Fantastic article in Lancet by Charlene Sunkel – our member in S. Africa – Congrats Charlene! Quote from article:
“…. The utmost priority, I believe, in global mental health should be partnership between people affected by mental health disorders and mental health professionals and researchers …”
To see full text, register for free at link http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61270-1/fulltext?elsca1=ETOC-LANCET&elsca2=email&elsca3=segment
Congratulations to our member Charles O’Mahony who is now the Legal Officer for Amnesty International Mental Health Campaign in Dublin. Congrats Charles!!
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY IN CHIPATA
Friday, 28 October 2011
Investing In Mental Health
It is said that Mental Health is Real Health. The day 28th October, 2011 will always ring a bell in the minds of Chipata residents especially Chipata General Hospital. In the capital town of Eastern Province, Chipata, it all began like any other day of the week. It was around 8hrs when we gathered at the Psychiatry department of Chipata General Hospital nicely dressed in white shirts with orange collars preparing to start off for the match past from town.
The day was a special one to both the members of staff and psychiatry patients as we were commemorating World Mental Health day whose theme was ‘Investing in Mental Health.’
For a very long time now mental illness has been regarded as an illness of the very poorest in society and that it is highly contagious, this can be attributed to the high levels of negligence towards the promotion of mental health. Just to highlight a bit as to why I say mental health is indeed real health. To start with, without a sound mind no one can manage to do anything productive in life, for example, when someone is very worried about their next kind of life following the death of a bread winner in the family, they tend to keep quiet, eat less and socially isolate themselves from society, they tend to have a drastic change of life from one kind of personality to a totally different one.
Now, if such a person does not accept the present and find other means of survival they tend not to be productive. How many times have our worries hindered us from making those important decisions when expected to? How many times has failure to achieve our intended goals made us to miss meals and even avoid our friends or simply raised our tempers? I hope you can agree with me that the answer to the questions above is ‘several times.’ Mental health is that state of mind that allows us to make those positive and productive decisions in life, without it this world would be without form and a very sad one.
Mental illness is real and it can attack anyone regardless of one’s status in society. We all tend to be patients at times and what keeps us going each day we fall is our ability to be able to modify our lives to more adaptive ways, which others fail and end up being admitted in psychiatric wards. Each and every human being needs some form of support from the society in order to lead those wonderful and successful moments of their lives. But there are those of our friends who do not receive any kind of support from anyone at all, in the psychiatry wards, the streets, in our compounds and even in our homes, that does not mean that they are the fallen beings of our generations, no..!, they are as human as we are and they equally need our support just as much as we need it.
I write to appeal to you to join the fight of Promoting and Investing in Mental Health in any way you can, either in monetary form or any means that will promote mental health in our society. Join us the Mental Health Association of Zambia (MHAZ) in Chipata as we Invest in Mental Health. Do not forget that mental health is indeed real health and that without a sound mind you would not have reached where you are now.
Check out more on World Mental Health Day in Chipata in the next article.
May God bless us all.
At the Chipata Gen. Psychiatry Wards
Written By; Dalitso Maseko Dip. MHCPsyt
Email; dalitsomaseko@gmail.com
Chipata Gen. Hospital
Walk My Way Journal 14th Issue Now Available!
Mental Health … Consumers Speak
Fantastic Articles, Artwork, Poems, Summary on the World Mental Health Congress and SO much more!
1st Place Poetry Winner
The Spirit Within
by Steward De Bruin
My eyes unfold unto you,
a reflection of what I am.
Pity the perception we choose,
seen not the unity that is grand.
By default our form is not similar,
different to the naked eye.
Desperate we search for what is familiar,
pardoned by the great lie.
For image is far from blessed,
It is a lie covered in sin.
For we may be many in flesh,
yet same one spirit dwells within.
Contact Charlene to receive your complimentary electronic copy or subscribe to receive the hard copy.
ENJOY the read!
CHARLENE SUNKEL
Awareness, Advocacy & Communications: Central Gauteng Mental Health Society
Tel: +27 11 614 9890
Fax: +27 11 614 5503
E-mail: charlene@witsmhs.co.za OR cssunkel@hotmail.com
www.cgmhs.co.za
PO BOX 10443, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Hello World Run Lovers:)
Hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Just wanted to give you a little update before the world run kick-off on New Year’s Day.
World Run in the news
Check it out if you like:
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111228/
bc_run_around_the_world_mental_illness_111228/20111228/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Resolution Run – 1/1/2012
I will be starting the world run with a group of friends and a few hundred participants at the Resolution Run in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Resolution Run is already sold out but you can start the World Run with us if you are interested in doing a 5k or 10k on New Year’s day…I know it’s a short notice, sorry:). I would also love to see you there if you just wanted to get me started with an extra kick:)
Just look for me at the start line.
Time: 10am
Place: NW corner of Denman St. & W Georgia St.
Cost: nothing more than some precious sleep time on New Year’s day:)
Blog
I have been overindulging the holiday season and slacking on updates:). Check it out if you like:
http://www.loveworldrun.com/blog
Wishing you a lovely new year!
Wayne
Wayne Cho
World Run for Mental Health
Thank you to our member Ieva Leimane-Veldmeijere – Director of Zelda – The Resource Centre for People with Mental Disability ZELDA, Latvia.
See the English version below of their submission to the Legal Affairs Committee regarding amendments to the legal capacity institute in the Civil Law and Civil Procedure Law.
http://zelda.org.lv/wp-content/uploads/Opinion-concerning-the-amendments-to-Civil-Law-and-Civil-Procedure-Law-regarding-legal-capacity1.pdf
see also : www.facebook.com/WorldHealthOrganization
Dear Colleague
To mark Human Rights Day, 10 December 2011, we are launching the World Health Organization’s QualityRights Project – Act, Unite and Empower for Better Mental Health. This project aims to tackle the widespread violations experienced by people with mental health conditions in health care context and in the community in countries throughout the world.
It provides support to countries to improve the quality of care and human rights conditions in mental health and social care services. The project builds capacity of health care workers, service users and families to understand and promote human rights and empowers people with mental health conditions to advocate for their rights and influence national mental health reform efforts. At the same time the project works to produce sustainable change through policy and law reform in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
We are also pleased to announce the support of Gary Foster for WHO’s QualityRights project. Gary Foster is the producer of several major Hollywood movies including “Sleepless in Seattle”, ” The Score”, “Tin Cup”, “Daredevil”, as well as the critically-acclaimed 2009 film “The Soloist”, which recounts the true life story of a former cello prodigy who developed a mental health condition and became homeless in the streets of Los Angeles.
To date, QualityRights countries include Spain (Asturias), Portugal, Panama, Greece, Somalia and India.
To learn more about the WHO QualityRights Project, please visit the WHO QualityRights website: http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/quality_rights/en/index.html
For the video statement by Gary Foster, please visit: http://vimeo.com/whomentalhealth/gary-foster-qualityrights
If you are interested in providing funding for countries to participate in QualityRights, please contact me at the address below.
Feel free to disseminate this information to your network.
Best wishes
Michelle
Dr Michelle Funk
Coordinator, Mental Health Policy and Service Development (MHP)
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse,
World Health Organization
20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Genève 27
Switzerland
Tel: +41-22 791 3855
Email: funkm@who.int
See the post by our member for the Disability and Human Rights blog
www.disabilityandhumanrights.com
Action for Mental Illness India – a mental health advocacy initiative and its efforts to improve the living condition of persons living with mental illness and their families
As we are celebrating the World Day of Persons with Disabilities, it is important to acknowledge and honour the efforts and achievements of civil society, particular groups representing persons with disabilities and their families, worldwide. As an example of how civil society groups and non-governmental organisations can actively bring change via various strategies, this blog illustrates some of the achievements of ‘Action for Mental Illness’ (ACMI[i]), an Indian mental health advocacy initiative. The initiative was founded 2003 in collaboration between Mrs. Laila Ollapally, an advocate at the High Court in the state of Karnataka, and Dr. Nirmala Srinivasan, a disability activist who had previously established a self help group for persons with mental illness and their families named AMEND (Association for the Mentally Disabled). Continue reading →
December 3rd, International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Together for a better world: Including persons with disabilities in development
http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1561
At Mental Health Worldwide we are encouraging and supporting countries to ratify and implement the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Persons disabled by mental health conditions are included under this convention.
Article 1: The purpose of the present Convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
We welcome a new member to Mental Health Worldwide from Sudan. Our latest member is also a graduate from the International Diploma Program in Mental Health Law and Human Rights, as well as a legal advisor and lecturer in Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Welcome to our global group!
