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Advancing Health Equity: Harnessing Holistic and Culturally Competent Care for Mental Health and Wellbeing

March 5 (CET) @ 12:00 - 13:00

In a world where health disparities persist, advancing health equity requires requires global collaboration and actionable solutions that support individuals and transform systems. Our Health Equity Series is designed to equip women with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to advocate for their health and navigate healthcare systems that can often feel inaccessible, dismissive, and riddled with systemic biases. Each session in this series tackles a specific healthcare issue while offering practical tools to create tangible outcomes.

In our first session, we’re exploring the topic of Harnessing Holistic and Culturally Competent Care for Mental Health and Wellbeing in collaboration with Nivishe Foundation in Kenya. This session will feature global perspectives and highlight culturally grounded approaches from across the world. Together, we’ll dive into key topics, including:

  • The Importance of Culturally Competent Care: Understand how integrating cultural awareness and sensitivity into mental health practices enhances accessibility and fosters trust within diverse communities.
  • Health Promotion vs. Disease Prevention: Explore why mental health care must go beyond treating symptoms to promote holistic well-being, reframing mental health as a continuum of wellness rather than merely the absence of disease.
  • Decolonizing Mental Health Care: Unpack the limitations of Western approaches that often pathologize mental health, exploring how they overlook cultural contexts and indigenous practices. We will highlight examples of community-driven and indigenous practices that have effectively reshaped mental health care models, offering inspiration for equitable care approaches worldwide.

Join us in reimagining mental health care to be inclusive, culturally resonant, and centered on fostering holistic well-being.

 

Register Below!

 

Our Speakers:

Chisom Udeze is an accomplished Economist, Strategist, Investor, and Founder with nearly two decades of experience leading impact-driven companies and actioning societal change. She serves on multiple boards, including as chair, and holds advisory roles across three continents.

Her global work spans seven countries and includes collaborations with organizations like the European Commission and Boston Consulting Group. Chisom champions democracy, sustainability, justice, and community driven and multi-stakeholder change-making. She also spearheads the Diversify Nordics Summit, a leading conference for leadership and innovation. A passionate advocate for mental health, Chisom enjoys tennis, reading, writing, and has published on Forbes.

 

Amisa Rashid is a renowned mental health practitioner, neuropsychologist, anda mental health advocate, celebrated for her innovative contributions to mental health care in Africa. As the Founder and Executive Director of Nivishe Foundation, she has spearheaded culturally sensitive interventions for underserved and marginalized communities. Notable innovations include the launch of Africa’s first mental health comic book, designed to promote mental health literacy among youth, and “AmisaGPT,” an AI chatbot that offers therapy support in Swahili and Sheng, tailored to local contexts.

A neurodiverse leader and advocate for lived experiences, Amisa actively champions inclusive, Africanized mental health solutions. Her expertise extends to the decolonization of mental health care, as showcased in her writings and advocacy efforts. She has been recognized with numerous accolades, including Kenya’s Top 40 Under 40 Women (2024) and being named among the 100 Most Influential Young Africans in 2021 and 2023.

Amisa’s influence spans diverse platforms: she serves on the Mental Health Technical Working Committee for Nairobi County, the Community Advisory Board for Aga Khan University’s Brain and Mind Institute, and as a Board Director for SHM Foundation. Additionally, she is a Trustee for organizations like Restless Development, Irise UK, and the Young Women Leadership Institute. She also co-founded Dawah Counseling Center to provide Shariah-sensitive mental health support for Muslim women.

A 2024 Echoing Green Fellow and WomenLift Health Fellow, Amisa embodies transformative leadership in mental health care. Her unwavering commitment to youth, women, and marginalized groups has positioned her as a thought leader driving systemic change, empowering communities to thrive emotionally and mentally.

Chisom Udeze

Founder of Diversify, Diversify Consult, HerSpace & The Annual

Chisom is an Economist, a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Strategist, and a 3 times founder of impact driven companies. She has over 14 years of experience working with organizations like the European Commission, The United Nations, ExxonMobil and The Economist Group. Chisom is analytical and a data enthusiast. She is passionate about interrogating the cross-sectoral relationship between society’s inhabitants, resources, production, technology, distribution and output. She efficiently and effectively unlocks complex systems, interprets data, forecasts socio-economic trends and conducts research.

Having lived and worked in 7 countries across 3 continents, she is highly adaptable to different circumstances and people, and thrives in uncertain environments.

As the founder of Diversify and Diversify Consult, Chisom and her team work with companies, institutions, governments and civil society to develop sustainable DEIB strategies and embed measurable diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace and society. In addition, in 2022, Diversify launched the Diversify Nordics Summit, the largest conference in the Nordics that gathers cross-sectoral stakeholders to amplify DEIB in the Nordics and beyond.

In 2020, she founded HerSpace, a diverse and inclusive co-creation community for all genders, with particular focus on women and non-binary people. In 2022, HerSpace launched HerTech, Women in Tech incubator, for women-led companies, with a focus on the inclusion of diverse founders. 

Chisom is a thought-leader in DEIB and a passionate advocate for mental health and wellness. She writes often on DEIB and justice related topics, some of her work is published on Forbes.

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