Day 3 recap of the 2024 Mental Health America Conference

Day 3 Recap of the 2024 Mental Health America Conference Mental Health America wrapped up the third and final day of its annual conference with powerful programming that explored themes of novel approaches to substance use disorder, research informed by lived experience, student-led approaches to improving mental health on college campuses, and the vital role of spirituality in one’s well-being. It started with a keynote from Dr. Nzinga Harrison, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Eleanor Health.

Dr. Harrison, a psychiatrist, addiction medicine expert, author, speaker, and activist, emphasized a “culturopolitical” approach to mental health in addition to the traditional biopsychosocial model. Specifically, she discussed the importance of racism-informed care, which acknowledges the role that race-based trauma plays in an individual’s life.

Dr. Harrison noted that healing may involve uncomfortable conversations.

“The same way we want to point compassion to people who are seeking to start their journey to recover from addiction, we want to point compassion to people who are seeking to start their recovery from racism,” she said.

Following the morning keynote, three breakout sessions looked at cutting-edge approaches to youth mental health, substance use disorder treatment, and mental health research.

During a discussion titled, “Lift the Mask Club: A Student-Led Approach to Normalizing and Improving Mental Health on College Campuses,” three young mental health leaders, Emily A. Abbott, Ashley Panzino and Allie Rosenberg, discussed how mental health resources need to change along with young peoples’ brains when they leave high school for college. Sponsored by the Quell Foundation, the Lift the Mask Club initiative is a program created by college students for college students, helping them navigate difficult conversations and support each other.

In a session called, “Breaking Barriers: Treating Dual Diagnosis with Ketamine and Novel Treatment Approaches,” Dr. Abid Nazeer, founder and Chief Medical Officer at Hopemark Health, outlined the promise of ketamine in helping address both psychiatric symptoms as well as underlying substance use.

“When we talk about dual diagnosis, one principle matters most: Address both,” Dr. Nazeer said. “You tackle one only, and the outcomes go down. If you tackle both, you’ll have the best chance at success.”

The MHA research team held a session titled, “Your Voice Matters: Integrating Lived Experience in MHA Research,” that explored how lived experience is integrated into both research as well as development of new technologies, such as the digital peer bridger tool for substance use.

“With folks where I used to be, thinking what I was thinking: ‘There’s no way out,’” said Patricia Franklin, an MHA Board member and peer support specialist. “To tell someone my story, to see what I’ve come from and what I’ve been through, it could help somebody else and that’s what gets me excited.”

The final keynote featured a highly anticipated conversation with Dr. Lisa Miller, a New York Times best-selling author and professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Miller is also the founder and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School.

Dr. Miller shared highlights of her groundbreaking work, which has shown the protective effects of spirituality on the brain’s well-being.

“Depression and spiritual life are inextricably linked,” she said. “Despair is a gateway to awakening. Every one of us has this opportunity.”

“That is your birthright. No one can ever take that away from you,” she added.

Closing out the conference, MHA President and CEO Schroeder Stribling expressed gratitude to all who attended, including speakers, Board members and staff, for making it such a moving conference.

“At Mental Health America, we together envision a future where everybody has an equitable opportunity for whole-person health, healing, and flourishing,” Stribling said. “And that is what you are doing.”