293 MENTAL HEALTH EXPERT TO SPEAK AT MTSU

Sita Diehl to Focus on Consumer and Ex-patient Perspectives

(MURFREESBORO) - Sita Diehl, executive director of NAMI Tennessee, the state affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, will speak from 12:35 p.m. to 1:35 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, in Room 316 of the Keathley University Center at Middle Tennessee State University. Diehl’s address, which is free and open to the public, is titled “A Closer Look at the Consumer and Ex-patient Movement for the Mentally Ill.”
Diehl is best known as editor of the BRIDGES curriculum, a peer-run program of mental health care consumers. She is a co-author of Back from Wherever I’ve Been, a collection of recovery stories from people in the BRIDGES program.
The recipient of master’s degrees in community psychology from Antioch University and social work from the University of Tennessee, Diehl has trained consumer staff of drop-in centers in peer counseling and was a contributing author to the 1998 Journey of Hope curriculum. She has conducted research on public-managed behavioral health care and consumer-operated services, as well as a multi-year study of mental health services in Tennessee county jails, and has developed curricula to cross-train mental health and criminal justice personnel.
This event is sponsored by the MTSU Department of Political Science. For more information, contact Dr. Sekou Franklin at 615-904-8232 or franklin@mtsu.edu.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a color jpeg of Sita Diehl, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.