5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

countries. These are very important determinants of the disease burden globally. The quality of life of individuals with mental disorders depends on effective treatment,receiving support in the community,and their social inclusion. Since the mid-1960s

deinstitutionalization has emptied large state-run asylums for the severely mentally ill in most industrialized nations and in some

developing countries. Policy makers decentralized mental health services to community clinics where mental health care and education were integrated with primary care. The integration of persons with serious mental disorders in societies world wide remains a very challenging problem. Globally, their are structural obstacles for many individuals and groups with mental illness to receiving adequate care and achieving social inclusion. These obstacles have been studied with the theoretical framework of intersectionality which assumes that multiple marginal social statuses interact at the micro level and block inclusion(Bowleg.2012).

This session is focused on structural obstacles to inclusion and strategies for overcoming them for individuals with severe mental

illness. Papers using a syndemic and structural approach from Latin America ,Africa,and Asia are particularly encouraged and may be submitted in Spanish and French as well as English.