PRESS RELEASE: Feb. 15, 2008
CONTACT: Susan Bushey, 781-768-7224; susan.bushey@regiscollege.edu
Campus Safety and Mental Health
Regis College hosts health leadership series
Regis College continues its President’s Leadership Series on Health with “Post-Virginia Tech Campus Safety and Mental Health Issues,” on Wednesday, Feb. 27, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Upper Student Union Lounge.
Events at Virginia Tech last spring, as well as Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois University this month, show that college and university campuses are vulnerable in their own open systems yet eminently suited to have a planned response to violence. On a steep and costly learning curve, colleges and universities show a wide range of responses. Whether people are directly attacked by a gunman or by a terrorist or suffer a natural disaster, crises regularly affect citizens of this country, and all respond differently under stress. This lecture will address symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, campus communication in emergency situations, and prevention and early intervention techniques.
“This past year many college and university administrators got together with governmental agencies to think through and develop better strategies of group and institutional response to a disaster, whether man-made or natural,” said Mary Jane England, M.D., President of Regis College and moderator of this lecture and panel discussion. “The open yet contained nature of the college campus provides an opportunity, almost a laboratory,” she continued, “in which representatives of medicine, social and governmental agencies, education, mental health, and security and law can work together to devise more cogent safety nets and follow-up.”
Presenting the lecture is Patricia Plummer, PhD, chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Panelists include: Barbara Leadholm, MS, RN, MBA, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health; Tom Robbins, MS, JD, executive director of public safety, Boston University; and Jeffrey H. Ziezel, MSW, MPH, executive director of Center for Health Resources, Woburn.
Upcoming lectures in the 2008 series will consider such topics as “Massachusetts Health Care Reform” (March 26), “Food and Water Safety” (April 30), “Global Warming” (Sept. 24), “Complementary Medicine/Nutrition” (Oct. 29), and “Disparities in Health and Hunger” (Nov. 19).
The lectures as such are free and open to the public. Pre-registration is available, and preferred, for nurses and social workers who wish to earn free contact hours. The series is hosted in partnership with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. For more information, call 781-768-7001, or e-mail presidents.lectureseries@regiscollege.edu. Regis College is located at 235 Wellesley St., Weston.
Regis College is a Catholic co-educational community that prepares undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students for leadership and service in a changing world. Approximately 1,600 students are enrolled in 24 undergraduate majors, graduate degree programs in education, communication, leadership, health product regulation, public administration and nursing, and a doctorate in nursing practice. U.S. News and World Report ranks Regis in the top tier of universities with master’s programs in the North. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) lists Regis among benchmarking colleges for the quality of educational experience. Visit Regis on the Web at www.regiscollege.edu.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is a full-service health benefits company serving members throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and beyond.