MIKE SLADE
We are happy to announce that one of our keynote speakers will be Mike Slade from the UK. Mike is one of the worlds leading scientists in the field of recovery. He is Professor of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion at the University of Nottingham. His main research interests are recovery-focused and outcome-focused mental health services, including Recovery Colleges and lived experience narratives. The title of his lecture will be Recovery as transformation: culturally-informed approaches to meeting local challenges.
Michal Kaลกpar
Michal Kaลกpar is a passionate defender of mutual support among people with special experiences who often receive psychiatric diagnoses. He studied journalism and later was trained as a peer specialist. He has been systematically educating himself in collaborative and dialogical practice. Michal is used to telling life stories, both through his songs and in his peer work. He currently works as a recovery guide at the Recovery House in Prague. He was involved in the creation of the peer YouTube channel Studio 27 and several self-help groups, especially the GPS group. At the conference, he will speak about sharing experiences in horizontal, non-hierarchical groups.
OLGA KALINA
Olga Kalina is a well-known human rights activist in the mental health field. After being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2005, she joined the non-governmental organization, Partnership for Equal Rights promoting rights of people with mental health problems. Since then, she has been involved in trainings, advocacy activities and projects related to human rights in the mental health sphere, as well as the introduction of peer support and recovery-based approaches in her homeland Georgia. These promising developments started in 2023 but are now seriously threatened by an unstable and restrictive policy environment. Olgaโs
presentation will examine the efforts of NGOโs and mental health services against the backdrop of harmful legal reforms and highlights the resulting risks to human rights and mental health in Georgiaโs current context.
JEAN PIERRE WILKEN
Jean Pierre Wilken is psychologist and social scientist. He is emeritus professor at University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Netherlands and visiting professor at Tartu University, Estonia.ย
His research focuses on psychosocial support and social inclusion of people in vulnerable positions, especially people with mental health issues. Specific areas of expertise are relational care, recovery, implementation of the UN-CRPD, experiential expertise and community development. Jean Pierre Wilken is chair of the CARe Network for recovery and social inclusion.ย
Jean Pierre will speak at the closing session of the conference, bringing together different themes that were the subject of presentations and workshops. He will argue that recovery is an ongoing process of reconnection, based on the value of human life. Personal recovery processes of people with complex psychological and social challenges benefit from a whole person and whole system approach, focussing on all aspects of quality of life that are important for the personโs well-being. We are on a journey that is often not easy, but together we can succeed.
NATALIIA PIDKALIUK & MYKOLA KHOMITSKYะ
Nataliia Pidkaliuk is leading the institute of psychosomatic and traumatherapy (IPSI), a group of
mental health care specialists working in the community, located in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. We
have united for building services in our community for traumatized people. Trauma affects not only
the person, but all who are nearby this person and how the person can function in society.
Mykola Khomitskyั is Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Medical
Psychology at Zaporizhzhya State Medical and Pharmaceutical University.
Nataliia and Mykola will share the current situation in Ukraine and describe the perspectives for
Implementing the CARe Approach in Ukraine. The implementation of the CARe approach in Ukraine
offers a strategic opportunity to modernize the mental health and psychosocial support system in
line with international best practices and human rights standards. First, Ukraine has already initiated
mental health reforms aimed at deinstitutionalization and the development of community-based
services. The CARe approach aligns well with these reforms, providing a concrete methodology for
translating policy goals into everyday practice.
Second, the large-scale psychosocial impact of war has increased awareness among policymakers,
professionals, and wider community of the importance of mental health and recovery-oriented care.
This creates a window of opportunity for introducing new approaches that emphasize long-term
well-being rather than short-term crisis management.
Third, Ukraine is beginning to develop a strong and active civil society, including non-governmental
organizations, peer initiatives, and volunteer networks. We believe and hope that these emerging
actors could play a crucial role in adapting and promoting the CARe approach at the community level.
SIMONA KARBOUNIARIS
Simona Karbouniaris PhD is Professor of Mental Health Care at Leiden University of Applied Sciences,
Netherlands, where she leads the research group Mental Health Care in close collaboration with
Mental Health Service provider GGZ Rivierduinen. Her work focuses on recovery-oriented, trauma-
sensitive and network-based mental health care, with a strong emphasis on proximity, relational
safety and the meaningful integration of experiential knowledge in practice, education and research.
Trained as a social scientist and drawing on her own lived experience, Karbouniaris has spent more
than two decades working at the intersection of mental health practice, higher education and
practice-based research. She is actively involved in national and international research
collaborations, including European projects on youth mental health and resilience.
Professor Karbouniaris will introduce proximity-based, trauma-sensitive care as a guiding practice for
the transformation of mental health services. Grounded in recovery-oriented and trauma-informed
perspectives, we she argues that mental health cannot be understood or addressed outside of
relational, social, and existential contexts. Drawing on practice-based research, lived experience, and
interdisciplinary collaboration, the lecture positions trauma not merely as a past event but as an
ongoing, relational phenomenon that can be reactivated within care systems themselves. Entrance
barriers, discontinuity of care, protocol-driven practices, and power asymmetries risk reproducing
experiences of helplessness, dependency, and epistemic injustice. Trauma-sensitive care therefore
requires more than specific interventions: it calls for a professional stance characterized by relational
safety, sensitivity, reflexivity, and shared decision-making. Central to this vision is the role of
experiential knowledgeโboth of service users and of professionals with lived experienceโas a vital
and complementary source of knowledge alongside scientific and professional expertise.
PAVEL ลรฤAN
Pavel ลรญฤan is director of the Centre for Mental Health Care Development in Prague and coordinator
of The CARe Network. He will speak at the opening session of the conference, highlighting the
importance of the conference for the innovation of mental health care and international
cooperation.