Purpose
Launched in 2003, Asia Australia Mental Health is a consortium of St. Vincent’s Health and the University of Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry and Asialink.
- The University of Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry’s cutting edge mental health research and education provides opportunities to engage an emerging group of outstanding researchers in psychiatry and mental health more broadly in the region. Melbourne University researchers are provided with opportunities to train, learn from and develop collaborations with colleagues in the region across all AAMH activities
- Asialink’s high level networks in Australia and the Region and it’s leadership of Australia – Asia capacity building and engagement provides targeted and culturally appropriate strategies and networks of influence
- St. Vincent’s Mental Health’s internationally recognised excellence and expertise in mental health service delivery provide best-practice examples of direct patient-centred care. St. Vincent’s staff work with overseas colleagues delivering training on campus and in the region.
AAMH programs contribute to the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Melbourne.
To achieve its purpose AAMH also draws on the substantial expertise and experience of:
- Australian government, peak professional bodies, NGO’s and exceptional mental health leaders to support programming and its implementation in Australia and the region.
- Inter-governmental bodies such as WHO, CHOGM, APEC to further the mental health agendas at Ministerial levels globally.
- Asia Pacific mental health leaders and Ministries of Health.
AAMH areas of focus
1. Mental health service reform
AAMH works with the mental health leadership of governments, academic institutions and peak professional bodies in the Asia Pacific region to find context appropriate solutions to the growing global epidemic of mental illness.
2. Workforce development
AAMH supports regional partners to build mental health service capacity through national, provincial and individualised professional development programs
3. Research
Led by the University of Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry, AAMH collaborates with mental health research institutes and leading researchers in the region and globally, lead discovery of new understandings of the causes of mental illness, build research capacity and explore innovative approaches to diagnosis, management and treatment.
4. Thought leadership and policy advice
AAMH consults to intergovernmental bodies and regularly publishes in peer reviewed journals.
Approach
Collaborations between colleagues from different cultures and perspectives often provide the most creative and constructive solutions to global problems.
All Asia-Australia Mental Health initiatives and programs:
- Are collaboratively planned and delivered
- Incorporate cultural and national specific needs and priorities
- Build on existing networks, institutional and professional strengths and practical experience to enhance what is already working well
- Work with and help build capacity of mental health leaders
AAMH History
People to people links between Australian researchers and mental health service leaders in the Asia Pacific region are robust and longstanding.
Since the late 1990s, AAMH have been working throughout the Asia Pacific region. From humble beginnings, AAMH has worked closely with a rapidly developing China; early bilateral training programs with Thailand, Korea and Malaysia; to the establishment in 2005 of a network of leaders in mental health from across the Asia Pacific.
Today, AAMH is proud to support a growing program of work in China; large programs with partners in India, Japan, and the Pacific; with growing programs in Indonesia and the Sub-Mekong.
Read in more detail about our history
