Kent and Medway Medial School’s (KMMS) Directors of Research, Professor Lisa Dikomitis and Professor Sukhi Shergill chaired a symposium on the topic ‘Racism, Discrimination and Social Inequalities in Mental Health’ at the 32nd Congress of Psychiatry, hosted by the European Psychiatric Association, in Budapest earlier this month.
At the symposium, Professor Dikomitis presented ‘An ethnographic reading of mental health in a Punjabi Sikh community in England’, was based on anthropological fieldwork she carried out with Sikhs in Kent. This is part of the Kent Sikh Health Research programme Professors Dikomitis and Shergill are co-leading, which includes doctoral researchers Aman Rattan and Hasara Nuwangi.
The session also featured Professor Celso Arango, from the Gregorio Maraňón University Hospital in Madrid, Spain, presenting on ‘Discrimination and bullying as a risk factor for future mental health disorders’; Professor Jorge Cervilla from the University of Grenada, Spain, presenting on ‘Social predictors of mental health’; and Dr Imke Jensen from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, presenting on ‘Life narratives of individuals with psychosis in ethnic minority and migrant communities in the Netherlands’.
Full details of the 32nd EPA Congress are available online.