History of the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project
2005
In response to the global movement away from institutional care towards community based mental health services, many countries in the Asia-Pacific have begun to establish mental health policies and guidelines reflective of this change. In 2005, the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project, led by Asia-Australia Mental Health, was initiated in collaboration with the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office as a means of supporting countries in the region to facilitate and implement locally appropriate policy frameworks for community mental health service reform.
2006
The Inagural meeting of the Project group was held in Perth in May 2006 in conjunction with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Conference. During this meeting, a representative from each participating country presented an overview of their country's current community mental health services, mental health policy challenges and best practice models. The participants then agreed on the principles and methodology to be used in the production of a detailed report describing models of community mental health development in each country. Following the meeting, the country/region overviews were collated into a formal publication of the Meeting Proceedings which are available for download here [pdf, 1.13 MB, 24 pages]).
In October, 2006 in Taipei the First Interim meeting of the Project was held in conjunction with the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists Meeting. The meeting reviewed processes of national data collection, formation of local consultative committees, literature reviews and contents and compilation of the country reports. A draft template was developed to assist each country to document in a consistent way its mental health resources, policies and strategies, best practice community models and future goals of reform.
2007
The Second Interim meeting of the Project occurred in conjunction with the World Psychiatric Association Regional Meeting in Seoul in April 2007. The project participants exchanged information and ideas about compiling their draft country reports and reported their progress so far.
In November 2007, in conjunction with the World Psychiatric Association International Congress in Melbourne, a consensus meeting of the Project and a Project Symposium were held. During the Consensus Meeting, all country reports were presented and finalised and the key guiding principles learnt from each country's analysis of their services were discussed. Download the APCMHD's Attendee list from the WPA 2007 Meeting [pdf, 48.6 kb, 3 pages].
During the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project Symposium at the Congress, each participating country presented aspects of their country's report to interested Congress participants. The Symposium was well-attended and demostrated widespread support for the work of the Project. View individual country's/region's presentations from the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project Symposium at the WPA International Congress.
2008
After four years of hard work, The Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project Summary Report was published and distributed to each participating region/country in both electronic and hard copy formats. Download the electronic verison of the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project Summary Report [pdf, 2.57mb, 92 pages] .
The Summary Report was launched globally at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Prague in September 2008 and regionally at the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists Conference in Tokyo in October, 2008.
At the most recent APCMHD Project Meeting held in Prague (in conjunction with the World Congress of Psychiatry), future directions for this landmark project were discussed. It was agreed that the Summary Report would become a living document with each participating country/region contributing an annual update about their community mental health services and different examples of best practice. Countries/regions involved in the project agreed to continue meeting annually to share ideas, progress and challenges in developing community mental health services. Funding to translate the existing Summary Report is also being investigated.