Stigma-Free UC webinar: Mass Shootings, Firearms, and the Mental Health System
April 2, 2018 •
In the aftermath of mass shootings, there is often public discussion about the relationship between mental illness and violence, and outcry that the mental health system does not do more to stop these horrific events. In the third installment of the Stigma-Free UC series on Tuesday, April 24, Amy Barnhorst, medical director of a county crisis unit and 50-bed psychiatric hospital, will discuss the ways in which this response risks both increasing stigma against people with mental illness and drawing the focus away from other groups of people at higher risk of violence.
Barnhorst is vice chair for Community Psychiatry at UC Davis, where her academic interests include violence and suicide prevention, firearm policy, international psychiatry, and community mental health delivery systems. She is a member of the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Mental Health Task Force, the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy and the California Medical Society Firearm Violence Prevention Committee. Barnhorst has written multiple papers on firearms, mental illness and the law, including the recent New York Times opinion piece “The Mental Health System Can’t Stop Mass Shooters,” and has testified before the California and Alaska Senates on these issues.
All UC faculty, staff and students are invited to attend this webinar, sponsored by the Systemwide WellBeing Initiative, on Tuesday, April 24, from 1-2 p.m. To view the slideshow online, go to UCOP.zoom.us/j/5109879443. To join by phone, dial 408-638-0968 and enter meeting ID: 510 987 9443.
