Mental health is a cornerstone of overall well-being, yet it remains one of the most pressing and under-addressed challenges worldwide. Let’s talk about Global Mental Health: Where We Are and Where We Are Going.

Join us on January 21 for an insightful discussion featured by Prof. Eve Puffer, the founding Director of the Duke Center for Global Mental Health, alongside Prof. Shuiyuan Xiao, a renowned expert in mental health in China, and Prof. Rebecca Hock, Assistant Professor of Global Mental Health at Duke Kunshan University. Moderated by Prof. Chenkai Wu, this session will examine the current state of mental health challenges worldwide, and envision future directions for creating inclusive and sustainable mental health solutions on a global scale.

 

TIME: 17:45-19:30, Tuesday, January 21, 2025 (UTC+8)

VENUE: AB 2103

AGENDA:

17:45-17:50
Opening
– Prof. Fujie Xu (Co-Director of the Global Health Program, Duke Kunshan University)

17:50-18:20 
Keynote Talk | Challenges and Solutions: Delivering Mental Health Prevention and Treatment in Low-Resource Settings
– Prof. Eve Puffer (Founding Director of Duke Center for Global Mental Health & Associate Professor, Duke University)

18:20-18:50
Keynote Talk | Public Mental Health in China: An Overview
– Prof. Shuiyuan Xiao (Chief Psychiatrist and Former Head of the Public Mental Health Section, Mental Health Institute, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University)
Prof. Xiao will deliver his talk in Mandarin, with simultaneous English interpretation provided on Zoom.

18:50-19:20
Panel Discussion
– Prof. Eve Puffer, Prof. Shuiyuan Xiao, and Prof. Rebecca Hock (Assistant Professor of Global Mental Health, DKU)

19:20-19:30
Wrap-up

Moderated by Chenkai Wu (Assistant Professor of Global Health, DKU)

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Eve Puffer, PhD, is a global mental health researcher and a licensed clinical psychologist. She is an Associate Professor at Duke University and the founding Director of the Duke Center for Global Mental Health. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating integrated community-based interventions to promote child mental health and improve parenting and family functioning. She conducts much of her work in Kenya and conflict-affected settings, such as Liberia and the Thailand-Myanmar border, but also works with low-resource communities in the United States. Before joining Duke, Dr. Puffer was a research advisor at the International Rescue Committee.

Shuiyuan Xiao, M.D., is a renowned expert in social and behavioral epidemiology, public mental health, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention. He is Chief Psychiatrist and Former Head of the Public Mental Health Section at the Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, and previously held the position of Dean of the School of Public Health at Central South University. He holds several prestigious roles, including Chair of the Behavioral Health Branch and Vice Chair of the Social Medicine Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, Honorary Chair of the Crisis Intervention Professional Committee of the Chinese Mental Health Association, Distinguished Professor with the China Medical Board, and Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). Dr. Xiao’s primary research areas include social and behavioral epidemiology, public mental health, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention. He has published over 300 papers, including more than 100 in SCI-indexed journals. He has (co-)authored and translated academic textbooks and monographs amounting to several million words.

Rebecca S. Hock, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Global Mental Health at Duke Kunshan University. She completed her doctoral work at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, where she stayed on as junior faculty before joining DKU. Dr. Hock’s research focuses on global adolescent mental health from a prevention approach. She has worked on topics related to intergenerational trauma, including how culture and context relate to mechanisms of transmission, as well as biological mechanisms. She is also interested in school- and family-based intervention approaches and how to enhance young people’s resilience towards the mental health impacts of global events, including climate change.

LANGUAGE:

English and partial Chinese (simultaneous interpretation in Chinese and English will be provided through Zoom).

About “This is Global Health! Monthly Symposium Series”
Since 2014, the Global Health Research Center at Duke Kunshan University has organized a series of global health symposium events, inviting leaders, scientists, and industry experts in the global health field to exchange information on the latest research progress, international and domestic development trends, and global health education and practice. By now the center had successfully hosted 197 seminars. Starting in Fall 2024, the series has been renamed and restructured from the “Aegon-Industrial Global Health Seminar Series” to the “This is Global Health! Monthly Symposium Series,” featuring a new format of panel talks and a vision for greater impact. 

We warmly welcome students, scholars, and other DKU members interested in global mental health to join us on January 21. Let’s uncover the critical steps needed to promote mental health and resilience in diverse communities across the world.