Topics in Global Mental Health and Examples from the Field

Wednesday, April 25
4:30 - 6 pm
101 Fairchild

Panelists:
Dr. Kathleen Allden, MD
Dr. Richard Ferrell, MD
Dr. Matthew Friedman, MD, PhD

The panelists will cover topics such as the psychological consequences of torture, human rights abuse, refugee trauma, and humanitarian psychosocial and mental health assistance, and will provide examples from international health and mental health projects with which they are involved.  Each panelist will give a short presentation, followed by Q&A and discussion.

Co-sponsored by: Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health, Global Health Initiative.

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Dr. Kathleen Allden is the Medical Director of the International Survivors Center (ISC). Dr. Allden is a lead editor of the United Nations Document "Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". She co-edited the Physicians for Human Rights manual "Examining Asylum Seekers: a Health Professionals Guide to Medical and Psychological Evaluation of Torture”. Dr. Allden's human rights work includes expert testimony in US immigration court for individuals seeking political asylum. She provides consultation, training and technical assistance on psychological consequences or torture and refugee trauma to non-governmental, governmental and academic organizations worldwide. Dr. Allden has been working with Burmese refugees for the past 15 years.

Dr. Richard Ferrell is a neuropsychiatrist and geropsychiatrist, who directs the inpatient Neuropsychiatry Unit at New Hampshire Hospital. His research and clinical interests are in the behavioral effects of medical and neurological disorders and the sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the elderly.

Dr. Matthew Friedman has been Executive Director of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Professor of Psychiatry and of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School. He has worked with PTSD patients as a clinician and researcher for thirty-five years and has published extensively on stress and PTSD, biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and clinical outcome studies on depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and chemical dependency. He has over 200 publications, and has been President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS).