Speaker to address parental, family depression
Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, an internationally renowned expert on mental health in ethnic populations, will speak on “Falling Through the Cracks: Parental Depression in Primary Care” at NAMI-Yolo’s monthly potluck dinner meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 1, in Woodland.
The event runs from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Destiny Hall, 124 Lincoln Ave., one block south of Main Street. Mental health consumers, family members and others interested in the topic are welcome to attend the event. Participation is free.
A potluck dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. and the speaker follows at 7:30 p.m. Those planning to attend are asked to bring a dish to share if possible, but all are welcome even if they can’t. Last names beginning with A-H should bring a main dish, I-P a salad and Q-Z a dessert.
Aguilar-Gaxiola will speak on missed opportunities for early identification and diagnosis by primary care providers. The family doctor, general practitioner or internist is the main point of entry for people seeking help for mental illness.
Major depression is traditionally viewed as an individual illness, not as a family or interpersonal health condition. It can interfere with parenting practices and affect mothers’ and fathers’ caregiving, a NAMI news release said. The results can have negative effects on their children’s physical, psychological, behavioral and social development.
While depression can be identified and effectively treated in adults, successful treatment depends partly on the family and social context, the release said. Parenting status often is not considered.
When a mother comes seeking help for her depression, it is important that the provider pose probing questions about signs and symptoms of depression in children and other family members as well, the news release said. This may uncover severe depression within the family which otherwise would go undetected.
Implications for early identification, diagnosis and opportune treatment are significant, particularly in the Latino and other underserved communities. Such detection of depression, and prevention of its effects on parenting and the health of children, is a major challenge and an opportunity for the nation’s health systems.
This topic is highlighted in the 2009 book, “Depression in Parents, Parenting and Children: Opportunities to Improve Identification, Treatment and Prevention,” authored by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Aguilar-Gaxiola will present an overview of the main findings and will offer practical views on risk factors of major depression, and critical features of care for depression in parents.
Aguilar-Gaxiola will reference the experiences of immigrant populations. As on-site principal investigator of the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey — one of the largest mental health studies conducted in the U.S. on Mexican Americans — he identified the most prevalent mental health disorders in the Mexican-origin population in California’s Central Valley.
He will discuss challenges that immigrants face along two areas — overcoming new challenges and finding new strengths. He will touch on an effective preventive intervention program that is adapted for immigrant Latinos.
Aguilar-Gaxiola, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of clinical internal medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine. He is the founder and director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities for the UCD Health System.
Having held several World Health Organization advisory and consulting positions, he is coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative.
He earned his M.D. degree at the School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, and his Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology at Vanderbilt University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on health services research at UC San Francisco.
NAMI-Yolo, a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, provides advocacy and support for people living with mental illness; and education and awareness of mental health issues for all people.
For more information, call (530) 756-8181 or visit the website at www.namiyolo.org.
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Posted by Special to The Enterprise
on Jan 24 2012.
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