Mental Health

Submit Abstract

The Mental Health Section welcomes paper, poster, roundtable, and session proposals for the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting, October 25-29, in San Diego, California. This year's conference theme is "Public Health Without Borders."

We welcome submissions on topics related to (in alphabetical order):
  • Bruno Lima Symposium on Mental Health Issues among Minority Populations
  • Carl Taube Award Lecture
  • Carol Mowbray Symposium on Maternal Mental Health
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health
  • Co-Occurrence and Causal Mechanisms in Mental and Physical Health
  • Comorbid Behavioral Health and Medical Conditions
  • Consumer and Family Involvement in Treatment Decisions
  • Homelessness and Mental Health
  • Integration of Care Across Settings
  • International Mental Health
  • Intersection Of Child and Parental Mental Health
  • Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders and Mental Health Treatment
  • Mental Health Policy and Practice
  • Mental Health Promotion/Disorder Prevention
  • Mental Health Services Research
  • Mental Health Workforce and Needs Assessment
  • Mental Health and Criminal Justice
  • Mental Health and Occupational Health
  • Mental Health and Trauma
  • Mentoring in Public Mental Health
  • Organization and Financing of Mental Health Care
  • Psychiatric Epidemiology
  • Rema Lapouse Award for Lifetime Contributions
  • Other Topics in Public Mental Health
All submissions will be peer-reviewed to determine the relevance to policy and practice, appropriateness of methodology, and overall quality. All submitted work must be approved by the appropriate ethics review boards before presentation and must meet the standards for the ethical conduct of science. All abstracts must be submitted through APHA's normal web solicitation process NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 5th, 2008 . Abstracts and presentations should avoid describing people as "the mentally ill" -- use 'person first' terminology such as "individuals with mental illness" or "consumers of mental health care services."

BRUNO LIMA SYMPOSIUM ON MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN MINORITY POPULATIONS:
Applicants wishing to be considered for this symposium should ensure that their abstract is submitted under this topic during the electronic submission process. Abstracts not selected for the Bruno Lima Symposium will be considered for inclusion in other sessions.

KENNETH LUTTERMAN AWARD: This award is given for the best student paper in the field of mental health. The winner will be invited to present his/her paper at the 2008 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA and will be awarded the cost of APHA conference registration. Eligible students must be members of the APHA Mental Health Section and enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program as of February 4, 2008, the submission deadline. Students should submit an abstract through the normal submission procedure and indicate their wish to be considered for the award. Those students whose abstracts are accepted for conference presentation will then be asked to submit a copy of the full paper to the section program planner by April 1, 2008 for review by the Awards Committee. Submitted papers may be no longer than 10 double-spaced pages, plus references and a maximum of 5 tables/figures. Note: Student papers that do not receive the Lutterman Award may still be accepted for presentation. For more information, contact the program planner.

SECTION'S NEW MENTORING PROGRAM: If you are a doctoral student, postdoctoral fellow or junior faculty member without a history of federal funding, please consider submitting an abstract to our mentoring program, under the topic, "Mentoring in Public Mental Health." Each junior investigator will be given 20 minutes to present research ideas and receive feedback before rotating teams of senior researchers. Accepted abstracts will be considered official presentations and listed as such. For more information, please contact David Mandell, ScD, at mandelld@mail.med.upenn.edu.

PANEL SESSIONS
We also invite submissions for panel session proposals (90 minutes in length). BEFORE submitting a panel session, please contact the program planner.

To submit a panel session, follow these directions:
    1. Submit an overall session abstract
    which includes a rationale for the session, the proposed paper titles, and authors. If applicable, also include names of moderator and/or discussant.
    2. Title the overall session abstract as "SESSION ABSTRACT - 'your proposed session title'". The overall session abstract is not peer reviewed on its own merits; acceptance is dependent solely on the reviews of the abstracts for individual presentations within that session.
    3. Put the contact information (phone and e-mail) for the session organizer directly on the overall session abstract, so we can contact you easily if necessary.
    4. Indicate on the overall session abstract whether you would like to have the individual abstracts considered for presentation in other sessions, if your proposed session is not accepted in its entirety. In the "notes to the program planner" section, state either "YES, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ABSTRACTS CONSIDERED
    SEPARATELY" or "NO, I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE THESE ABSTRACTS CONSIDERED SEPARATELY."
    5. Once the panel abstract is submitted, it will be assigned an abstract number. Next, submit a seperate abstract for each individual presentation in the panel. In the 'notes to program planner', please indicate that the abstract is being submitted for a panel and give the overall panel abstract number.

Submit Abstract

Program Planner Contact Information:
Joanna Volpe-Vartanian, PhD, LICSW
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts-New England Medical Center
35 Kneeland Street, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 617-331-7512
jvolpevartanian@tufts-nemc.org

and
Jessica Pollard, PhD
Psychology
Acadia Hospital
268 Stillwater Ave
Bangor, ME 04402
Phone: (207) 973-4464
Fax: (207) 973-6599
jpollard@emh.org