Adler School's Institute on Social Exclusion Receives Kresge Grant for First-of-its-Kind Conference

CHICAGO, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Adler School of Professional Psychology's Institute on Social Exclusion (ISE) has received a $25,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation to support the first national conference to convene innovative thinkers from a diversity of professional backgrounds to explore how social conditions impact mental health and well-being. The grant will support ISE's annual conference, "The Social Determinants of Mental Health: From Awareness to Action."

Featuring former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., as the keynote speaker, the conference will take place June 3 and 4 at the Drake Hotel, in Chicago. Dr. Satcher and other speakers will address how mental health is impacted by social conditions such as housing quality, neighborhood safety, food security, employment opportunity, the environment, and public service systems. In addition to increasing awareness of how social conditions impact mental health, the purpose of the conference is to develop and exchange new and innovative ideas about prevention and intervention strategies, and establish interdisciplinary collaborations that can work to implement those strategies.

"By supporting this conference in such a substantial way, the Kresge Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to addressing the urgent needs of our nation's most socially and economically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities," said Lynn Todman, PhD, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion. "By bringing together people from diverse disciplines and professional backgrounds, our intention is to pave the way for social change that will have a positive impact."

The conference also will feature: plenary speaker Sandro Galea, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., the Gelman Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; a panel discussion among public health experts from the city of Chicago, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There will also be paper presentations on topics such as violence, food security, homelessness, poverty, and social exclusion. .

In addition to the Kresge Foundation grant, the conference is supported by a $25,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For more information on the conference or to register for the event, please contact the ISE via email.

More about The Kresge Foundation: The Kresge Foundation is a $2.8 billion private, national foundation that supports communities by building the capacity of nonprofit organizations in six fields: health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. Working with their grantees, the Foundation endeavors to improve the life circumstances and opportunities for poor, disadvantaged and marginalized individuals, families, and communities. For more information, visit http://www.kresge.org/.

More about the Adler School of Professional Psychology: The Adler School of Professional Psychology has provided quality education through a Scholar/Practitioner model for over 50 years. The School's mission is to train socially responsible graduates who practice psychology throughout the world. The Adler School has ten graduate-level programs with approximately 900 students enrolled at the main campus in Chicago and a second campus in Vancouver, British Columbia.

More about the Institute on Social Exclusion: The Adler Institute on Social Exclusion (ISE) was established in 2005. The mission of the Institute on Social Exclusion is to build strategic alliances to ensure that all members of our society have safe housing, quality education and healthcare, fair terms of employment, nutritious food, personal safety, and judicial equity.  Together, we work to dismantle the barriers that prohibit access to these essential rights, resources and opportunities by advocating for structural change in our society.

SOURCE Adler School of Professional Psychology