The International Health Economics Association (IHEA) is seeking funding for one panel session, two or more invited speakers, and a presentation/discussion/networking breakfast, on subjects within the field of economics of mental health, at its upcoming 4th World Congress (June 15-18, 2003, in San Francisco). The biennial IHEA Congress is the largest meeting of economists and economics researchers working on health issues in the world. The Congress attracts a majority of IHEA's 3000+ members for four days of plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshops and poster sessions. (IHEA's organizational objectives include increasing communication, fostering a higher standard of professional debate, transferring information, and promoting collegiality among health economists.) The title for the 4th World Congress is Global Health Economics: Bridging Research and Reforms. The subject of mental health has been an increasing focus within the previous three Congresses (in York, England, Rotterdam, and Vancouver), hence its selection by this year's Congress organizers as a major theme for the Congress, around which multiple sessions will be organized. Within this theme, organized sessions are currently being planned on topics including mental health parity worldwide; international comparison of long-term care policy in treatment of dementia; and others. Funds would be used to develop one session focused solely on mental health, and to """"""""mainstream"""""""" presentations on the topic into other sessions (some falling under the general Congress theme of the Economics of Mental Health Disorders and Substance Abuse, and others focusing on methodological issues in health economics). Congress participants will come from over 60 countries, and will represent a mix of established researchers and others who are earlier in their careers. Not all attendees will be academic economists; there will also be a significant number of attendees from other disciplines, including physician-researchers interested in financing and economics. One purpose of the proposed grant is to expand and strengthen the group of researchers working in mental health, by creating several sessions on these topics, and by incorporating mental health issues into panel discussions on other topics. Another purpose is to provide opportunities for these researchers to network with each other. The Congress is being organized by two committees of leading health economists, who will design the sessions and select the Congress presenters.
