Paradigms Lost: Fighting Stigma and the Lessons Learned

Heather Stuart has been working in the field of stigma research for almost 15 years and is the co-founder and current Chair of the Scientific Section on Stigma and Mental Disorders for the World Psychiatric Association. Dr Stuart is Director, Masters of Public Health Program, Department of Community Health & Epidemiology and Associate Director, Queen's/Pan American Health/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Training inPsychiatric and Behavioural Epidemiology, both at Queen's University, Ontario, Canada. Dr Stuart is also the Senior Consultant for Canada's Opening Minds national anti-stigma/anti-discrimination initiative. Julio Arboleda-Flórez is Emeritus Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and of Community Health and Epidemiology and the Inmediate Past Head and Chief-of-Psychiatry at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Dr Arboleda-Flórez is a leading authority on legal psychiatry and human rights of the mentally ill. He is the Honorary Chair of the Forensic Section and a longstanding member of the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association, an Honorary member ofseveral national psychiatric associations. Norman Sartorius was Director of the World Health Organization's mental health programme from 1977 - 1993, President of the World Psychiatric Association from 1993 - 1999 and has been President of the European Psychiatric Association since 1999. Dr Sartorius holds professorial appointments at the Universities of London, Prague and Zagreb and is Senior Associate of Faculty at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Dr Sartorius is among the world's leading authorities onfighting stigma, co-morbidity of mental and physical illness, public health aspects of psychiatry and psychiatric education.