Global Mental Health and Aging in Asia | Peatixtag:peatix.com,2011:12019-11-01T16:11:55+08:00PeatixYale-NUS CollegeGlobal Mental Health and Aging in Asiatag:peatix.com,2018:event-3434252018-04-18T17:30:00SGT2018-04-18T17:30:00SGT
There is wide
recognition today of the
importance of global
aging in societies all over
the
world. Nowhere is this
importance more
substantial than
in Asia.
In 2040 Japan will be the
first society ever
to have a
population in which
40% of
people are over 65 years of age.
And China, South Korea,
and Southeast Asia will not
be far behind. This talk will review the challenges of this
unprecedented demographic change
for families, communities,
and whole societies with
an emphasis on the
great challenge posed
by eldercare.
Global aging intersects powerfully with
mental health. From dementia to
depression, from loneliness and isolation to
suicide, global
mental health problems are
a large component of
the
challenge that aging will bring
to
us all.
Again my focus will
be on care.
Implementation
of global
mental health programs offer one of the
best examples
of practical lay and
professional responses
to the challenges described in this
talk. Indeed I will argue that global aging and mental health in Asia
make the issue of caregiving
perhaps one of the
most vital questions for policy makers,
program directors and
families in many
Asian societies. Not
the least
of the
concerns raised is the
growing disparity between traditional
Asian values that emphasize filial respect
and support and
the actual conditions of the
elderly in rural
and urban Asia
today. I will end the talk by
suggesting that
a focus on aging
and mental health leads to
a very different understanding of
what
wellbeing, welfare, security
and
governance more generally mean.
About Arthur KleinmanArthur
Kleinman, MD, is the
Esther and
Sidney Rabb Professor of
Anthropology
in the
Department of Anthropology
at Harvard
University,
where he has directed Harvard’s Asia Center
for a
decade. At
Harvard Medical
School, he is Professor
of Medical
Anthropology in the
Department of Global
Health and
Social Medicine,
and a Professor of Psychiatry.
Kleinman has published seven books
including Patients
and Healers in the
Context of Culture; Social
Origins of Distress and
Disease: Depression, Neurasthenia
and Pain in
Modern
China; Rethinking
Psychiatry; The Illness
Narratives; Writing at the Margin; What
Really Matters; and A Passion
for
Society. He has also co-edited books on culture
and depression;
SARS in China; world mental health; suicide; placebos; AIDS in China; and
the relationship of anthropology to philosophy.
He is currently
finishing a
book on caregiving.