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VolAware Chancellor's Luncheon

To: Deans, Directors, and Department Heads
From: Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek
Date: September 15, 2009

Colleagues:
 
In times of financial hardship and documented rise of anxiety and depression on university campuses, it is especially important we focus on ways to safeguard the mental health of our community and strive for wellness. VolAware is UT Knoxville’s initiative to address these issues. VolAware seeks to:

  • Provide community members with skills on how to intervene when someone they know is in distress;
  • Decrease the stigma of mental health issues;
  • Promote emotional well-being and coping through life-skills development;
  • Provide prevention and early intervention of mental health problems;
  • Enhance education and awareness; and
  • Enhance community collaboration.


We do have many UT community members with mental illness who not only function well but excel at what they do. Please show your support of the VolAware initiative by attending the VolAware Chancellor’s Luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 12-1:30 p.m., in the University Center Ballroom. Consistent with Ready for the World ideals, this event seeks to expand views and challenge biases related to this underserved and diverse group within our community.

The keynote speaker for the luncheon is Dr. Fredric Frese, a psychologist with more than 40 years of experience in public mental health care. Frese is currently coordinator of the Summit County Recovery Project, serving those recovering from mental illness in the Akron, Ohio, area. He served as the director of psychology at Western Reserve Psychiatric Hospital in Northfield, Ohio, for 15 years.

After being diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 25 while serving in the Marine Corps, Frese went on to earn a degree from the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, Ariz., and a doctorate in psychology from Ohio University. He founded the Community and State Hospital Section of the American Psychological Association and is past president of the National Mental Health Consumers' Association. He currently holds a clinical faculty appointment in psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University and is an associate professor of psychology in psychiatry at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. He is second vice president of the board of directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and is also on the Board of Scientific Advisers for Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Please make plans to attend or send a member of your faculty to this luncheon. RSVP no later than Thursday, Sept. 17, to Sandra Chambers at 974-9344 or chambers@utk.edu.

I appreciate your support of the VolAware initiatives.

Posted September 16, 2009