The third biennial Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology, CRCP 2016, under the auspices of the Caribbean Alliance of National Psychological Associations (CANPA), and hosted by the Haitian Psychological Association (founded in 2010) was held in Port-au-Prince, November 7-11th. The conference theme, Promoting Caribbean Health with Multiculturalism and Multilingualism: Challenges and Opportunities, facilitated discussions around Caribbean health systems, health disparities, and regional challenges in physical and mental health.
Dr. Claudina Cayetano represented the Mental Health and Substance Use Unit of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and provided an overview of the challenges and opportunities of considering mental health within the public health framework. The presentation highlighted that more effort is still needed to achieve full recognition of mental health as a key public health issue. She emphasized that public mental health is needed to facilitate accessible, affordable, and acceptable mental health care, one that takes into account available resources, organization of services and an optimal mix of care levels. This is particularly relevant in resource-constrained contexts such as that of most Caribbean countries. It was a plenary presentation on Multiculturalism in the Caribbean, attended by approximately 250 from over 25 countries.
Other plenary and keynote speakers addressed cross-cutting themes, including the importance of task-sharing, the need to build strategic partnerships among stakeholders, and the importance of developing a Caribbean-wide research community while respecting the multicultural and multilingual nature of the Region.
