EVENT DATE: October 19, 2019
TOPIC: Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness

Dr. Heather Stuart is a Professor working at the Departments of Public Health Sciences, Psychiatry and the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University. She is also the Bell Canada Chair in Mental Health and Anti-stigma Research, the first ever in Canada.

She is also a Senior Consultant to the Mental Health Commission Canada’s Opening Minds, Anti-stigma initiative and the Chair of the World Psychiatric Association’s Stigma and Mental Health Scientific Section. She has worked in both hospital and community based mental health treatment systems, as well as with the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, and the World Psychiatric Association. She is Co-founder and Co-chair of the Scientific Section on Stigma and Mental Disorders for the World Psychiatric Association and Founding Editor of the International Federation of Psychiatric Epidemiology Bulletin.

Dr. Stuart’s main research interests are in the areas of psychiatric epidemiology and community mental health research, with special focus on mental health services research with respect to the stigmatization of mental illnesses. She contributes to peer reviewed scientific literature in the areas of mental health needs assessments; suicide and suicide prevention; stigma and stigma reduction; and workplace mental health. She is co-author of several books. Her most recent books deal with anti-stigma programming and human rights legislation.  In 2018, Dr. Stuart was named to the Order of Canada, and inducted as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada.