(New Deadline: Jan 31st) CALL for ABSTRACTS: Together Against Stigma: Together with Diverse Communities (Conference, Iceland, June 3-5 2024)

REMINDER: Call for participation and abstracts

Together Against Stigma: Together with Diverse Communities

A World Psychiatric Association Co-Sponsored Meeting

June 3-5, 2024; Reykjavík at University of Iceland (with some online participation possible)

https://wpatas2024.net/program/plenary-speakers/

Abstracts due January 31, 2024 (extended)

Registration is open for in-person and the early registration discount is available through March 15!

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Stigma Section, along with the University of IcelandIndiana University Irsay Institute, and Bring Change to Mind is accepting abstracts for the 2024 WPA Co-sponsored Meeting Together Against Stigma: Together with Diverse Communities, bringing together a diverse cohort of researchers, advocates, individuals with lived experience, and policymakers. Our mission is to foster an exchange of groundbreaking scientific, policy, programmatic, and experiential insights into the multifaceted nature of stigma and the forefront of stigma reduction initiatives.

With a focus on both global and lived experiences, the 2024 WPA meeting, Together with Diverse Communities, seeks to expand and rethink scientific, consumer, and policy efforts. We seek papers, posters, and conversations that:

  • Mark where we are in stigma locally, nationally, and internationally
  • Provide data and lived experience reports on the intersection and layering of stigma across identities
  • Describe, evaluate, and propose new directions to end stigma.

We invite short abstracts of two types for contributed works. In both, there could be a mix of perspectives (e.g., research, practice, and lived experience).

  1. Presentation of results of scientific research on any aspect and level of stigma and discussion of new areas of scientific promise, including prevalence and the roots of stigma and stigma effect on individuals, service use or systems, and change. Please describe the objective, the stigma target (e.g., type of stigma including structural/policy-based, cross-sectional/longitudinal, population/institution, location of the research), the data and methods used, and a preliminary description of findings.
  2. Presentation of novel anti-stigma efforts (including policy change), particularly those with an evidence-base on effect and potential for dissemination in other settings. Please describe the stigma reduction targets, the basic principles and approaches, an indication of the status of the efforts (e.g., proposed, launched, or regularly deployed), and the evidence that supports its efficacy.

For all abstracts, names, affiliations and contact information for authors/collaborators must be provided. This meeting is designed to be primarily in-person. There will be organized virtual sessions held before the conference for virtual presentations and some parallel sessions will be livestreamed for virtual participants to watch during the live conference. You will be asked during the abstract whether you plan to attend in person or virtually. Registration will be required for both formats.

The abstract submission system is open now at https://wpatas2024.net  and will close on January 31. Decisions will be issued by Feb 23. Registration fees are listed on the conference website (https://wpatas2024.net) and registration for the in-person conference is now open. Virtual-only registration will open in February. 

Confirmed Plenary Speakers (more to be added)

  • Chris Groot, PhD, Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne, School of Psychological Sciences and Co-founder, Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia Network (MISRA)
  • Bernice A. Pescosolido, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Indiana University; Founding Director, Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research; Founding Director, Irsay Institute for the Sociomedical Sciences
  • Nicolas Rüsch, MD, MSt; Professor for Public Mental Health and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Department of Psychiatry II, Ulm University and BKH Günzburg.
  • Professor Norman Sartorius, MD, PhD, FRCPsych; President, Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes (AMH)
  • Heather Stuart, PhD, FRSC, C.M.; Professor and Bell Canada Mental Health and Anti-stigma Research Chair, Queen’s University, Public Health Sciences
  • Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft, MSc, MD,  Professor of Community Psychiatry, King’s College London