Background

Mental health promotion and prevention are increasingly recognised as essential public health responsibilities. However, public health professionals across Europe continue to face challenges in integrating mental health into health promotion, disease prevention, surveillance, policy development and intersectoral action. Recent consultations conducted by WHO/Europe highlighted recurring needs among the public health workforce, including addressing stigma, strengthening the use of evidence for prevention, improving collaboration across sectors, involving people with lived experience, and enhancing the use of data for public mental health monitoring and decision-making.

To respond to these needs, WHO/Europe and the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) developed the accredited learning programme Strengthening Public Health Workforce Capacity for Mental Health Promotion and Prevention. The programme combines five interactive webinars addressing mental health as a public health issue, prevention research and evidence, mental health surveillance and indicators, lived experience and co-production, and stigma reduction through public health action.

This pre-conference serves as the synthesis event of the learning pathway. Building on the knowledge, skills and competencies developed throughout the programme, participants will reflect on lessons learned, exchange experiences from policy, practice and research, and identify practical actions to strengthen public mental health within their own organisations and systems.

The full programme of 5 webinars and the final pre-conference has been accredited by the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA) with 12.5 CTEE credit points.

This programme is funded by the European Union.

Objectives

This pre-conference will:

• synthesise key learning from the five-part capacity-building programme;
• facilitate exchange of experiences and practices across countries and professional settings;
• explore practical approaches for integrating mental health into public health policy, practice and workforce development;
• reflect on the contribution of evidence, surveillance, lived experience and intersectoral collaboration to public mental health action;
• support participants in translating learning into concrete actions within their own professional contexts.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this pre-conference & learning programme, participants will be able to:

• explain the role of public health in mental health promotion, prevention and anti-stigma action;
• apply key concepts and approaches discussed throughout the learning programme to their own professional practice;
• assess opportunities and barriers for integrating mental health into public health policies, programmes and services;
• engage more effectively with mental health professionals, community actors and people with lived experience;
• develop an action plan for strengthening public mental health within their organisation or area of responsibility.

Format

The pre-conference will combine synthesis presentations, facilitated peer exchange, interactive discussions, reflections from people with lived experience, and structured action-planning exercises. The event forms the final component of the WHO–EUPHA capacity-building programme and contributes to the accredited continuing professional development pathway for public health professionals. Participants have been selected based on their application and standardised criteria beforehand. This pre-conference is not open for registration.

The final synthesis event is held in-person to maximise the depth of peer exchange and action planning; key outputs and the recording will be made available to programme participants who cannot attend.

Invited participants are to book and pay for their own travel and accommodation.