The Richmond Foundation held its annual conference at the Dolmen Hotel in Qawra on Friday, marking 25 years since its inception.
This year’s conference focused on addictions and mental health, with a wide variety of local and international speakers in attendance to share their various areas of expertise and research in a multitude of fields with those in attendance.
The conference began with a drama presentation entitled “Arani, Ismaghni, Ifhimni – Ghinni”, a project which, through the medium of drama, “gives voice to young people’s experiences of when they are admitted to the Youth Residence, a psychiatric acute ward”.
The project is supported by Arts Council Malta -president’s Award for Creativity.
For the event, the Richmond Foundation brought in six speakers from Malta and the UK to share their experiences with addiction and mental health, and how it relates to technology and substances. By ‘technology’ the main point of contention was internet addiction, its prevalence in today’s society and how it manifests itself.
The keynote speech was delivered by Dr Jonathan Dewhurst, a lead consultant psychiatrist and the clinical lead for substance misuse services at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. His presentation focused on how treatments for addiction have evolved over time, and the different challenges faced in the UK in different treatment settings.
Dewhurst also tried to predict the challenges we may face in the future to safely manage addictions and dual diagnoses, considering how the population has ever-changing needs.
Following Dewhurst was Dr Zaheer Hussain, a psychologist, researcher, and senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Derby whose work in the area of behavioral addictions, social media, and technology use are internationally known. As his area of expertise notes, his speech was about technological addictions, specifically on assessing the impact of problematic technology use on adolescent mental health.
Dr Anne Cremona, a consultant psychiatrist, was up next with her presentation titled “Women and the Demon Drink”. Her presentation delved into the disproportionate effect alcohol has on women with regards to breast cancer, pregnancy, and how excessive drinking can render them more vulnerable to domestic violence and sexual assault – more so than men.
Dr Anna Vella, who has previously been interviewed by The Malta Independent on her work with sex workers and her views on legal reforms in the area, gave a talk on the prevalence of problematic internet use in Malta among young persons aged 13-16 years. A study they conducted found that users can be split into 4 categories – occasional users (13.9%), habitual users (65.5%), at risk users (15.4%), and problematic users (5.2%). Problematic users reported experiences of withdrawal, preoccupation and loss of control.
Dr Anthony Dimech is a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Malta, and spoke about the concept of addiction from the perspective of individuals with comorbid mental health problems. Essentially focusing on it from a biological, moral, philosophical, social and psychological perspective.
Dr Richard Graham, an adolescent consultant psychiatrist, focused on how to stay happy and healthy in the digital age. He asks the question of what can we draw upon to help parents, teachers and even young people learn how to thrive and flourish in these unprecedented times.