Conference Sub Themes

Exploring the strategic shift from centralized, specialist-driven models toward decentralized, community-anchored systems where mental health is embedded into routine healthcare and everyday community life.

Examining how rapid advances in digital technology and scalable service delivery models are transforming access to mental health care — particularly in low-resource and underserved settings across Africa.

Exploring how mental health can be financed, sustained, and economically justified within broader health and development agendas — transforming mental health from a cost center into a high-impact investment.

Examining how mental health is understood, experienced, and addressed within diverse African settings — challenging universalized models in favor of culturally grounded, gender-responsive, and socially informed approaches.

Building, training, supervising, and sustaining a diverse mental health workforce capable of delivering safe, effective, and culturally responsive care at scale — from specialists to community-based lay providers.

Bridging the gap between evidence and impact — strengthening the science and practice of evidence generation, monitoring, evaluation, and implementation within community-based mental health systems.

Strengthening mental health systems that support young people through schools, families, and community structures — emphasizing early intervention, resilience-building, and creating environments where youth can thrive.

Exploring how arts, faith, and cultural systems can be intentionally integrated into mental health promotion and care — honoring indigenous knowledge, spiritual resources, and creative expression as legitimate pathways to healing.

Reframing social connection not merely as a desirable outcome but as a core mental health intervention — highlighting how relationships, belonging, and community cohesion prevent distress and support recovery.

Strengthening comprehensive, community-based suicide prevention and crisis response systems — shifting from reactive crisis management to proactive, preventive, and system-wide approaches that save lives.

Addressing substance use and addiction as part of a broader ecosystem involving mental health, social conditions, and structural vulnerabilities — emphasizing integrated, community-based prevention, treatment, and recovery.

Centering the relationship between trauma, violence, and human rights — calling for trauma-informed systems of care that respond to psychological distress while addressing the underlying conditions that perpetuate harm.

Examining the mental health and psychosocial impact of conflict and displacement — highlighting the need for integrated, scalable, and culturally responsive MHPSS systems that support resilience, reintegration, and rebuilding.

Bringing attention to the psychological impact of working in high-pressure, ethically complex, and under-resourced environments — emphasizing system-level solutions that promote healthier, more supportive workplaces.

Exploring how mindfulness and broader wellbeing approaches can be integrated into community, school, workplace, and health systems to promote resilience, emotional regulation, and mental balance before distress escalates.