Public Mental Health Working Group • WPA

Working Group on
Public Mental Health

Public Mental Health

Objectives

The WPA’s Public Mental Health Working Group supported the WPA 2020-2023 Action Plan. Objectives included to:

Improve implementation of PMH interventions in different countries by:

- Raising awareness, value, acceptance and prioritisation of PMH in national health policies
- Supporting national assessments of PMH unmet need and required actions which then inform policy development and implementation
- PMH training including through digital platforms
- Integrated PMH approaches to disease management and prevention through engagement with primary and general health systems

Work with willing countries to facilitate the above with identified funding
Engage with other organizations on the PMH agenda including World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA)
Disseminate PMH relevant work including publications, presentations and training
Support a PMH approach in other areas of the 2020-23 Action Plan including child, adolescent and youth mental health, addressing co-morbidity, partnership with other organizations and capacity

Activities

Between 2020 and 2023, the Public Mental Health Workin Group carried out a variety of related activities, including:

Publications and reports
Providing several examples of public mental health training
Highlighting other WPA-supposed activities in public mental health

See other related activities

Members

Name

Post

Prof. John Allan

Immediate Past President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Executive Director of Mental Health Alcohol and other Drugs Branch in Queensland Health, Australia

Dr. Florence Kamayonza Baingana

WHO African Region Advisor, Mental Health and Substance

Dr Jonathan Campion (chair)

Director for Public Mental Health, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK;
Strategic and Clinical Codirector of Public Mental Health Implementation Centre, Royal College of Psychiatrists;
Public Mental Health Advisor, WHO Europe;
Cochair of Public Mental Health Working Group, World Federation of Public Health Associations;
Honorary Professor of Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Professor dr Geert Dom

Professor of Psychiatry, University of Antwerp, Belgium;
Medical Director PC Multiversum, Boechout, Belgium;
President, European Psychiatric Association;
Immediate-past President of European Federation of Addiction Societies (EUFAS)

Professor Chris Dowrick

Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool, UK;
General Practitioner, Aintree Park Group Practice, Liverpool, UK;
Professorial Research Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia;
Past Chair of World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) Working Party for Mental Health

Professor Yueqin Huang

Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology;
Director, Division of Social Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Institute of Mental Health, Peking University;
President, Chinese Mental Health Journal;
Vice President, China Disabled Persons' Federation;
Chair Commission of Health and Function, Rehabilitation International

Dr Afzal Javed

President, World Psychiatric Association;
Honorary Associate Clinical Professor, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK

Professor Vinay Lakra

President, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists;
Clinical Associate Professor, University of Melbourne;
Divisional Director, Mental Health, Northern Health, Australia

Sir Norman Lamb

Chair of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Professor Santiago Levin

President of the Association of Argentinean Psychiatrists;
Representative of Zone 5 at WPA

Professor Crick Lund

Professor of Global Mental Health and Development in the King's Global Health Institute, Health Services and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London;
Professor in the Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town

Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Professor of Epidemiology at University College London;
Director of the Institute of Health Equity, UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health

Professor Shekhar Saxena

Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health at the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Professor Eliot Sorel

Clinical Professor of Global Health, Health Policy & Management and of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University

Professor Thomas Schulze

Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics, Ludwig-Maximilans-University of Munich

Dr Hanna Tu

Psychiatry Trainee at Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium

Professor Pichet Udomratn

Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Prince of Songkla University in southern Thailand;
Vice President of World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation;
Zonal Representative of WPA for Zone 16

Dr Mark van Ommeren

Public Mental Health Adviser at WHO