Atlanta, GA - As Americans continue to reel from the shock and devastation of the killings at Virginia Tech, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Iraq War, 9-11-01, and other disasters - natural and man-made - one medical school is making a difference in the lives of those directly and indirectly affected. "The Mental Health Impact of Disasters - Natural and Man-made" becomes the fourth in the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) J.B. Fuqua Mental Health Forum. The Atlanta-based medical school - home to the Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health - will host the May 8, 2007 event in the auditorium of the Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care. The 7 p.m. forum, preceded by a 6 p.m. reception, is free and open to the public.

The program will feature three distinguished keynote speakers who will provide insight into the mental health challenges of natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as man-made disasters, such as the impact of the Vietnam and Iraq wars on returning veterans, the Oklahoma City bombings, and the Virginia Tech shootings.

Discussing the mental health impact of natural disasters will be Kevin U. Stephens Sr., M.D., J.D., who leads the City of New Orleans Health Department and Cheryll Bowers-Stephens, M.D., M.B.A., who led the Office of Mental Health in the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals through the experience and the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Colonel Harold Wain, Ph.D., director of the Returning Veterans Mental Health Program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, will provide an address related to the mental health impact of man-made disasters, including wars, bombings, and other forms of violence. David Satcher, M.D, Ph.D., Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health and director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse School of Medicine, will present an overview of the Surgeon General's Reports that relate to mental health. Satcher was the first U.S. Surgeon General to issue reports on mental health. They can be found at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/reportspublications.html#public. 

Joining keynote speakers to share their perspectives will be four panelists - all, with first-hand experience related to large-scale disasters. They include a minister who has tended to her massive, uprooted congregation, a physician displaced from New Orleans, a student who survived the worst hurricane in U.S. history, and a national journalist who became one of the first responders in the Gulf States: Elder Debra Morton, D.Min., co-pastor of the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church; Chief Science Officer Keith C. Ferdinand, M.D., of the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc.; Camiel Irving, a senior at Xavier University of Louisiana; and Miriam Falco, managing editor-daytime, CNN Medical news.

The overall goal of the J.B. Fuqua Mental Health Series is to educate the community about mental disorders - their magnitude, nature and distribution. Such education can help to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental disorders and help to create the type of environment in which persons feel secure in seeking help. The programs have been designed to present evidence-based solutions for communities, health-care providers, and policymakers committed to addressing issues concerning the nation's mental health system.

Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response at Morehouse School of Medicine-In October 2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, with support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, provided $5 million to Morehouse School of Medicine to develop the Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response. The major goal of the center is to coordinate the work of all the Centers of Excellence on Health Disparities in the Southeast region in rebuilding and enhancing the health infrastructure in the areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Dr. John E. Maupin Jr., president of Morehouse School of Medicine, is principal investigator.