[P3] Plenary Session 3
"Mental Health"
Primary Mental Health Care in Asia-Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities

[P3-1] Core competencies of family doctors in primary mental health care

^○Christopher Dowrick (Department of Health Scieneces, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Christopher Dowrick is Professor of Primary Medical Care in the University of Liverpool, a general practitioner in Aintree Park Group Practice, and Professorial Research Fellow in the University of Melbourne in Australia. He is Chair of the world Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) working party for mental health, and a technical adviser to the world Health Organisation’s mhGAP programme.
His research portfolio covers common mental health problems in primary care, with a focus on depression and medically unexplained symptoms. He critiques contemporary emphases on unitary diagnostic categories and medically-oriented interventions, and highlights the need for socially-oriented perspectives. He is currently exploring the concept of self in primary care encounters and developing mental health care for marginalised communities, including asylum seekers and refugees.
He has published five books and over 250 research papers. Through WONCA he has produced a series of guidance documents on primary mental health care for family doctors.