1. All abstract authors must include practical steps, based on or arising from their research/project, for advancing the agenda of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention of mental disorders and moving from it the from the Margins to the Mainstream. The presence of one or more such recommendations will constitute a selection criterion in choosing abstracts.
2. Successful abstracts will be allocated to a workshop/break out session and full papers sent to the chair of the session. Prior to the conference, the chair will contact the authors of the selected papers. With the permission of authors, the papers for each session will be circulated among the presenters of that session. This will enable the chair and presenters to discuss any issues such as unnecessary duplication, order of presentation and final conclusions/recommendations that may arise from the presentations. This process will help the chair to prepare a summary of proceedings and make suggestions, to the session audience, as to a recommendation that may be forwarded to the Charter Plenary session at the end of each day. Following discussion by all participants in the session and where possible, the chair of each session will submit at least one agreed recommendation to the Charter Plenary session.
3. Recommendations will be discussed each day at the Charter Plenary session.
4. At the end of the conference the provisional Charter will be produced and circulated to all participants within two weeks.
5. Participants will then have two weeks to submit their views and comments.
6. Within the next four weeks the final Charter will be finalised and distributed.
7. The Melbourne Conference Charter will then become available as a record of the conference and as an aspirational guide for future work in mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders.

Why a Melbourne Charter?

Mental health promotion and prevention remain evolving and emerging areas in which we work. The range of research, approaches and activities being currently undertaken reflect the diversity of people, sectors and settings engaged in this work. In attempting to strengthen our global promotion and prevention agenda, it is important to engage with all facets of this diverse field.

The development of a charter will help us to arrive at some common principles and recommendations for what we believe should be part of our future action in mental health promotion and prevention. A lot of our work in the health promotion and prevention field has been guided by statements, declarations and charters, from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion through to the more recent Jakarta and Bangkok Declarations.

Regardless of where your focus is in the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental illness, you'll have something to contribute to the Melbourne Charter. This may be in the form of a statement of rights and values, an identification of the key challenges, the affirmation of a strategy or providing direction for future action. As long as it's informed by the work you're doing we'd encourage you to include it at the end of your abstract.

How will the charter take shape?

Every person submitting an abstract to the From Margins to Mainstream conference must include some practical steps for advancing the agenda of the conference: moving our best research, ideas, practice and visions from the margins to the mainstream.

Each of these steps and recommendations will be gathered by the chairs of the session and taken to the closing session each day of the conference. These steps and recommendations will then be discussed, and the resulting information will become the Melbourne Charter for Mental Health Promotion and Prevention of Mental Disorders.

We're hoping that together we can all create an important milestone in the world promotion of mental health.