Grand Opening on ‘A healthy Mind’
The Grand Opening on Tuesday April 5 was hosted by APH program leader of Mental Health Arne Popma (professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC). Two speakers, Christiaan Vinkers (psychiatrist and professor ‘Stress and Resilience in Psychiatry’ at Amsterdam UMC) and Hanneke Hulst (health- and neuroscientist, philosopher and professor 'Neuropsychology in Health and Disease' at Leiden University), gave a keynote on the subject of mental health.
Christiaan Vinkers’ lecture ‘Stress transcends traditional boundaries’ dealt with the subject of stress and resilience. Is stress unavoidable, and are we experiencing more and more stress in modern society? How can we use stress and resilience to understand the emergence and persistence of mental and physical illness? Christiaan talked about the inherent capacity and necessity for stress to cross boundaries, whether it comes to integrating mind and brain, understanding stress patterns over time, innovation in psychiatric diagnostics and treatment, and promoting interdisciplinarity. He gave us four important take home messages which gave us a sneak-preview for his inaugural lecture on April 14, 2022.
Hanneke Hulst spoke in her keynote ‘From molecule to mind’ about her latest research on multiple sclerosis (MS) and how insights into the underlying neurobiological factors of cognitive decline are insufficiently helping to improve patients’ quality of life and participation in society. She presented her plans to strengthen the brain and the mind of people with MS by making use of secondary prevention and an interdisciplinary approach.
The final conclusion of the Grand Opening is that we shouldn’t push ourselves to our stress limits in the first place. Stress should lose its stigma. The paradigm about stress is shifting, people are becoming more open about it. This will have positive effects on stress related illness. If we normalize to speak up when we feel stressed, we will be able to start guarding our boundaries more consciously.
Parallel research program sessions
On Thursday April 7, six parallel sessions took place. Researchers who were not able to join the parallel research program sessions, can access the recordings of these sessions via the links in the session descriptions below.
Towards sustainable elderly care for clients and professionals – SPH, ALL en QoC
In a series of two workshops, one from the perspective of professionals in (elderly) care, and one from the perspective of elderly clients, attendees helped solve the puzzle of how we can contribute to a sustainable elderly care system in the Netherlands.
View sessions:
Workshop 1: Sustainable elderly care: professional perspective
Workshop 2: Sustainable elderly care: (elderly) client perspective
Mental health and well-being in academia: interactive session on issues and solutions – HBCD
The first part of the session consisted of a couple of short, informative presentations on mental well-being and lifestyle and on mental well-being of young academics in particular. These presentations were followed by an interactive session in break-out rooms for junior, medior and senior researchers on mental health issues in academia, their causes and potential effective solutions.
This session was not recorded.
AI en machine learning in Mental Health – MH
APH Mental Health houses unique cohorts and other data sources that could be utilized to answer important mental health research questions. AI and machine learning could help researchers to utilize their data more effectively, but knowledge on and experience with such techniques is still limited among researchers.
View session: AI en machine learning in Mental Health
Impact of stressful life events: a global perspective – GH
The psychological impact of trauma is a global issue and a public health concern. The Global Health session focused on the psychological impact of stressful life events from a global perspective.
View session: Impact of stressful life events: a global perspective
Personalized Medicine and the Quantified Self – PM
Both patients and healthy people are increasingly able to, and involved in, quantifying what goes on in their lives. Smart phones, with or without add-ons, can directly measure more and more processes of the body. ‘Self knowledge through numbers’ is the battle cry of the Quantified Self movement. In this workshop the (un)usefulness of all the data gathered for patient-driven and doctor-driven scientific research is discussed.
View session: Personalized Medicine and the Quantified Self
Webinar ‘Omdenken’
The week of APH Spring Sessions was closed with a webinar 'Omdenken' (a Dutch word for flip-thinking), which taught in a humorous way how to transform a problem into an opportunity. Attendees to this session learned: the more problems we confront, the better! The webinar offered an energetic and interactive introduction to flip-thinking, a great way for wrapping up the week!