03/08/2009 - Submitted by: Tilia Bousios

The 2009 Congress theme, "Working Together for Mental Health", reflects WFMH’s call to action to "Make Mental Health a Global Priority" and recognizes the crucial role of informed, concerted, and coordinated advocacy across the entire mental health movement – consumers and service users, family members and carers, professionals, citizen advocates, and the informed public – if mental health and mental illnesses are to gain the attention and priority needed. The 2009 World Congress will provide numerous opportunities for participants to gain new information and skills, to strengthen current networks and build new ones, to share their own knowledge and experiences and to become actively engaged in the global mental health movement.

Highlights of the Congress Program include a Congress Forum to review the impact of The Lancet Series on Global Mental Health, the biennial WFMH Margaret Mead, George Albee, and Mary Hemingway-Rees memorial lectures and the first WFMH Mental Health Consumers Lecture, a host of special issue symposia, and a special plenary session to introduce the 2009 World Mental Health Day global awareness campaign.