Mental Health America held the second day of main events at its 2024 Mental Health America Conference on Friday, beginning with music and conversation with the Me2/ Orchestra, the world’s only classical music organization created for individuals with mental illnesses and the people who support them. The presentation was sponsored by Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.
Following the performance and panel discussion, four of Mental Health America’s young mental health leaders Makaila Davis, Anastasia Erley, Jonathan Jean Charles, and Kaisar Perry took the main stage, along with Vice President of Youth and Peer Advocacy, Kelly Davis. The group discussed what is lacking in current approaches to mental health and the importance of intergenerational collaboration that provides bidirectional mentorship and authentic relationships.
“To me, intergenerational collaboration means combining the wisdom of older generations with the fresh ideas of younger ones to create more sustainable solutions in the mental health space,” said Makaila Davis.
Jonathan Jean Charles encouraged attendees to “leverage the past, to inform the present, to make a brighter future.”
At the conclusion of the panel, MHA’s mPower Award, which celebrates the life and work of a teen or young adult who has spoken out about mental health issues to educate peers and fight stigma, was presented to Ernesto Isaac Lara.
In his acceptance, he emphasized the importance of representation and how meaningful it is to receive the award as a young, queer, grandchild of immigrants. He reminded attendees that his expertise is not dependent on his accolades or the institution he’s affiliated with, but on his own personal journey.
“I am not an expert because of the institutions I work for, I am an expert because of my lived experience, and I’m gonna always stand on that,” Lara said.
The mid-morning featured breakout sessions across the various conference themes of youth and young adult mental health; policy and advocacy; and community responses to disaster and humanitarian crises. One standout session was presented by 12-year-old Anisha Marrapu, Founder of BhavnaFoundation. Marrapu discussed her work using a machine learning model and resting-state EEG data to detect and treat psychiatric disorders early.
“It is tremendous to learn that Anisha is twelve years old and is already working to help her peers in addressing their mental health,” said MHA’s Chief Social Impact Officer Dr. America Paredes, “Her efforts in developing diagnostic tools like the EEG to respond to early intervention and identification needs is remarkable and commendable. She is leading the way and reminds us to be hopeful for the future.”
In the afternoon, actor Teddy Sears presented the 2024 MHA Media Awards. Winners included: Hawaii News Now: Hope for Hawaii Island, “I Need to Ask You Something,” “In Her Shoes,” The Awakenings Review, and MindSite News.
The afternoon breakout sessions that followed featured topics like cannabis and psychosis, peer respite care, and supporting the mental health of marginalized LGBTQ+ youth.
“When working with LGBTQ youth, replace judgment with wonder and meet people where they are,” said Phii Regis of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation during his presentation.
Attendees gathered back at the main stage in the evening for a keynote address from Dr. Brian Anderson, CEO of Coalition for Health AI. Anderson addressed measuring reliability in AI, emphasizing the need for consensus on definitions and standards, including fairness, transparency, and robustness. He discussed the mental health field as a unique space for AI, with potential benefits in providing non-judgmental support and assisting people with patient advocacy.
“I think certainly within the next two years, we’re all going to have something on our phone that is AI-driven and potentially has the ability to ingest our health data if we wanted to,” Anderson said, “If the tools are trained appropriately right, and they’re innate, able to align themselves to the kinds of values and priorities that you as an individual have, right, and it knows your health data, there’s a real interesting space where each of us can have an advocate that never tires, that is always looking out for us, that perhaps is advocating for what we need or what we want, or helping us to advocate for what we need and what we want with our clinicians, particularly in the mental health space.”
Following the keynote, three awards were presented. The Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award, which recognizes those who advance the intersectionality of mental health as it relates to discrimination, poverty, stigma, racism, and overall social and economic determinants of health, was given to the Montgomery County Public Schools International Admissions & Enrollment Office’s EML Therapeutic Counseling Team for the services they provide to emergent multilingual learners.
The Joseph de Raismes III Policy Award, which honors an individual who – like de Raismes – makes outstanding contributions to furthering mental health policy, was presented to Barbara Johnston for her impactful advocacy work in mental health, deinstitutionalization, addiction, and crisis management.
The George Goodman Brudney and Ruth P. Brudney Social Work Award, which recognizes significant contributions made to the care and treatment of people with mental illness by practicing professionals in social work, was presented to Dr. Joey Pagano for his profound empathy, compassion, and unwavering commitment to harm reduction.
“I just believe in principles like self determination and…principles like meeting someone where they’re at and just loving someone until they’re ready to make that change and get the help they need,” said Pagano in his acceptance speech.
The 2024 Mental Health America Conference continues through Saturday, Sept. 21.
