Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

The plight of hundreds of boat people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan has been forefront in the media recently. Social environment, migration and health are on today’s agenda at an international conference that’s been 18 months in the planning for Auckland University’s School of Population Health.

In this week’s Asian Report there’s a focus on the post-traumatic stress refugees often struggle with and questions around the nature of detainment for many asylum seekers and their children.

One guest speaker, Professor Derrick Silove from Australia, specialises in the area of mass trauma, transcultural psychiatry and refugee and post-conflict mental health. He talks to Lynda Chanwai-Earle about the urgent need to address these issues.

Gallery: The Fifth International Asian Health Conference

And in Part 2 of this Asian Report special next week: it’s estimated around 173 million suffer from some form of mental health disorder in China alone. The World Health Organisation is addressing the issues of mental health as a worldwide epidemic. Lynda follows this up with Professor Chee Ng from Melbourne University.

Links:
The 5th International Asian and Ethnic Minority Health and Wellbeing Conference
School of Population Health, Auckland University