Messagefrom the WFMH President
Hong Kong Seminar on Stress at Work
The refugees were affected by cumulative disasters – two decades oftribal conflict, a prolonged drought, and now modern warfare. She foundthat families had suffered losses (often of several members) andinjuries from bombing raids and mine explosions. Malnutritioncontributed to other deaths, particularly of children.Although she thought that almost 90% of the refugees were affected bybereavement, PTSD or depression/anxiety, and that “the psychologicaltrauma endured by the Afghans is undoubtedly tremendous and needs urgentrecognition and help,” there were even more urgent requirements, so that“psychiatric help comes last on the list.” She named as priorities foodand emergency medical care. “Medical facilities are appalling rightnow.”She singled out the medical needs of women and children as deservingspecial attention. At the refugee camp in Spin Buldak there were fewfemale doctors and no gynecologists. Women were unwilling or unable tobreast-feed babies. She saw an urgent need for educating mothers aboutbasic hygiene and infant nutrition.Dr. Niaz commented on the patience and endurance of the refugees, andthe strength of their religious faith. “Strangely, we found no overtexpression of anger, or signs of frustration. Perhaps they are numbed bythe twenty years of war.”
Although the relief efforts in the camps she visited were generallyinadequate, she commented favorably on facilities provided by the RedCross with support from the United Arab Emirates, and praised the workof PIMA and Islamic missions from Malaysia and South Africa in SpinBuldak.A Collaborating Center reports on human trafficking Prof. Syed Arshad Husain, who heads the International Center forPsychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri, USA (a WFMHCollaborating Center), has been involved in trauma counseling inPakistan for many years and has been working recently at a camp forAfghan refugees near Peshawar. His team established a counseling centerthere and raised funds to support it.He reports that while working in camps in Pakistan, his group hasbecome aware of a common practice among Afghan refugee families ofselling women and children who have lost their husbands and fathers toother Afghan men. The extreme poverty of these families contributes tothe situation. The Center’s training courses for professionals incountries affected by conflict include education about human traffickingas part of the general curriculum in trauma psychology. Prof. Husainviews it as “a major complication of war.” |
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UNITED NATIONSUN NY – Commission on the Status of WomenThe work of the Commission on Women spanned the period from 4 to 15March. NGOs pursued advocacy activities related to the two themes ofthis year’s session, the impact of poverty, and environmental managementand the mitigation of natural disasters. Participants from WFMH includedMain Representative Nancy Wallace, UN representatives Ricki Kantrowitzand Pamela Collins, Board Member-at-Large Chueh Chang, and a group ofFederation members from Asia.Nancy Wallace and Chueh Chang chaired a panel discussion on theimpact of poverty and natural disasters on Asian women’s mental healthon 6 March. Ricki Kantrowitz organized a panel on 7 March featuringpresentations about poverty in Europe, the response after HurricaneMitch in Honduras, and poverty and economic change in Taiwan. Thespeaker from Taiwan, an aboriginal woman called Melevlev (many people inher tribe use only one name), gave an account of the stress endured bythe island’s aboriginal peoples because of their marginal economicsituation and exclusion from mainstream society.The WFMH group took a lead role in a successful lobbying effort bythe NGO Committee on Mental Health to have appropriate language aboutwomen’s mental health inserted in the Agreed Conclusions of the CSWSession. With invaluable help from government representatives fromThailand and Turkey, who brought the language to the floor, thefollowing paragraphs were inserted in the official documents:On Natural Disasters:
On Poverty:
Nancy Wallace said that she was particularly pleased that the mention ofprevention was accepted, as some of the government representatives wereunfamiliar with the work that has been done in this area.
Support for Women in AfghanistanInternational Women’s Day was observed at United Nations headquarters on8 March 2002 during the annual session of the Commission on the Statusof Women (CSW). This year the event was focused on the status of womenin Afghanistan (where the first public observance of the Day was held ineleven years). The theme was the right of girls and women in thatcountry to education.To underscore the importance that the United Nations attaches toimproving the situation of women in Afghanistan, high-profile speakersaddressed the assembled government representatives and NGO observers.These included Secretary General Kofi Annan, Mrs. Laura Bush, Queen Noor,the presidents of the UN General Assembly and Security Council, andrepresentatives from UN agencies.In a series of presentations about the multiple problems faced bywomen in Afghanistan, mental health was not mentioned. But the magnitudeof the problems described left no doubt that over time, this will needto be addressed after the most urgent requirements are met. One of themost compelling accounts came from Sima Wali, an Afghan woman who headsRefugee Women in Development (and one of the three women delegates atthe Bonn talks on the future of Afghanistan in late 2001). She describedthe feminization of poverty and a systematic isolation of women,creating “non-citizens in our own country.” The illiteracy rate forwomen is 80% or more.Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA),gave a powerful speech describing the situation of women – earlymarriage, high birth rates, absence of health care, malnutrition –leading to early death. A woman on average has eight children and livesto 44 years. |
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| WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIONThe 109th ExecutiveBoard meeting was held in Geneva on 14-21 January. WFMH was representedby its President, Pirkko Lahti, its representative in Geneva, StanislasFlache, and Board members Agustin Ozamiz and Chueh Chang. Strengtheningmental health was an agenda item, and a resolution (EB109.R8) called onmember states to invest more in mental health, adopt appropriatepolicies and carry forward the recommendations of TheWorld Health Report2001. | ||
| WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIONRepresentatives from selected medical schools and hospitals consultedwith WHO staff on “Caring for Children and Adolescents with MentalDisorders: Setting WHO Directions” in Geneva on 31 January-1 February2002. The objective was to provide input for WHO about broad issues tobe addressed in a new initiative on care for young people. As WHO hadalready noted on the first page of the first chapter in the 2001 WorldHealth Report: “Over 90% of countries have no mental health policy thatincludes children and adolescents.”WFMH President Elect Patt Franciosi attended the meeting whichdiscussed the general lack of attention to services for children, andthe need to develop government mental health policies which includethem. One of the main recommendations from the consultants was that WHOshould produce a policy report and atlas of statistical informationsimilar to those produced last year on mental health, but focusedentirely on children and adolescents.Dr. Franciosi commented that it was significant that WHO is givingspecial attention to the mental health needs of this neglected group.“It is appalling that so little has been done by governments in thisarea, and that so few countries include children and young people intheir mental health planning. In fact, only 34 countries have beenidentified as having such policies at this time, and only 14 countriesmeet the highest criteria for a clearly articulated policy coveringchildren and adolescents. There is a role for WFMH in this area to workin cooperation with WHO.”Dr. Franciosi has a special interest in the subject as the Chair ofWorld Mental Health Day, which has as its theme for 2002 the effects oftrauma and violence on children.” The goal of this campaign is to drawattention to extreme circumstances which affect children in many partsof the world, and the need to develop programs to provide mental healthcare. A recent WHO document noted: “Children and adolescents live in aworld that is increasingly complex….New data are revealing that mentalhealth problems and violence are more prevalent than previously thought.For example, WHO estimates that 10% to 20% of all children have one ormore mental or behavioral problems. Children’s health is also directlyand indirectly affected by conflicts, wars and migration.” [WHOExecutive Board, Provisional agenda item 3.7, (EB109/10) 12 December2001.]The World Mental Health Day planning kit currently in preparation byWFMH will include an overview of the topic, more detailed discussion ofselected issues (war and refugees; domestic and community violence;violence in the media), and a section on the pervasiveness of violencein society. A number of successful interventions and programs will alsobe described.Patt Franciosi encourages those who would like to support theexpansion of the WMHDay program to contact the Secretariat. The planningkit will be mailed to WMHDay event organizers in mid-May, and will beavailable on the WFMH web site at www.wfmh.org. Material will be available in English, French,Spanish and Arabic.
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| News from the RegionsAfrica African Regional Council for Mental Health (ARCMH) The African Regional Council for Mental Health held an executivemeeting on Lusaka, Zambia, on 28 February. The meeting was convened byARCMH President Isaac Mwendapole. Elizabeth Matare, WFMH Regional VicePresident and Honorary Secretary of the ARCMH attended, together withShona Sturgeon, WFMH Board Member at Large, and Petronella Mayeya,manager of the Canadian-sponsored Project MHASISA (Mental Health ActionStrategies in Southern Africa). One of the major purposes of the meetingwas to review the project’s workplan and the progress report to besubmitted to the Canadian International Development Agency and theCanadian Mental Health Association. Fundraising to sustain the projectwas also discussed.The meeting examined difficulties in creating new links throughoutthe African region. To improve contacts in French-speaking countries thenext ARCMH newsletter will be printed in French as well as English.- Shona Sturgeon, WFMH Board Member-at-LargeSouth Africa The Executive Director of the South AfricanFederation for Mental Health for the past 22 years, Lage Vitus, retiredat the end of February. He served a total of 33 years with theorganization. The Federation held a dinner on 12 March in Johannesburgto honor him.His successor as Executive Director is Solomon Paul Mokgata, who hadpreviously been the Assistant National Director of the South AfricanNational Epilepsy League. He has experience in business and the media,in social work, and as an industrial relations officer.Europe Mental Health Europe (MHE) At its General Assembly in Brussels in March, Mental Health Europeelected Leo de Graaf, M.D., as its new President. .Dr. de Graaf has beenDirector of a diversified psychiatric and psychosocial service providercalled “De Gelderse Roos” since 1990. Previously he worked from 1980 asa child psychiatrist in a community mental health center which mergedinto De Gelderse Roos. At an earlier stage in his career he practicedtropical medicine in Malawi. In addition to his medical work, he was aRepresentative in the Provincial Parliament of Gelderland from 1982 to1995. He has been a Board member of MHE since 1999, and Treasurer from2000. -Mental Health Europe, [email protected]Belgium’s Year of Mental HealthFive organizations in Belgium sponsored the “Year of Mental Health” in2001 as a special effort dedicated to the destigmatization of mentalillness and psychiatric patients. This initiative was arranged by theFlemish, Walloon and Brussels Leagues for Mental Health, joined by theJulie Renson Foundation and the Queen Fabiola Foundation for MentalHealth. Many events were held throughout 2001 to reach the generalpublic, the media, politicians, academics and professionals.Financing such a campaign was difficult, and the organizers hadlittle initial success. Eventually they got support from twointernational pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Sanofi-Synthelabo,and two Belgian companies, Electrabel (an electricity distributor) andBIAC (the manager of the national airport). They also obtained a greatmany smaller contributions of money, volunteer help, and donations ofin-kind services. Getting such a large number of supporters involved wasa very positive result of the campaign, showing that attention to mentalhealth made sense for people in the field, even if not high-leveldecision-makers were more cautious about the issue.One important conclusion of the year’s effort was the great need formental health professionals to become more involved with other areas ofsociety such as businesses, schools, the social services and the justicesystem – and with the places where people live, where psychiatricproblems may occur, and where they have to be accepted. Destigmatizationbegins there, much more than in mental health services. During the year2001 the doors were open as often as possible, and many positive resultsare now being seen.- Martine BaudinJulie Renson Foundation[email protected]Western PacificWestern Pacific Regional MeetingHong Kong A WFMH Western Pacific Regional Meeting was held in Hong Kong on 2February 2002. It was attended by the Federation’s President, PirkkoLahti; Board Member at Large Chueh Chang (Mental Health Association ofTaiwan); Morgan Ng (Richmond Fellowship of Hong Kong); Deborah Wan (NewLife Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association); T.N. Foo and Marcus Chiu(Mental Health Association of Hong Kong); and Dr. Suchada Sakorusatian(Department of Mental Health, Thailand). The meeting was chaired by theRegional Vice President, Dr. Kazuyoshi Yamamoto (Japan). Pirkko Lahtireviewed recent Federation activities, including collaboration with theWorld Health Organization. Chueh Chang gave an update on regionalaffairs, and the group made preliminary plans for Western Pacificparticipation in the program of the Melbourne World Congress in 2003.Information was presented about a study on ageing in Japan, which wasproposed at a WFMH regional meeting last November by Drs. Tsung-yi Lin,Kunihiko Asai and KazuyoshiYamamoto. There was also a review of ways toencourage broader local and regional participation in meetings such asthe ILO-WFMH-NLPRA Seminar which had just taken place in Hong Kong. Dr.Suchada Sakorusatian reported on Thailand’s plans to hold a conferenceon mental health in the workplace in Bangkok in the near future.Guidelines for good practices have been prepared, and five corporationswill join a pilot program.- Kazuyoshi Yamamoto, WFMH Regional Vice President
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| Notes from the WFMH Collaborating CentersIn recentcorrespondence with the Federation’s Secretariat WFMH CollaboratingCenters described current issues in their work:Prof. Donna E. Stewart, Lillian Love Chair in Women’s Health atthe University of Toronto, Canada, linked good mental health forwomen with good physical health and social justice. She included amongimportant international issues in women’s health the lack of educationfor girl children in many developing countries; poverty – 70% of theworld’s poor are women with young children; violence against women; andthe need for equity in opportunity, in representation in governance, andin pay and job promotion.Prof. Brian Robertson of the Department of Psychiatry and MentalHealth at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, wrote about anew Research Center for the Study of Violence and Mental Health which heestablished last year. He commented on the lack of funding for projectsin Southern Africa, and felt that collaboration with researchers fromthe Northern Hemisphere would be helpful. He is also concerned about thelack of African representation at international meetings, not justbecause of cost and exchange rate difficulties, but because ofinattention by conference organizers.James Lavelle from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma,Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, headed by Prof. Richard Mollica,described work to support the Center for Torture Survivors at BellevueHospital in New York. The Program is also involved with the collectionof data for a National Institutes of Health study on the exposure toviolence of political detainees who entered the US during the 1990s. Aproject called “IPC+” takes lessons learned at the HPRT IndochinesePsychiatry Clinic to four communities in Massachusetts which have largerefugee populations. An innovative project with a statewide lawyers’consortium is providing help to asylum seekers and their families. HPRTis also in the third year of a training project for physicians inBosnia-Herzegovina, funded by the World Bank.Jorge Arroche, Executive Director of STARTTS (Service for theTreatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors), workson issues involving refugee health care in Australia. He forwarded aneditorial he wrote for the magazine Refugee Transitions discussing thecurrent polarization of the refugee debate in Australian politics;action on developing national standards for torture and trauma services;and a successful fundraising appeal for new work with children andadolescents.Prof. Lorraine Dennerstein, of the Office for Gender and Health atthe University of Melbourne, Australia, wrote to describe herresearch on the study of women’s reproductive ageing, including researchfunded by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of the USA on early cognitivechanges associated with ageing.Prof. John Copeland of the Institute for Human Ageing at theUniversity of Liverpool, UK, mentioned multiple issues in mentalhealth and ageing. The fate of older people in conflict areas is aserious problem. The question of standards in nursing homes isdeservedly attracting attention. In Western countries the provision ofadequate pensions for future retirees is a matter of growing concern andwill have an impact on their quality of life. In Sweden, a 15-year studyof a cohort of older people appears to show that the prevalence oftreatable depression rises with age but is largely unrecognized and nottreated. “This problem is widespread and is part of the problem ofstigma in ageing. The mentally ill old are being doubly stigmatized.” |
Dr. Unaiza Niaz with two sick refugee children. 
Tents in an Afghan refugee camp.
