Personal Views


This talk covers my mental health, the highs and lows of getting back to work when times have been tough and those that have helped me along the way.


Treating behavioural addictions during lockdown: the use of technology and its impact on gambling and gaming clinical work

Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE; Honorary Professor, Faculty of Brain Sciences, UCL; Honorary Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Dept Psychiatry, Cambridge University [Bio]

This talk explores the multitude of ways in which two national clinics adapted their weals of working during the recent Covid lockdown in order to continue delivering clinical treatment to patients with Gambling or Gaming disorder and explores the differing ways in which diagnosis impacted on the engagement with virtual treatment.


Me, Myself. I : Self portraits & expression in old and new worlds

Jenny Edwards CBE, For Thriving Minds, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health [Bio]

This talk discusses how digital environments offer new possibilities to explore and play with identity and the impact on our inner selves.


5(ish) things mental health organisations can do now to meaningfully use data science

April C. Foreman, American Association of Suicidology, Executive Board [Bio]

Dr. Foreman breaks down the basic steps that mental health organizations can take to effectively incorporate meaningful and effective use of data science and artificial intelligence practices in their operations. She explains fundamental industry challenges to adopting current technology infrastructure and practices, and provides a basic pattern that subject matter experts can use to introduce adoption to enterprise leadership.


Teletherapy is becoming the standard of care in mental health

Allen Frances, Professor Emeritus & former Chair Psychiatry, Duke University & Chair DSM IV Task Force.

We are in the midst of the second tectonic revolution in the delivery of mental health services in the past century. After World War I, psychiatry shifted from being mostly hospital based to mostly office based. Now, mental.health service delivery is shifting from being mostly face to face to mostly virtual. Covid19 triggered the transformation, but it is likely to become permanent.


Our digital moment in mental health care

David Gratzer, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada [Bio]

In this presentation, Dr. David Gratzer talks about the rapid adoption of virtual care in response to COVID-19. He outlines the changes that we have seen, and then considers implications for public policy and practice.


AI, data ethics and wellbeing indicators

John C. Havens, Director, Emerging Technology & Strategic Development, Global Business Strategy & Intelligence, IEEE [Bio]

In this talk I cover my views around data identity, data sovereignty, insight generation, wellbeing indicators, and how data can represent our identity.


Lived experience is your Superpower: the movement, discipline and activism of people deemed Mad by Psychiatry ❤️

Matthew Jackman, Deputy Representative, Western Pacific Region, Global Mental Health Peer Network, Global Lived Experience Ambassador, Generation Mental Health, Global Shaper, World Economic Forum, Lived Experience Academic, Victoria University [Bio]

The presentation focuses on lived experience as central to agitating the mental health system defining and construction biomedical pathological understanding of distress as illness. The talk introduces lived experience as an academic discipline and profession, discusses Mad Studies as the central knowledge base for lived experience advocates and unpacks alternatives to psychiatry and illness as constrcuted by people defined as Mad.


In this talk I will discuss the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and where it might perhaps act as a catalyst for change in mental health, some of the most pressing issues in mental health, and I will look at some of the areas that are perhaps too often ignored in mental health and what the priorities for us should be moving forward.


Beyond Hype: The Wellness Revolution

Robyn Landau, Neuroaesthetics & Wellbeing, Arigami [Bio]

The Wellness economy is one of the biggest growing sectors worldwide. It represented $4.5 Trillion globally in 2018. However, workplace wellness is falling short. Current programmes are not meeting the needs of employers or its employees well enough. Here, we present the future of workplace wellness with validated and evidence-backed programmes, personalised considerations and results which deliver real, behavioural change to raise the bar on the way people feel on a daily basis.


In this talk I will be discussing how the new government campaign to add calorie contents to restaurant menus could affect people like me who are trying to recover from an eating disorder.


Clinical pharmacist perspective on using digital technology to support patients with mental illness

Orla Macdonald, Lead Research Pharmacist, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, UK [Bio]

This talk from a prescribing pharmacist summarises her experiences and perspectives about using digital technology to enhance clinical pharmacy services for clients who have mental illnesses.


This isn't your Grandma's gaming...

Nicholas Napp, CEO, Xmark Labs LLC; Member, IEEE Digital Reality Steering Committee [Bio]

There are a number of pervasive stereotypes in video games, as well as some unexpected ground truths. This talk covers the good, the bad and the ugly of gaming, but also presents the radical change impacting the industry that you may be unaware of.


The digital divide is dead

Nicholas Napp, CEO, Xmark Labs LLC; Member, IEEE Digital Reality Steering Committee [Bio]

The Digital Divide has been a topic of discussion for nearly 20 years. This talk examines why we urgently need to reframe that conversation to avoid massive socio-economic impact.


COVID-19 and the digital divide: Lessons from a frontline physician

Sofia Noori; Chief Resident of Digital Psychiatry at Yale Department of Psychiatry & Chief Resident of Quality Improvement at Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital [Bio]

When the world goes virtual, how do you care for people who never had a smartphone or a computer? What happens when a safety net mental health center transitions to telepsychiatry during a pandemic? Dr. Sofia Noori, a psychiatry resident who trained at Connecticut Mental Health Center, will share her experiences and lessons learned while caring for America's most underserved psychiatric patients amidst a global pandemic.


Digital exclusion

Ross O’Brien, Associate Director of Innovation and Technology at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust [Bio]

Covid-19 has been the catalyst for many digital innovation advances in health. However, it also opens up the possibility of excluding vulnerable patients from access to care. Join Ross O’Brien in exploring the issues surrounding digital exclusion.


Virtual Sandtray - XR

Jessica Stone, Virtual Sandtray, LLC; East Carolina University College of Education Neurocognition Science Laboratory [Bio]

This talk will introduce you to the digital version of a tried-and-true method of traditional sandtray therapy. For use in therapeutic, mental health and medical sessions, the Virtual Sandtray iPad and VR programs will expand the functionality, creativity, accessibility, and immersion of this powerful process.