President's Message, AFPMH

It is a great pleasure for me to take over the presidenthood of the AFPMH from our Malaysian counterpart. The federation is now based in Singapore from 2011 until 2012.

Since its birth in 1981, AFPMH has achieved many successes including our biennial congress and regular publications of the ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, which is the formal journal of the federation. From its five original member countries of ASEAN (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines), the federation has, over the years, increased the participation from other ASEAN countries, now including the Indochina region. Not only that, it has gone beyond the region to forge links with China, Korea and Japan in 2006 through the "ASEAN Plus Three Partnership". The federation also joined as a founder member of the newly formed Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA) in 2007.

ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry was founded in 1991 and has since been receiving a steady increase in number of articles from the ASEAN region for publication. Notably, the journal, a peer-reviewed six-monthly publication, has been reaching its readers regularly since 2007 through its open access online publication. Through this journal, we share and learn from the work of many researchers from the different countries of ASEAN on a variety of mental health and psychiatric issues. Through the journal also, we get to know new people in our large community of mental health and psychiatric professionals.

Despite the ability of its editorial board to ensure regular online publication since 2007, the journal has always been facing with the threat of disruption in publication due to the two-yearly rotation of editorship among the member countries. I think two years is a short time for any editorial board to get established and to make necessary changes for further growth of any journal. On that note, the AFPMH committee has rightly agreed during the last committee meeting in June 2010, to let Malaysia continue the editorship of the journal for another two years in effort to maintain the journal stability and for its further growth. However, this came with the condition that there should be co-editors selected from at least actively participating countries to ensure country's representativeness in the journal. It was also agreed that each country should contribute equally in financing the journal.

I believe mental health issues in ASEAN countries should be solved by ASEAN people and ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry is a good tool to achieve this purpose. Together, we are stronger to pave a new way in managing and improving our people's mental health, blended with the unique multi-ethnic variety and different traditions across the countries.

Lastly, I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Professor Hatta Sidi from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for his outstanding work and for agreeing to continue his duty as the Chief Editor from 2009 to 2012. I also extend my special thanks to his newly appointed editorial team members from the region and to the Malaysian Psychiatric Association (MPA), especially on the financial aids for the maintenance and upgrading of the journal's web system.

DR. LEE EE LIAN,
President, ASEAN Federation of Psychiatry and Mental Health (2011 - 2012)
President, Singapore Psychiatric Association.

President's Message, AFPMH 2009-2010

www.ASEANjournalofpsychiatry.org