2024 Schedule
Friday, June 21st
Mental Health Matters
Mental health crises are plaguing Americans. Despite parity mandates that require mental health services to be reimbursed like any other medical service, clinician shortages, knowledge gaps, inequitable access to services, lack of culturally appropriate treatment models, and stigma combine to undermine effective care. To address the growing crisis, we need more research and a package of supports a...
Making an Impact: Investing in Youth Mental Health Innovations
Today's young people (Gen Z) are the most diverse generation yet, have grown up as digital natives, and report poorer mental health outcomes than previous generations. Venture capitalists and philanthropies have the opportunity to help fuel innovation and growth and usher in a new era of effective, inclusive, and affordable behavioral health care.
Inside the Mind of a Sociopath
Mental health professionals consider sociopathy to be a personality disorder characterized by generalized apathy and difficulty internalizing and/or connecting to the learned social emotions. In her new book Sociopath: A Memoir, Patric Gagne freely admits the diagnosis applies to her, and attempts to help readers understand what it's like living with the complex personality type. Sociopathy is “an...
How to Dance in Ohio: Celebrating Neurodiversity
Desmond Luis Edwards , Emilio Amigo , Elizabeth Cohen , Madison Kopec , Conor Tague , Collin Hancock , Ayanna Thomas , Marina Jansen
The Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio” is the true story of a group of young people with autism preparing for a formal dance. Based on a documentary of the same name, the autistic characters are played by autistic actors in a musical celebration of neurodiversity and the universal need for connection. “If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person,” says one actor, suggest...
Saturday, June 22nd
Getting Candid About Mental Health: Senator John Fetterman Opens Up
John Fetterman was campaigning for the US Senate when he suffered a near-fatal stroke. Fortunate that a visiting physician was on duty in a nearby rural hospital, Fetterman survived and went on to win the general election. A few weeks after being sworn in, his longstanding struggle with depression intensified and he entered an inpatient mental health facility. He has translated his personal experi...
Understanding Grief
The experience of loss alters the map of the world imprinted on our brain, disrupting patterns and expectations as it struggles to form new ones. Grief is a kind of longing, not only for what has been lost but for the innocent assumption that our familiar world will remain with us always. We speak of resilience and healing, but in Grief is for People, author Sloane Crosley reminds us that lament a...