2014 Meeting for Minds Forum - Australia
At the core of the Meeting for Minds concept is the conviction that a significant resource in mental health treatment and research is being ignored: the knowledge and experience of those living with mental illness and the people who care for them.
Our desire is to produce specific recommendations and projects that can attract substantial new investments, partnerships or capacity to the mental health field.
Maria Halphen, along with Susie Hincks, Keith Wilson and Scientific Advisor Professor Ian Hickie believed the most effective way to launch the process would be to bring together some of the key players in mental health.
This would open up a new kind of discussion where their collective knowledge would be shared for translational understanding.
The Meeting for Minds 2014 Forum was a structured conversation between invited representatives of the three concerned groups. The Forum was held on the harbourside of the West Australian port city of Fremantle on May 14-15, 2014.
Facilitated by Dr Norman Swan, five key propositions were put forward:
Proposition 1
The link between mental disorders and brain models relies on fitting neuroscience explanations to the adolescent/youth onset of major disorders.
Proposition 2
That life expectancy of those with mental illness can be increased by 10 years in the next decade.
Proposition 3
New therapies are out there but we haven’t shifted to thinking about them
(hormonal, neuropeptide, cellular and immunotherapies).
Proposition 4
Targeted prevention and early intervention approaches are ready for prime time?
Proposition 5
Machines will do what other therapies have failed to do.
Fuelled by the continuation of the conversation started in 2014, it was decided to make the Meeting for Minds Forum a biennial event.
To view the list of Forum Panelists, click here.
