Community Program Offers Insight Into Depression and Suicide

CINCINNATI—A free educational program scheduled for Saturday, April 30, will offer the community insight into depression and its role in suicide.

The event, part of a community-wide outreach strategy in connection with the launch of the Cincinnati Mood Disorders Consortium, is titled, "Depression and Suicide: What You Should Know.”

The Cincinnati Mood Disorders Consortium is a collaboration of regional and international experts in mood disorders from the University of Cincinnati (UC) departments of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience and family and community medicine, the Lindner Center of HOPE and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The event is being held from 12:30 to 5 p.m. at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. Although it is free and open to the public, seating is limited and attendees are asked to RSVP to (877) 263-2882.

The program will feature a presentation by Eric Hipple, the former NFL quarterback who played for the Detroit Lions for 10 years. He has devoted his life to building awareness of depressive illness and to reducing stigma since the suicide of his 15-year-old son, Jeff.

A panel discussion will feature a Cincinnati couple, Karen and Dave Troup, who lost their 20-year-old son, Jake Ober, to suicide in 2010.

Formation of the Cincinnati Mood Disorders Consortium, which will be officially launched on April 29, has been a key goal of Stephen Strakowski, MD, Stanley and Mickey Kaplan Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at UC, and Paul Keck Jr., MD, CEO of the Lindner Center of HOPE. The Lindner Center of HOPE is affiliated with the UC College of Medicine, and its medical staff are part of the department of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience.

"Our mission is to improve the lives of people with mood disorders through improved coordination of key clinical care components, research and education,” says Strakowski.

Adds Keck: "Raising public awareness of mood disorders is key to our mission.”