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Breakout Session: Mental Health
This session will explore mental health through the lens of prevention and resilience, covering the topic from several angles, including the role of communities and environments, mental health care and its costs, and associations between mental and physical health.
Speakers
Sue Abderholden
Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Sue Abderholden is responsible for providing direction and leadership toward the achievement of NAMI’s mission and leads the organization’s public policy efforts.
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She brings over 30 years of experience in nonprofit and advocacy work having held top management positions at Arc Minnesota, the Minnesota office of Senator Paul D. Wellstone and PACER Center. Her passion for NAMI’s mission stems from having family members who live with depression and anxiety. Sue became NAMI Minnesota’s executive director in October 2001.
LinkedIn profile
Twitter: @NAMIMinnesota
Sonya Brady
Associate Professor, U of M School of Public Health
Sonya Brady researches how normative developmental and stressful life experiences can influence health risk behaviors among youth, and how individuals and their families, peers, schools, and communities can promote health protective behaviors.
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This includes research on mental health and emotional well-being, sexual health, violence exposure, substance use, and health equity, utilizing technology to measure and promote health protective behaviors among youth. Her research also utilizes community partnerships and coalitions to reach diverse communities. Brady is a co-investigator of the ambitious Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research, where she applies a prevention science research paradigm in a domain of health that has traditionally been focused on the detection and treatment of illness.
Mindy Greiling
Mindy Greiling served in the Minnesota House of Representatives for 20 years where she initiated the first state bipartisan mental health caucus after her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
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She served on the national NAMI board and currently serves on the University of Minnesota’s Psychiatry Community Advisory Council. Greiling’s memoir about her family’s experience and legislative work will be published by the University of Minnesota Press next fall.
Twitter: @MGreiling
Moderator
Marizen Ramirez
Associate Professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Injuries and violence are the leading causes of death for people aged 1-44. To address this pressing issue, Marizen Ramirez studies some of the most prevalent injury and violence problems of today to identify effective and evidence-based solutions to prevent trauma and its adverse impacts. Her research has a special focus on society’s most vulnerable population at risk for violence (especially bullying) and injuries: children, persons with disabilities, agricultural workers, minorities, and rural populations.
