I learned an incredible amount and feel so humbled to have engaged with a myriad of people within the mental health ecosystem and media platforms:

• I joined a support group meeting and had the opportunity to engage with supporters of people with lived experience from their respective contexts.
• I engaged with people navigating their lived experience with mental illness. I believe that engaging about my lived experience with mental illness has shifted paradigms and resonated with people who can relate first hand.
• I met with various leaders from NGO’s and explored opportunities for collaboration.
• I joined a psychiatry ward round and interacted with various members of the multi-disciplinary team. It was very insightful to witness the similarities and differences between what is done in South Africa and Ghana.
• I presented to the psychology department about the important role of psychotherapy in the management of my illness and also shared my thoughts from lived experience with bipolar disorder.
• I presented at the research meeting for the psychiatry department and shared my input about how critical the role of my psychiatrist is along with psychotropic management.
• One of the absolute highlights was meeting with the leadership of the Mental Health Authority in the Ministry of health and having a progressive discussion on various issues affecting mental healthcare users and how advocacy can be supported better. I gained incredible insights and shared my own which were warmly embraced.
• Visiting various media houses was an opportunity to reach the broader community of Ghana and enabled me to unpack the pain points related to stigma and misinformation.