Dear Friends:

We are pleased to extend a most cordial invitation to attend the 2009 World Mental Health Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health to be held in Athens, Greece, 2 – 6 September 2009.

The great historic capitals of the world are those endowed with light, color and brilliance, bring the past to life, enhance the present, and stamp their mark on the future. Modern Athens is a vibrant city with great appeal and charm. The city of Athens today combines the historic and cultural tradition of the past with the dynamic and financial strength of the future. We must not forget that it is in this very land that Socrates and Plato set the principles of Psychosomatics, Hippocrates taught the Ethics of Medicine and Aristotle advocated virtue-based ethics in medical (and psychiatric) practice.

Athens provides the perfect venue for the 2009 World Mental Health Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health in the 61st year of the Federation’s efforts to make mental health a global priority.

The 2009 Congress theme, "Working Together for Mental Health", reflects WFMH’s call to action to "Make Mental Health a Global Priority" and recognizes the crucial role of informed, concerted, and coordinated advocacy across the entire mental health movement – consumers and service users, family members and carers, professionals, citizen advocates, and the informed public – if mental health and mental illnesses are to gain the attention and priority needed. The 2009 World Congress will provide numerous opportunities for participants to gain new information and skills, to strengthen current networks and build new ones, to share their own knowledge and experiences and to become actively engaged in the global mental health movement.

Highlights of the Congress Program include a Congress Forum to review the impact of The Lancet Series on Global Mental Health, the biennial WFMH Margaret Mead, George Albee, and Mary Hemingway-Rees memorial lectures and the first WFMH Mental Health Consumers Lecture, a host of special issue symposia, and a special plenary session to introduce the 2009 World Mental Health Day global awareness campaign.

The Society of Preventive Psychiatry, the Hellenic Psychiatric Association, and the World Federation for Mental Health are pleased to be collaborating on the planning and organizing of the 2009 World Mental Health Congress. Your attendance and participation are cordially invited and we look forward to welcoming you to one of the great cities of the world and to the Congress.

Prof. George Christodoulou
President, Society of Preventive Psychiatry,
Honorary President, Hellenic Psychiatric Association

Prof. John Copeland
President, World Federation for Mental Health

Preston Garrison
Secretary General & Chief Executive Officer, World Federation for Mental Health

Prof. Nikolaos Tzavaras
President, Hellenic Psychiatric Association