A great organisational team, strong partners, a prominent keynote speaker and an enthusiastic audience of politicians, doctors, university members and interested members of the public - the Health Congress recipe for success!
Furtwangen University raises awareness with top-class event - great interest in lectures and interactive workshops
Last Wednesday Furtwangen University hosted the 14th annual Health Congress, which is organised together with the Schwarzwald-Baar Health Network, the Friends of Furtwangen University Association, PRO HFU e.V., and the City of Furtwangen. This year the focus was “(Public) Mental Health: Where do we stand?”.
Opening the congress on behalf of the university executive, Prof. Dr. Christoph Reich emphasized the ever-increasing relevance of the topic of mental health. “Since COVID, the topic has become increasingly crucial,” he reported, but fortunately more and more people are now willing to talk openly about mental problems. According to Reich, the university takes the mental health of students and employees extremely seriously and has set up corresponding services as part of its occupational health management. As Vice-president for Research and Sustainability, Reich was also able to refer to a wide range of research projects, such as suicide prevention, stress and dementia research, which investigate various aspects of mental health.
The first state official of the Schwarzwald-Baar district, Dr. Martin Seuffert, also underlined the importance of this year's congress topic. With a view to the current coalition negotiations in Berlin, he spoke of the “insane dynamics” in the medical sector − noticeable in the district, for example, in the gaps in outpatient GP and pediatric care or the upcoming restructuring of the hospital in Donaueschingen as a result of the controversial “Hospital Care Improvement Act”. “In the field of psychology, especially in relation to children and adolescents, the situation is borderline,” says Seuffert, making it all the more important to jointly strengthen health literacy through formats such as the congress.
The organisers were able to win bestselling author and cartoonist Werner Tiki Küstenmacher as an inspiring keynote speaker, who gave practical impulses with “Simplify your mind - Understand yourself and stay healthy”. His entertaining talk, including drawing cartoons, showed the audience how much the limbic system, as the brain's “alarm system”, influences our perception. In good humour, Küstenmacher pleaded with the audience − “Don't believe all your emotions”.
As the Academic Director of the congress, Prof. Dr. Kirsten Steinhausen explained that this year's programme was not only geared towards the expertise of the many doctors in the audience, but also for citizens, employees and students of the university who are interested in health. HFU is regarded as one of the leading universities in the country in this field.
Accordingly, the extensive programme included many different formats that lasted until the evening and were very well attended throughout. Participants were able to get involved in interactive workshops, for example on “Mindful self-compassion”. The organising team had once again secured high-profile speakers, for example from hospitals, for the lecture events such as “Trauma therapy” in the context of suicide prevention or “Dementia: development and risk factors”. “It was very important to us to also include highly sensitive ethical topics such as euthanasia and mental illness,” reports Prof. Steinhausen.
"The high number of participants shows that we hit a nerve with this topic. We are very pleased with how the congress went," says Laura Sunseri from the Schwarzwald-Baar Health Network. Prof. Steinhausen also thanked the HFU organisation team for their commitment − Sabine Grimm was once again responsible for the overall coordination of the event, Juliana Dlugosch helped to plan the topics and strategic direction, and Prof. Dr. Katja Bremm helped to organise the scientific area. “We are a very strong team and are now looking forward to starting planning for 2026 soon − with, of course, another exciting topic!” promises Kirsten Steinhausen.
