ASIA PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK (ASPIRE)

The inaugural Asia-Pacific International Research and Education (ASPIRE) Forum will be held in Hanoi 14-15 April 2014.

The inaugural Asia-Pacific International Research and Education (ASPIRE) Forum will be held in Hanoi 14-15 April 2014.  The inaugural forum of the ASPIRE network will focus on two areas; 1)            Developing appropriate mental health care that addresses maternal and child health – specifically examining perinatal depression and mental health disorders, assessing their impact on mothers and their families. 2)            Design for integrating mental health service delivery into primary care and community settings. There will be two concurrent streams following the opening ceremony. The first group will develop an umbrella research protocol for studying maternal health, building on an existing proposal by participants in the Sub-Mekong Region Mental Health Collaborative. The second will address the opportunities for integrating mental health into primary care and community services, examining results of efforts already underway in China. In support of the overall network goals, AAMH has also been successful in securing 9 Australian Leadership Fellowships for emerging mental health leaders from Myanmar and Laos for field study at The University of Melbourne and Victoria. Further network meetings possibly in Myanmar are also in planning.