AKU National Health Sciences Research Symposium on Mental Health

Assalam-o-Alaikum

On behalf of Aga Khan University may I begin by welcoming you to the inaugural session of the National Health Sciences Research Symposium 2003 on Mental Health.

In particular, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our keynote speaker, Mr. Benedetto Saraceno, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence, World Health Organization.

Mr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, President of this University, regrets he could not be here to welcome you personally. He has asked me to convey his best wishes to you all.

I would also like to thank Dr. Murad Moosa Khan, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Ms. Farida Pirani, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing for inviting me to be the Chief Guest today. It is an honour and a pleasure for me to be here at this symposium, a symposium on a most important subject: understanding the challenges of mental health.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As many as 450 million people suffer from mental or neurological disorders or from psychosocial problems such as those related to alcohol and drug abuse.

• Many of them suffer silently.
• Many suffer alone.
• And beyond the suffering and beyond the absence of care, lie the frontiers of stigma, shame and exclusion.

However, mental disorders can be treated effectively.

Our understanding of the relationship between mental and physical health is rapidly increasing. We now know that mental disorders are the outcome of many factors, biological, psychological and social, or a combination of these, and that many of them have a physical basis in the brain.

I imagine that it is these problems and their solutions that you would be addressing over the next few days.

As you know, Aga Khan University's National Health Sciences Research Symposia are organised annually towards this end: bringing together the leading minds in the field to examine our society's most pressing health concerns in new lights and to share our various experiences.

Through this Symposium series, it is our hope that the University can serve as a platform to collect the latest advances, to learn from each other and to make an impact on the developing world.

There is, presently, little recognition of the importance of mental health to the development of society. And so, the policy-making and education tend to neglect this dimension in the developing world.

In particular, there is little appreciation of how genetic, biological, social and environmental factors come together to cause mental illness.

And there is little understanding how inseparable mental and physical health really are, and how their influence on each other is complex and profound.

There is indeed, from policy-making circles to the society at large, little awareness that mental health is more than an absence of symptoms of mental illness or distress; that mental health refers to a positive sense of well-being and belief in our own worth and the dignity and worth of others.

There is, therefore, a crying need to develop programmes which will address the mental needs of our country, in particular for our rural population which has no access to treatment facilities

In other words, we must invest in the mental health of the nation.

In this context, let me say that at Aga Khan University we are well aware of the critical importance of Early Childhood Development in respect to health, learning and behaviour. We know that pre-mental and early childhood experiences have a direct impact on brain development in later years. Thus, investment in the future of the nation.

As you address these and related topics, you will no doubt focus on the situation of developing nations. We know that:

• Mental health is affected by societal structures and resources, and cultural values;
• That socio-economic factors, notably education, employment, income distribution and housing, play an important role;
• And that mental health is influenced by families and schools, on the streets and in workplaces.

But mental health and well-being in the West differs from mental health in developing countries.I am sure you would be considering whether the same standards, factors and techniques can be applied in all contexts.

These are the very real challenges and issues confronting us in developing societies: the evolution of techniques through research that are relevant to our own contexts.

I believe WHO research has already highlighted culturally-relevant disparities, including the role of family and community, in the treatment of the patient.

It is also interesting to note that WHO research suggests that people in developing countries respond better to treatment than those in the industrialised nations.

I feel sure that this august gathering of scientists and policy-makers can bring their expertise to bear on these varied contexts and related concerns.

I hope that this Symposium will offer a meaningful platform for focussed and relevant research, that policy directions will emerge, and partnerships will be forged so that we can make progress in the realm of mental health.

On behalf of Aga Khan University, I welcome you once again to this campus for the National Symposium and wish you success in your deliberations.

Thank you!