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| | The First World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry Held in Beijing | | 2006-9-25 21:14:25 World Association of Cultural Psychiatry Wen-Shing Tseng, MD |  The newly established World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry holds its First World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry on September 23-26, 2006 in Beijing Jiuhua Resort , China. The Institute of Mental Health of Peking University in Beijing serves as the local sponsoring organization. This is a historical, landmark, and significant event of cultural psychiatry where all scholars, clinicians, and mental health-related workers from around the world get together for the goal of promoting the exchange of scientific knowledge, research initiatives and clinical experiences in the field of cultural psychiatry worldwide.
For the congress, in addition to four plenary sessions and two panel sessions organized by the scientific committee, there are a total of 61 topic symposia proposed by committee members or scholars from around the world, with nearly 240 topics presented. Furthermore, there are nearly 30 posters presented on various topics.
Scholars of various professional backgrounds, such as psychiatrists, health-related workers, psychologists, sociologists, medical anthropologists, and many trainees or students are participating in the congress. About 300 participants and presenters from about 35 countries from various continents have come to participate in this world congress, making it a real "world" wide congress to serve the purpose of exchange between East and West, South and North, for global communication, exchange and integration of the knowledge and experiences of cultural psychiatry.
For the plenary sessions, the subject of: "Migration and refugees in the world today: The tasks for cultural psychiatry" (A-1) and "Ethnicity, religious faith, and mental health: The need for mutual understanding" (A-2) are presented and discussed. In addition, the subjects of: "Culture and psychotherapy: East-West integration" (A-3) and "Ethnicity, culture and pharmacotherapy: For relevant treatment" (A-4) are selected for presentation and discussion at the theoretical level to promote concern for providing culture competent therapy for patients of diversified ethnic/cultural background, either through psychological or biological treatment.
For panel sessions, the subject of: "Career development for cultural psychiatry" (P-1) and "The future of cultural psychiatry" (P-2) are presented and discussed, to address the future growth of cultural psychiatry.
The topics presented in symposia and poster presentations encompass broadly and comprehensively various issues relevant to cultural psychiatry. Included are the subjects of culture and psychology (9 symposia), issues relating to social phenomena (9 symposia),
culture and clinical practice (32 symposia), and culture and psychiatry in various societies (9 symposia). This illustrates the fact that the foci of cultural psychiatry have expanded beyond matters relating to minorities and migrants, addressing various cultural issues needing attention for every person (including majority or minorities) in each society, whether it is a monocultural or multi-cultural society. This reflects the main thrust of "cultural psychiatry" (for own ethnic group or own society) beyond transcultural psychiatry (for other ethic group or other society).
Details about the congress are now available at the congress website:
WACP2006Congress.org
(Edited by Shuping Tan, MD) | | [CLOSE] |
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Ministry of Health, (2003) No.013
ICP:No.040657