Mr Sugianto has bipolar disorder and is a mental health activist in Indonesia and he is a member of Country Executive Committee Team of South East Asia. He had a long journey to survive and recover from his mental health problem. During the worst phases of his disorder, he was shackled to a bed in a primary health clinic for about a month – a practice called pasung in Indonesia. Being chained due to the lack of knowledge of his family, he has been advocating mental health issues and fighting against the stigma towards people with mental illness and mental health problem for more than a decade. He has been involved in policy making and advocating to abolish chaining (pasung) in Indonesia. He is continuing to become a mental health advocate, campaigning for mental health awareness in Indonesia.

Anita has found purpose through mental health advocacy, research and education. She works as a Community Research Associate as well as Patient Partner on community based research projects with organizations, universities and health authorities in British Columbia, Canada.  She is also involved with the Mental Health Commission of Canada as a member of Hallway Group, a committee of people with lived (or living) experience of mental illness from across Canada, a mentor for the SPARK (Supporting the Promotion of Activated Research and Knowledge) training program and as a Mental Health First Aid Facilitator.

South Africa, GMHPN Founder/CEO (Development of global network/ movement, for and led by persons with lived experience/ service users – lessons learnt and overcoming challenges)

Ms Sunkel is the Founder/ CEO of the Global Mental Health Peer Network (www.gmhpn.org). She is a global mental health advocate with lived experience with schizophrenia. She has published internationally on issues related to mental health and human rights, stigma and the needs of people with mental illness in low- and middle-income countries. Ms Sunkel has been involved in provided technical assistance to national and international mental health related policies, reports and documents. She serves on a number of international boards and committees, and received a number of national and international awards for her work.

Chris grew up in Birmingham, Alabama in near poverty one mile on the “white side” of “Bombingham Hill” with Angela Davis living on the other side.

Chris Summerville is the CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A family member and a person of lived experience, Chris has 30 years experience as a national advocate for recovery-oriented mental health services.

Claudia is a global mental health advocacy leader whose passion for mental health was inspired by having personal experience living with anxiety and ADHD. After undergoing treatment, Claudia chose to pursue a career in mental health.  She is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Global Mental Health Peer Network (“GMHPN”).   She manages GMHPN’s youth related activities and programmes and is co-ordinator and facilitator for youth collaboration with other mental health organisations. She co-authored a paper titled „Perspectives: persons with lived experience with mental health conditions in service delivery, development, and leadership“ which was published online on 12 May 2021 by Cambridge University Press.

Chris Summerville is the CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A family member and a person of lived experience, Chris has 30 years experience as a national advocate for recovery-oriented mental health services.

Dana Chrtková is coming from the Czech Republic. She is a head of organisation of PWLE called DIALOGOS, z. s., which co-organizes together with other professionals in mental health the service users´section of joint international conference Together Against Stigma 2021. Dana emphasizes advocacy of PWLE and participation of them  in decision making processes. She represents PWLE in the “Advisory Board of the reform of psychiatric care” which is currently underway in the Czech Republic. She is married, she has 2 adult daughters and 1 granddaughter.

Edwin is a passionate independent mental health advocate with lived experience

with depression, anxiety, severe ADHD, and substance abuse disorder. He is skilled in promoting social inclusion, equality and social justice through advocacy. Edwin has been a mental health champion with Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya and Time to Change Global and was involved in the development and launching of the global anti-stigma toolkit. Edwin has made use of social media by discussing mental health issues and opening the floor for others to speak out about their lived experiences. He is well versed in training, developing mental health initiatives, advocacy both online and offline with the main aim of creating awareness and destigmatizing mental health issues. Edwin has been working with various mental health organisations to create awareness and provide affordable mental health services. Edwin has been involved in initiatives that are driving change at the policy level with other persons with lived experience.

He is a member of Country Executive Committee of Global Mental Health Peer Network (GMHPN – the international organization of PWLE) and Global Anti stigma Champion.

Eleni Misganaw is a mental health advocate with lived experience; particularly focusing on amplifying the voice of mental health care users in Ethiopia and beyond. Eleni Misganaw represents a patient association called Mental Health Service Users Association in Ethiopia. She currently leads this Association and work part-time in mental health research project. Eleni is also a honorary mentor at the Global Mental Health Peer Network.

Eleni lives with bipolar disorder since early adolescence, which gives her a first-hand experience on the mental health care service in Ethiopia. She has a Masters of Arts in Sociology and a background in Economics. Eleni has been providing lived experience perspective to national and international mental health related reports, documents, and research-related works either in drafting, reviewing, or both.

Managing Director of Bearapy (Hong Kong)

Enoch is a social entrepreneur and Founder of BEARAPY – an award-winning B2B social enterprise that provides consulting and training services to organizations and executives to build mentally healthy workplaces in China and Asia-Pacific. Her personal mission is to reduce burnout and mental health issues through helping adults access their inner playfulness. Through Bearapy, Enoch works with multinationals, governments, and start-ups across Asia-Pacific to advocate emotional and mental health awareness for resilience, emotional awareness, leadership development, and optimum productivity. She is the China rep of the Global Mental Health Peer Network.

Kamil Rain currently works as a peer lecturer at the National Institute of Mental Health, but among Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital patients he is known as a Peer Club employee. He led many people to the path to peering.

Director of Business Growth, Bearapy (Italy)

Laura is a Director of Business Growth at Bearapy, a B2B social enterprise for workplace mental health in China and Asia-Pacific. After graduating from the Free University of Berlin with a thesis on the art of Chinese psychiatric patients, and after on-field mental health research in Nanjing and Zhejiang, she moved to Beijing to further pursue her career in marketing and business development in the public and social sector. She collaborated with grassroots non-profits and she currently works with Bearapy as she believes that a deeper and cross-cultural understanding of and focus on mental health can be highly beneficial on the professional, social, and intellectual level. She is fluent in Italian, Mandarin, English, Spanish, and German.

  (Scotland, See Me)

Manvi Tiwari is a mental health advocate who serves in the Country Executive Committee of the Global Mental Health Peer Network and is also one of the Youth Advisors for Sangath India. Manvi is a contributor with UNICEF as well.

Mark Sanderson is based in England. Following his own challenges with psychosis led he changed career paths in his late 20’s from a chef to working in peer support. He has worked in health care for 5 years in inpatient  and community mental health settings. He currently works in the National Health Service in a lived experience leadership role and is completing a masters in Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion. He also currently sits as a member of the UK executive committee for the Global Mental Health Peer Network.

Markéta is 49 years old. She is from a small village near the capital city of the Czech Republic. She has been working for a six year at the National Institute of Mental Health and is a member of the patient organization DIALOGOS. She has been  married for 30 years and have two adult children. Markéta works as a member of expert team of the project Destigmatization. She likes her job and meeting people with experience of mental illness and their family members.

Martin Okáčis from the Czech Republic and he grew up and  now lives in little Moravian town Příbor, in our community well known as the birth place of psychoanalysist Sigmund Freud.

He fights succesful battles and lives with his long term colleague, his psychiatric desease, over 35 years. He has found his hope and sense of life inspite of difficulties caused by his trouble making colleague. He is for 15 years married with his beautiful wife Katka and they take care for theirthree kids Bara, Klara and Simon. He is also very thankful for my mum and dad, as they helped him finished my university studies and suported him in his work carreer as a lawyer for refugees and migrants. He works in the field of Antistigma Fight and as a Peer Consultant in a psychiatric hospital for last 6 years.

Nataliya is from Lviv, Ukraine. She is head of the NGO „Support center for people with mental disorders „Destigma“. She has 17 years of experience in social and charitable organizations. After many years of providing humanitarian help for psychiatric hospitals she realized that patients and people with mental disorders need more advocacy of their rights. She founded an NGO to become the voice of the voiceless and encourage people with mental disorders into different activities to fight the stigma and develop social services for them.

Nicole K. is the founder and executive director of The Tapestry Project SG — an online community magazine that champions first-person accounts of every day Singaporeans touched by mental illness and recovery. The Tapestry Project SG was inspired by Nicole’s personal struggle with clinical depression and generalised anxiety disorder, for which she has sought treatment and works towards living in recovery.

She is a member of Country Executive Committee of Global Mental Health Peer Network (GMHPN) for the region Western Pacific.

Sandra Ferreira is the regional leader for Africa for the Global Mental Health Peer Network. She has lived experience with Bipolar Mood Disorder 1 and professionally has been in the field of education as a coach, teacher and manager for 20 years. Sandra is a passionate advocate for the rights of people with lived experience and through her work hopes to change the face of mental health education in schools and various communities within Africa and globally.

He works as a specialist in Destigmatization project NA ROVINU and at Ministry of Health in project Deinstitucionalization.

Together with Dana and some other speakers, he is also a member of NGO DIALOGOS. They are concerned with advocacy of people enriched by experience with Mental Health issue.