For Creative Approaches to Conquering Depression:
A $1 Million Gift Supports Innovation, Destigmatization
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Trudy Crandall: “Any concentration of talent that focuses its purpose
on bringing relief and promise to those who suffer from mental illness is worthy
of our attention and support.”
Photo: Martin Vloet |
For Trudy Crandall, who holds degrees in anthropology and social work from
the University of Michigan, learning about the founding of the University’s
new Depression Center, a pioneering effort to address treatment of depression
and related brain diseases, was a call to action. A member of the staff in the
Outpatient Behavioral Mental Health Clinic at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, she
decided to make a $1 million expendable gift to provide the center’s director
with a fund to support innovative programs and activities that further the vision
and mission of the center. “Any concentration of talent that focuses its
purpose on bringing relief and promise to those who suffer from mental illness
is worthy of our attention and support,” she says. “One that is
headed by Dr. John Greden is even more compelling.”
The fund established with the Crandall gift, one she hopes will inspire many
others to contribute as well, is called the Executive Director’s Innovation
Fund. “I hope that my contribution will motivate others to join in making
the University of Michigan Depression Center a driving force in eradicating
mental illness,” she adds.
The Executive Director’s Innovation Fund will allow the head of the Depression
Center, currently John Greden, M.D., to develop a number of initiatives that
incorporate the vision for the center: “Depression’s stigma will
be a vestige of the past; people will be empowered with knowledge that will
lead to better detection, better outcomes and fewer recurrences; prevention
will no longer be just a dream.” The center’s stated mission is
to develop and implement initiatives designed to achieve earlier diagnosis,
better treatments, reduction of stigma and changes in public policy.
Among the initiatives that Trudy Crandall’s gift will make possible is
expanding the effort to connect with college-age men who may be suffering from
depressive illnesses. A “Real Men, Real Depression” public service
campaign developed by the National Institute of Mental Health was successfully
tested at the University of Michigan in early 2005. Working with other interested
campuses to utilize the NIMH materials effectively fits in perfectly with the
center’s mission of providing innovative national leadership in reducing
the stigma associated with depression and related diseases. “Besides supporting
research, education and treatment, the ancillary benefit of destigmatizing an
illness so long whispered about is an important aspect of the Executive Director’s
Innovation Fund,” Crandall notes.
A number of other initiatives that John Greden intends to move forward with
the support of Trudy Crandall’s gift and those of others to the Executive
Director’s Innovation Fund, include:
- Encouraging interdisciplinary connections between brain and behavioral
researchers at Michigan and elsewhere, so that, as John Greden describes it,
“neuroscientists and behavioral investigators can integrate genetic, neuroimaging,
sleep and stress hormone measures to create a mosaic that describes an individual’s
vulnerabilities and enables us to select or develop treatments that work for
that particular individual.”
- Working closely with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop
new and better approaches, including new brain stimulation strategies, for the
one-third of individuals who tend to be treatment-resistant
- Developing new programs to educate a new generation of primary care
clinicians and researchers who wish to help those with depression in their family
medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics and student health clinics
- Expanding the “Depression on College Campuses” campaign,
mobilizing campus leaders to implement diagnostic, stress reduction and advocacy
programs at their institutions. (The peak years for onset of both depression
and bipolar disorder are in the 15-24 age range.)
- Improving self-management programs to enable patients and families to
partner in planning, adhering to, and monitoring their treatments
- Calling attention to the need for a national network of depression centers
similar to the national network of cancer and cardiovascular centers that exist
today.
“The Executive Director’s Innovation Fund — and the gift
from Trudy Crandall that has made its launching possible — are wonderful
resources for implementing creative ideas that will help us provide leadership
in conquering depression and bipolar disorder,” Greden says.“Innovations
and transformations are sorely needed, and this fund — an innovation in
itself — is a wonderful beginning.”
—JM
For more information about the Executive Director’s Innovation Fund and
ways to participate in its success, please contact Karen Crawford, gift officer
for the Depression Center, at (734) 647-9138.
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For Creative Approaches to Conquering Depression
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