There will be more than thirty presentations by AASP members at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York City May 4-8, 2024. See the entire list with times and locations.

To give you a small taste of the breadth of the many Social Psychiatry topics you can enjoy, we are highlighting four sessions organized by Kenneth S. Thompson MD, current AASP Councilor and past President:

A Needed Opportunity: Translating the UK’s Ground Breaking Work on Public Health Psychiatry From English to American – Leaders from the Royal College of Psychiatrists Lade Smith MD (President), Peter Byrne MD, and Jonathan Campion MD bring their experience in coming to grips with the social determinants of health and mental health by creating a Public Mental Health Implementation Centre (PIMHC). They will present the evidence base, primary and secondary prevention solutions, as well as challenges in implementing these public health interventions to treat mental disorder, prevent associated impacts, prevent mental disorder from arising, and promote mental wellbeing and resilience.

Psychiatry and the Social/Political Crises: The Visible Hands of Solidarity Coming Together When Things Are Falling Apart – Presentations will touch on topics such as Adverse Community Experiences, the effects of hostile political and interpersonal environments on mental health, how the displacement of communities led to ‘root shock’—a phenomenon that has now become world-wide, and the concept of ‘social ecology.’ Afterwards, panelists Mindy Fullilove MD, Gary Belkin MD and Michael Smith MD will engage with the audience on the experiences of psychiatrists immersed in current social crises and how they can find sanity while contributing to the social and psychological resources society will need to weather these times.

Designated as a Presidential Session, The Deaths of Despair, The Great Educational Divide and Psychiatry: Where is the Hope? features a lecture by co-authors Anne Case, PhD and Angus Deaton, PhD on their seminal work on correlations among rising mortality from drug overdoses, alcoholic disease, and suicide; social upheaval; and evidence for educational disparities and the economy as root causes.

When the Mouth Speaks, the Body Heals: Bringing a Brazilian Therapeutic Dialogic Practice to the US – Adalberto Barreto MD, PhD from Brazil will present a detailed description of integrative Community Therapy and will demonstrate how it works. ICT takes a 5-step, culturally sensitive dialogic approach to help people expand their emotional literacy, empathy and solidarity while solving problems in daily living and addressing community concerns. ICT flows from the work of Paolo Freire, Gregory Bateson and indigenous healing circles, and focuses on shared lived experiences. Alice Thompson MD and Milton Wainstein MD will comment on the evidence and the implementation in the US of the ICT method already in use in over 40 countries.