Discussing mental health with World Council of Churches in Geneva

Mr. Prakash Goossens (International Advocacy) presented Mental Health Programs of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity to the Health Committee of the World Council of Churches in Geneva on October 9th 2017.

Fracarita International (FI) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) are keen on collaboration in the field of mental health. FI and WCC have organized during the World Mental Health Day (WMHD 2015) in Geneva a Conference with the topic of ‘breaking the chains of stigma in mental health’ and as a positive outcome of that conference, both faith -based organizations explored possibilities to collaborate in the field of mental health.

In 2017, WCC launched the designing of a new Health Strategy (2018-2022) and would like to put mental health as one of their priorities. Mr. Prakash Goossens (International Advocacy of Fracarita International) had the occasion to give a presentation on the Congregation, Fracarita International and the involvement in mental health.

In 2018, the next steps will be to start-up concrete small steps in the collaboration on the field. WCC is especially interested in the mental health expertise, training, and capacity building modules of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity. Secondly, WCC endorses fully the global campaign of Fracarita International on breaking the stigma in mental health. The combination of awareness and capacity building might be very useful for the different health workers of WCC around the globe.