VIRTUAL CONFERENCE: November 19-21st 2021
PANELS AND SESSIONS
Scroll down to learn more about our panels and sessions
Climate Change and Mental Health
This panel will focus in on the mental health impacts of the climate crisis, and showcase experts in this field that is more pressing than ever, as well as highlight those who are on the forefront of organizing solutions.
The Political Economy of Mental Health
As part of our Friday panels discussing the current state of mental health, this panel will address the pressing need to place our understanding of mental health in sociopolitical context. How do our political and economic realities shape our mental wellbeing?
Hidden Populations: Maternal Mental Health
This panel will explore mental health throughout pregnancy and first year following a birth of a child. Panelists will discuss strategies to increase awareness and uptake/access of mental health care for pregnant and postpartum women. They will also weigh in on what support can look like for the mothers that they work with and how we can work to destigmatize typically taboo topics regarding pregnancy and maternity.
Hidden Populations: Mental Health and Incarceration
This panel investigates the current intersection of incarceration and mental health and the specific ways carceral systems fail individuals who struggle with mental health, as well as alternatives that give people with psychosocial disability more autonomy.
Hidden Populations: Mental Health and Homelessness
How does someone's housing status intersect with their mental health? In what ways do these factors impact each other and how can we create mental health solutions that best respond to the needs of people who also do not have stable housing? This panel will discuss these questions and more.
Hidden Populations: Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health
Join this panel to learn more about the specific experiences of immigrants and refugees as they relate to mental health. This panel conversation seeks to empower listeners to be more culturally humble as they become “agents of change” and advocate for culturally relevant solutions.
Policy as a Lever for Mental Health Change
This panel will explore the role that policy has in improving mental health outcomes. It will explore the themes surrounding the role policymakers, mental health professionals, and people with lived experience have to play in this process as well as how we can ensure that policy is made that represents the needs of the communities it serves?
Effects of Social Media and News on Mental Health
How can media both help and hurt mental health? This panel will present an examination of the effects of news, mass, and social media on the mental health of individuals, as well as on the stigmatization and public awareness of mental illness. Additionally, this panel will discuss initiatives to help individuals navigate mental health in a digital world as well as ways to mobilize media for positive change.
Traditional Healing in Mental Health
Is there a "right way" to treat mental ill-health? With globalization, the power of biomedicine has been exported across the world, especially in regards to mental health care, but its positive effects may not be as universal as we think. Hopefully, this conversation will encourage people to think outside of the widely accepted, biomedical form of care and be empowered to uplift providers and elders in communities so that all forms of mental health care are culturally relevant and communally supported.
Legacy of Colonialism and Racism in Mental Health
This panel will look at the effects of racism and colonialism on mental health, from the conception of mental health diagnosis to the direct effect racism/colonialism have on mental health today. We will also talk about mental health in a cultural context and how different racial/ethnic communities experience mental illness and treatment.
Mental Health and Gender
This panel will look at the intersection between mental health across all gender identities and the specific mental health struggles people of different gender identities face, from seeking help to the way different mental illnesses affect them.
Mental Health in LGBTQ+ Communities
This panel seeks to understand the relationship between mental health and the LGBTQ+ community by specifically looking at the different support options available to this community around the world. It will also explore the specific mental health struggles that this community faces and what we can do to provide more inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ folks in mental health advocacy.
Lived Experience Led Innovation
This panel showcases the novel and innovative ways in which people with lived experience are leading the creation of modern solutions to help improve the lives of people with mental ill-health.
Activating your Lived Experience
The only way to make the mental health field serve our needs better is to demand we are heard. Hear from these lived experience advocates on how they are activating their lived experience to find ways to create positive change in the mental health of their communities and how they handle the challenges along the way.
Our Partner
Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by neurological and mental health problems by embedding the perspectives of people with lived experiences, financing breakthroughs from prevention to treatment, and driving a new model of global collaborative research.
HBGI will be facilitating a workshop during the conference, sharing their experience as non-profit in the field and discussing their vision for the future.
HBGI has generously contributed funds to support our fee waivers, allowing us to be as accessible as possible and allowing people from all backgrounds, disciplines, nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds to become Agents of Change at this year's conference.