Conference Themes
Strengthening Community-Based Mental Health Systems: Innovation, Equity, and Resilience. Three major themes consolidate our thirty areas of focus while communicating an African-centred, systems-focused vision for global mental health.
Strengthening Equitable and Community-Based Mental Health Systems in Africa
What if mental health care started in the community, not the hospital?
This theme focuses on transforming mental health care from centralised, specialist-driven systems toward accessible, community-based, and people-centred approaches grounded in African realities. It highlights the need to close the mental health treatment gap by integrating care into primary health care, schools, workplaces, humanitarian systems, and community structures.
African communities already possess strong social and communal systems that can be leveraged to strengthen mental health access, prevention, and recovery.
- 01Integration into primary health care and community systems
- 02Workforce development, supervision & task-sharing
- 03Mental health financing & sustainability
- 04Youth & school mental health systems
- 05Humanitarian mental health & psychosocial support
- 06Substance use & community rehabilitation
- 07Suicide prevention & crisis response
- 08Occupational & workplace mental health
- 09Monitoring, evaluation & implementation science
- 10UHC & mental health policy
Innovation, Technology, and African-Led Solutions for Mental Health
What if the next breakthrough in mental health came from Africa?
This theme explores emerging innovations reshaping mental health care across Africa and other low-resource settings. It emphasises African-led innovation, contextually grounded research, digital mental health, artificial intelligence, implementation science, and scalable models capable of reaching populations traditionally excluded from care.
Africa is positioned not merely as a recipient of global mental health ideas, but as a generator of innovative, culturally relevant and scalable solutions for the world.
- 01Digital mental health & AI-driven approaches
- 02Tele-mental health & remote supervision
- 03Data systems, monitoring & real-time analytics
- 04Implementation science & systems research
- 05Community-based innovations & scalable interventions
- 06Digital storytelling & communication
- 07Peer-led & youth-driven interventions
- 08Innovations in training & supervision
- 09Measurement tools & culturally grounded evidence
- 10Ethical & human-centred technology
Culture, Resilience, and Social Healing in African Mental Health
What can we learn from how communities heal together?
This theme centres the social, cultural, spiritual, and relational foundations of mental health in African communities. It explores how communities respond to trauma, adversity, violence, displacement and social change while building resilience, belonging and hope.
It uplifts African philosophies of collective wellbeing, interconnectedness, cultural identity and shared healing as central pillars of mental health systems.
- 01Arts, storytelling & mental health promotion
- 02Faith, spirituality & traditional healing
- 03Social connection, belonging & cohesion
- 04Trauma, violence & human rights
- 05Gender, culture & social determinants
- 06Community resilience & collective healing
- 07Conflict, displacement & recovery
- 08Mindfulness, wellbeing & prevention
- 09Masculinity, identity & emotional wellbeing
- 10Stigma reduction & culturally responsive care
Cross-cutting priorities
These principles apply across all conference themes and guide every submission, panel and discussion.
- Equity and inclusion
- Community ownership and participation
- Ethics and safeguarding
- African-led and locally grounded solutions
- Scalability and sustainability
- Interdisciplinary collaboration
- Human rights and dignity
- Evidence-informed practice and policy translation
- Youth and lived experience engagement
- Cultural responsiveness and contextual adaptation
From the margins to the centre of global mental health
The conference seeks to reposition Africa from the margins to the centre of global mental health conversations.
- 1Elevating African scholarship, practice, and lived experience.
- 2Strengthening community-based systems of care.
- 3Promoting innovation grounded in local realities.
- 4Advancing culturally meaningful, scalable, and sustainable mental health solutions for Africa and the world.
Ready to contribute?
Submit your abstract under any major theme and help move Africa from the margins to the centre of global mental health.