World Mental Health Day Webinar - Lived Experiences Heard: From Real Voices to Real Change
Mental health is essential to overall health and wellbeing, yet millions of people worldwide continue to experience mental health challenges. Nurses are vital in promoting mental wellbeing, providing person-centred care, supporting recovery, and advocating for equitable, rights-based services across diverse settings. However, growing workplace pressures can also affect nurses’ own wellbeing. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has long called for greater investment in the mental health nursing workforce and stronger mental health services worldwide.
In recognition of World Mental Health Day 2026 and its theme, “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change,” this webinar will highlight WHO's practical guidance on deinstitutionalization and explore the particular contribution of nurses in changing the culture and practice of mental health care and ensuring that services are designed with people, not merely for them.
Date: 8 October 2026
Time: 13:00 – 14:00 CEST - Check your local time
Interpretation: English – Spanish - French
Agenda
| Time CEST | Speaker | Presentation |
| 13:00 | Hoi Shan Fokeladeh, Senior Policy Advisor, International Council of Nurses | Welcome: From listening to action |
| 13:05 | Mark van Ommeren, Head of the WHO Mental Health Unit, WHO | From institutions to communities: transforming mental health care |
| 13:15 | Espen Gade Rolland, President Norwegian Nurses Organization’s professional group in mental health and addiction | Changing the culture of mental health care: the nursing contribution |
| 13:25 | Madeline A. Naegle, Professor Emerita and Adjunct Professor Global Mental Health Consultant New York University Meyers College of Nursing | Lived experience, partnership and the future of mental health nursing |
| 13:35 | Sheryl Garriques-Lloyd, Mental health nurse | Making person-centred mental health care a reality across different contexts |
| 13:45 | Dan Wesemann, Program Director and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and past president of ISPN | Preparing nurses to lead the change |
| 14:50 | Hoi Shan Fokeladeh, Senior Policy Advisor, International Council of Nurses | Closing: Real voices to real change |
Speakers
- Hoi Shan Fokeladeh, Senior Policy Advisor, International Council of Nurses
- Mark van Ommeren, Head of the WHO Mental Health Unit, WHO
- Espen Gade Rolland, President Norwegian Nurses Organization’s professional group in mental health and addiction
- Madeline A. Naegle, Professor Emerita and Adjunct Professor, Global Mental Health Consultant, New York University Meyers College of Nursing
- Sheryl Garriques-Lloyd, Mental health nurse
- Dr. Dan Wesemann, Program Director and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and past president of ISPN
Objectives
Mark World Mental Health Day by amplifying lived experience as an essential form of expertise and examining how nurses, people with lived experience, health services and policymakers can work together to translate listening into action - transforming institutional cultures, advancing community-based and person-centred mental health care, and creating services that uphold dignity, autonomy, human rights and recovery.