Tomorrow I head down to Atlanta to attend the 28th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy at The Carter Center. This year’s meeting will bring together more than 200 mental health leaders, stakeholders, and providers to discuss moving beyond stigma and prejudice, and how we can take steps to build social inclusion of people living with mental illnesses.

While it’s a closed event, they do a live webcast of the event throughout the day, allowing anyone to gain from its presentations.

The stigma and prejudice surrounding mental diagnoses and mental health care remain a huge issue in the U.S. and throughout the world. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated to cost over $300 billion because of untreated mental illness.

The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program works tirelessly to try and reverse this trend.

Former U.S. First Lady and Carter Center Co-Founder Rosalynn Carter organizes the event each year to bring together many mental health policy leaders, stakeholders, and advocates. This is the 28th year for the meeting.

“Although we know much more about mental illnesses and how to treat them than ever before, stigma against these disorders remains,” said Mrs. Carter.

“One of the best ways to fight stigma and discrimination in the long run is to take action and develop public policies that provide communities with the foundations and tools to include and support people living with mental illnesses. We hope this year’s symposium will give many communities throughout the country the information they need to support all of their citizens and help improve life for everyone.”

We’ll be providing a summary of the meeting over the weekend.

Learn more about it and watch the live webcast here (starting Nov. 1, 1:00 pm ET): The Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy

Dr. John Grohol is the founder & CEO of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 31 Oct 2012
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.