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President’s Message, AFPMH
It is a great pleasure for me to lead the AFPMH in the next two years, which is currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 2009 to 2010.
Historically, AFPMH was inspired in 1981 in Bangkok, Thailand after enthusiastic negotiations among the psychiatrists in the five original member countries of ASEAN (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines). The federation has since achieved many successes including our biennial congress and regular publications of the ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, which may probably be the oldest regional journal in the Asian continent. I think it’s the right time now to publish the journal as a permanent online publication to facilitate accessibility and ongoing continuity.
ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry was founded in 1991 and has since received many articles from the ASEAN region, which were later published as a way to disseminate current and contemporary knowledge in the field of mental health and psychiatry, which I think is very interesting for this region because of its cultural diversity.
Not only has AFPMH organised scientific meetings, conferences and published journals, but the AFPMH has also brought about a closer community of large numbers of psychiatrists in the ASEAN countries, now including the Indochina region, and in fact forged ties that go far beyond anyone’s dreams 25+ years ago. AFPMH, the oldest regional psychiatric association, has gone beyond the region to forge links with China, Korea and Japan in 2006 through the “ASEAN Plus Three Partnership” and in 2007 the AFPMH joined as a founder member of the newly formed Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA).
I believe the future of ASEAN psychiatry will not depend on any single national psychiatric association, but relies heavily on the unity and commitments of all individual psychiatrists within the ASEAN region in order to pave a new way in managing and improving our people’s mental health, blended with the unique multi-ethnic variety and different traditions within the countries.
Lastly, I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Professor Hatta Sidi from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur for agreeing to take up the new post as Chief Editor from 2009 to 2010 and to his newly appointed editorial team members from Malaysia. I also extend my special thanks to the Malaysian Psychiatric Association (MPA), especially on the financial aids to support the newly designed web system, in continuing the dreams of 1991.
Mohamad Hussein Habil MBBS MPM
President, ASEAN Federation for Psychiatry and Mental Health (2009 – 2010)
Head and Professor, Department of Psychologcal Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Medical Center.
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