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<div class="gmail_quote"> From: <a href="mailto:kamayonza@gmail.com">kamayonza@gmail.com</a><br> <br>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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>I am hoping the People's Health Movement will join us in this campaign.</i></div>
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<div>Three key activities that are scheduled for April 2011, as preparatory events for the September meeting are <b>African Ministerial Meeting, to be held 4th to 6th April 2011 in Brazzaville</b>. 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. <i>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? </i></div>
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<div>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, <b>the Global Forum, which is open to all, is scheduled for 27th April, 2011 in Moscow</b>. 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.</div>
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<div>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 <b>Ministerial meeting, which is scheduled for 28th and 29th April</b>. 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<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></div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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. <b><font size="4">Mental Health: Out of the Shadows NOW!!</font></b></div>
<div><br></div><a href="http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/" target="_blank">http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/</a>
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<div><a href="http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.who.int/nmh/events/global_forum_ncd/en/" target="_blank">http://www.who.int/nmh/events/global_forum_ncd/en/</a><br clear="all">
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