Other Public Forums and Dialogues
Below is a list of past public meetings that have enabled NIMH to share research and program advances as well as gather input and foster dialogue on future research directions with NIMH stakeholders.
For more information on any of these meetings, please contact Alison Bennett at ab43b@nih.gov.
Past Meetings
Dialogue Four Corners: Mental Health—April 24, 2003
NIMH, in collaboration with the University of New Mexico, hosted a regional public outreach meeting on April 24, 2003, focused on the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. Over 350 stakeholders—including consumers and their families, health care providers, policy makers, advocates, and researchers—gathered to discuss the impact of mental illness on American Indian and Hispanic populations living in rural communities and to help NIMH shape its future research agenda on issues relevant to the Four Corners region.
Depression: The Unwanted Cotraveler: A Day for the Public—March, 2001
NIMH organized this meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to brief the public about improving health outcomes for major diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, HIV/AIDS, and Parkinson's disease through the effective treatment of co-occurring depression. NIMH was conducting a major strategic planning exercise and asked for public aid in formulating its research agenda on depression.
Dialogue on Youth: From Neuroscience to Effective Service—April, 2000
This meeting in Chicago, Illinois addressed mental health problems for young people, with a particular focus on African American youths. Topics included: suicide, delinquency, genetics and psychiatric disorders in childhood, as well as influences of families and neighborhoods on illness and wellness. The events of the day were capped off with an evening "Conversation with the Black Community."
Mental Health Forum—Dialogue: Texas—December, 1999
Topics included treatment research advances, children's mental health needs, preventing violence, and cultural diversity in providing mental health care. NIMH also sought input from members of the public in shaping the institute's future research activities. A pre-meeting in Laredo informed the public meeting held in San Antonio.
Mental Health at the Frontier: Alaska—August, 1999
The meeting in Anchorage offered findings in rural mental health research, a grant-writing workshop, breakout discussion groups and a town meeting designed for Alaskans to help set NIMH research priorities. Before the meeting NIMH-funded researchers and staff visited Kotzebue and Selawik above the Arctic Circle, and Bethel and Kwethluk in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Peninsula. "We wanted our meeting to reflect the real lives of people who live in frontier Alaska."
