Call for Abstracts for 42nd Annual Meeting

Abstract submission deadline: December 11, 2020

COLLABORATING FOR EQUITY AND JUSTICE

Bridging Divides and Healing Wounds

The 2021 Annual Meeting will extend the 2020 theme of Collaboration to include a specific orientation towards equity, diversity, and social justice in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and enduring structural inequities that have been laid bare by the pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic and racial violence have highlighted inequities in our society and led to a reckoning within Cultural Psychiatry and Psychology and Global Mental Health about structural barriers to equity within our institutions and how our work may perpetuate or alleviate them in society. Cultural Psychiatry has been criticized by some for overemphasizing cultural forces as an explanatory framework for inequities and not prioritizing advocacy. How can we collaborate with our clients and colleagues and act as allies or advocates? How can our knowledge and skills be employed to help promote understanding and bridge divisiveness to work together towards a more equitable and inclusive society?

Cultural Psychiatrists and Psychologists and Global Mental Health practitioners are increasingly working in collaborative spaces. Some of these collaborations feel familiar, such as with scholars in other disciplines. Other collaborations might feel new or unfamiliar, such as with lay counselors, peer specialists, religious leaders and healers, as well as with policy-makers and institutional administrators. The 2020 Annual Meeting began to grapple with the challenges of such complex collaborations, and we will continue to develop this theme further with our 2021 meeting.

Collaboration can mean many things. An obvious meaning is partnership: to what extent do our academic, educational, and community-based collaborations reflect true partnerships? What are the challenges that arise in collaborating across levels of expertise, such as expertise in psychiatry, local expertise, or expertise in lived experience? Should partnerships be sought for every aspect and kind of mental health-related research, or are they more applicable to some than others? How are power differentials managed in partnerships between researchers from high-income countries and those from low-and-middle-income countries? What are successful models for navigating such partnerships?

Additionally, we aim to translate our work not only to other experts in the field but to policy-makers, patients, their family members, and the broader public. How do we ensure that our research is applicable, and how do we effectively convince others of this? Finally, how can we successfully integrate across disciplines and epistemologies in our scholarship and practice? How can we conceptualize categories such as cultural competence and structural competence as complementary and integrative approaches to achieve healthcare equity? How can we integrate across care providers, including not only psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and peer specialists, but also religious leaders, traditional healers, or other care providers?

Examples of topics and domains related to the conference theme include the following:

Reflexivity in Collaboration and Advocacy

To address the pandemic and racial violence highlighting long-standing issues, we want to promote reflective dialogues in collaboration and advocacy. Why haven’t we been more collaborative? What change occurs when we do collaborate? What are the different types and forms of advocacy, from individual to systemic? What are the cultural assumptions, barriers, and mitigating strategies regarding collaboration and various forms of advocacy?

What are the implications of the pandemic for mental health and mental healthcare?

How can Cultural Psychiatrists and Psychologists and Global Mental Health practitioners contribute to characterizing, explaining, and intervening to improve mental health? In what ways has mental healthcare become more accessible and how can we ensure that these positive effects extend into the future?

Inter-disciplinary collaboration

This is perhaps the most familiar type of collaboration, but it is vulnerable to the vicissitudes of institutions, funding mechanisms, and individual goals. How can we effectively partner across disciplines, and what are the primary challenges? How do we pursue a common language and value system in our work?

Partnerships among care providers

How can we integrate across care providers, including not only psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and peer specialists, but also religious leaders, traditional healers, or other care providers? What are the challenges that arise in collaborating across levels of expertise, such as expertise in psychiatry, local expertise, or expertise in lived experience?

Integrating epistemologies

How can we successfully integrate across disciplines and epistemologies in our scholarship and practice? How can we conceptualize categories such as cultural competence and structural competence as complementary and integrative approaches to achieve healthcare equity?

Translating to policy-makers and the general public

How do we ensure that our research is applicable and translatable to policy-makers, patients, family members, and the general public? How do we effectively convince others of its value? What can the growing field of dissemination and implementation science contribute to these goals?

Partnerships between Global North and South

How are power differentials managed in partnerships between researchers from high-income countries and those from low-and-middle-income countries? What are successful models for navigating such partnerships?

Family

Family has become an increasingly important focus at recent SSPC meetings. How can cultural psychiatrists and psychologists effectively partner with family members as caregivers and decision-makers? How can global mental health increasingly incorporate families into interventions?

Conference Learning Objectives

After attending this meeting, participants will be able to:

Describe 3 challenges in mental health and mental healthcare that have emerged as a result of Covid-19 and/or systemic inequities

Describe 3 challenges in culture and mental health that arise in collaborating across disciplines, settings, or across power differentials to promote equity, diversity, and social justice.

Provide 3 examples of successful integration of multiple epistemologies, forms of care, or types of expertise in designing research, training programs, care services and programs, and social and health policies for diverse communities

Apply lessons learned to design and implement equitable partnerships in cultural psychiatry, global mental health, and advocacy

Abstract Submission Categories

Abstracts can be submitted for Workshops, Symposia, Individual Papers or Posters, Works in Progress, and Trainee Fellowship Papers.

Workshops that allow for participants to gain skills in issues related to Collaboration or cultural psychiatry writ large are strongly encouraged and will be given priority. Submissions based on qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods primary data and clinical encounters will be given preference over position pieces. Participants are encouraged to submit abstracts early. SSPC will provide technical assistance for abstract submissions up to 48 hours before the deadline.

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Workshops are approximately 1.5 hours long. They should have one organizer and up to four co-facilitators. Workshops are different from symposia in that they are more interactive and are required to have hands-on activities for participants. In addition to an abstract, workshop submissions must include a timeline of activities. Workshop themes should address specific skills, debates, or concepts, either related to the theme of Collaboration for Equity and Justice or broadly applicable to Cultural Psychiatry and Global Mental Health. Examples include how to work with youth to develop engagement strategies that encourage diverse youth with first-episode psychosis to participate in care or how to collaborate with LMIC partners in GMH research.

Symposia are approximately 1.5 hours long. A maximum of three original papers may be included, with a recommended presentation time of 20 minutes each. The organizer or moderator may provide introductory remarks on the topic. A discussant may be included if desired. Be sure to allot a minimum of 25 minutes for open discussion (per CME guidelines).

Abstracts may be submitted by individuals indicating preference for paper or poster presentations. Individual papers will be grouped into Paper Sessions by the conference organizers.

This category allows individuals or teams the opportunity to receive feedback during the early stages of developing a project, curriculum, therapy approach, clinical service, future SSPC presentation, etc. Abstracts can present preliminary concepts or findings and should include specific topics or questions for discussion. Work in Progress sessions will be 1.5 hours long and include 2 presentations, lasting 15 minutes, with substantial time dedicated to discussion for each presentation.

Social science (masters or PhD students) or medical (medical student or resident) trainees may submit papers for consideration for a fellowship presentation. Up to two fellowships are given each year. SSPC Fellows have registration costs waived and receive a $500 honorarium to offset travel costs. We encourage trainees to submit abstracts for the general abstract submission deadline even if they plan to submit a paper for consideration for a fellowship. That way their submissions can be considered for inclusion in the conference if they are not awarded a fellowship.

The deadline for ALL submission types is December 11, 2020

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All submissions undergo a multiple-reviewer selection and scoring process. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by early 2021. After notification of acceptance, all presenters (including workshop co-facilitators and discussants) will be required to pay the conference registration fee by February 1st for their submission to be included in the annual meeting program.

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Need Help?

For additional information, please visit the Annual Meeting page

If you have any questions, please contact Bonnie Kaiser, Chair of the Program Committee

Annual Meeting page Contact Bonnie