There were very productive exchanges and connections made across sectors and fields, and offers of mutual support to advance this area of work in a coherent and thoughtful way. Stayed tuned for more in the coming weeks/months, and get in touch if you are working in this area. 2/2

This week, a roundtable on digital MH was held in Colombo, cohosted by the PM’s Office and eMHIC, bringing together practitioners, persons with lived experience, researchers, industry reps, policymakers and officials to kickstart a conversation about digital MH strategy in SL. 1/2

I am delighted to be moderating the first in a series of #CriticalDialogues on #MHPSS - "Opening the Conversation” with Moses Mukasa Bwesige, Rina Ghafoerkhan & Mike Wessells, on Jul 3 from 1-2.30pm UTC.
More information: app.mhpss.net/criticaldialogues
Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Recommendations (cont.) and references. 2/2

Today’s article in the Sunday Morning www.themorning.lk/articles/TKz... quotes the submission made by a group of mental health professionals to the Ministry of Justice Committee on #repealPTA and drafting new counter-terror laws. See attached the full contents of our submission. 1/2

MHPSS.net is 15 years old this year! Huge thanks to everyone who has been a part of the journey. Please do take our brief survey to let us know a little bit about what the @mhpss network has meant to you! 🔗: shorturl.at/J4Dnh

@robertvanvoren.bsky.social opens the Rethinking Mental Health Care conference in Colombo, emphasising the impacts on mental health of ongoing conflict and social injustice, but advocating optimistic realism in our ability to collectively respond. rethinkingmnh.org

Spending three days with Ministry of Women & Child Affairs, UNICEF, Child Frontiers, SL Association of Professional Social Workers and representatives of govt depts and CSOs working on Violence Against Children, discussing professionalisation of social service workforce.

Global meeting of Country-Level MHPSS Technical Working Group Co-Chairs 2025 organised by IASC MHPSS Reference Group starts today in Addis Ababa.

Was so sad to hear today of thr loss of the activist psychiatrist Suman Fernando. His sustained work on institutionalised racism in mental health and his tireless advocacy for de-colonial approaches taught and challenged us to do better. Read Suman (again) here for inspiration: decolpsych.com

Animated discussions at the Steering Group meeting of the MHPSS Surge Mechanism managed by RVO Netherlands for the IASC MHPSS Reference Group to provide inter-agency technical support to crises worldwide.

english.rvo.nl/subsidies-fi...

What a difference a decade makes: in 2015, the @iascch MHPSS RG asked ‘What is DRR?’. This year, our dedicated thematic group on #DRR & climate is sharing resources (READY training, Meera Video & preparedness assessment tool) that can transform the integration of MHPSS with #DRM.

Better late than never: initiating conversations about ‘localisation’ of MHPSS, and especially the transformation of power-dynamics in the fields, at the @iascch MHPSS Reference Group annual meeting 2024.

‘Will everyone who was a part of the 2004 Asian Tsunami response please stand up!’

Was able to share some experience from Sri Lanka, and how it connected to the IASC MHPSS Guidelines development. Was so good (and powerful) to hear reflections from other colleagues in the room.

The 2024 Annual meeting of the IASC #MHPSS Reference Group kicked off yesterday in Sofia, Bulgaria for three days of reviewing the work of the group and reflect and decide on priorities for the year ahead.