Sozosei Foundation Announces Inaugural Summit in December
The Sozosei Foundation (Sozosei) is pleased to invite you to our inaugural Summit, a virtual event from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. each day from December 14-16, 2020. At the Summit, participants will have the opportunity to collaborate, create, and explore pathways to decriminalize mental illness. Please complete the meeting registration form by clicking on the Register Now button below.
Sozosei is a new non-profit foundation, established by Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. The Foundation’s initial priority is to spark creativity, innovation, and collaboration among advocates, reformers, and policymakers to drive evidence-based solutions in order to eliminate the inappropriate use of the justice system for mental health diagnosis and treatment.
Each session of the Summit will have a unique focus:
Monday, December 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. EST: Keynote address followed by a lunch and learn with preeminent authors on the criminalization of mental illness. To prepare for the discussion, all attendees who register by Monday, November 16 at noon ET will receive a copy of the authors’ books on this topic for educational purposes. The authors listed below will be featured speakers for this conversation which will be moderated by Norman Ornstein, Ph.D., VP of the Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation:
- Pete Earley, Author, Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness
- Christine Montross, M.D., Author, Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration
- Alisa Roth, Author, Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness
Tuesday, December 15, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. EST: Lively discussion to consider where we are today and how we arrived here, followed by PechaKucha presentations that highlight emerging and promising ideas from around the world. PechaKucha is a fast-paced visual storytelling format. If you would like to submit a PechaKucha, please click here for additional information.
Wednesday, December 16, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. EST: Design-thinking laboratory to develop new ideas facilitated by Stacey Chang of the Design Institute of Health.
Speakers at the Summit will include:
- Judge Steve Leifman, Associate Administrative Judge, Miami-Dade County Court – Criminal Division
- Rebecca Messing Haigler, Value, Market Access & Health Economics Lead, Verily Life Sciences
- Debbie Plotnick, Vice President for Mental Health and Systems Advocacy, Mental Health America
- Altha Stewart, M.D. Immediate Past President of the American Psychiatric Association, Associate Professor, UTHSC, Department of Psychiatry
To help start our conversation about this important topic, we are pleased to share advance access to season one of "Mental Illness Is Not a Crime," an original Sozosei podcast which will be released later this month through Apple, Google Play, and other streaming services. In the podcast, listeners will gain insights and ideas from experts from across the United States as they discuss how and why we have criminalized mental illness – and what we can do about it. Please click the links below to download each podcast.
Mental Illness Is Not a Crime: Community Best Practices
Mental Illness Is Not a Crime: The Data-Driven Agenda
Mental Illness Is Not a Crime: Starting Points for Communities