State of the Art Rights Based Effective Supports?
A critique of the mental health and psychosocial disabilities arena
Hosts: INTAR (International Network Towards Alternatives and Rights-Based Supports)
Panellists:
Alberto Vásquez Encalada, Mad Thinking, Peru
Cláudia Braga, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Kavita Nair, TCI Asia / Bapu Trust, India
Raffaella Pocobello, Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), Italy
UgnÄ— GrigaitÄ—, Mental Health Perspectives, Lithuania
Date: March 30th, 2026, 14:00 CET
Register for Webinar here
Webinar
Dialogue between established Peer Leaders in the mental health field
There are international perspectives on what constitutes State of the Art Rights Based Effective Supports,
for example, (survivor, systemic, human rights specific perspectives and more). And all of them come with
healthy critiques, for example (regressive practice, co-optation, rebranded state of the art, etc.)
In Lavassa, India almost 10 years ago there was a gathering, a coming together of voices with multiple
perspectives from global south and north to explore and influence how responses to mental health and
psychosocial disabilities need to transform in a post psychiatric paradigm. Plenary and participant
interviews provide some backdrop. At a UN level in 2017 a mandate for such transformation emerged. Yet
what has changed and what now is considered state of the art?
The stimulus for this webinar initially came from a network of European multi perspective partners who are
interested in exploring what exactly constitutes ‘State of the Art’ and how can culturally context specific
practices be enabled, from small grass roots organisations up to national service provision. Most of these
partners, including INTAR have global collaborations, yet funding to capitalise on these collaborations are
increasingly becoming divisive, e.g. Euro or Asia centric, making global networking more difficult, despite
the advent of online as a normative form of participation.
Moreover, with increasing coercive legislative policies across the globe, neo liberal funding mechanisms
and a diminishing of alternative voices at the international and national decision-making tables, we wonder
what has changed in the last decade?
This webinar brings together a panel of voices from global north and south to initially offer their
perspective inclusive of critique on the state of play with state of the art rights based effective supports.
This will be followed by a facilitated participant dialogue in response to the panel shared perspectives. We
believe this critique is timely a call to action might bolster what some consider a flagging motivation to tip
the balance from the old to the new evidenced based policy mandated paradigm.
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Webinar Learning Outcomes
LO1 - Consideration of what ‘State of the Art’ means globally
LO2 - Critique of perceived State of the Art
LO3 - Current trends in different regions within a human rights framework in effective community practice and
applied policy
Presenters
Alberto Vásquez Encalada, Peru
Mad Thinking
Mad/disability activist and organiser, co-director of Mad Thinking. He is a Peruvian lawyer with an LL.M. in International and Comparative Disability Law and Policy from the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has served as Co-Director at the Centre for Inclusive Policy (CIP), Research Coordinator at the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015–2020), and as a consultant to various UN agencies. He is a founding member of the RedEsfera Latinoamericana por las Culturas Locas, la Diversidad Psicosocial, la Justicia, el Buen Vivir y el Derecho al Delirio.
Cláudia Braga, Brazil
University of São Paulo
Claudia Braga is a Professor of Occupational Therapy at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She previously served as a consultant on mental health, substance use, and violence for PAHO/WHO (2022–2024), working on the design and improvement of public policies and mental health services in Latin American countries, and collaborated with and provided technical consultation to WHO and its regional offices on mental health (2016–2022). She also coordinated service assessments and promoted deinstitutionalization strategies focused on institutions for people with mental health conditions in Brazil (2018–2022).
She is the current President (2025–2027) of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Brain Health. Her main areas of expertise include public policy and services related to human rights, mental health, substance use, and brain health.
Kavita Nair, India
TCI Asia
Bapu Trust, Pune, India
Assistant Director-Trainings Inclusion Trainer (International)
Ms. Kavita Nair is a social worker, educator, and internationally recognised practitioner working in psychosocial health, disability-inclusive development, and rights-based practice. She is a TISS alumna, a BRIDGE CRPD–SDGs alumna, and a core member of Transforming Communities for Inclusion (TCI) Global.
With over two decades of experience, her work brings Global South perspectives into dialogue with psychosocial, arts-based, community, and body-based trauma approaches to advance mental health, inclusion, and wellbeing.
Kavita has been associated with the Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse since 2004 and currently serves as Board Member and Director of Training and Capacity Building. She has contributed to practice documentation on Arts-Based Therapy and policy submissions on supported decision-making, deinstitutionalisation, and inclusion
Raffaella Pocobello, Italy
Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC)
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Raffaella Pocobello, PhD in Clinical Psychology, is a researcher at the National Research Council of Italy, where she coordinates the CaRe Lab (Capabilities and Relational Practice in Mental Health). She lectures in international programmes at Sigmund Freud University in Vienna and is an Open Dialogue trainer and supervisor. Her work focuses on dialogical, community-based and human rights–aligned approaches to mental health. Her research explores how participatory and relational practices can support recovery and contribute to more inclusive and responsive mental health systems.
UgnÄ— GrigaitÄ—, Lithuania
Mental Health Perspectives
Dr. UgnÄ— GrigaitÄ— is a global public mental health researcher and human rights advocate dedicated to advancing UNCRPD-compliant, rights-based mental health systems. She completed her PhD in Global Public Health at the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health, NOVA Medical School (Portugal), following an MSc in Mental Health Policy and Services from NOVA Medical School and a First-Class BA (Hons) in Social Work from Lancaster University (UK). Since 2013, she has worked with a Lithuanian NGO Mental Health Perspectives (www.perspektyvos.org). Additionally, since 2017, she has been a member of Lithuania’s WHO QualityRights National Team, contributing to the implementation of international human rights standards in mental health and social care services, strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms, and promoting the transition from institutional and coercive models of care toward community-based, recovery-oriented systems aligned with the UNCRPD. With 20 years of professional experience, her work spans human rights in mental health, disability rights, non-discrimination, deinstitutionalisation, reduction of coercion, and prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. She has designed and led complex national and international projects across Lithuania, Portugal, Ukraine, Georgia, India, and Nepal, bridging research, policy development, implementation, and independent monitoring to advance structural reform in mental health systems.