Transgenerational Mental Health

Dear colleagues 

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the International Conference on “Transgenerational Mental health”, 17–19 August 2016 in Basel, Switzerland. This conference will focus on the family as a whole and across generations. Special attention will be given to the impact of parental mental illness on child, adolescent and adult offspring. How could we contribute to their resilience and emotional development and to empower these families? Could we reduce their increased risk of serious mental and social problems?

This conference will be jointly organized by national and international professional associations and by representatives of the families concerned. The conference will be a unique combination of the Annual Conference of Swiss Child, Youth and Adult Psychiatrists and the Fifth International Conference on Families with Parental Mental Health Challenges.

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals first and foremost concentrate on diagnosing and treating mental illnesses. Interventions focus on the illness itself and its impact on patients‘ lives and their personal, professional and social context. A successful therapy involves also a patient’s family. Approximately every third adult patient has minor children. Aside from having to deal with the illness itself, these patients are faced with the manifold duties and responsibilities as regards upbringing, managing daily family life as well as maintaining and shaping their relationships with their partners and children.  Children of mentally ill parents are under special stress; they suffer with and from their parent‘s illness and represent themselves a group at high risk. Therefore, their situation and development deserves our particular attention.

Our patients‘ manifold roles and functions within their families are easily overlooked, as well as the complex consequences a disturbance or dysfunction of the family system can entail.  An indispensable prerequisite for fulfilling the specific needs of dependants, both children and elderly relatives, and for their successful treatment is a concerted and close cooperation between effectively networked regional service providers.

The 2016 Conference will convey the basics and implications of the transgenerational aspects of mental illness and mental health and will also offer the possibility of studying and discussing neighbouring disciplines and proven preventive approaches. In addition, you will have the opportunity of networking with, and talking to experienced experts, scientists, health practitioners and family organizations from Switzerland and other European countries, the USA, Canada and Australia. The Convention‘s overall objective is to enable us all to assume our responsibility in providing optimal support to our patients and their families, and to contribute to better mental health in next generations.

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Basel on 17 to 19 August 2016 as well as to your contributions and questions regarding this very important issue.