Welcome to the 21st WCP Virtual Congress Program Scheduling

“Open the Doors” - the WPA’s first international collaborative project against stigma in the 1990ties - and national antistigma programs in Australia, Canada, Czechia, Danemark, New Zealand, the UK, and elsewhere resulted in the reduction of stigma in the countries involved and an assembly of experience about ways of fighting stigma and its consequences. These experiences present a solid ground for the development of national and local programs in countries that have developed programs and at the same time allow the development of better-informed responses in countries in which no programs have been started. After an introduction recalling these achievements by Professor Sartorius, the session will focus on ways of developing new programs. Dr. Pietrus, based on his experiences with Opening Minds at Mental Health Commission of Canada, will explain on the importance to select evidence based programs, including contact-based educational sessions. He will also report the significance of Global Anti-stigma Alliance for various organization to share their experiences, globally. Professor Akiyama will report on what has been achieved in programs aiming to recover work capacity in Japan and on implications of the experience gained for other antistigma activities in other areas (e.g., peer activities or provision of mental health information in education. The concept of presenting the “cost-effectiveness” of antistigma work and using other strategies of convincing health decision-makers to invest in antistigma programs will be discussed, recalling the Japanese experience.