Faculty Participate at Inaugural Conference on African Diaspora Mental Health Issues

Faculty, residents and fellows recently returned from a historic conference on mental health issues for people of African descent held in Cape Town, South Africa.

“The African Diaspora Global Mental Health Conference” held in November was attended by 54 prominent psychiatrists, mental health specialists and research fellows from the United States, Africa and the Diaspora. The conference was inspired by a 2002 meeting held at Massachusetts General Hospital, “The African Diaspora: Psychiatric Issues.” David Henderson, MD, now Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, was the main convener for the Cape Town conference, and Michelle Durham, MD, MPH, FAPA, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, was a key organizer.

“This was a unique opportunity to collaborate globally with innovators and thought leaders in mental health,” Durham said. “The goal of bringing researchers, educators, policy makers and clinicians together to build capacity in Africa, and the diaspora, around mental health has insurmountable potential.”

Professors of Psychiatry Christina Borba, PhD, and Lauren Ng, PhD, also attended the conference.

Attendees discussed solutions to the mental health problems faced by those in the African diaspora with the goal of developing the Africa Global Mental Health Institute (AGMHI). The institute would act through four key areas — policy, services, education, and research — to narrow and eventually close the mental health gap between Africa and the rest of the world.