The Clifford Beers Foundation

working in conjunction with

The Mental Health Commission of Canada

is pleased to announce this important international conference on the promotion of mental health and wellness, which will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, March 4th - 6th 2009

Why attend?

Following on from the pioneering work of Clifford Beers in leading the Mental Hygiene movement, The Clifford Beers Foundation was established as a not for profit organization to become a focus for the development of initiatives in mental health promotion and preventing mental and behavioural disorders worldwide.

Although registered in the UK, The Foundation has an international basis: after what many in the field consider to be the groundbreaking series of European conferences on the promotion of mental health in the 1990s, The Clifford Beers Foundation has worked with partners across the world to develop a series of world and regional conferences to stimulate progress in developing effective methodologies for promoting mental health. In addition, it has taken a leading role in developing a worldwide consortium to encourage and develop research and policy initiatives, leading to further discussion and understanding of the issues to be addressed.

Achieving positive mental health and wellness is now recognized as an urgent issue for individuals, business and public sector organizations, communities and governments and the need for mental health and wellness promotion has now become a feature of government policy. Until recently, the barriers to enhancing this work have been lack of knowledge and practical programs but there have been rapid developments in recent years in both research and practice in the field of mental health and wellness promotion and the prevention of mental and behavioural disorders. Now that the original barriers have been overcome, the remaining ones relate more to the need for:

shared information about on-going research and successful programs, policies and organizational models;
collaboration on the development of new knowledge and the implementation of programs and strategies;
more effective use of scarce resources.

We now know that investment in this area produces positive and measurable returns, for example:

higher productivity in the workplace
increased achievement in schools
reduction in the levels of violence in groups and communities.

Following on from the earlier conferences, ‘Expanding our Horizons’ provides an opportunity for the Canadian government, policy makers and implementers, members of the public and the business community to benefit from the knowledge and experience that now exists and to join the debate and influence the Mental Health Commission in developing the national strategy.

The Conference will demonstrate how such benefits can be achieved and the panel of international speakers will direct delegates to new and innovative programs.

In addition to the above, delegates can take advantage of a special offer on subscriptions to The International Journal of Mental Health Promotion. See the Special Offer page for details.

Who should attend?

policy makers and policy administrators in local, provincial and national government;
professionals, managers and practitioners in health and social care, education, industry and private and public sectors;
consumers of mental health and other health, education and social services;
researchers and scientists;
representatives from other settings such as education, legal and judicial and the workplace.

About the venue

The conference will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Further details of the Centre can be found at: http://www.mtccc.com/. A map of the venue (also available as a download) is available on our Accommodation page.

Stay informed - join the conference mailing list

To join the mailing list, click here or click the button below:

We will send you emails from time to time with up-to-date information about the conference. We will not use your email address you give for any other purpose.