The Global Mental Health Action Network Annual Meeting

The Global Mental Health Action Network (GMHAN) is proud to announce its annual meeting, from June 28-29 in Cape Town, South Africa. The event brings together over 150 physically present stakeholders as well as nearly 500 online participants working on mental health from around the world. This important event aims to foster networking, collaboration, and progress in the mental health community.

The meeting serves as a dynamic platform for individuals, organisations, and institutions dedicated to mental health to share their knowledge, experiences, and expertise. With an extensive line-up of distinguished speakers, interactive sessions, and thought-provoking discussions, attendees will have the opportunity to engage in robust conversations, exchange innovative ideas, and build transformative partnerships.

Several topics are being discussed at the meeting

• The opening session on mental health and opportunities for collective action featured speakers including the World Health Organization’s Mark van Ommeren, Sandra Ferreira, from Global Mental Health Peer Network, Juliana Fleury GMHAN Advisory Group member, and Margianta Surahman Juhanda Dinata, Emancipate Indonesia and Being Youth Representative. Key lessons from this panel included; Involving people with lived experience in all interventions, the need for a unified voice to inform policy, need for education and sensitization to combat stigma and discrimination.

• Universal Health Coverage and Mental Health: An Integrated Approach: Recognizing the urgent need for comprehensive and integrated mental health care, experts and stakeholders deliberated on strategies to enhance mental health services within universal health coverage frameworks ahead of the UN High Level Meeting on UHC later this year.

• Youth-Centred Funding Driving Change in Mental Health: Acknowledging the unique challenges faced by young people in the realm of mental health, this session will emphasise the pivotal role of youth-centred funding initiatives in effecting tangible change.

• Global Mental Health Advocacy for National Impact: This session delved into the power of advocacy in driving national-level transformations in mental health policies, programs, and resources.

• Taking Action to Prevent Suicides: This session will explore evidence-based strategies and interventions aimed at preventing suicides as well as suicide discriminalisation.

Join us virtually for any or all of these sessions, by registering through this link. The programme runs from 09.00 SAST to 17.00 SAST on June 28 and 29. The full programme can be found here All sessions will be recorded and made available after the meeting, including those on topics such as mental health and the environment, stigma and discrimination, and financing for mental health.

“If I had to pinpoint one key takeaway from yesterday [Day 1], it would be that we need to emphasize mental health education at all stages of life, from childhood to old age. Improving this, and providing more access to age-appropriate mental health education campaigns and materials will help us all by reducing stigma and increasing empathy.” – Stephanie Whiteman, Youth Advocate, Healthy Caribbean Coalition.

“To advance mental health around the world we need to work together among all of us involved, whether we are people with lived experience, caregivers, service providers, civil society or governmental organizations or funders. One key way to do is to come together and listen and learn from another. GMHAN innovatively unite us on action on mental health for people in diverse communities globally.” Mark van Ommeren, Mental Health Unit head, WHO

It is very exciting to be with so many passionate people from all regions of the world exchanging information and experience- all towards promoting mental health. Such interactions are vital to make progress. This is where global meets national and local! Shekhar Saxena, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health

The GMHAN invites mental health civil society, advocates, professionals, policymakers, researchers, and interested individuals to register and participate in this event. Together, we can collectively address the pressing challenges facing mental health and champion a more inclusive, resilient, and equitable future for all.

About the GMHAN

The GMHAN is a global coalition of organisations and individuals dedicated to promoting mental health and well-being for all. The GMHAN is free-to-access and currently has close to 3,000 members from 230 countries. The network seeks to advance knowledge, collaboration, and advocacy to tackle the pressing challenges surrounding mental health and strives to build a world in which the human right to good physical and mental health is upheld. It has a number of working groups and an online community that members can join.

The GMHAN runs monthly webinars on mental health around the world, featuring different topics each month and speakers representing as many different continents as possible. Learn more about the webinar series here.

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