APS Mental Health Series Part 2: Politics & Policy

The issues surrounding mental health and well-being in our modern world and in our unique community are complex. Further complicating these issues is the fact that discussion of mental health is often considered taboo.

Mental health is important to the overall health of our community, but if we can’t openly talk about the issues that affect our well-being, how can we hope to adequately support the needs of our community, particularly in a time of crisis?

Join American Public Square at Jewell for a three-part virtual series this summer, From Resistance to Resilience: The Mental Health of KC Residents, where we will explore the root causes of mental illness in our community and how we can find ways to meaningfully address them.

In the second program of this three-part series, we explore the role politics play in the mental health of our nation. Is mental health policy and access driven by political ideology or insurance companies? How does the political climate affect the mental health of our communities? Join American Public Square as we explore the nuances of politics and mental health.

Panelists

Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, a self-proclaimed “fragmentation fighter,” Ben has worked to redefine the national policy landscape for mental health and health care. A passionate advocate for mental health transformation, Miller works to separate the disconnected – to integrate the fragmented – all in service to creating more comprehensive and whole models of care. Miller is a clinical psychologist by training, receiving his doctorate in from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Miller comes to Well Being Trust from the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he was an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and the founding director of the Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center. Ben has been a principal investigator on many federal and foundation grants, as well as state contracts related to health and health care integration. He’s written and published extensively on the importance of addressing mental health through delivery, financing, and policy. He has been featured in numerous media outlets including CNN, NBC News, USA Today, NPR, PBS News Hour, and many more. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Stanford School of Medicine.

Brandon R. Davis earned an M.S.W. from Alabama A&M University and an M.A. in Women’s Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Alabama. His research focuses on Law and Society, American Politics, and Race and Ethnicity. Brandon is interested in normative and empirical approaches to institutions, representation, and criminal justice.

Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a forensic psychiatrist and violence expert on the faculty of Yale School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work in correctional and public-sector settings, she was director of research for the Center for the Study of Violence, director or Yale’s Violence and Health Study Group, and leader of an academic collaborators group at the World Health Organization. She has consulted with governments to set up violence prevention programs internationally and within the U.S., as well as helped to initiate reforms at New York City’s Rikers Island Correctional Center. Her speaking up in public about the importance of mental fitness in a leader led her to becoming president of the World Mental Health Coalition and editing a New York Times bestseller by the title, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (Macmillan, 2017; 2019). She taught at Yale Law School and Yale College, published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited 17 academic books and journal special issues, and authored the textbook, Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019).