Singapore Psychiatric Association | Professional Networking

Dr Lee Cheng’s Fukuoka writeup

Posted on 30 March, 2015 by admin

As President of Singapore Psychiatric Association, I attended the 5th World Congress of Asian Psychiatry (WCAP) in Fukuoka, Japan from 3 to 6 March 2015. The WCAP is the official biennial congress of the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA) and was last held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2013.

This year the theme of the Congress is “Trends and Innovation of Psychiatry in Asia’. The keynote speaker was Professor Norman Sartorius (Switzerland) and he touched on an important topic of ‘Comorbidity of mental and physical illness; a major challenge for psychiatry in the 21st Century’.

At the Congress, Prof Dinesh Bhugra (United Kingdom) was awarded the ‘AFPA Lifetime Award’ for his distinguished achievement. He also delivered the plenary lecture on ‘Psychiatry in the 21st Century’.

I was invited by Prof Naotaka Shinfuku (Japan) to be a speaker at the symposium on ‘Gender Identity Disorder in Asia’. With the support of Prof Tsoi Wing Foo, I was able to present his past and present work in this area. The other speakers from Japan presented the epidemiology of the condition in Japan and also their interest to do genetic studies in this area.

I was also a co-chair and co-judge for the oral presentation on ‘Transcultural and Child Psychiatry’. The 5 speakers from different countries reported on different areas ranging from women mental health, disaster psychiatry to treatment of aggressive behaviour in childhood.

As President of SPA, I attended the AFPA Board Meeting as well as the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN) Round Table Discussion. At the latter meeting, each country took turn to do a brief introduction of the current situation of psychiatry in the home country. We also discussed on how to strengthen psychiatric collaboration among Asia-Oceania countries.

The 5th WCAP was well organized and provided an opportunity for mental health workers from Asian countries, Australia, the Pacific Islands and many other parts of the world to share their experiences and also collaborate on similar/related mental health disorders. The next WCAP will be held in India in 2017.

ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry and Mental Health (AFPMH) Young Psychiatrists Fellowship Course on the Development of Leadership and Professional Skills on 11th – 12th November 2014 in Cebu City, Philippines

Posted on 12 March, 2015 by admin

Forging friendships across boundaries – the Cebu experience

Written by:

Dr Cyrus Ho
Member
Singapore Psychiatric Association

I was very honored and privileged to be given the opportunity by our Singapore Psychiatric Association (SPA) to attend the ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry and Mental Health (AFPMH) Young Psychiatrists Fellowship Course on the Development of Leadership and Professional Skills on 11th – 12th November 2014 in Cebu City, Philippines, in conjunction with the 14th Congress of the AFPMH.

This course was conducted by a committee of esteemed psychiatrists led by Professor Norman Sartorius, Professor Mohan Issac, Dr Erminia Colucci and Dr Dinah Nadera, with the objectives of bringing together young psychiatrists from the ASEAN region, training them with the essential skills to facilitate their professional development and establishing an ASEAN network of young psychiatrists to facilitate future collaborative work for the betterment of mental health wellness. A total of 18 delegates from 10 different countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) attended the course.

The 2-day intensive course covered many pertinent areas of professional and leadership skill development that included:

• How to give an effective lecture/seminar
• Making a comprehensive research poster
• What it takes to be a well-rounded psychiatrist in the areas of clinical work, research and education
• How to handle the media
• Assessing the mental health care needs of one’s population and on a global perspective
• Setting and assessing one’s priorities

What I found especially heartening and rewarding were the perspectives and insights shared among delegates and trainers based on their unique background, which made me reflect on my own training and views on core mental health issues. During the course, we also got to understand about the Philippines Psychiatric Association (PPA)’s struggle in drafting its first-ever mental health bill in an effort to address the growing mental health concerns in the country. This demonstration by PPA made me realize that mental health wellness is not a given. Rather, this is what we need to constantly advocate and fight for.

There are many important gifts that I have taken away from this short course that will serve me well in the years to come: cultures of the beautiful Philippines and its big-hearted people, knowledge and skills of being a good psychiatrist, the ever burning desire to be an advocate for our people towards a better mental health and the many new friendships that have been forged during the course. And yes, we are still communicating over Facebook and emails…

I thank the SPA once again for this memorable experience and I look forward to being able to contribute to the psychiatric cause in the local and international arena.

14th Congress of the ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry & Mental Health (AFPMH), Cebu, Philippines, 13 to 15 November 2014

Posted on 7 January, 2015 by admin

As President of Singapore Psychiatric Association, I was invited by the Philippines Psychiatric Association (PPA) to attend the 14th Congress of the ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry & Mental Health (AFPMH) in Cebu, Philippines from 13 to 15 November 2014. The AFPMH Congress is held every 2 yearly and was last held in Singapore in 2012.

This year the theme of the Congress is “SETTING GOLD STANDARDS of CARE in ASEAN PSYCHIATRY”. The keynote speaker was Professor Mohan Issac from University of Western Australia, Perth. There was also a 3-day pre-Congress course on Leadership and Professional Development of Young Psychiatrists conducted by Professor Norman Sartorius from Switzerland.

At the Congress, there was a section on research in ASEAN psychiatry and an update on the ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry. The Presidents (or their representatives) of ASEAN countries from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore also presented their country reports on the last day of the Congress. My country report focused on the recently launched community mental health services such as the Assessment and Shared Care Teams and Community Mental Health Intervention Team which aim to provide faster and much accessible services to the general public.

During the meeting, the PPA also announced that it has prepared a draft mental health bill to fortify efforts to address the growing mental problems in the country. The PPA is proposing that mental health be devolved to the local government units. This entails training of local health workers on how to handle psychiatric cases and the provision of free medicines for mental cases in the health centres. The emphasis is on the integration of mental health in general health care or the “mainstreaming” of mental health as well as the development of standards for acute psychiatric care in hospitals.

I must say the AFPMH Congress was an excellent and well organized meeting which not only allowed me to look at new perspectives in mental health issues, but also built new friendships that span beyond ASEAN countries. I also look forward to the 15th AFPMH Congress which is going to be held in Indonesia.

Dr Lee Cheng
President
Singapore Psychiatric Association

Dr Lee with President and VP of PPA

World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Regional Congress Hong Kong 12-14th Dec 2014

Posted on 7 January, 2015 by admin

(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