PHM-Exch> UN Gen Assembly on NCDs

[Claudio Schuftan]

   From:    kamayonza at gmail.com

   I wonder if you have heard about the UN Gen Assembly on NCDs (Non
Communicable Disorders) which is to be held mid September 2011. This a huge
a opportunity for all NCDs, and should include mental health. Unfortunately,
mental health is not included on the agenda.

We have therefore started a global advocacy campaign to get mental health
onto the agenda. Here in Uganda, we have formed a Coalition that includes
mental health practitioners, users/consumers of services and the media. We
plan to prepare a Position paper to be presented to the Ministry of Health.
The Minister has already agreed to propose the inclusion of mental health as
an agenda item. Colleagues in Tanzania and Kenya have also spoken
to their Ministers of Health, who have agreed to support the proposal. We
also plan to write opinion pieces to be published in newspapers. Those of us
who are academicians are working on scientific papers. Some are planned to
be published in June, others in July. The World Psychiatric Association
Chairperson has also agreed for a statement to be put up on their web page.
These are some of the activities being carried out, from Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, but also from the UK, the USA and other countries. We hope it will
grow into a ground swell of activities, from the bottom-up, which leads to
mental health being included on the agenda. *I am hoping the People's Health
Movement will join us in this campaign.*

Three key activities that are scheduled for April 2011, as preparatory
events for the September meeting are *African Ministerial Meeting, to be
held 4th to 6th April 2011 in Brazzaville*. This meeting will discuss and
agree the position of the African Ministers of Health. So far, the Uganda
Minister of Health has agreed to propose the inclusion of mental health into
the NCD agenda, so has the Minister of Health of Tanzania and the one of
Kenya. We hope more Ministers of Health can support this position, so that
it goes as a strong proposal from the African Ministers of Health, to the
Moscow meeting. *Is the People's Health Movement able to urge Ministers of
Health from around the globe to propose or support this proposal, in their
regional Ministerial meetings, and at the meeting in Moscow? *

The second key event is the Global Forum, to be held April 27th in Moscow.
This Forum is open to any participant who can pay for their travel. This is
to urge you to get mental health NGOs and other stakeholders to register and
participate in this event. Mental Health NGOs and other stakeholders, like
academicians, providers of services, and so on, have to attend and begin to
make a persistent request for the inclusion of mental health into the
September meeting agenda. The link to Global Forum is the second one below.
I urge you to get as many of your members as possible to attend and
to persistently make a call for the inclusion of mental health into the
September meeting agenda. Again, *the Global Forum, which is open to all, is
scheduled for 27th April, 2011 in Moscow*.  TPO-Uganda may attend, the
African representative of the World Association of Consumers and Survivors
of Psychiatry, who happens to be Ugandan, may also attend, if he is able to
get funding. So if the People's Health Movement know of other mental health
NGOs and other stakeholders, please pass on this information to them and
urge them to attend.

If the proposal to include mental health as an agenda item is made at the
Global Forum and accepted, it will influence what is discussed at the
*Ministerial
meeting, which is scheduled for 28th and 29th April*. We are working to see
that mental health focal persons in the Ministries of Health of Member
countries attend this Ministerial Meeting, to back a proposal that we hope
will have been raised in the Global Forum. The Mental Health Focal Person
for Tanzania is going to attend, we hope to lobby for more Mental Health
Focal Persons to attend. The World Federation for Mental Health has spoken
with the Minister of Health of Guyana, who has agreed to make the proposal
in the Ministerial meeting, but we need other Ministers of Health to support
it. That is why we hope the African Ministers of Health position will
support the proposal, and why we hope a resolution will also have come from
the Global Forum Meeting. The Ministerial meeting to be held in Moscow is a
key event that will determine what will be discussed at the UN General
Assembly in New York. It is only  open to Government representatives, but we
need to ensure that our Government representatives will make and support the
proposition for the inclusion of mental health in the UN General Assembly on
NCDs. I* therefore urge the People's Health Movement to convince Ministers
of Health from around the world, to support the inclusion of mental health
into the UN General Assembly on NCDs.*

I am also attaching the concept note for the Global Forum, as well as
frequently asked questions in relation to the UN Gen Assembly, which clearly
exclude mental health from the NCDs.

I hope I can count on your support in getting mental health onto the UN
General Assembly High Level Meeting Agenda and thus onto the global health
agenda. *Mental Health: Out of the Shadows NOW!!*

http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/

 <http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/>
http://www.who.int/nmh/events/global_forum_ncd/en/
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