Psychiatric Foundation Honors Efforts to Improve Minority Mental Health
Abstract
More than 250 guests dined under the stars and listened to Hawaiian music at the American Psychiatric Foundation benefit dinner on the grounds of the Bishop Museum overlooking Honolulu during the APA annual meeting in May.
Richard Harding, M.D., treasurer of the American Psychiatric Foundation, announces the names of the recipients of the 2011 Advancing Minority Mental Health Awards. At right is the foundation's acting director, Paul Burke.
The event raised $56,000 for the foundation's work, which included grants to the recipients of the 2011 Advancing Minority Mental Health Awards. They were presented that evening.
The foundation donated $5,000 each to the following organizations:
The Latinas, Tabaco, y Cáncer of Omaha, which works to increase awareness of common diseases, including mental illnesses, and organizes mental health and other support groups for South Omaha's large immigrant population.
Family Service of El Paso, Texas, which provides innovative bilingual and bicultural mental health services to individuals and families who have fled violence in Mexico.
The Student Stress and Anger Management Program in Los Angeles, which has reduced bullying, violent behavior, and anger frequency in the mostly Hispanic middle and high schools where the program has been implemented.
The Northside Center for Child Development in New York City, founded in 1946 by pioneering psychologists Kenneth Clark, Ph.D., and Mamie Phipps Clark, Ph.D., which provides youth and their families with clinics delivering psychotherapeutic, psychopharmacologic, and psychological services.
Steven Leifman, J.D.
The benefit capped a transition year for the foundation, said its treasurer, Richard Harding, M.D., in an interview with Psychiatric News. APA's recent organizational changes have given the foundation a new structure—it now includes the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE)—and a new board.
"We have a stronger and more diverse board, including one nonpsychiatrist member," said Harding.
That board member is Steven Leifman, J.D., a Miami judge who serves as a special advisor to the Florida Supreme Court on mental health aspects of the state's criminal justice system.
"I'm honored that APA has adopted me into its family and is receptive to these issues" at the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems, Leifman told Psychiatric News. "I hope we can forge more collaboration between the legal and psychiatric communities."
