and Prevention ofMental and Behavioral DisordersMelbourne, Australia, 10-12 September 2008
The host organization
was the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth),headed by Chief Executive Officer Todd Harper. The partnerorganizations presenting the conference in Melbourne together withVicHealth were the World Federation for Mental Health, the CarterCenter (Atlanta, USA) and the Clifford Beers Foundation (UK).Professor Rob Moodie from the Nossal Institute at the University ofMelbourne andProfessor Helen Herrman of ORYGEN Research Centre headed theInternationalProgram Committee. Within VicHealth’s Mental Health and WellbeingUnit headed byLyn Walker, Senior Program Officer Irene Walker headed a very ableorganizing team.
At the previous
conferences held in the USA (2000), United Kingdom (2002), NewZealand (2004) and Norway (2006) the program followed establishedthemes of research, policy-making, evidence-based programs,dissemination, and development of training and expertise. For theMelbourne conference the International Program Committee addedsocial and community engagement, discrimination, violence in variousforms including violence against women, and access to economicresources.
Violence and Human
RightsThe theme of violence was supplemented by a notable emphasis onhuman rightsthroughout the plenary program. Kate Gilmore, deputy director ofAmnestyInternational, gave a passionate address on human rights abuseswhich started and ended with the genocide in Rwanda. Rob Moodie,co-chair of the International ProgramCommittee, began his presentation with a condemnation of the waythat asylum seekers, who have already experienced trauma, are placedin circumstances during the asylum process that can cause or worsenmental illness. Mohammed Diaaeldin Omer, UNICEFSudan, described thehigh prevalence of common mental disorders among women living incamps in West Darfur (75.8%), and the low attention paid to it.Harry Minas of the University of Melbourne described the Pinel 21Project that is investigating the physical restraint and confinementof people with mental illness in Aceh and Sumatra (Indonesia). ParisAristotle, Director of Foundation House, discussed refugee andresettlement issues, including the strategies that governments useto put up barriers for people with mental illness. During theconference VicHealth’s CEO, Todd Harper, launched his organization’snew program to combat violence against women by providing grants tofive 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 ofHard Knocks, which has become well known in Australia through aprize-winning documentary and its two platinum CDs. The choirfeatures more than 30 people in Melbourne, many of themhomeless, who have experienced extreme disadvantage in life. Thegroup’s intenselymoving performance drew the audience into consideration of basicthemes explored bythe programsocial participation, discrimination and economicissues.
Choir of Hard Knocks. Photo credit: Snappy Pics
Furthering the human
rights theme, two plenary speakers spoke about the newly releasedreport 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 UnitedStates, David Satcher, in seeing that mental health issues wereincorporated in the report. Prof. Carles Muntaner presented researchon labor issues, showing how the way the modern work place isorganized has a heavy impact on mental health.
Youth Engagement
StrategyThe conference incorporated a youth engagement strategy exploringways to reach out to young people. On the first morning the State ofVictoria’s 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 perceivedneeds and help youngpeople reach their potential. Elsewhere the conference plannerspointed towards ways to reach young people outside conventionalsettings, through social activities andparticularly through the Internet.
Programming on young
people’s issues was incorporated in many sessions and youth was inevidence to an unusual degree throughout, from the dancers of theIndigenous Hip Hop Project to the “Reach Out!” program’sambassadors. Two young ambassadors from the program, Doug Millen andEhon Chan, addressed a plenary session and gave the (mucholder) audience an insight into ways to reach young people, whilealso showing theimportance of taking their opinions into account. The InspireFoundation(www.inspire.org.auand Oxfam Australia’s Youth Engagement Program(www.reachout.com.au) wererepresented, and VicHealth arranged for young people toparticipate in online forums before the conference. Film-makers fromthe Student YouthNetwork (www.syn.org.au) shot awitty video giving their view of the conference andpresented it at the closing session. The video and other materialsproduced during theconference were used later in various youth websites.
Measuring Mental
HealthThere were several presentations on how to measure mental health, aparticular interest of VicHealth through the work of its McCaugheyCentre(www.mccaugheycentre.unimelb.edu.au, which has produced a set of communitywellbeing indicators for the State of Victoria (www.communityindicators.net.au).Apresentation on Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index attractedconsiderableattention. Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of that country’s GrossNational HappinessCommission, proposed that measuring GNH is about a balanced andholistic approach todevelopment using alternative definitions of wellbeing. A nationwidesurvey of onethousand people, using 300 questions, was used to derive 31 GNHindicators from whicha single GNH Index will be derived. Apichai Mongkol from the ThaiMinistry of PublicHealth spoke about the development of a similar index. The ThaiHappiness Index has66 items, and looks at areas such as spirituality, health and familysupport. As theseindicators were discussed, it was observed that when mental healthis mentioned inBhutan and Thailand people think of relative degrees of happiness,while when it ismentioned in the West people think first of mental illness.
Karma Tshiteem, Gross National Happiness Commission, Bhutan, addressing theconference. Photo credit: Snappy Pics
The special area of
database development was also reviewed. Norway’s large project todevelop a database for evidence-based interventions in preventionand health promotion was described by Willy-Tore Mérch, of theNorwegian Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Activities Attached
to the ConferenceAs at previous conferences, various activities were attached beforeand after the meeting. These included the biennial meeting of theGlobal Consortium for the Advancement of Mental Health Promotion andPrevention in Mental Health (GCAPP); a day-long preconference onschool mental health arranged by the International Alliance forChild and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (Intercamhs); and ameeting of the International Network of Health PromotionFoundations.
The Arts Program
Throughout the conference VicHealth showcased its belief that thearts have an important role to play in promoting community mentalhealth (and fun). Sixteen arts projects were presented, sometimes atunexpected moments, thanks to special support from Arts Victoria.Highlights included the vocalists of Black Armband who providedcontemporary indigenous music at the opening, and the closingceremony which included the rock music of the BiPolar Bears as wellas the Choir of Hard Knocks.
The Melbourne
CharterWell before the conference began, consultation was under way on thedrafting of apreliminary format for the outcome document, a Charter outlining theprinciples ofmental health promotion and the prevention of disorders. Thedrafting group receivedinput from the abstracts sent in by those who presented atconcurrent sessions, and from the general audience. Specialarrangements were made to get advance contributions from youthgroups. The Charter will be finalized and edited in the comingmonths, then circulated internationally. It will be offered forreview and updating at the Sixth World Conference on the Promotionof Mental Health and Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders.