International conference calls for early identification of mental disease

-Narayan Dhungana

The 7th international conference on developmental disability concluded here Saturday with a call to early detection and treatment of mental complications to help people with disabilities live a complete life.

Issuing the Rajshahi Declaration on Disabilities, the conference called for emphasis on prevention measures to detect mental complications in people with disabilities.

International Chair of socio-individual development through collaboration (SIVUS) Dr Katsuhiro Yamashita called for establishment of human rights in order to give due attention to the mental health of people with disabilities and help them live a quality life.

The SIVUS International was founded in 1974. It works for mental health of the people with disabilities. The first SIVUS conference was held in Norway in 1993.

A total of 60 working papers were presented in the two-day conference organised to discuss efforts being made to develop the capacity of the people with disabilities and the challenges they face across the globe.

More than 500 delegates from Malaysia, China, Spain, Bangladesh, the US, India, Japan, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Nepal took part in the conference. The delegates included mental health experts, psychologists, experts in the field, and researchers as well as academics and journalists.

During the two-day conference various working papers were presented on six major themes by experts and professors. On behalf of Nepal, four working papers were presented. Prof Dr Ushakiran Subba, Dr Nagendra Singh Thagunna, Padma Raj Joshi and Khem Raj Bhatta presented working papers on different themes with a focus on the situation of mental health of PWDs in Nepal.