About #talkmentalillness course
I am a mental health professor, researcher, and educator who has been working in the field for over 15 years. However, like many of my colleagues, I was unprepared for the wave of mental health challenges our society would face in 2020. From COVID-19 and the pandemic’s devastating economic impacts to racial justice protests and large-scale natural disasters, our current cultural moment poses unprecedented mental health challenges, especially for marginalized communities. For this reason, I led a field-wide call to action on mental health research and treatment, which resulted in this #TalkMentalIllness course. I had the opportunity to speak with over 30 experts from across the fields of psychological research, practice, and popular public figures to discuss the causes and latest treatments for many serious disorders, the stigma surrounding mental illness in our culture, systemic inequities in mental health treatment, and the mental health challenges of today. #talkmentalillness combines interviews from the Mental Health Experts series into an accessible learning resource to help you have conversations about mental health. Talking about mental illness is both the content and the desired outcome of this course, as you’ll use what you learn from my interviews with mental health experts to guide your own discussions about mental health issues and treatments with family, friends, coworkers, and others in your life. The course will begin by introducing a core set of definitions of mental illness and examining the stigma associated with it. We’ll then apply these topics to specific mental health disorders, including anxiety and mood disorders, eating disorders, suicide, substance use, and psychosis. We’ll then look at how these issues disproportionately impact marginalized groups and communities of color. We’ll conclude with a look at innovative approaches to psychological treatment and how the pursuit and science of happiness impact mental health and well-being. This course is part of a larger educational mission to bring scientific knowledge about mental illness to students and the public, both locally and globally. I designed and created it in collaboration with the Office of Academic Innovation and the Media Services Group at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries. - June Gruber
