Health Programs

The Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy

Annual Event Examines Current Mental Health Issues

View 2007 Schedule — The Time is Now: Creating a Public Policy Action Agenda
on Preventing Mental Illnesses
 
Please Note: This event is not open to the public.

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter's desire to coordinate the efforts of national mental health leaders and organizations led her to initiate the annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy in 1985.

The symposia, held every November, have examined such issues as mental illness and the elderly, child and adolescent illness, family coping, financing mental health services and research, treating mental illness in the primary care setting, and stigma and mental illness.

The Mental Health Program hosts two meetings each year designed to tackle specific mental health issues of public policy:  The Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy and the Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum, established in 1995, held each May for state mental health organizations. 
 
These meetings bring mental health professionals together for open discussions on mental health to affect change. The meetings include representatives from all sectors of the industry — policymakers, health care providers, and consumers.

Read the Report on the Twenty-second Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy: Mental Health in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina (PDF)