Summary of discussions during the Ministerial Round Table Discussion~ Brunei, 2.9. 2001
The presentations by the invited panelists were followed by a ministerial round table. Twenty-seven delegations took the floor. Notes on which the presentations were based have been collected by the WHO staff and will be used as a guidance for further correspondence and interaction with the delegates as well as background documents during country visits and programme discussions.
The main conclusions from the discussions could be summarized as follows: The countries and TerritOries of the Region have a rich and varied experience in the development of activities relevant to mental health programmes. They presented some of this experience during the discussions: it will be useful and important to obtain more detailed accounts of the programmes enumerated during the Ministerial Round Table and make them available, in a suitable form to the Members.States of the Region. Despite vast differences in resources, in the previous experience, and in cultural and social settings certain themes were present in several of the presentations. These included a) the pernicious impact of stigma attached to mental illness on the life of those who have the illness, on the life of their families and on the organization of mental health care. Stigma is also one of the main reasons for the continuing low priority given to mental health programmes b) the continuing discrimination of people with mental illness in various aspects of life, linked in part to ignorance, in part to outdated legislation and in part to the unfortunate association of mental illness with minority status and poverty. c) the disharmony between legal provisions and modern mental health cart? principles . d) the lack of good data about the current situation
Though many of the countries are suffering from a grave scarCity of human and material resources, no country is so poor that it could not start a mental health programme.
Mental health activities in such situations will have to be modest in size and ambition and will have to rely even more than elsewhere on the reserves of strength contained in the families and other traditional sources of support. Families and other community resources can be of great support to mental health services. In order to be supportive, howeverl they have to supported by education, moral rewards and materials help. Many of the recommendations contained on WHO documents and made by the participants in the Ministerial round table are useful and highly acceptable. To turn them into reality it will be important to translate the principles of action and the recommendations into practical guidelines adjusted to the needs and capacity of countries. Among such guidelines those concerning the promotion of mental health and work with families deserve particular priority. Changes of mental health programmes require a paradigm shit, a reorientation of the health system, a change of attitudes of people in the community and in the governments. Such changes take time and it is therefore of importance that the WHO and countries view the mental health programmes as being long term undertakings.