Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A half-day mental health workshop Friday [April 26] at Mississippi State will focus on mental illness issues among young adults.
"Serious Mental Illness in the Emerging Adult: Challenges and Solutions" is the title of the free program being co-sponsored by the university's Longest Student Health Center and Mississippi Department of Mental Health.
Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m., with sessions starting at 8 a.m. in McComas Hall main theater. Three one-hour sessions will feature several nationally known speakers, including:
--Dr. Jerald Kay, professor and chair for the psychiatry department in the Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Fredrick A. White Distinguished Professor at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio;
--Jennifer Tanner, visiting assistant research professor with the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University and co-chair of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood; and
--Dr. Vinod Srihari, associate professor with the psychiatry department at Yale University and director, Specialized Treatment Early in Psychosis.
A question-and-answer panel session will conclude the workshop.
While designed primarily for mental health professionals interested in receiving continuing education, the event also may appeal to students, faculty and general public members interested in mental health issues.
Dr. Nathalie Lara, staff psychiatrist and clinical director with MSU's Student Counseling Services, is workshop coordinator. She said organizers hope the program will help enhance a general awareness about the serious mental health issues that affect young adults, considering that nearly 75 percent of serious mental illnesses have an onset during ages between 18 and 29 years old.
Specifically, she added, the workshop will address how to differentiate between normal and abnormal development, challenges of mental health care in college settings, and the importance of early identification and intervention of psychotic illnesses.
For more information about the event or request special assistance relating to a disability, contact Kim Kavalsky at kkavalsky@saffairs.msstate.edu or 662-325-2091.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see www.msstate.edu.