COVID Cluster Public Health Kick-off Event:
Building Mental Health Resilience during times of COVID-19
Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, municipalities have faced a multitude of challenges. Following prolonged lockdowns, travel restrictions, financial losses, and job cuts, mental health problems have been on the rise.
Municipalities have been key players in fighting the spread of the virus and in managing the overall situation. As a result of these complex responsibilities, mental health issues, including burn out, have been observed among municipal employees, social workers, teachers, and civil society activists. Citizens have also been psychologically affected by the pandemic and need support. In a recent high-level WHO summit, mental health issues were recognized as a high-level priority for the post-COVID social and economic recovery agenda.
We are pleased to invite municipal actors to the virtual kick-off event “Building Mental Health Resilience during times of COVID-19” on September 29, 2021, from 15:30 to 17:30 CEST (Berlin Time).
During the event, the following questions will be discussed:
- What are municipal challenges in the field of mental health, and why is the topic relevant?
- What are the recommended actions to promote mental health in the municipalities, also taking into account limited financial resources?
- What can municipalities do to mitigate the mental health impacts of the pandemic?
- How can different target groups be reached, including those for whom mental health is considered taboo?
During the event, you will gain insights into these topics from municipal practitioners and experts and discuss possible solutions to these challenges.
Speakers:
- Mr. Stefan Wagler (Psychologist, Psychotherapist i.t., board of directors of Association of Contextual Behavioural Science German Chapter, trainer for community mental health approaches and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy [ACT]) will provide an introduction into the topic community based approaches for mental health and how social resources can be used for supporting mental health.
Ms. Myriam Brunner (department head) from the Municipality (Landkreis) of Karlsruhe in Germany will focus on how to assure mental health services for refugees during COVID-19 and beyond - resources and challenges in municipal practice -- Dr. Aisha-Nusrat Ahmad, teaching at the Frankfurt University of Applied Science and formerly at the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin as well as extensive project experience in fragile contexts such as Afghanistan and Iraq, will present strategies and ways how to deal with mental health issues.
After the kick-off event, follow-up workshops will be held to explore selected topics in greater depth.
Municipality representatives, health, mental health practitioners and social workers are highly encouraged to participate. Interested actors from the private sector, civil society and academia are also welcome to participate.
In order to learn more about your experiences and wishes for the workshop, we kindly ask you to fill out a short questionnaire (5-7 min):
Survey Mental Health | Connective Cities Network (connective-cities.net) (also available in Arabic, German & Spanish).
The results will be presented anonymously during the event.
We are looking forward to your participation!
Your Connective Cities Team
