[Symposium 109] Current Priorities and Future Visions of Cultural Psychiatry

[SY-109] Current Priorities and Future Visions of Cultural Psychiatry

Roberto Lewis-Fernandez¹, Vincenzo Di Nicola², Mario Braakman³, Laurence J Kirmayer⁴, Chee Ng⁵ (1.Columbia/NYS Psychiatric Institute(United States of America), 2.Université de Montréal(Canada), 3.Tilburg University(Netherlands), 4.McGill University(Canada), 5.Melbourne Medical School (Australia))

Keywords:

cultural psychiatry,current status,future directions

This symposium will explore current priorities in cultural psychiatry and visions for the future of the discipline. Current priorities include: clarifying the limits of reductive universalism in understanding the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of mental health, relational and social suffering, and processes of coping, adaptation, and recovery; identifying cultural variations in the phenomenology of psychopathology around the world to inform research and diagnostic nosology; exploring the diversity of healing practices and the organization of culturally responsive mental health services in various societies; training mental health practitioners in contextual thinking to facilitate sociocultural formulation and intervention in mental health and social services, population health, and clinical care; critical reflection on the biases and blind spots of the discipline of cultural psychiatry itself and its role in advancing health equity and social justice on local and global scales. The presenters will elaborate on these and other emerging priorities and suggest avenues for future development.