The Conference (and the ‘underlying’ research) – The Japan Story

Here’s a quick review: I was in Japan for about a week. Many things were new (and exciting) for me, so I’ll be writing the stories in a few posts instead of just one. At the end of each story, I’ll provide some QUICK TIPS that you might need to remember, just in case my situation happened to you. As I’m pretty good at sweating the small most-likely-unnecessary details too, you might want to skip to that QUICK TIPS part immediately if you somehow feel like reading but not quite mentally equipped to deal with the whole text. So buckle up, and here we go..

The “5th World Congress of Asian Psychiatry” was actually the main reason for me to go to Japan. I found out about this conference about a year ago from a brochure in the hospital I happen to be in. I wasn’t too determined actually because the topic wasn’t quite of my interest. When one LCC had a promo and I happened to be able to find cheap tickets, however, I bought the ticket, and so.. I had to join the conference :p

The title slide for my presentation. I feel quite fancy.. :p

The idea for the research was to bring something Balinese onto the table, so I started googling for topics about paternalism and tried to find its correlation with the currently hot topic: child sexual abuse. Initially I intended to take 40 samples only to fill two questionnaires supplemented with in-depth interview, but my supervisor said that I shouldn’t complicate myself by doing in-depth interview. So I just distributed the questionnaires, but to compensate for this potential data loss due to not doing interview, I needed to get more samples. So, the research was then targeted to around 500 samples, and... it was a bit crazy. Haha.

I don’t know. During the period that lasted from the time I submitted the abstract to the actual start of my research, I went through some kind-of-significant personal life-goal-related issues. I.. procrastinated. Big time. I worked on things, but they were just not quite the thing I actually had to do. So when the time was really drawing near and I pushed myself to do the research, I wasn’t quite optimistic that I would be able to do it. Haha. The fact was, however, I did it! And even until now, I was still quite amazed that I could finish it, and finally came up with the presentation. I also got lots of help and understanding from my colleagues, and I was very grateful.

The conference itself was very interesting, and I learnt quite a lot both in terms of Psychiatry and the technical aspects of being in the conference itself.

The Psychiatry-related part

With some fellow Indonesians and some of "the Bosses"

The materials within this particular conference were quite different with the ones I usually see at school everyday. Psychiatry was holistically discussed both in community and clinical setting; the community part occupied most of the conference time, however, instead of the clinical things. It was great to learn about the many parts of Psychiatry I don't encounter in my daily training, such as the educational aspect of Psychiatry, regional and global collaboration for research and development, culture-specific issues, mental health related political issues and policies, the struggle for the creation of DSM V and the block of mental and behavioral problem in ICD 11, and physical/psychological comorbidities. It was also nice to learn how other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology somehow turned out to be something that were highly relevant for psychiatric practice. Here I was reminded (again) of the very vast potential work field of Psychiatry, and it was delightful because I don't quite see myself doing Psychiatry from behind the hospital walls, actually. Haha. Maybe I should just apply to become one member of the ICD 11's secretariat team.. :p

Most of the great minds there were very welcome to discussion, they were kind to each other, and they were nice to people as well. Some Indonesians I met there were also nice, and it was great to be able to get some insight from other area. The posters and the presentations I happened to see were also very stimulating. There were lots of cool research that I wish I could do at home. If it's not because of the fact that I was quite tired everyday, I might have had a pretty hard time keeping my ideas from proliferating >___< 

Fancy lunchbox! Itadakimasu!

The Technical part

Unlike most Indonesian conferences where many people from the organizing committee are running here and there to take care of this and that, that particular conference was relatively simple. Rooms within the venue were nicely mapped and directions were clearly given so I didn't get lost inside the building. There was, actually, a kind of long period when the committee seemed to be in a 'hiatus' and it led to confusion among participants, but after the hiatus period ended, they vigorously addressed each concerns, so it was okay. Plus the lunch boxes are cute, lots of free coffee, so I'm happy :D

So. that's pretty much the highlight of the conference. Let's carry on to the quick tips. 

QUICK TIPS

These tips are quite subjective, actually, and not exactly some tips, but just some reminders for me when someday I need to go to another conference, so here we go.

1. Choosing a conference: find one with possible (at least) travel awards or any awards. Good for your pocket, and good for your CV. Be in touch with organizations that give such awards.

2. Oral presentation or poster? Your choice. I'm pretty good at losing and leaving things, so my choice would be oral, of course. I just don't want to risk leaving my poster in the airport or any other unidentified places. With oral presentation, the file is portable. As long as you have your disk drive or you can access the internet, you're safe.

3. Don't worry if you feel like having language issues. Participants in the conference come from many different countries, many of them aren't English native speakers, so they do have their own accents and different levels of English proficiency. What matters is the science, not the language.

4. Choose a conference with the theme that doesn't quite fit to your day-to-day situation, yet still relevant. I mean, if you've found those things everyday and you've known how to deal with it, why do you have to go so faraway to see the same thing? Find something different, so you can get lots of new knowledge.