In June 2017, CosmoCaixa hosted the 6th Catalan Congress of Mental Health under the title ‘Migration, Exile, and Refuge: Human Rights and Mental Health’.
The objective of the Congress was build proposals capable of reducing the risks arising from migration to improve coexistence and citizen cohesion, thereby increasing the population's health and well-being.
For some years now, migratory processes, the search for refuge from various adversities and hardships (wars, famine, political persecution, etc.), have been causes for concern and have revealed a high number of deficiencies. These situations carry a heavy burden of suffering for those who experience them and for the society that witnesses with perplexity and anguish a migratory movement of great intensity, causing many social values to be reevaluated. This affects health and community mental health.
Despite this, there are still few studies on the impact of this social phenomenon.
The interdisciplinary perspective accommodated a large number of individuals and groups with experiences and knowledge related to the dramatic situation we are experiencing in Europe with the refugee crisis. Faced with this reality, Congress tried to be another element of denunciation and mobilization to respond, in this case from The perspective of community mental health.
For his part, the Minister of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Antoni Comín, ...he claimed that “we will not be a mentally and spiritually healthy society until we treat each other en masse and ordinarily as brothers.”.
Mental health impact
Migratory processes involve a high burden of individual suffering at the same time, of’Misunderstanding and inadequate responses in communities that could provide shelter. The search for refuge in situations of’adversity and helplessness for various reasons – wars, famine, poverty, lack of freedoms... – reveal numerous fragilities, have a great impact on mental health, and highlight the need to act collectively, coordinated, and globally.
Mental illness can only be overcome and mental health promoted if the right conditions are created for individuals to live in a state of well-being and to develop and carry out a productive and fulfilling life plan.
The inaugural conference ‘Migration Policies and Their Impact on People's Well-being. A Crisis of Values?’ was in charge of Nabil Sayed-Ahmad Beirutí, psychiatrist of Syrian origin, who presented the migratory phenomenon as something inherent to human nature and championed the “countless positive aspects” it brings: loss of fear of the other, opportunities, knowledge, learning... Sayed-Ahmad embraced Amin Maalouf's perspective when he opted to speak of origins instead of roots: “people don't have roots, we have feet and we walk.” He did lament, however, that today's migrations, forced displacements that put mental health at risk, are the result of a certain globalization and economic reasons linked to the concentration of wealth.
6th Congress Material
Images from the 6th Catalan Congress of Mental Health. #6ccsm