Topic: Inequalities and resilience – Lynne Friedli
Resources: You can download Lynne’s slides.
Session summary: Does resilience change the way we think about inequalities and the struggle for social justice? Or should inequalities change the way we think about resilience? In this paper, I’d like to invite debate about some of the issues raised by ideas on resilience, positive thinking and wellbeing. It’s an old question: how do we combine the work that is needed to bring about radical systems change with every day ‘fire fighting’. What does it mean to work in a way that recognises the strength of the evidence on the wider determinants of mental wellbeing? I have concerns about some of the politics around resilience and welcome this opportunity for discussion and debate.
Biography: Dr Lynne Friedli works across Europe to support the development of public mental health, as well as delivering training and policy advice within the UK, with a special interest in the contribution mental health promotion can make to social justice. She is a consultant for public mental health to the Mental Health Foundation, an honorary member of the Faculty of Public Health and sits on the advisory committee of the Chicago Mental Health Impact Assessment programme. Her report for WHO Europe and the Mental Health Foundation on Mental health, resilience and inequality was published last year. She is currently working on an action framework for public mental health, also for WHO Europe, applying the work of Amartya Sen on capability and social justice to mental health promotion practice.
This session took place on Monday 10 October 2011.
The Resilience Forum is for those involved with or interested in Resilient Therapy research!
