Alan Hu Foundation Presents Two Mental Health Lectures on September 10 and 24, 2024
Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, Arizona State University Professor
Dr. Wendy Silverman, Yale University School of Medicine Professor
Pleasanton, Calif. — August 20, 2024 — Alan Hu Foundation will present two webinars in their Mental Health Lecture Series during the month of September. “We are pleased that Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, Professor at Arizona State University will speak on Tuesday, September 10, and Dr. Wendy Silverman, Professor at Yale University School of Medicine will speak on Tuesday, September 24. Since September is National Suicide Prevention Month, we want to provide extra mental health information and support for families,” said Xiaofang Chen, President and Co-Founder of Alan Hu Foundation. Ms. Chen added that the two lectures are free to the public and are funded by generous grants from Three Valleys Community Foundation, Tri-Valley Nonprofit Fund, and a City of Pleasanton Community Youth Grant.
Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, child psychologist, Co-Director of REACH, and Foundation Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University will present “When the World Seems Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids”, based on her book (Workman 2020), on Tuesday, September 10 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm PDT. For many children and adolescents, the outside world can feel scary, with a 24/7 news cycle that focuses on negative events, political divisions and rancor, frightening climate events, and other concerns. Parents, who themselves may be anxious, often lack the tools to help their children. This webinar aims to help parents to help their children manage a scary world by using an everyday tool at everyone’s disposal: conversations. The presentation is also recommended for educators, teens, and young adults. Dr. Gewirtz and her team have conducted research in many countries, examining preventive interventions to strengthen diverse families affected by traumatic stressors. She has been a clinician, researcher, program developer, and trainer of providers. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, she has lectured in the U.S. and across the world on parenting in times of stress.
Dr. Gewirtz’s free webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, at 6:30 – 7:30 pm PDT via Zoom.Participants may join beginning at 6:15 pm PDT.
Please RSVP by September 9 at: https://alanhufoundation.org/ to receive the Zoom meeting link. Her lecture will include 15 minutes for questions and answers following the presentation.
Dr. Wendy Silverman is the Alfred A. Messer Professor of Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology, and Director of the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program and the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Silverman’s work focuses on factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety and mood disorders in children and testing assessment measures and treatments. She will present “Understanding and Managing Problematic Anxiety in Children and Adolescents” on Tuesday, September 24 from 5:00 – 6:00 pm PDT. Her lecture will provide an overview of the core clinical features of anxiety and its disorders in children and adolescents, followed by evidence-based insights to help parents, educators, and youth themselves manage problematic youth anxiety. These insights will be coupled with key treatment management questions that remain unanswered and serve as a future research agenda to pave the way toward improving the harmful impact and outcomes associated with problematic anxiety in young people.
Dr. Silverman’s research has been funded continuously for the past three decades, including a NIMH mid-career research-mentoring award. She has published extensively, including scientific articles and books, served as editor for major journals in clinical psychology, and served as chair of grant review panels. Dr. Silverman continues to supervise the next generation of mental health professionals, including conducting international trainings and workshops, helping children and families with problematic anxiety.
Dr. Silverman’s free webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at 5:00 – 6:00 pm PDT via Zoom. Participants may join beginning at 4:45 pm PDT.
Please RSVP by September 23 at: https://alanhufoundation.org/ to receive the Zoom meeting link. Her lecture will include 15 minutes for questions and answers following the presentation.
The Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities at https://www.mhacc-usa.org will provide simultaneous Chinese interpretation.
The Alan Hu Foundation was created by Xiaofang Chen and Chih-Ching Hu in memory of their son, Alan. He passed away due to mental disorders in 2018 at the age of 15. Their mission is to promote mental health, raise awareness and remove stigma surrounding psychiatric disorders, and to support fundamental research for cures.
For further information and to support the Alan Hu Foundation, please visit the website: https://alanhufoundation.org/helping