Mental Health and Wellbeing: Investing in Mental Wealth
Today, new difficulties and challenges breed anxiety and uncertainty at the individual as well as the collective level. A solid and thorough understanding of the population’s mental health is pivotal for navigating these turbulent waters.
This conference serves this overarching purpose setting a platform at the intersection of public health and mental health domains. Mental health professionals and researchers in public health will convene and contribute to nurturing discussions and thought-provoking questions including: How do we transition from traditional views of mental disorders to a holistic perspective of mental health and wellbeing? How are social determinants and pathologies evolving and what roles do they play for mental health and community responses? In what ways do global crises impact public and mental health? How can we integrate traditional epidemiological methods with innovative approaches including biobanks and molecular fingerprints of happiness and wellbeing? How can we shift from repairing to preventing policies that promote human flourishing and overall wellbeing? Finally, can we reframe mental health services and shift focus from mental sickness to health? This conference delves deep into these pressing questions and provides a national contextualization through the official presentation of and discussion about the 2025 National Mental Health Report of the Swiss Health Observatory.
A constructive approach flavours the whole conference, with a balanced mix of evidence-based practices, best policies, and suitable infrastructures to address contemporary mental health challenges effectively. Throughout this conference, we encourage extensive dialogue, providing a space for questions, reflections, and collaborative insights. Our goal is to spark meaningful discussions, stimulate questions, and pave the way for impactful interventions in mental health.
Welcome to a conference that focuses on actionable strategies and shared learning for a mentally healthier world.
We would like to invite you to submit an abstract either for a 10-minute oral presentation at one of the parallel sessions, for a topical workshop or for a poster.
Forms of Presentation
- Oral presentations
The length of an oral presentation is limited to 10 minutes, followed by a 5-minute discussion. Four to five talks will be presented at each parallel session. - Workshops with topical focus
A workshop contains an introduction and may include 1-3 short content-related contributions. At least 20 minutes are to be allowed for the discussion. You may propose other formats such as a «World Café». - Poster
The selection of posters should reflect the great variety of public health topics in Switzerland. The posters will remain hanging throughout the conference and can be viewed during the breaks. We have two active poster flash sessions, on Wednesday 2 pm and Thursday 1 pm for 30 minutes each. Please be at your poster during these sessions. Participants will come to see your posters during that time, and you can interact with them. Two moderators/judges will come to see your poster and ask you for a 2 minutes pitch presentation and will moderate a 2 minutes discussion.
Guidelines for Submission of Abstracts
- The abstracts for poster, oral presentation or workshop may be submitted in German, French or English. The language of the abstract should reflect the language used for the presentation or the poster at the conference. The maximum length of the submitted text is 2,500 characters including spaces.
- Indicate to which topic your abstract fits best.
- In submitting an abstract, the author grants the organisers the right to publish the submission electronically or in printed form.
- A maximum of two abstracts per first author may be submitted.
- The organizing committee allocates the presentations (for talks or workshops).
- If the application for a workshop could not be considered, the applicant will be asked to hold an oral session. Respectively, if an application for an oral session could not be considered, the applicant will be asked to attend at a poster flash session.
- All presenters (including all speakers considered for a workshop) must register for the conference and pay the respective fees.
Application
Submission Deadline
The submission deadline for abstracts is 1 February 2025 (12pm CET).
Review and Selection
The conference organizing committee will review submitted abstracts. Where possible, qualifying abstracts will be assembled in thematic parallel sessions. For reasons of time and space, not all submissions may be considered.
The conference organizing committee will automatically assign an unaccepted workshop for a short input and an unaccepted short input for a poster.
The authors will be notified about acceptance and the presentation form by 31. May 2025.