Carolina experts: World Mental Health Day

Oct. 10 is World Mental Health Day, an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to addressing the mental health needs of the Carolina community.

Below is a summary of steps UNC-Chapel Hill has taken to increase access to mental health services for the entire community:

• Well-being days, which give students a break from classes to focus on mental health and overall wellness, were introduced in 2020 in response to the effects of remote learning and COVID-19. Those days were permanently added to the academic calendar in 2021.
• UNC-Chapel Hill hosted its first Mental Health Summitin 2021, bringing together faculty, staff and student leaders to discuss the needs of our community in response to the current mental health crisis. The Summit addressed three important and related topics specific to mental health at Carolina: campus culture, crisis services and prevention. The University continues to host monthly mental health seminarsduring the academic year on a wide range of topics.
• In 2022, UNC-Chapel Hill established the Suicide Prevention Institute. The Institute focuses on three main components: causation and neurobiology, implementation of clinical prevention, and outreach, community engagement, and dissemination. Partnering with Carolina Across 100, the Suicide Prevention Institute recently launched Our State, Our Wellbeinga 12-month initiative to identify and implement strategies to improve mental health and reduce the number of suicides in North Carolina.
• UNC-Chapel Hill is in a four-year partnership with JED Campus. JED is a nationally recognized resource center that provides access to experts and will improve the University's ability to prevent and respond to mental health issues.
• The Heels Care Network websitelaunched in 2022 and includes a comprehensive mental health resource hub for users to search and filter options for mental health support, a live peer-support chat, mental health trainings and more.
• Counseling is available through Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). CAPS' primary mission is to offer short-term counseling through brief individual therapy appointments and group therapy offerings.

Experts

UNC-Chapel Hill experts are available to discuss an array of mental health topics including well-being, suicide prevention, addiction, post-partum depression, trauma, grief, LGBTQ+ mental health and more.

To connect with an expert, please email [email protected]with the topics you'd like to cover or the experts you'd like to interview.

Avery Cook, LCSW, is Interim Director of CAPS. Cook works with students on a variety of issues including crisis work, adjustment, anxiety, depression, substance abuse as well as issues related to LGB clients, gender identity, and gender expression.

Karon Johnson, LCSW, is a clinical assistant professor and member of the practicum faculty at UNC School of Social Work. She has expertisein adult mental health, substance use, the intersection of spirituality and social work, trauma, and grief and loss.

Dr. Robyn Jordan, M.D., Ph.D.,is a psychiatrist and who leads the UNC Addiction Medicine Program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Jordan's research is focused on innovating pathways for bringing addiction treatment to all citizens of North Carolina.

Dr. Michael Kane, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who completed general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry training at UNC Hospitals. He is available to discuss suicide prevention, anxietyand mood disorders and ADHD.

Samantha Meltzer-Brody is chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and directs the UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders. She champions the Taking Care of our Own Program at the UNC School of Medicine that promotes well being among medical students, resident physicians and physician faculty.

She is also an advisor to University leaders as they address the current mental health needs for the campus community and co-led the 2021 UNC Mental Health Summit. Currently, Dr. Meltzer-Brody leads the effort with UNC Health and the Department of Psychiatry on broad based efforts to improve the mental health of our youth across North Carolina. This includes a new partnership with NCDHHS for a new Youth Behavioral Health Hospital.

Dr. Meltzer-Brody has been featured by Forbes and has given numerous interviews in outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, WRAL, WUNC, and North Carolina Health News.

Sarah Reives-Houston is the director of the School of Social Work's Behavioral Health Springboard. She has developed and facilitated training and curriculum materials focused on mental health, substance abuse, systems of care for individuals and families and developed all technical reports for state, federal and specialized accountability and reporting processes. Her professional development interests focus on recognizing, managing, and mitigating the impacts of trauma on client populations and service providers.

Ankur Srivastava, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the UNC School of Social Work. Dr. Srivastava has domestic and international research interests focused on reducing behavioral health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ*) persons. His research is informed by nearly adecade of community-based work with nonprofits in India and the United States.