I have great pleasure to announce the Conference on "Promoting Community Mental Health – Issues, Achievements and Visioning into the Future" organized by the Social Work Services of Caritas-Hong Kong from 15th – 17th December, 2009. This Conference is also co-organized by many professional and academic organizations. The purpose of the conference is to share experience among social service organizations on the promotion of community mental health and delivery of community services, challenges and collective visioning into future development and strategic directions.

With the undue stress from the financial tsunami, there are public concerns on the prolonged waiting list in psychiatric out-patient services, increasing incidences of suicide, deliberate self-harm, divorce, family conflicts and violence as well as crime. With the collective frustrations due to daily new reports on unemployment, down-sizing, violence and suicide-cum-homicide, there are concerns on community mental health and social stability. In the densely-populated metropolis of Hong Kong, people are becoming more easily agitated by the tensions and stress from schools, work, family, social relations, economy and community. Many manifest symptoms of distress, alienation, or neurotic/psychotic behaviors. Mental health issues are definitely areas of concern.

This Conference will provide a platform for mental health practitioners to share and exchange experiences in the planning, design, delivery and evaluation of community mental health services in Chinese societies. Local and international experts will gather together to address a wide variety of topics of interest in community mental health, to share new and creative innovations on intervention and delivery models, as well as to facilitate mutual learning and inter-disciplinary and inter-organizational collaboration.

Please join us for this meaningful event, to work together in building a healthier and happier community for all ! I look forward to your contributions and hope to learn about your excellent work. Do come and join us in Hong Kong during the beautiful season of December where there will be Christmas lights along the harbour.

With warmest regards,

Cecilia Lai Wan CHAN, Ph.D., R.S.W., J.P.
Chair, Organizing Committee, Conference on Promoting Community Mental Health,
Si Yuan Professor in Health and Social Work,
Department of Social Work and Social Administration,
The University of Hong Kong

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of Caritas Social Work Services, I cordially invite practitioners and professions of the fields to participate in our Conference on “Promoting Community Mental Health – Issues, Achievements and Visioning into the Future” to be held from 15th – 17th, December 2009 at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

It is indeed our great honour to have invited two renowned speakers from overseas, Prof John Carpenter and Prof Larry Davidson, to deliver the keynote speeches at the Conference. Apart from inviting reputed speakers who will address the three plenary sessions, we are pleased to receive encouraging responses from more than 100 presenters including academics, practitioners of the welfare and health sector, users, representatives of NGOs and professional body not only from Hong Kong, but also from the mainland and overseas to share their intervention models and good practices at workshops and parallel sessions. With their presentations, our Conference will surely provide a good opportunity for participants to share experience and exchange views to formulate new models and innovative service for the mentally ill people and their families.

Nowadays, we are living in a rapidly evolving social and economic environment that creates intensive emotion and stress to individuals and families. Our social workers of different service settings including children, youth, family, elderly and rehabilitation, have been approached by individuals of different age groups having mental health problem for assistance. With the mission to serve the underprivileged, Caritas Social Work Service units have adopted a strength-based and community-based approach to render mental health service to the people in need. We hope that our staff members can gain insight from experts of the fields to further promote our community-based service. In addition, owing to the rising service needs of the mentally ill people and their families, we hope that the Conference can stimulate discussions on future service development. With collaboration of practitioners of different disciplines, we can initiate plans for the delivery of an integrated service and for building a supportive community to enhance recovery and social inclusion of the people and families facing the problems.

Hope you will join the Conference and contribute to the well-being of the people facing mental health problem.

With warmest regards,

Maggie Chan
Director, Social Work Services Division
Caritas – Hong Kong