Mental Health congress will be about many topics

The Daily Herald writes that a range of topics will be covered in the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) upcoming congress on transforming care. The congress is a combined effort of MHF, the Ministry of Public Health, Turing Point Foundation, the Parnassia group in the Netherlands and SVP-CN of the Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (BES) Islands. The congress is also supported by the Ministries of Justice and Education in an effort to create cooperation between the two ministries. Sessions for general practitioners and pharmacists include “Dual Diagnosis in Psychiatry,” which will deal with “the fallacy of physical and psychological symptoms,” “current and new developments in the psychopharmacological treatment of addiction disorders” and “Thiamine: Vitamin for Heart and Mind.” The lecturers for these sessions will be Dr. Gandotra, researcher at the Innovation Centre of Mental Health and Technology I.COM at the Trimbos Institute professor Havermans, Kestel and Dr. Van Brakel. Havermans has developed several online programmes to promote resilience including interventions targeting adolescents and adults. She is also co-author of the selfhelp book Mental Fitness. The lectures for students, parents, teachers and stakeholders will focus on “flourishing St. Maarten.” These will be interactive sessions that encourage young people to enhance positive psychology, stimulate prevention of substance abuse, and address how to interact with peers, parents and teachers and vice versa.

The goal of the congress is to transform how care is delivered with the intention of improving lives of patients and preventing criminality and community disruption, including the economic advantage of cooperation and prevention. With a focus on the youth, the programme highlights “cocreating younger people’s programme for resilience.”