The 3rd CNC Distinguished Lecture and Symposium

Dear esteemed guests,

It is my honor to welcome you all to the 3rd Professor Char-Nie Chen Distinguished Lecture, which is a celebration of three remarkable achievements – 1) the pioneering Shatin Community Mental Health Survey led by Professor Chen, 2) distinguished contribution of Professor Chen in psychiatric research, education and service and 2) the 40th anniversary of the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The invaluable contribution by Professor Chen to the field of psychiatry is groundbreaking. The Shatin Survey was a landmark study led by Professor Chen that aimed to determine the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in the Hong Kong Chinese community. The elegant study design of 2-phase survey with many seminal findings has made it a classic study. The heritage built by Professor Chen has laid the solid foundation of epidemiological and other scientific research for the Department and many of our colleagues have revisited different mental health issues in populations across lifespan in the past four decades.

The Faculty of Medicine CUHK is celebrating the 40th anniversary. Professor Chen was the foundation Professor of Psychiatry of the faculty. With his far-sighted vision and great leadership, he has helped to make psychiatric education a core specialty with 10 weeks (then became 9 weeks in the current curriculum) of module education at which every medical student will have an adequate exposure of psychiatric training in Hong Kong. Professor Chen has mentioned that mental illness has a lot of ‘external stigmatisation’ by lay public, but the ‘internal’ stigmatisation by medical and health professional is even more damaging, albeit it is often hidden and masqueraded. Through proper education that psychiatric problems are closely interacting and integrating with physical problems (to use WHO wordings – no health without mental health), and through a holistic care approach via general hospital and community psychiatric service model, we may help to educate our future generations to help to minimise the ‘internal stigmatisation’, and to build up a more accommodative society. The faculty has become a center of excellence in medical education, research, and clinical services, with many outstanding medical professionals, leaders and researchers over past decades. I hope you may agree with me that most, if not all, CUHK alumni have already been ‘imprinted’ of ‘psychiatric education genes’ during their undergraduate medical education. These ‘psychiatric education genes’ not only help them to understand and empathise the multitude of psychiatric problems, but also help them to become better and more compassionate and holistic doctors.

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Chen for his pioneering work of education, research and service – to both department and Faculty of Medicine. I am confident that this event will provide an excellent platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration, and I hope that we can work together to advance the field of psychiatry and medicine further.