[Symposium 9] Anti-stigma 1

[SY-9] Anti-stigma 1

Yuhei Yamada², Jie Li³, Joan Mae Perez-Rifareal⁵, Kumiko Ando⁴, Tsuyoshi Akiyama¹ (1.Rokubancho Mental Clinic(Japan), 2.Porque, the Organization of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities(Japan), 3.Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University(China), 4.Institute of Science Tokyo(Japan), 5.president of the Philippine Psychiatric Association(Philippines))

Keywords:

Anti-stigma,Mental Health,Psychiatry

While huge tasks remain to realize anti-stigma in society, we have been observing encouraging progress and activities worldwide. In these symposiums, Anti-stigma 1 and Anti-stigma 2, the audience will have opportunities to learn about the efforts to advance anti-stigma and its achievements. In Anti-stigma 1, Yuhei Yamada will report on their anti-stigma initiatives in Japan. He will report on their initiatives, collaborating with academics, professionals, disability groups, and family groups to produce guidelines that question the way in which cases are reported in the media. His organization, composed of people with disabilities, has been working on implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Jie Li will present “An anti-stigma campaign in Guangzhou, China: Ideal and reality.” A diagnosis of mental illness may be shameful for patients and lead to losing “face” (also called mianzi) according to the Chinese traditional culture. He will introduce mental health staff in Guangzhou who carried out two anti-stigma programs. Julie Millard will present “The unique needs and mental health challenges for people of the Oceania Region.” The region has many issues impacting mental health, including stigma and discrimination, human rights, cultural differences, climate change, and the limited workforce and resources. Julie has been a Board Director for the past seven years and former Regional Vice President of the World Federation for Mental Health. Kumiko Ando points out an enormous stigma against people with mental disabilities in Japan. She presents a Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN) project to provide videos for high school health education classes. The JSPN anti-stigma committee has conducted video interviews with patients with five major mental disorders, and these videos will be made available for health education classes. This learning may lead to early intervention for the disorders among the students.