MHS Speaker Spotlights

Today we feature two speakers we have invited to present at the sixth annual Mental Health Symposium on Saturday the 27th of May, with the theme, "I can relate to that." We hope you will find these topics of great interest and mark your calendar to attend the symposium.

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Mental health promotion - what can you do for you and your loved ones?
Ian Colman, PhD, is the Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Epidemiology and is an Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology, Public Health, & Preventive Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Colman's research lab investigates factors associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal behavior, with a particular focus on public health approaches toward prevention and intervention.

His presentation at noon US Pacific time is titled "Mental health promotion - what can you do for you and your loved ones?” This talk will focus on things that people can do that might help their own mental health, and in doing so may also improve the mental health of those around them. Research will be discussed supporting the importance of a healthy diet, social activity, and speaking to a health professional when you are concerned about your mental health.

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Bridging the Divide: Exploring research in nutrition, mental health and food security
Karen Davison, PhD, RD, is a registered dietitian and certified health education specialist who consults on nutrition and psychiatry. She is also a faculty member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and research affiliate with the Social Justice Centre. She was the project lead for the Dietitians of Canada role paper on nutrition and mental health (www.dietitians.ca/mentalhealth). Currently, she is the principal investigator of the Bridging the Divide project.

Dr. Davison advocates for integrated approaches to nutrition and mental health care and participatory approaches to research. Her presentation, “Bridging the Divide: Exploring research in nutrition, mental health and food security,” will begin at 1:30pm US Pacific time (4:30pm US Eastern time). A growing body of evidence indicates that food insecurity, diet quality, and mental health are interrelated. In this presentation, we will explore this research and where future efforts may be directed that foster nutritional and mental health. As part of this discussion, Canada's Bridging the Divide project (http://nutritionandmentalhealth.ca) will be highlighted.

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The full schedule for the symposium hosted by Virtual Ability, Inc.^®, can be seen in this previous post. It is free and open to the public.