(Yin and Yang of Mental Health in Asia – Balancing Polarities)
The Singapore Psychiatric Association kindly sponsored my nomination to receive a fellowship from the Hong Kong Royal College of Psychiatrists to attend the Dec 2014 WPA Regional Congress held in Hong Kong.
As the theme of the congress suggested, congress participants were exposed to both Western and Eastern perspectives of psychiatry in their country. We were privileged to hear from eminent speakers like Professor Dinesh Bhugra, the president of the WPA and the first non-white president of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists. He talked on many broad and reflective topics such as the globalization of mental health and its impact on the mental of individuals and how psychiatry would need to increase its cultural sensitivity to meet the demands of a flattening world.
This point was echoed by the Guest of Honour Dr Ko Weng-Man (Secretary for Food and Health) who emphasized the government’s policy of prevention, early identification and timely treatment and rehabilitation for its citizen in the context of a lifecourse approach towards mental health.
We then heard perspectives from China and Hong Kong about the impending silver tsunami of dementia. In Hong Kong Professor Linda Lam has been trialing Tai Chi as a culturally acceptable method of staving off dementia and Professor Yu Xin from Beijing described the need to tackle high nicotine, alcohol and salt intake among elderly Chinese who lived through 2 revolutions and an economic miracle that has left many of them behind.
The program also let the young psychiatrists interact with the senior psychiatrists and gain many insights on how to approach leadership in psychiatry. There was also ample time for social interaction with a gala dinner held at the famous Jumbo floating seafood restaurant!
It was a truly wonderful experience that the SPA has allowed me to participate in and for which I thankful for the opportunity.
Dr Tor Phern Chern
Member
Singapore Psychiatric Association
4th Jan 2015
