News & Events
New
CIMH Seminar
17th March, 12.45 pm–1.45 pm:“The clinical benefits of yoga” (Dr Pranav Pandya, MD, Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti University, Haridwar, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Room 515, Level 5, 207 Bouverie Street, Carlton 3053
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PAST EVENTS:
Global Mental Health Forum
Australian Launch of the Lancet Series on Global Mental Health and The International Journal of Mental Health Systems
Thursday 4th October, 2007 9am - 4pm, Yasuko Hiraoka Room, Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville.
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2006 International Mental Health Seminar Series
Thursday 17th August, 12.30-1.30pm: When a New Life is a Hard Life: The impact of resettlement on the mental health of South-Asian migrants in Melbourne
Check details | download flyer 
Seminar: Developing a mental health system in Aceh and Sri Lanka
by A/Prof Harry Minas, 29th March
Download flyer | 900kb
International Mental Health Leadership Program - September 2006
Apply now for the 2006 International Mental Health Leadership Program
INTERNATIONAL TRAUMA STUDIES PROGRAM
At the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Training Program in International Trauma Studies
September 2006 to May 2007 New York City
Founded in New York in 1997, the International Trauma Studies Program (ITSP) http://www.itspnyc.org has achieved worldwide recognition as a leader in the field of trauma studies and community response to catastrophes. Our distinctive program is committed to global education promoting state-of-the-art knowledge, research, and the development of technical skills to assist people in coping with traumatic events. Our trauma and disaster response Training Program based in New York has attracted professionals from all over the world. The International Trauma Studies Program is based at the Program on Forced Migration and Health, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
The Training Program presents current individual, family and community oriented approaches based on a resilience framework. The course explores best practices in international psychosocial response in the contexts of domestic, communal, and political violence, natural and human caused catastrophes and forced migration. In addition to trauma theory and intervention, the Training Program intertwines the psychosocial, political, ethical, and human rights dimensions of traumatic suffering and humanitarian intervention into the curriculum.
The International Trauma Studies Program's multidisciplinary approach bridges disciplines ranging from mental health and community development, to the arts, literature, performance, oral history, and the media. The Training Program builds competency in the practice and implementation of trauma responses through practical skill building for everyday work and life.
Aceh's Psychological Recovery
Saturday 23 April 2005
The Boxing Day Tsunami hit Aceh, at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, with a vengeance. Over 127,000 people are dead or missing, and many more are now internally displaced, recovering in camps. Before the horror wave, Aceh had almost no mental health system, just 5 psychiatrists for a population of 4 million and one psychiatric hospital in the capital, Banda Aceh. So where to now? Is the rebuilding of Aceh an opportunity to rebuild the country's psychological support system, from scratch? This week All in the Mind, the voices of the Acehnese and those trying to support their emotional recovery.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1348455.htm
Uni acts to aid tsunami relief effort
Thursday 3 February 2005
The University community has responded strongly – and on many levels – to the aftermath of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that hit several countries in Asia on Boxing Day.
Institutionally, the University of Melbourne stepped in to offer immediate cash support and also has a strategy in place to support long-term relief to affected countries in the region.
The University’s cash donation of $250,000 for immediate relief in affected areas has been distributed to the Red Cross ($100,000), UNICEF ($50,000), Oxfam ($50,000) and CARE Australia ($50,000).
The University’s Planning and Budget Committee has set up another fund of $250,000 to be used over three years in support of tsunami relief projects. This fund could be used, for example, to enable expert staff to travel to affected areas.
Melbourne joins world's top 50 universities
Friday 5 November 2004
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Professor Kwong Lee Dow has welcomed The Times Higher Education Supplement's (THES) listing of the University in the top 50 universities in the world.
The THES survey has listed Melbourne at number 22 . In number one position was Harvard University with Oxford and Cambridge fifth and sixth respectively.
The THES has ranked 200 universities in 29 countries on the basis of a survey of 1,300 academics in 88 countries while also taking into account cited research produced, the ratio of academic staff to student numbers and an institution's attractiveness to foreign students and internationally renowned academics.
MoU between CIMH and Peking University Institute of Mental Health
Thursday 28 October 2004
A recent four-day visit to Beijing reminded me of the diversity of the University’s international engagement and the relationships developing across the globe.
With Dr Alan Thomas, the Australian Ambassador to China, I participated in a joint workshop organised by our Australian Centre and the well-established Australian Studies Centre of Peking University. With participation also drawn from other Chinese and Australian universities, the workshop explored the impact of globalisation and multiculturalism from Australian and Chinese perspectives.
At the Chinese Ministry of Health we signed a Memorandum of Understanding between our Centre for International Mental Health, St Vincent’s Hospital Mental Health Service and Peking University’s Mental Health Centre. It cements work underway to offer a training program for mental health practitioners in China. China, sadly, is starting to experience the problems seen here – the isolation and loneliness of the aged, stress, and worrying trends of suicide among youth.
Malaysia, Korea explore mental health links here
Wednesday 18 August 2004
Melbourne's reputation as a centre of excellence in mental health reform and education was underscored recently with visits by senior mental health officials from Malaysia and Korea.
Hosted by St Vincent's Mental Health Service and the University of Melbourne, the delegations came to study reforms taking place in psychiatric care and service delivery, particularly the shift from hospital-based to community-based models.
The delegates also looked at opportunities for partnerships to collaborate more closely on education, training and research.
China sees model here for mental health care
Thursday 10 June 2004
By Paul Richiardi
University of Melbourne expertise is playing a role in China's transition to new ways of working in health care, with an initial focus on mental health as a model
High-level Chinese health officials visited the University recently to investigate local mental health and community programs and explore possibilities for collaborating in mental health system development.
The visit culminated in the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kwong Lee Dow, and leader of the delegation, Madame Xu Guihua, Deputy Director, China Center for Disease Control, signing a Letter of Intent on future directions.
Finding the way out of a mental health crisis
Wednesday 7 April 2004
A University of Melbourne international mental health teaching and learning package was launched recently at the University by Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer.
The package has been developed by the University's Centre for International Mental Health (CIMH) as part of a campaign to help stem the growing incidence of mental health problems in developing countries.
Presented as a CD-DVD collection, the International Mental Health Leadership Program package is designed to be used as a teaching resource and to stimulate debate and action on mental health in the Asia-Pacific region.
[Photo by: Michael Silver]
Finding the Way out of a Global Health Crisis
Thursday 25 March 2004
As part of a campaign to help stem the growing incidence of mental health problems in developing countries, Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer will launch an "International Mental Health" teaching and learning package at the University of Melbourne tomorrow (Friday, March 26).
According to the Director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for International Mental Health, Professor Harry Minas, neglect of mental health in developing and post-conflict countries, particularly in the Asian region, is at crisis point.
Speaking to visiting Fellows of the International Mental Health Leadership Program in Melbourne this week he said, "Of the ten leading causes of disability in the world today, five causes are forms of mental illness. Highest ranked is depression - the fourth most common cause of disability."
International Trauma Studies Program at NYU
The International Trauma Studies Program at New York University http://www.nyu.edu/trauma.studies is now accepting applications for its 2004-2005 program. This unique program, enriched by the participation of a diverse student body, offers a dynamic combination of academic studies, research, and practical experience working with trauma survivors in New York City, the U.S., and abroad. An expert faculty and invited guest speakers who are international pioneers in the field lead presentations, workshops and case consultations.
The one-year graduate certificate training program includes:
- An overview of history, current theories, and controversies in the field
- Assessment of the impact of traumatic events on individual, social and cultural systems
- Practical skill building for everyday work and life
- Training in effective interventions includes: body-oriented, cognitive behavioral, narrative/testimony, expressive arts, family systems, community resilience, public health, and culture based approaches
- Multidisciplinary perspectives on the representation of trauma and on the arts, literature, and media as resources for recovery
- Best practices in international psychosocial training and response
- The political, moral and human rights dimensions of traumatic suffering
For more information about the program, please contact us at:
International Trauma Studies Program
New York University
155 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor
New York, New York 10013
Tel: 212.691.6499 Fax: 212.807.1809
trauma.studies@nyu.edu
http://www.nyu.edu/trauma.studies
Mental health in different cultures and societies
Harry Minas, Director of the Centre for International Mental Health, interviewed by Heather Jarvis coordinator "The Lounge" Radio Australia, January 2004.
Listen here [.aiff 272.8MB]
Immigration detention: a policy for failure and despair
Wednesday 4 February 2004
By Harry Minas
Australia was one of 24 countries that participated in the conference in Geneva in July 1951 which drafted and unanimously adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The 1951 Convention (and the 1967 Protocol) established and codified the rights of refugees to protection, and the obligation of states to provide protection, and set out basic minimum standards for the treatment of refugees. The policy and practice of prolonged detention erodes the rights of those found to be refugees and does serious damage to our conception of Australia as a generous and open-hearted nation, writes Associate Professor Harry Minas, Director of the Centre for International Mental Health in the University of Melbourne's School of Population Health.
Mental Health of the Elderly in China
Excerpt from:
Dementia takes its toll in China
By Hamish McDonald
Beijing
The Age, November 22, 2003
'Mental health care for the elderly is already at crisis point in China, experts say. Professor Yu Xin, a geriatric psychiatrist at the Beijing University institute, says China has 6 to 7 million elderly people with dementia, of whom at most 15 per cent ever see a psychiatrist or neurologist.
Depression is also rampant among the elderly. "We now have about 280,000 people killing themselves each year, and more than half of them are elderly people," he says.
Last month [October 2003] China began opening up this hidden problem and looking for advice. Professor Yu's Beijing institute and Melbourne University's Centre for International Mental Health held a two-day workshop that may lead to a strategy for bringing mental health care to China's elderly. The collaboration, involving Australian leaders in geriatric care, builds on contacts built by Melbourne's pioneering professor of geriatric psychiatry, Edmond Chiu.'
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Mental Health and Ageing: Download the program of the workshop [.pdf 10.2 MB] |
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Mental Health System Development in ChinaDepartment of Psychiatry Monday Colloquia Monday 10th November 2003 |
From post-traumatic stress in Cambodia to suicide in Japan. Asia's mental health crisis is intensifying.
Asia's mental health is, more than ever, in a perilous state. The Global Burden of Disease study commissioned jointly by the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Harvard University predicts that by 2020 depression will be the leading cause of disability in Asia, measured by the number of years a person lives with a debilitating health condition. Already, mental illnesses account for five of the 10 leading causes of disability in Asia, including disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. That's a bigger health burden to the continent than cancer.
Click here to read Time Asia's special report on Asia's mentally ill.
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/printout/0,13675,501031110-536274,00.html
Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiative
The University of Melbourne's Centre for International Mental Health CIMH) and Asialink have joined forces to develop greater understanding between Australia and Asia in promoting mental health and wellbeing.
The Asialink – CIMH collaboration was formalised recently by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.
The collaboration was celebrated recently with a dinner.
Above (from left) Professor Bruce Singh, Head, Department of Psychiatry, Ms Liz Bare, Deputy Principal, Human Resources, Ms Jenny McGregor, Executive Director, Asialink, and Professor Harry Minas, Director, Centre for International Mental Health.
Among the first collaborative initiatives are two jointly presented workshops with colleagues in China to coincide with World Mental Health Day in October 2003 in Beijing.