The Ministry of Health (MoH) and its Specialized Healthcare and National Mental Health Program in coordination with the Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital and Al Baraha Hospital, has successfully concluded the local medical conference on "Pain and CNS Academy," at the Intercontinental Festival City Hotel - Dubai. The conference was held under the patronage H.E. Dr. Yousef Al Serkal, Assistant Undersecretary for Hospitals Sector, with the assistance of Pfizer Global Pharmaceutical Industries. The occasion intends to offer new insights pertinent to the clinical practice of health care suppliers in the region on the treatment of pain, depression and stress and anxiety.

The conference was inaugurated by H.E. Dr. Muna Al Kuwari, Director of the Ministry's Specialized Healthcare and the National Mental Health Program, in the existence of Dr. Abdulaziz Al Zarouni, Director of Al Amal Hospital and Acting Deputy Director of Dubai Medical District. The conference drew the involvement of around 550 global and local professionals focusing on mental health, neurology, orthopedics and rheumatology, anesthesiology, and family medicine.

The early morning session focused on a discussion on the link in between discomfort and mental health and the resulting bio-psychosocial effect. Two different conferences were likewise held, one for the treatment of acute and persistent pain, headed by Dr. Yaqoub Al Hammadi, expert and Head of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, and Chairman of the UAE Society of Orthopedic Surgery. The 2nd conference concentrated on the treatment of anxiety and depression, and was headed by Dr. Adel Al Karrani, Consultant Psychiatrist and Head of the UAE Society of Psychiatry and Medical Director of the American Center of Neurology and Psychiatry.

Lectures on crucial problems in the field of mental health existed by Dr. Amna Turki Al Ali, specialist psychiatrist and Head of the Training and Development Department at Al Amal Hospital, and Dr. Mohammed Suwaidan, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and the University of Kuwait and Head of the Psychiatry device in Mubarak Al Kaber

Hospital in Kuwait, and Dr. George Papakostas, Assistant Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Department of Resistant Depression.
Numerous local and global speakers took part in the pain management -focused discussion such as Dr. Suad Hannawi, Consultant, Internal Medicine and Rheumatology in Al Baraha Hospital, and Prof. Stephan Schug, Head of Anesthesia Unit of Pharmacology and Anesthesia at the University of Western Australia and Director of Pain Medicine at the Royal Perth Hospital, in addition to a variety of worldwide and local experts in the field.

Throughout the accompanying workshop, taking part professors and attendees established a design as part of a strategic relocate to satisfy the recognized objectives. The frame work includes allocating neighborhood psychiatric multidisciplinary groups who will be tasked with delivering mental health and psychosocial rehabilitative services including house care in each medical district. The groups will include family doctor and general practitioners, nurses, psychologists and social workers from primary care who have received sophisticated training in addressing mental health problems.

The community teams shall work under the guidance of specialized secondary care services personnel and will be responsible of coordinating activities between primary care and secondary care to facilitate mental health services and physical health along with chronic cases.