We all know the necessity of learning new things and professional development. However, it can be difficult to carve out time in one’s busy schedule to attend training, especially when that training may include the travel and other expenses.
As part of CDP's spotlight on suicide prevention in the month of September, we will be presenting a series of hour-and-a-half long webinars. Each of these free webinars will be led by guest subject matter expert presenters and will focus on an aspect of suicide or suicide prevention. The events will be held on Thursdays, throughout the month, from noon to 1:30 p.m. We invite those interested to register for any or all of the events below by clicking on the titles or by visiting the Suicide Prevention Webinar Series page here.
Stigma is relative, socially and culturally determined, and dynamic. Consequently, stigma is a difficult concept to operationally define. This is important because definitions shape and directly impact efforts to research and reduce stigma. In 2014, the RAND National Defense Research Institute published an extensive assessment of stigma-reduction strategies within the DoD (Acosta et al., 2014).
Stigma against people with mental health conditions has a significant impact that extends beyond stereotypes. Fellow CDP'er Dr. Paula Dominici’s blog article a few weeks ago detailed some specific ways Service members with mental health conditions are affected by social perceptions about their fitness for duty, as well as how their own self perceptions impede help seeking and negatively impact emotional wellbeing.
It was happening again. Following another humid South Carolina rain, I sat beside my 6-year old sister, Trinh, who was having a “spell” – what we now know was some type of re-experiencing or panic attack - likely related to her boat escape from Vietnam just 10 days following the fall of Saigon. At the time, I could only do what my 5-year old self thought was best. Hold her hand, get the dog, tell her everything was going to be alright and wait for the spell to pass