UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
Commencement of teaching of primary care psychiatry at dedicated UTAR Portacabin at KK Ampang 27 Sept 2018 Malaysia
A Long time ago, 22 years ago in fact, the WHO decided to launch a Primary Care version of the ICD-X classification of Mental Disorders-see screen shot of cover of ICD-X Primary Care in attachments.
As a guide to the very common PHC occurrence of mental disorders it was a major event in the development of psychiatric teaching and hopefully services. Teaching could now focus on the patients in PHC settings that constituted over at least 20% of the huge PHC case load on developing countries and gradually reduce the over emphasised focus on teaching of psychoses and severe depressive illness- addressing the kind of psychiatric patients whom the vast majority of Family Doctors will see and manage at Primary Care level
Although 2 decades have passed most teaching of psychiatry in most developing countries is still based on severe psychoses based in psychiatric wards and even in large albeit less forbidding mental Hospitals — and not in primary care settings where thousands of less dramatic but crucially important “ mental “ problems (better termed STRESS problems ) go undetected and poorly treated daily. These common Stress related anxiety and depressive problems are the very ones that medical and nursing students budding Doctors and future Nurses need to address.
In fact the PHC clinic in Ampang sees 1100 to 1600 patient a day and practically no stress related problems are detected or managed.
The University Tunku Abdul Rahman Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Malaysia seeing the so many logistic problems in finding teaching space to put ICD -X PC into practice found Donors and very cooperative colleagues in Family Medicine in The Primary Care Clinic in Ampang Malaysia - putting the walk to the very Long Talk!
And took a bold step in de-stigmatising Mental health problems and illnesses.
Today the PC psychiatry teaching found a permanent home in a small Portacabin - and named more appropriately “STRESS MANAGEMENT CLINIC”
We thank all who have contributed to this achievement including our patients and students.
