[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [WSIS-CT] almost final version 4.3 of WSIS CS statement
Avri Doria
avri at psg.com
Sun Dec 18 17:31:14 GMT 2005
Hi,
I admit I am a little confused about this issue and how it is playing
out. If I understand it, the objection to including mental health is
that is prejudices discussions about disability and other other
health needs. I must admit that i find this to be, in itself,
prejudicial.
In this case, to identify the perspective i am taking, it is as a
person who has studied and received an advanced degree in counseling
psychology, though i have worked very little in this field, and have
never completed the internship that would qualify me as an licensed
therapist.
The principles under which my learning occurred was that mental
health is something that is indeed distinctive from physical health,
even though on occasion there may be a physical cause for a mental
health concern. The current need remains to bring mental health
discussions out of the darkness and to make it clear, in a non
detrimental way that mental health is a huge, mostly unsupported,
health concern. Calls to have it excluded from explicit listing of
health concerns are often based on the assumption that to include
mental health will prejudice people against the other health issues.
I do not think we should accept this prejudice but should be out
front about the importance of mental health on a par with physical
health.
For this reason I would _not_ support dropping its mention from the
CS statement.
On 18 dec 2005, at 10.58, Elizabeth Carll, PhD wrote:
>
> The recognition of the importance of addressing mental health needs
> and
> labeling it using clear language which is tied directly to how
> governments
> decide on funding is essential.
i agree with this.
> To my knowledge there is no funding for
> access to emotional and spiritual services by governments.
> Furthermore in
> many cultures spiritual is viewed as, and often translates into,
> religious
> terms which brings with it a whole host of problematic and
> political issues.
>
I was also very concerned about seeing proposed language on spiritual
health and would prefer to see nothing that tends toward religious
expression in the statement.
a.
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