The Rosalynn Carter Symposium
on Mental Health Policy

Beyond Stigma: Advancing the Social Inclusion of People with Mental Illness
Nov. 1-2, 2012

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Former U.S. First Lady and Carter Center Co-Founder Rosalynn Carter brought together more than 200 mental health leaders, stakeholders, and providers to discuss steps communities can take to build social inclusion of people living with mental illnesses during the 28th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy on Nov.1-2, 2012, at The Carter Center, in Atlanta, Ga. Read the detailed description >

History of the Symposium
In 1985, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter initiated the annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy to bring together national leaders in mental health to focus and coordinate their efforts on an issue of common concern.

The symposia have been a unique opportunity each year for this leadership to hear remarks from a variety of individuals with expertise on a selected topic; discuss diverse viewpoints in an open forum; identify areas of consensus and potential collaborations as well as points of divergence; and to recommend action steps for symposium participants to move an agenda forward.

Held each November, the symposia 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.

In addition to the symposium, the Mental Health Program hosts another annual meeting to tackle pressing issues in mental health policy, the Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum, held each May since 1995 for state mental health organizations.