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Opening ceremony

Opening Address

Addresses

  • David Sproule, Canadian Ambassor to Thailand

  • Gaston Harnois, Director of the Montreal Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health (Canada)

  • Jose Bertolote, Coordinator, Management of Mental and Brain Disorders Team, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, World Health Organization (WHO)

  • Vijay Chandra, Regional Advisor, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO)

  • Jorge Rodriguez, Regional Advisor, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO/PAHO)

  • Therese Agossou, Regional Advisor, Mental Health and Substance Abuse (AFRO Region)

  • Itzhak Levav, Representative, (EURO Region)

  • Panpimol Lotrakul, Director, Rajanukul Institute

  • Céline Mercier, Director of Research and Education, Gabrielle-Major, Lisette-Dupras, and West Montreal Readaptation Centres for Intellectual Disabilities, and Professor, University of Montreal (Canada)

Transcription

  • M.L.Somchai Chakrabhand

    His Excellency, Mr. Ambassador, Professor Harnois, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Royal Thai government, the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, and the Department of Mental Health, may I warmly welcome all distinguished participants to the Second International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Retardation here in Bangkok Thailand. We have here today, participants from five regions of the World Health Organization, 60 countries. The world is in this room.

    It is a great honour for me to be invited to address the Second International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities. I would like to take this important opportunity to express my appreciation to the organizing committee for organizing this very useful conference. I feel that this conference is timely and Thailand is pleased to be part of it. I hope that you will have many fruitful discussions and a successful outcome. I hope that you will enjoy exploring our national and cultural places, our exotic Thai food, and our handicrafts.

    And now, with great pleasure, I declare this Second International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Retardation to be officially open, and wish you all a successful conference and increased collaboration among each other.

    Thank you very much.

  • David Sproule

    Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. It is a great honour to be here today at the opening of the Second International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Retardation, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization. Welcome to Bangkok, and our best wishes on behalf of the Canadian government. Before beginning, I wish to acknowledge a couple of our guests. One, the Deputy Minister of Public Health and Ministry of Public Health, who cannot be here today, but we thank him for his support and that of his Ministry. Thank you also Dr. Somchai, for your welcome, and for being here. And Dr. Gaston Harnois, from Montreal, Director of the Montreal WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health.

    As you know, this conference will review the current state of intellectual disabilities in each of the WHO regions, launch the first ever WHO Atlas on Global Resources for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, discuss ways to implement and strengthen initiatives regarding intellectual disabilities, and build on the new UN Convention on the protection and promotion on the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. This report will help the world understand the challenges facing persons with disabilities, and their families.

    We are all aware that persons with intellectual disabilities are full citizens and can play an important role in our society. This Atlas-ID will help raise awareness and sensitivity. We've made progress recently in recognizing the fundamental rights of persons with intellectual disabilities. This report, indeed, comes less than one year after the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Canada took a leading role in the negotiations and I am proud to say that I was also a participant in those. And Canada was also among one of the first to sign the Convention.

    In Canada, we are committed to the equality and fundamental rights of Canadians with disabilities. The Convention will help and protect and promote these rights. The Convention says persons with disabilities should be fully included in society as equal citizens, and should be given the opportunity to participate fully in the public life. While this Convention does not create new rights, it explicitly prohibits discrimination on the grounds of disabilities. The human rights of persons with disabilities, the same innate rights of all people, are therefore understood and guaranteed by the states parties. Canada is proud to have worked on the Convention, and is anxious to promote the WHO Atlas-ID.

    I also want to acknowledge Thailand's accomplishments. The fact that the World Health Organization chose to hold this event in Thailand reinforces the importance this country attaches to enhancing the quality of life for those with disabilities. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the conference participants a fruitful and meaningful stay here in Bangkok. Your accomplishments over the next three days will help make life better for persons with intellectual disabilities and for their families. I wish to end by offering Canada's continuing pledge of cooperation and its ongoing commitment to making this an international priority.

    Thank you very much.

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  • Gaston Harnois

    Good morning everyone. I would like to welcome you to the Second International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Retardation. The fact that we have here representatives from all six regions of the world means that it is really the first true global conference on intellectual disabilities under the auspices of the World Health Organization, so we are very pleased about that.

    First I would like to thank the World Health Organization, the Director of the Mental Health Division, Dr. Benedetto Saraceno, who gave us the challenge after the 2004 conference to investigate if more could be done on the issue of intellectual disabilities/mental retardation. We don't like the expression “mental retardation” but that's another story.

    So, we are thankful that we received this mandate from the WHO and we took it to mean that the World Health Organization, which, of course, always had considered intellectual disability as a key issue, meant to increase the visibility of this issue in asking that an Atlas be developed to give us an idea of where we stand from a world's perspective on this issue. We were also given another challenge, of organizing an international conference which, according to Dr. Saraceno's wishes, should take place in Asia, no longer in Montreal or in America, in order to send a powerful message about the importance of this issue across the world.

    We are also very thankful to the Government of Canada, represented by his Excellency Ambassador David Sproule, for supporting financially the writing of the Atlas-ID and the holding of the conference, as well as the Government of Quebec, who also contributed financially to make this event and the Atlas possible. Without them, we would not be here today.

    Special thanks must go to Mme Ginette Bissonnette, Director of the three rehabilitation centres in Montreal and their board of directors, who also supported the writing of the Atlas-ID and the holding of this conference. Thank you also to the director of research of these three centres, Dr. Céline Mercier, and her team, for putting together this conference and for her contribution along with M. Jocelin Lecomte in the writing of this Atlas. I would also like to extend my gratitude to M. Donald Foidart, who was responsible for all organizational issues related to the conference.

    But the true stars of this conference are the persons with intellectual disabilities and their families. I think that if we had to put the objectives of this conference into one sentence, I would like to believe that it would be: “To raise across the world visibility and awareness about the issue of intellectual disability.” One would hope that at the end of this conference we will have sent a message to the world that these persons have rights, that they should be acknowledged, that they can make a very important contribution to society, that there are ways of organizing services and support programmes in the community for them, and for their families, which can really improve their quality of life, and in a way help them become full citizens.

    I would also include, in that, the perspective that these persons should have access to work. I happen to be especially interested in the issue of work, and I would like to believe that new efforts will be made to make it possible for persons with intellectual disabilities to have access to paid work. There is nothing like a paid job to rehabilitate yourself. I think it's a powerful tool and it should be taken into account.

    We will also hear, of course, about mechanisms of prevention. There are many aspects of intellectual disabilities that can be looked upon from a perspective of prevention, and I hope that we will also take that into account.

    I would also like to believe that, in the future, more countries around the world will have a section within their mental health policy that will deal with intellectual disabilities. Today, only a few countries have specific policies for intellectual disabilities. We should be aiming at and pushing forward the idea that a complete mental health policy for any country has to include a programme on intellectual disabilities.

    Thank you.

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  • Jose Bertolote

    Dr. Somchai, your Excellency, dear colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the World Health Organization I wish you a warm welcome to this conference. At the same time, I would like to take a moment to thank the Thai government, particularly the Ministry of Health, the Department of Mental Health, and our Collaborating Centre in Montreal for Research and Training in Mental Health... The Montreal Collaborating Centre is very involved in research in mental health, on issues including intellectual disabilities and mental retardation, occupational health, and mental health policy.

    Whenever we come to Thailand, we have a very warm welcome. It's impossible not to enjoy the exotic Thai food, and the Thai handicrafts.

    Please allow me to say something on a personal note. I always feel very warm inside when I hear the lovely accent Québécois in the corridors here. I lived in Canada for a couple of years and I have strong attachments to Canada, and so being in Thailand with Canadian people, with Québécois people, is a wonderful experience for me.

    I believe I bring some good news to you from WHO. Dr. Harnois already referred to the term “mental retardation”. Well, some of you know that the condition referred to as “mental retardation” has been in the classification of diseases since the 19th century. The first classification called it “mental alienation”. When the classification passed on to WHO in 1948, they changed this label from “mental alienation” to “mental deficiency”. In 1965, it was changed to “mental retardation”.

    The first piece of good news is that we have just started the revision of the ICD10, the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, and we are now initiating the 11th revision. Also, for the first time in the revision of the ICD, consumers and families will have an input. So far, only professionals and officers from the Ministry of Health have been involved. Now we will be able to include the comments of consumers and families. And the third piece of good news is that the person who is responsible for revising the International Classification is Dr. Shekhar Saxena, who is also responsible for the Atlas-ID, and he is here with us at this conference. I think that your inputs regarding the use of the term “mental retardation” will be welcomed.

    I hope that, during this conference, you will discuss how you would like this condition to appear in the International Classification of Diseases. Don't forget that the WHO has two major classifications, one of diseases and one of disabilities. If something is classified as a disability, it will not be in the classification of diseases. This will have major implications for insurance, for reimbursement, and for many other political issues. So think carefully, that if you classify this as a disability, it may not be eligible for the same benefits provided by a disease classification.

    Different countries use different names, including intellectual disabilities, educational disabilities, learning disabilities and in some countries, mental retardation.

    My last comment is that we work here in English, and we are all, for good or bad, under the constraints of the English language. Don't forget that whichever label we consider, it will have to be translated, and sometimes something very well conceived in English is totally impractical in other languages. The translation becomes totally meaningless or it is very difficult to find a correlation. I think that the good news is that we are starting a new era in the revision of the classification of diseases.

    We have people from around the world attending this conference, this is to show you the commitment of the WHO. Usually WHO sends only one representative to international conferences Here we have practically all of the regions represented; Dr. Saxena, Dr. Vijay Chandra, Dr. Rodriguez, Therese Agossou, Dr. Levav representing EURO, so this is, I would say, the heavyweight of WHO committed to this cause.

    Thank you very much, to the Thai government and the Collaborating Centre in Montreal for creating this unique opportunity.

    I wish you very fruitful discussions and outcomes. The WHO will be very interested in your comments and inputs.

    Thank you very much.

  • Vijay Chandra

    Respected Dr. Somchai, his Excellency Mr. David Sproule, Dr. Harnois and my dear dear friends from around the world. As the Regional Advisor for Mental Health in the South-East Asia Regional Office, I'm delighted that this conference is being held in our region. We must be very grateful to the Royal Government of Thailand, and to my dear friend and senior colleague, Dr. Somchai, for hosting this meeting. Whenever I've approached Dr. Somchai for any kind of advice or help, he was always very supportive. Therefore, I would like to thank him and his ministry.

    I also bring you greetings from my Regional Director, Dr. Samlee, who is also from Thailand and would have loved to be here with us but unfortunately had to attend other meetings. You will find a message from Dr. Samlee in the Conference Programme.

    I want to bring to your attention to the fact that we in the South-East Asia Regional Office have been interested in intellectual disabilities since 2000. It was in the year 2000 that we held a brain-storming session here in Bangkok, in which all 10 of our regional countries were represented, and I asked them: “We cannot do everything that needs to be done in mental health. When I say mental health, it means mental, neurological, and substance abuse disorders or conditions. So what should we do?”

    After three days of very intense brainstorming, we said we should select conditions based on the most common, most disabling, easy to identify, efficacious treatments or therapies or corrective measures, and with a good likelihood of outcome if treated. And these are the classic epidemiological characteristics.

    We decided that we would address five most important conditions. Not to say that there are not other conditions, but these were the ones that we identified; epilepsy, affecting about 1 percent of the population, psychosis, affecting about 1.5 percent of the population, depression, affecting about 3 percent of the population, and intellectual disability, affecting about 2 percent of children under the age of eighteen. And the fifth was harm from alcohol use.

    So, as you can see, in SEARO we have been interested in intellectual disability since 2000 and it all started right here in Bangkok under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Health. And since then, we have made substantial progress. We have one of our experts, Dr. Jayanthi Narayan who was engaged in the development of a CBR, Community Based Rehabilitation Manual, which all of you have received, and if not, you can pick up a copy in the secretary's room. She was instrumental, along with experts from Thailand and from Bangkok, in developing this manual. And this manual has been tested in several states. What you have now is a revised version. This manual has actually been field tested, and Dr. Narayan is one of our foremost experts. She advises many agencies not only in India, but in Maldives, in Indonesia, and has worked with people in Thailand, and many other countries. It is a privilege to have Dr. Narayan here with us , and I'm sure we'll hear from her later on. We also have here with us an outstanding leader from India, Mr. Reddy. He is the Commissioner of Disability in one of the big states in India; he heads one of the best community-based programmes on rehabilitation, not only for the intellectually challenged, but also for the physically challenged. Once again, you’ll be meeting him and hearing from him.

    Welcome to this beautiful country of Thailand. I always say that Thailand is my second home. I have so many brothers and sisters here, that it is very hard to stay away.

    So, ounce again welcome , I am delighted that you are all here, in this beautiful country , to address this very important condition; intellectual disability.

    Thank you.

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  • Jorge Rodriguez

    Good morning everybody, distinguished chairpersons, distinguished participants and guests, esteemed colleagues from the World Health Organization, ladies and gentlemen. For me personally, and on behalf of the Pan-American Health Organization, the Regional Office of the World Health Organization, it is a great honour to participate in this opening session, and to be able to address briefly such a distinguished audience.

    First of all, on behalf of the Director of the Pan-American Health Organization, I would like to express cordial greetings from Washington D.C. The main purpose of this conference is the launching of the WHO Atlas Global Resources for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities. The results of the Atlas will be discussed in various sessions of this event; however I would like to emphasize other important objectives such as ways to implement initiatives regarding intellectual disabilities within the WHO region, and to promote the right to health for people with intellectual disabilities.

    As the Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Americas, it has been a privilege to co-sponsor, support, and participate in the development of the Atlas on Intellectual Disability. It has been a lengthy process that has seen a lot of change within the countries. We need to recognize the Montreal WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research in Mental Health. Their team carried out this task in a most successful way. At this time, we have some very important and complete data and we have the duty to use it as a working tool to carry out concrete action. We have the obligation to give a response from both the health and social perspectives to the problems related to people with intellectual disabilities.

    In the region of the Americas, we see the conclusion of this Atlas as an intermediate step at this time. We have an excellent assessment of the situation of intellectual disability in our countries, which means that we are in a better condition to carry out plans of intervention based on a good evaluation of the evidence. Our purpose is to develop a programme of technical cooperation individualized by the countries for supporting and developing their policies and national service. We would like to express our gratitude to the Montreal Collaborating Centre, to the government of Thailand, the members of the organizing committee, the members of the scientific and parent committee, and to all the sponsors and people who have contributed to the conference.

    I hope, and I am sure, that we will have a very successful meeting.

    Thank you very much.

  • Therese Agossou

    Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, I want to greet you on behalf of my region, Africa, on behalf of my continent, and on behalf of all women and men, all people with innate difficulty, who work in the continent, for the continent, and with people of the continent. I want to tell you that it is with great emotion that I am here in this room, we can see that we come from all over the world. And this is very important because the challenge is important. If we work together we see that we will better address the challenge. In our region, in our continent, there are many difficult problems, but we will work together and we will advance. Excellencies, thank you for inviting us, thank you for welcoming us, and thank you for giving us this opportunity to work together.

    Thank you.

  • Itzhak Levav

    I am acting on behalf of the Regional Advisor, Dr. M Muijen, who asked me to welcome all of you, and, at the risk of being parochial, to especially welcome the participants from the European region. Dr. Muijen, who is the Regional Advisor of Mental Health in the European Region, based in Copenhagen, was unable to attend, but this shouldn't be construed as a lack of interest on his part. On the contrary, he asked me to convene a meeting of the European participants in order to discuss the findings of the Atlas, and to chart the course of future action. He is very aware that much needs to be done although much has been accomplished.

    The situation in the European region, as it stands out from reading the Atlas findings, is characterized by some peaks, but by many valleys, actually, by very deep valleys. This needs urgent correction. Fortunately, the Atlas that is going to be launched today by Dr. Saxena and his team, sets a baseline and suggests the lines of action to be taken. The information accrued, however challenging it is, enables us to establish what needs to be done. The Atlas identified, for instance, that only one in five countries in the European region has relevant graduate programs for the paediatrician and other health personnel. Truly, an unbelievable finding. True, there is much encouragement in the fact that 80% of the countries have programs for teachers.

    The information from the Atlas should feed the meeting of the European participants tomorrow. This Conference constitutes a call to action to the world - and it will reverberate in Europe, I promise. Of course, it will need the participation of all of you, and of other stakeholders and interested parties that we will be able to recruit. It will need collective action. There is much to be done, as I said earlier. Indeed, there is much to be done for persons with intellectual disabilities. (Parenthetically, this is, a term that I prefer. The old one carries too much stigma to justify its use. There is much in a name.) A lot needs to be done for the persons with intellectual disabilities and as Dr. Harnois has insisted, for families and caregivers. And soon! As one service user of mental health services said, the action to be taken by WHO cannot be at the pace of a sand clock, but by the pace of a digital watch. It cannot be postponed. Time is against us.

    To conclude, one more word of thanks to the organizers, and to the funders for bringing all of us to beautiful Bangkok.

    Thank you.

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  • Panpimol Lotrakul

    Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to be part of the Conference on Intellectual Disability in Bangkok Thailand. The Rajanukul Institute is a government organization, and has provided services related to developmental and intellectual disability for four decades. The Institute used to be the Mentally Retarded Hospital, which was established in 1960. First, it was used to institutionalize children from all regions of Thailand. In 1979 it was renamed by his Majesty, the King Bhumibol. This promoted awareness of intellectual disability in our society, and the Royal Family continues to support this Institute. The Institute develops programmes and training curriculum to amend and integrate the services provided by Public Health under the concept of family health care. In 2002, the Rajanukul Institute initiated team participation of professionals, families and community, to connect to the community, and to evaluate and support a community-based rehabilitation in Thailand. Each part of Thailand developed their own community-based rehabilitation programme to meet their local needs.

    The health volunteers work together with community leaders for early detection, and the community health centres support the families in early stimulation programmes, and programmes to integrate children with intellectual disability into the daycare centres in their community. Evaluation of this model has shown the effectiveness of this approach and we still continue this work in the community. Last, I would like to invite you to visit the Rajanukul Institute on Friday. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate 40 people, so if you are interested in participating in this activity , you can register after the Opening Ceremony.

    Thank you.

  • Céline Mercier

    Dr. Somchai, his Excellency, dear colleagues, dear participants. It was expected that this conference would bring together key stakeholders in the field of intellectual disabilities, and provide the opportunity for them to share their vision about the best ways to support persons with an intellectual disability, their families, and their communities. This goal has been attained with a long list of high quality participants which is quite impressive. The challenge now is to take advantage of the richness of experience and expertise gathered in Bangkok.

    You come from different parts of the world, and from various horizons. You are a self-advocate, a family member, a leader in an non-governmental organization (NGO) or an international organization. You belong to the government or to the academic field. How can we build on this diversity of point-of-views, of backgrounds, of geographical locations, to build road-maps that will make a difference in the near future for persons with intellectual disabilities and their families?

    Members of the scientific and programme committees have tried to offer activities that will facilitate openness to new realities, sharing of information, networking, as well as debate. We want to reinforce some collaborative initiatives and to create new ones.

    One strategy to attain these goals is the plenary sessions where the diversity of experiences will be, reflected through the presentations by the keynote speakers and the panel members, the comments by the discussants, and the inputs from the audience.

    The second strategy relates to thematic activities, as concurrent workshops, and regional breakfasts. Here, you will meet around good practices that combine quality and low cost, sustainability, accessibility, comprehensiveness and cultural relevance. The poster session will also allow for such experiences on good practices. You may be surprised to see how things can be quite similar in very different contexts, or alternatively so different in near identical situations.

    And finally, the third strategy is to encourage informal encounters through the identification of resource persons, or of participants from the same region. Do not hesitate to use the message board for reaching out, and be sure to enjoy the reception, the banquet, and the lunches.

    The conference’s third and last day will be devoted to road-maps. It is expected that the activities of this day will mobilize you, the participants, around concrete actions, and will consolidate networks that might have emerged in the preceding days. It is the moment when synthesis could be formulated and a consensus achieved around large orientations. The linkages between the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the results from the WHO Atlas ID project, and the contents presented during the conference should become apparent. In this perspective, the activities of this day, that is the regional breakfasts, the forums, and the two panels on “Next steps” have been planned to encourage inputs from all participants.

    We wish to thank the World Health Organization for co-sponsoring this event, and giving persons with intellectual disabilities and their families a much deserved and needed visibility ; but most of all, special thanks to you, dear participants. Your presence here in Bangkok speaks of your involvement and commitment. We hope that this conference will be a significant experience for all. Together, we can accomplish so much. So, let’s go do it!

    Thank you.

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