2023 Global Capacity Building Conference

Since 2003, NBCC and Affiliates has worked with partners worldwide who are interested in professionalizing counseling and increasing mental health service capacity. In addition, through this work and these partnerships, NBCC has become aware that many counselors and counselor educators are also engaged in and dedicated to collaborating across borders and cultures. This has allowed for a better understanding of the differences, similarities, and mutual need for effective counseling and mental health training, practice, and research within and across borders.

Mental Health Connections: Advancing Global Health Equity Register Now!

NBCC and the NBCC Foundation invite you to join us during our fourth international virtual conference, Mental Health Connections: Advancing Global Health Equity.

This year will highlight education or training, practice, and research geared toward increasing mental health equity through counseling and other initiatives that focus on history, challenges, and resilience of the individual, community, culture, and country. Participants will learn about counseling through an international and diverse lens and receive insight about counseling and mental health initiatives and movement toward counseling professionalization from speakers across the globe.

This conference will take place from November 29—December 1, 2023.

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Become a sponsor!

Conference sponsorship is a way to promote your organization or university to conference attendees from around the world by supporting the Mental Health Connections: Advancing Global Health Equity virtual conference. Choosing to participate as a sponsor means that your organization or university will be included on the conference website, featuring your name, logo, and contact information, along with information about your organization or university. This information will be available for all conference attendees to view.

Partnering with NBCC as a sponsor will also give you access to written communication through a media package designed by NBCC’s Communications Department that will allow you to simply cut and paste language and relevant links to facilitate communication between your organization and your constituents about the Mental Health Connections virtual conference.

Please reach out to global@nbcc.org for more information.

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Keynote Presentations

Six Years of Collaboration in Belize: Successes, Challenges, and Outcomes

Ms. Monica Manzur, Doctoral Student and Residence Hall Director, Texas Christian University

Mr. Onando St. Bernard, Counseling Coordinator, Community Counseling Center, Community Rehabilitation Department; Belize Ministry of Human Development, Families, and Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs

Dr. Guy Ilagan, Associate Professor, Counselor Education, Zucker Family School of Education, The Citadel

In 2016, Dr. Eve Aird, a university provost in Belize, noticed a surge in suicide attempts and deaths among adolescents and young adults. With an abundance of concern, Dr. Aird consulted with a peer at a U.S. university and arranged for U.S. trainers to cofacilitate with her staff a series of trainings on suicide assessment and intervention skills. The trainings were conducted for an array of professionals across each of the six districts of Belize. The collaboration evolved to include a series of trainings on trauma-informed and strengths-based counseling approaches. The training team, moving toward self-sustainability, now includes professionals in Belize and one U.S. collaborator. The trainings have reached over 400 social workers, counselors, teachers, and other human services professionals. Two research manuscripts on the collaboration speak to some of the outcomes of the trainings and participants’ perceptions. Ms. Manzur, Mr. St. Bernard, and Dr. Ilagan will discuss mental health counseling in Belize and the finer points of their collaboration. Their heartfelt accounts of successes, challenges, cultural insights, and lessons learned may help you in your own collaborations.

Conducting Transnational Mental Health Training: Planning and Executing Sustainable Initiatives

Dr. Mehmet N. Akkurt, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator, Counseling Department, Lamar University

The disparity of access to mental health services around the world has become more apparent following the increased need for mental health services caused by the primary and residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries were not prepared to respond to this increased need in terms of the number of trained mental health professionals or facilities available to provide these services. Developing countries were hit harder with this reality, as there was already a gap between the number of service providers available and that of individuals who needed services. An effective strategy for challenging the stigma associated with and increasing access to mental health services around the world is training lay professionals who are already providing support to their community. By equipping these paraprofessionals with the knowledge and skills necessary, their impact within their community can grow stronger. Thus, efforts to increase access to mental health around the world have focused on empowering local resources rather than bringing in temporary solutions. It is evident that providing a transnational mental health training can produce fruitful results as long as proper effort is put into planning and execution with equal emphasis on the sustainability of the program. In this presentation, Dr. Akkurt will discuss the transnational mental health trainings conducted in Haiti, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He will also introduce a conceptual framework that will inform mental health professionals in their planning and execution of such trainings.

A Day in the Life of a Counselor

Ms. Shabari Battacharyya, Doctoral Student, India

Ms. Hana Meshesha, Doctoral Student, Ethiopia

Ms. Sabina Sabyrkulova, Doctoral Student, Kyrgyzstan

Ms. Laetitia Tokplo, Master’s Student, Benin

Ms. Mihee Woo, Doctoral Student, South Korea

Ms. Linda Xie, Doctoral Student, China

In the continuation of this series of presentations first recorded during the 2022 Mental Health Connections conference, this year’s recorded interviews will feature counselors from around the world studying counseling in the United States. These international students will begin by providing information about local mental health challenges in their home countries and strengths, traditions, and coping mechanisms that help people in their communities and countries meet those challenges.

Presenters will discuss their journeys and decisions to study counseling and to study in the United States, as well as the challenges they see in applying knowledge and skills that they learned during their U.S. training programs to clients, students, and families in their home countries. Lastly, they will discuss their dreams of contributing to advancing mental health equity in their home countries and communities. Presenters will also be available during the conference to answer questions from the audience.

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Learning Objectives

	Participants will learn about the state of counseling and mental health outside of the United States.
	Participants will learn about initiatives in education or training, practice, and research that build equity with diverse populations both outside and inside of the United States.
	Participants will learn about partnerships toward advancing mental health equity in communities worldwide.