Mental Health and Telehealth
Organizations and Professional Events
INTNAJ to INTNAMZ

The aims of the Junior Federation are intellectually, politically and financially to encourage medical students worldwide to develop attitudes and competences which make them open to high-quality listening and empathy with their patients. This is accomplished via "Junior Balint Groups" led by experienced and recognized leaders, in most cases active psychiatrists-psychoanalysts.

Specific Federation activities involve:

• Promotion of training in enhanced techniques for doctor-patient communication in medical education in all 5 continents and helping those who cannot afford the expenses entailed
• Politically assistance for the oppressed who need official patronage in countries where medical education is strictly controlled and where Balint groups are seen as revolutionary seeds (for example The Republic of China)
• Recognition (International Prize) for accomplishment in the above areas
• Facilitation of contacts between students, linking different cultures and promoting exchanges (Annual Meeting of the Federation)
• Opening doors and channels in the minds of those who suffer from the invasion of technology in medicine, by offering education and discussion groups to maintain the patient-doctor relationship at the level necessary to a good therapeutic approach
• Help in preparing medical students for the emotional stresses of their oncoming careers
• Demonstration that high fidelity patient-doctor relationships improve the general quality of the medical procedures and that costs are likely to be reduced and satisfaction raised in most cases
• Stimulation of medical student's discussions about the communcative and psychological aspects of their future profession and helpiing them to develop their skills and to prepare their tools to achieve satisfaction in the medical field
• Worldwide publication and publicity of Federation ideals and of relevant writings
• Standards and leadership for medical relationship activities

IMIA aims to:

• Promote informatics in health care and biomedical research
• Advance international cooperation
• Stimulate research, development and routine application
• Further the dissemination and exchange of information
• Encourage education and responsible behaviour

All IMIA members are organizations:

• National
• Institutional
• Academic (Universities)
• Corporate (Vendors)
• Corresponding

Objectives:

• The creation of community services which are integrated, non-stigmatizing and coherent. The main focus is to enable the development of community strategies that address the wider mental health and well being of a given community.
• In order to achieve the first goal, the fundamental starting-point remains a deinstitutionalisation of all services; this aims to supersede not only the psychiatric hospitals, but also the danger of retaining an essentially medical model, which finds expression in current psychiatric practice of only "treating and curing illness".
• The fragmentation of separate responses for specific needs and individuals should be avoided; this only reproduces separation and depersonalization based on the primacy of bureaucratic categories and ideologies of exclusion. Notions of 'primary and secondary', 'enduring and common', 'serious and mild' prevent the adoption of citizenship and community models of care.

• Maintaining an up-to-date database of professional therapists
• Providing a forum for discussing and making co-ordinated joint efforts related to important issues or events
• Encouraging a high standard of ethical and professional performance for mental health professionals
• Poviding opportunities for continuing education for members
• Facilitating peer support and networking among members and with related Japanese mental health organizations