What are the opportunities and challenges of brain science and brain health?
What are the development prospects and bottlenecks for psychiatry?
How to improve the development of the national medical centers and regional medical centers?
To promote exchanges regarding major progress in basic research and clinical practice in the field of psychiatry and mental health, and boost the construction of both national medical centers and the regional medical centers, the First Forum on Psychiatry for Universal Conversation and Innovation hosted by the National Center for Mental Disorders and Shanghai Mental Health Center was held in Shanghai from July 14th to 16th. The theme of this Forum is “New Opportunities for Mental Health Development”.
The forum was hosted by National Center for Mental Disorders and Shanghai Mental Health Center, and co-organized by the Psychiatric Hospital Branch of Chinese Hospital Association, the Mental Health Branch of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the Mental Health Management Institute of the Chinese Hospital Development Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Mental Health Branch of Shanghai Disease Prevention and Control Center, the Psychiatrist Branch of Shanghai Physician Association, the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Committee of Shanghai Rehabilitation Medical Association, the Mental Disease Committee of Shanghai Integrative Medical Association, and the Mental Health Center Management Committee of Shanghai Hospital Association. Nearly 500 practitioners in mental health, teaching, research, management, rehabilitation, and in work related to psychiatry and mental health in politics and law, civil affairs, Disabled Persons’ Federation, education, and other institutions gathered in the Shanghai Science Hall to discuss new academic trends and new developments in the industry.
“As a branded academic conference launched by the National Center for Mental Disorders, the Forum on Psychiatry for Universal Conversation and Innovation will uphold the purpose and aspiration of serving professionals in this sector and related fields,” said Zhao Min, Director of the Shanghai Mental Health Center. The Forum will give full play to the advantages of the National Medical Center platform, bring together top experts and scholars at home and abroad, demonstrate the new achievements and progress of the discipline construction and development in the field of mental health in China, promote academic exchanges, integration, and innovation, and boost the construction of a healthy China.
Xie Bin, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, said in his speech, “Our success in being approved as the main hospital of the National Center for Mental Disorders, selected as the outreach hospital of the regional medical centers, and becoming a pilot unit for the high-quality development of public hospitals in Shanghai not only represents an affirmation of our years of hard work, but also means new responsibilities and missions. This Forum will share new achievements and new progress in the development of the psychiatry and mental health discipline in China, which, I believe, will be very inspiring and enlightening for everyone.” Fan Xianqun, Chancellor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, congratulated on the successful opening of the Forum through a video and highly praised the achievements made by the affiliated mental health centers in medical services, teaching, and discipline construction. Zheng Ning, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Hospital Development Center, emphasized that the Shanghai Mental Health Center should continue to seize opportunities such as the “Healthy Shanghai Action” in mental health promotion actions and the pilot project of the construction of national social psychiatric service system, and continue to promote the transformation Shanghai's mental health work concept from "centering on the prevention and treatment of mental diseases" to "centering on mental health". Zhang Hao, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that the Shanghai Mental Health Center should play the role of leading, demonstrating, and outreaching as the “national team” to drive the improvement of mental health services in the Yangtze River Delta and even the whole country and take the development of China's mental health services to a new level.
Psychiatric and mental health problems are major medical and public health problems and prominent social problems in China and are closely related to the health and well-being of our people. According to Zhang Wenbao, Director of the Medical Management Division of the Medical Affairs Department of the National Health Commission, mental health promotion actions should not only strengthen the construction of the community rehabilitation system for mental disorders, but also actively create a psychiatric crisis intervention and psychiatric service model, and carry out high-quality mental health science education. At the government level, it is necessary to strengthen the popularization of mental health knowledge, build a psychiatric service network, improve the training and employment mechanism of mental health practitioners, strengthen the comprehensive management services for patients with severe mental disorders, and standardize the development of psychiatric crisis intervention and psychiatric assistance. At the social level, it is necessary to improve the service capabilities of medical institutions, strengthen the responsibilities of mental health medical institutions, encourage all walks of life to provide mental health services, and provide mental health services for key groups. At the individual and family levels, it is necessary to raise awareness of mental health, pay attention to the mental conditions of family members, use scientific methods to relieve stress, understand common emotional problems correctly, seek help in time if psychiatric behavioral problems occur, and care for and understand people with mental disorders.
The Forum launched the China Psychiatric Neuromodulation Alliance, which is oriented to precise clinical needs and aims at technological breakthroughs and clinical transformation, gathering social forces such as hospitals, scientific research institutions, and enterprises in the field of neuromodulation. This signifies that mental diseases will unite the power of the functional neurosurgery community to jointly promote the prosperity and development of the field of neuromodulation. This Forum will also establish a "dual center" management committee to form a domestic benchmark model of “North-South collaboration and complementary advantages”, and implement corresponding responsibilities and tasks, in a bid to drive the construction and development of the mental disease sector nationwide.
The Shanghai Mental Health Center has always been committed to cooperating with mental health service agencies in various places to create a national mental health service network with full coverage. In August 1997, Nantong Zilang Hospital became the first psychiatric hospital to establish a comprehensive medical cooperation relationship with the Shanghai Mental Health Center, opening a new chapter in the inter-provincial cooperation of psychiatric hospitals. After 25 years of construction, the Specialized Medical Alliance of the Shanghai Mental Health Center has covered more than 30 psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric departments of general hospitals in Shanghai, more than 10 mental health counseling centers in universities, and nearly 50 psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric departments of general hospitals in 14 provinces and autonomous regions across the country. Representatives of some cooperative hospitals attended the forum to receive the rewards for paragon organizations. The rallying call for the integrated construction of national psychiatry has sounded, and the Specialized Medical Alliance will push the development of national psychiatry to a new level.
The First Forum on Psychiatry for Universal Conversation and Innovation consists of 2 parallel main forums and 15 special sub-forums, covering hospital management, national medical center construction, mental health management, diagnosis and rehabilitation of severe mental disorders, psychosomatic medicine, public mental health, judicial and addiction medicine, children psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, anesthesia and cognition, brain science and brain-like research, TCM diagnosis and treatment, neuromodulation and other topics. Psychiatry is an important part of brain science. The launch of the China Brain Project in 2021 represents a great opportunity for the development of psychiatry. “The conventional approach of exploring the disease mechanism to find the intervention target and then prevent and treat the disease does not work in mental disorder studies, and it is likely that even an implementation in reverse order is needed.” Academician Pu Muming said. Therefore, disease mechanism studies of mental disorders research represent the greatest challenge in understanding human brain function. Experts pointed out that in the research of brain science, mental disorders, and psychiatric problems, in order to enhance the construction of a research standardization system, it is necessary to combine basic research with clinical practice, strengthen the implementation and transformation of research results, and promote the establishment of a multidisciplinary joint network cooperation platform.
It is learnt that from the Mercy Hospital in 1935 to the current main hospital of the National Center for Mental Disorders, the Shanghai Mental Health Center has always adhered to the development concept of “people-oriented”, earnestly strengthened the SMHC’s party construction, and adhered to the direction of operation for public welfare and the “patient-centered” service tenet. The successful holding of the First Forum on Psychiatry for Universal Conversation and Innovation adapts to the rapid development of medical science and technology, and also fully reflects the goal and resolution of the transformation and development of psychiatric hospitals, meeting the ever-growing mental health needs of the public through improving psychiatric research level and medical service content and quality.
