5th International Conference on Neuroscience and Mental Health

Mental health is a universal human right, yet how it is understood, expressed, and treated varies profoundly across cultures, geographies, and social contexts. This session brings a genuinely global and culturally sensitive perspective to the conference, examining how mental health challenges manifest differently in diverse communities and how cultural factors, including beliefs, values, family structures, religion, and historical trauma, shape help-seeking behaviour, treatment engagement, and recovery. As the host city of this international conference, Bangkok and the broader Asia-Pacific region provide a rich and relevant backdrop for conversations about culture, diversity, and the global reach of mental health science.

Mental health disparities between high-income and Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) remain stark, with the vast majority of people in LMICs receiving no mental health care at all, despite carrying a disproportionate share of the global burden of psychiatric illness. This session will critically examine these inequalities and explore the strategies, models, and policies that are making meaningful progress in expanding access to quality mental health care in resource-limited settings. Task-sharing models, community mental health worker programmes, digital mental health platforms, and international research collaborations will all be featured as scalable solutions to the global mental health treatment gap.

Cultural competence, traditional and indigenous healing practices, and the integration of local knowledge into evidence-based mental health care will be important and thought-provoking themes of this session. Participants will explore how mainstream psychiatric practice can be adapted to be more culturally responsive, how traditional healing systems can be respected and incorporated into collaborative care models, and how global mental health research can be made more inclusive, representative, and relevant to diverse populations. Mental health policy, including the implementation of the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as they relate to mental health, will provide the overarching framework for this important and inspiring session.

Key Topics:

• Mental Health Disparities: Global inequalities in mental health prevalence, treatment access, and outcomes between and within countries.
• Cultural Competence in Psychiatry: How cultural background influences mental health diagnosis, treatment engagement, and therapeutic relationships, and how clinicians can respond.
• Traditional and Indigenous Healing: The role of traditional, complementary, and indigenous healing practices in mental health care across diverse cultural contexts.
• Global Mental Health Policy: The WHO Mental Health Action Plan, SDG commitments, and national mental health policies - progress, challenges, and priorities.
• Task-Sharing and Community Mental Health: Evidence for task-sharing models and community health worker programmes in expanding mental health care in low-resource settings.
• Stigma and Mental Health Advocacy: Cultural factors in mental health stigma, and effective advocacy, education, and media strategies for stigma reduction globally.
• Mental Health in Humanitarian Crises: Mental health needs and response frameworks for refugees, displaced populations, and communities affected by conflict and natural disasters.
• Digital Mental Health for Global Equity: How smartphone-based and digital mental health tools can help bridge the global treatment gap in low-resource settings.