Global Health Innovation Collaborative | School of Social Work

Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Research and Services Conference Now Accepting Proposals

The School of Social Work Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Research and Services Conference is now accepting proposals! You’re invited to submit original and creative proposals that help improve the ways that we think about global mental health and community wellbeing. A wide range of submissions are welcomed, including traditional scholarly abstracts as well as creative formats such as artwork, poetry, music, short films, digital storytelling, and other multimedia presentations.

This conference aims to create a collaborative space where people with lived experience, caregivers, community members, artists, advocates, service providers, traditional healers, and researchers can learn from one another.

Proposals are due May 31, 2026. The conference will be held virtually on October 8 and 9, 2026.

Find out more about the conference and how to submit your proposal on the conference website.

Andrade’s New Article on Close Kin Availability and Mortality Among Older Adults in Brazil Published in Social Science & Medicine

A new article co-authored by Dr. Flávia Andrade, PhD Program Director and Professor, has been published in Social Science & Medicine.

Close kin availability and mortality among older adults in Brazil discusses how Brazil is struggling with limited welfare infrastructure to support healthy aging, making spouses and adult children among the primary sources of support for a rapidly aging population. Declining fertility and marital transitions may threaten older adults’ health, raising a critical question:

Are there gender differences in older Brazilians’ mortality risks by partnership and parenthood status?

The study concluded that for both men and women who lack both traditional family ties, aging presents the highest mortality risks, but for men, having children and lacking a partner also elevate mortality risks. The study discusses these findings in the context of demographic and social changes in the availability of close kin and the potential opportunities to enhance survival among older adults in Brazil.

“Who will take care of us when we’re old? It’s one of the most universal questions we face—and for millions of older Brazilians, the answer is becoming less certain,” Dr. Andrade says. “Families are shrinking—marriages are dissolving, birth rates are falling, and adult children are moving away. Yet Brazil’s care infrastructure still assumes that families will shoulder the burden. Our research reveals what happens when they can’t. Older men without a partner die sooner, whether or not they have children. Older women face the highest mortality risk when they have neither a partner nor children. These are not just personal tragedies. They are a warning that traditional family safety nets are scrambling to provide care and that Brazil, like many other countries, urgently needs to discuss alternative ways to provide care for older adults.”

Many Displaced Girls in Uganda Trapped in Cycles of Sexual, Physical Violence

Hosting the Inaugural Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Research and Services Conference With Dr. Flora Cohen

group of attendees chat together in hall

The School of Social Work recently hosted the inaugural Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Research and Services Conference. Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, the conference sought to bring together leaders, researchers, practitioners and people with lived experience from the local Champaign-Urbana community and around the world. Spanning two days, the event included speaker sessions on a range of topics—from the use of AI in mental health support to the role of dance in mental wellbeing—as well as a morning mindfulness walk, community connections hall, and an artists alley.

Dr. Flora Cohen, Assistant Professor and organizer of the conference, has always been interested in understanding how people from all over the world view their own mental health and healing. The conference was a continuation of her work, with a focus on transdisciplinary perspectives that can truly meet people where they are and collaborate to get them where they want to go.

The timing of the conference coinciding with World Mental Health Day was a purposeful decision. “World Mental Health Day raises awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizes efforts in support of mental health,” Dr. Cohen confirms. “We wanted to include arts and practice-based perspectives because we were interested in understanding how we can integrate art (music, painting, textiles, etc) into programs and research.”

As day one of the conference took off, Dr. Cohen was pleasantly surprised to find that the diverse conference participants had a transdisciplinary and holistic view of mental health. She recalls a focus on treating everything from symptoms to systems. Another prominent theme of the conference was “decolonizing mental health”, which Dr. Cohen describes as having four main factors:

1. Understanding that the way the formal mental healthcare system in the U.S. views mental health is not the same as how people from other countries or contexts view mental health.
2. Because the symptoms of mental health challenges differ, treatments must be informed by individual and community-level conceptualizations of health and healing. Strategies for healing can look different for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that one is necessarily better than the other.
3. There is a dearth of evidence about what works and what doesn’t work in the Global South, largely because the Global North determines what counts as evidence and who is able to evaluate programs.
4. We still have a long road ahead of us if we want to liberate evidence from the Global South, and integrate decolonized solutions to mental health care.

On the future of mental health, Dr. Cohen is hopeful. “I see a growing interest and momentum in global mental health,” she says. “While the global mental health sector has been met with some political challenges recently, these challenges have presented opportunities for innovation and investment in local solutions.”

On the topic of individual participation in strengthening local communities, she looks to the Global South. “The truth is that the Global South has been finding a way to support people who are struggling with their mental health for a long time, to varying degrees of success, and with limited funding. If we can learn collaboratively with them, then I believe we can continue to grow collectively.” In order to enhance collaborations with guests from different parts of the world, speakers from South Africa and Bangladesh were sponsored to attend the conference and present on their work with youth, families, tea workers, and students.

In a time when mental health challenges feel overwhelming for so many, she hopes that attendees remember that “we heal in communities, with tools that we pick up along the way. One of our participants said that she was able to find healing through a combination of medication, therapy, meditation, art, and religion. I think that is true for everyone—we have to find what works best for ourselves, and for our communities.”

The conference was made possible by the generous support of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Vision 2030 Global Strategy’s Implementation Grant. Other incredible sponsors included the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Social Work, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Krannert Center, McKinley Foundation, Humanities Resource Institute, and the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity.

an attendee is speaking into a mic at a panel

two attendees smiling behind a booth table

an art piece made up of cutouts of eyes in a spiral

Four people in foreground walking on the sidewalk in sunny weather

a group of attendees in a lecture hall with the forefront attendee raising their hand

four people sit on couches talking with each other

mindfulness walk attendees stand before a sign discussing global mental health

Global Social Work Organizations Unite: Illinois Contributes to the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development

a collage of photos with Second World Summit for Social Development Doha 2025 text overlaid

This November, the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) will convene in Doha, Qatar, nearly thirty years after the landmark 1995 Copenhagen Summit.

The first summit produced the Copenhagen Declaration, which committed governments to three foundational pillars: poverty eradication, full and productive employment, and social integration.

Since then, progress has been slow and uneven across regions, with poverty and inequality persisting, economic crises stalling investments in social programs, and marginalized groups continuing to face exclusion. WSSD2 is designed as a moment of recommitment and an opportunity to reset momentum toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The United Nations has invited governments, select civil society organizations, and academic institutions to contribute to high-level roundtables, side events and solution sessions. These venues give professional bodies, researchers, and practitioners a voice in shaping the Summit’s Political Declaration and action plan.

Illinois as ICSD’s Home

The School of Social Work at Illinois serves as the institutional home of the International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD), a global association committed to advancing social development through research, education, and practice. ICSD traces its roots to the early 1970s, when a group of social work educators in the Midwest United States sought to expand education and practice beyond clinical orientation and respond to structural issues of poverty, inequality, and social change.

Among its most influential leaders were Daniel S. Sanders, one of the early deans of Illinois Social Work, who served as ICSD’s inaugural President from 1981 to 1989; as well as Chuck Cowger, an interim dean of the School and professor emeritus, who served as President from 2001 to 2005. Today, as both the historic and current host institution, Illinois continues to provide symbolic and practical support for ICSD’s mission. Housing ICSD at Illinois helps connect global conversations on social development to the School’s research, teaching, and field practice, ensuring that international perspectives inform both the campus community and the wider profession of social work.

ICSD holds special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), granting it formal recognition and the ability to propose side events, submit statements, and participate in global UN deliberations. This status makes ICSD one of the few professional associations headquartered at a U.S. university with a direct voice in UN processes.

Illinois Professor and Dean, Ben Lough, who serves on ICSD’s Executive Council, will lead one of the accepted side events at WSSD2. Professor Tara Powell will also participate as participant in the side events. Other Illinois faculty who are active ICSD members, include:

These Illinois faculty demonstrate how local expertise, and scholarship can contribute to global policy dialogues on social inclusion and sustainable development.

A Coordinated Social Work Presence at WSSD2

For the first time, the four major global social work organizations are coordinating their presence at a UN World Summit. Each of these professional organizations has a different but complementary mission. By combining and coordinating their efforts, they bring together the voices of educators, practitioners, researchers, and policy advocates to present a unified social work contribution to global social development.

International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD)
- Advances interdisciplinary research, training, and practice on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice.
International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)
- Serves as the global voice of professional social workers, advocating for ethical practice, labor rights, and the role of social work in building inclusive societies.
International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)
- Represents schools of social work and social work educators worldwide, promoting quality education, curriculum innovation, and global standards for professional training.
International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW)
- Engages governments, civil society, and NGOs on social policy, focusing on integrated approaches to welfare, social protection, and sustainable development.

Together, these professional organizations will co-sponsor and organize four sessions at WSSD2, each highlighting a different dimension of social integration. This coordinated approach ensures that social work and social development perspectives will help shape the Summit’s political outcomes and action plans.

Session 1: Strengthening Intergenerational Solidarity

Title: Strengthening Social Integration through Intergenerational Solidarity: A Foundation for Inclusive, Sustainable Societies

Organizers: IFSW (lead), ICSD, ICSW, IASSW

This solutions session addresses the urgent need for stronger ties between generations as a foundation for cohesive societies. It will highlight innovative practices that connect younger and older people, from community-based programs to national policies, showing how intergenerational solidarity strengthens social trust, reduces exclusion, and supports sustainable development.

Session 2: Social Integration through Workforce Development

Title: Social Integration through Care and Social Protection Systems: Investing in the Social Development Workforce

Organizers: ICSD (lead), IASSW, ICSW, IFSW

This session reframes social integration through the lens of workforce capacity. It argues that without strong, multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral teams, including social workers, paraprofessionals, care workers, and community development staff, social policies remain aspirational. Participants will surface workforce models from different regions, explore digital and AI-enabled tools for service integration, and co-develop next steps on indicators of participation and inclusion.

Session 3: Designing Integrated Social Policies

Title: Designing Integrated Social Policies for Inclusive and Sustainable Development

Organizer: ICSW (lead), IASSW, ICSD, IFSW

This session will address how governments and civil society can move beyond fragmented approaches toward integrated social policies that advance both inclusion and sustainability. It complements ICSD’s workforce-focused framing and strengthens the coalition’s overall presence at the Summit.

Session 4: Universal Social Protection as a Pillar of Just Societies

Title: Universal Social Protection as a Pillar of Just Societies

Organizer: IASSW (lead), ICSD, ICSW, IFSW

This session argues that universal social protection is essential for justice, equity, and resilience, not just targeted programs for the poor, but comprehensive systems that guarantee income security and essential services for all. It will highlight global lessons, financing challenges, and the critical role of social workers in designing and delivering rights-based systems that reduce inequality and strengthen social cohesion.

Illinois’ Contribution to Global Dialogue

These four events spotlight the role of social work in advancing the Summit’s goals of inclusion, cohesion, and shared prosperity. As a coordinated effort, they address social integration from multiple angles: strengthening ties across generations, investing in the workforce that delivers care and protection, designing integrated policies, and ensuring social protection in policymaking. It demonstrates how collaboration across professional bodies of Social Work can shape international debates on equity and justice.

The participation of Illinois faculty underscores the School’s commitment to connecting local scholarship and practice with global policy and action. Faculty expertise in disaster recovery, youth and technology, aging, child welfare, and pedagogy reflects the breadth of contributions that Illinois can bring to the table of global discussions.

Shaping Outcomes Beyond Doha

WSSD2 is expected to reaffirm the commitments of the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration while producing an action plan to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For Illinois and ICSD, participation in the Summit is more than shaping conversations in Doha. Our faculty are committed to staying engaged in the implementation of global commitments as we approach 2030.

Our forward-looking role positions the School of Social Work as a key contributor, and as a convener, using our role to amplify the voices of social workers and social development professionals worldwide. Participating in high-level global dialogue also ensures that lessons feed directly back into classrooms, field placements, and research at Illinois.

Category: Global Health Innovation Collaborative