19 October 2016
Already for the fourth time interested students and mental health professionals gathered for the “Youth Mental Health Day” on October 14th at the Royal University’s amazing assembly hall. The event was organized by the Department of Psychology with financial support from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Civil Peace Service of GIZ.
The staff of 16 participating NGOs could already exchange ideas during preparatory meetings and hence networking was also one of the main targets of this major event, to foster connections between different governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Furthermore, the organizers aimed to introduce and to promote Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry within the wide field of „Mental Health”. More than 1900 visitors came and gathered information at the different booths and took part in activities like Mini-Counseling, Mindfulness Exercises or Yoga.
During the last two hours of the event short expert talks were organized focusing various treatment methods and their application in Cambodia. The four different presenters came from psychological and psychiatric backgrounds and were available for questions from the interested young audience.
The Department of Psychology considers this dialog between both professions to be an important step towards the acknowledgement of Clinical Psychology in Cambodia.
Bernhild Pfautsch
CPS/GIZ development advisor – Department of Psychology Royal University of Phnom Penh
