Conference to address mental health in public life

Whether improving schools, fighting homelessness, managing youths involved in the justice system, or shaping workforce policy, mental health plays a part.  Concerns about the needs of individuals dealing with mental illness have been merely amended to policies intended for the broader society.  Mental health needs are integral to the systems that public policy seeks to affect.  Strategies for dealing with those needs must be integral as well.  Making them so will benefit everyone with improved outcomes, stronger organizations and better schools, justice systems, housing and communities. 

  • Conference purpose

    The conference recognizes the new responsibilities for mainstream public institutions to deal with the issues of mental health, and the need for a new research agenda to support them. We will bring together funders of mainstream research, powerful end-users of that research, consumers and family members, and thought-leaders. We also will be celebrating the contributions of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a supporter of the field of mental health research over the past 30 years.

  • Conference format

    The conference agenda will consist of seven "conversations" similar to roundtable discussions. Each moderated session will include funders of mainstream research, end-users, family members/consumers, and thought-leaders as discussants.

  • Director and Coordinator

    Director: Howard H. Goldman, MD, PhD
    Coordinator: Lynn Daidone Boyter