FYI - pls note: I'm not affiliated with the Adler School, but thought 
this conference (and the speakers) will be presenting an very important 
set of topics and public policy / praxis discussions.  -- Alice 
Furumoto-Dawson


*CALL FOR PAPERS*

*The Social Determinants of Mental Health: From Awareness to Action*

*Hosted by the Institute on Social Exclusion
At the Adler School of Professional Psychology
Chicago, IL  USA*

*June 3^rd and 4^th , 2010*

*The Drake Hotel, Chicago*

This conference will be the first in the United States to convene 
innovative thinkers from diverse disciplinary and professional 
backgrounds to address the *Social Determinants of Mental Health 
(SDOMH)*.  **

*Featuring*

*Keynote Speaker: David Satcher, MD, PhD* –The 16^th Surgeon General of 
the United States, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention, and former member of the World Health Organization 
Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. Currently, Dr. Satcher 
is the Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Center at the Morehouse 
School of Medicine. 

*Plenary Speaker: Sandro Galea, **MD, MPH, DrPH – *Professor of 
Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Research Professor at the 
Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Today, there is a growing understanding that the social conditions in 
which “… we are born, grow, live, work and age…” (WHO 2007) profoundly 
impact health and well-being. Increasingly, that knowledge is being used 
to inform discourse on the prevention and treatment of such physical 
illnesses as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, cancer, obesity, 
diabetes, and HIV/AIDS. It is also being used to shape policy and 
programmatic responses to these illnesses. However, the social 
determinants frame has not been as widely or explicitly used to shape 
mental health debate, policy, and programming.

The purpose of the Conference is:

·         To increase awareness about how social conditions impact 
mental health;

·         To develop and disseminate mental health prevention and 
intervention strategies that are informed by the social determinants 
framework;

·         To create multidisciplinary collaborations to identify and 
address the multifaceted social conditions that impact mental health; and

·         To develop new knowledge and practice innovations.

 
We invite papers that create new knowledge and/or practice innovations 
by doing _one or more of the following_:

·         applying the social determinants frame to mental health;

·         bridging disciplinary and professional perspectives on the 
social determinants of mental health;

·         illustrating the mechanisms and pathways by which social 
context impacts mental health;

·         illustrating the relationships between “macro” (e.g., national 
and international economic, climatic, political, demographic, and social 
forces), “meso” (e.g., family, neighborhood, and community 
characteristics) and “micro” (e.g., individual attributes) variables and 
mental health; and/or

·         proposing new or describing existing policy and programmatic 
mental health interventions that are based on the social determinants 
frame.

 
Topics might include the impact on mental health of:

·         national and international forces (e.g., globalization, 
urbanization, industrialization, privatization, climate change, migration);

·         legislation and public policy (e. g., labor, immigration, 
environmental, housing, trade, land use, fiscal, monetary, education, 
social welfare, criminal justice);* *

·         institutional behaviors (e.g., the media, private 
corporations, government agencies);

·         social, political, and economic ideologies (e.g., liberalism 
vs. conservatism; private markets vs. government intervention; personal 
vs. social responsibility; individualism vs. communitarianism);

·         macro-social phenomena (e.g., natalism, racism, sexism, 
homophobia, ageism, and ablism; as well as stratification, cohesion, and 
exclusion)

* *

Papers are invited from not only from mental health professionals, but 
given the multidimensionality of the social determinants, submissions 
are also invited from professionals in other fields such as law, public 
safety, architecture, planning, housing, transportation, environmental 
sciences, social work, and human rights; and other disciplines such as 
economics, sociology, political science, demography, criminology, and 
anthropology. We seek submissions from authors representing the public, 
private, and not-for-profit sectors, as well as those representing 
local, national, and international bodies. *_Papers submitted by 
cross-disciplinary, cross-professional, cross-sectoral teams of authors 
are especially welcomed._*

 

Submission Requirements: The working language of the conference is 
English. Please submit a 300 word abstract to [log in to unmask] by December 
31st, 2009. In the subject line, please “SDOMH Abstract Submission”.  In 
the abstract, be certain to:

(1)  Describe how the submission is relevant to the conference theme;

(2)  Describe how the submission builds new knowledge and/or practice 
innovations by doing at least one of the following:

·         applies the social determinants frame to mental health;
·         bridges disciplinary, professional, and sectoral perspectives 
on the social determinants of mental health;
·         illustrates the mechanisms and the pathways by which the 
social context impacts mental health and well-being;
·         illustrates the relationships between “macro” (e.g., national 
and international economic, climatic, political, demographic, and social 
forces), “meso” (e.g., family, neighborhood, and community 
characteristics) and “micro” (e.g., individual attributes) variables and 
mental health; and/or
·         proposes new or describes existing policy and programmatic 
mental health interventions that are based the on social determinants frame.

(3)  Note the contact information and professional/disciplinary 
background of the author(s).

 Authors accepted for presentation will be notified by January 31st. 
Accepted abstracts will be published in the Conference proceedings. For 
more information, please contact [log in to unmask]

 -- PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY --

Adler Institute on Social Exclusion
Adler School of Professional Psychology
65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 2100
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-201-5900 x311
http://www.adler.edu/about/ISE.asp

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