ROTARY LUNCHEON: Dr. Eric Plakun - Mental Health

Stigma toward those with mental health is a well-known obstacle to receiving needed treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.

In his presentation, The Four Freedoms of Mental Health, Dr. Eric Plakun will broaden the perspective on obstacles to adequate care by describing four freedoms as a foundation for mental health: Freedom from stigma, freedom from dehumanizing treatment, freedom to pursue recovery, and freedom of access to medically necessary treatment.

Dr. Plakun is Medical Director/CEO of the Austen Riggs Center, a therapeutic community, open psychiatric hospital, and center for education and research, promoting resilience and self-direction in adults with complex psychiatric problems. Based in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the Austen Riggs Center specializes in the long-term treatment of psychiatric disorders with intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy and a full range of psychiatric services, offered in a completely voluntary continuum of care that includes inpatient, residential, and day treatment programs.

Dr. Plakun is the editor of several books and author of some 50 articles and book chapters on the diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course and outcome of patients with borderline personality disorder and treatment resistant disorders. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and serves on the APA Board of Trustees representing New England and Eastern Canada.

Dr. Plakun, the brother of Past President Scott Plakun, has spoken to our Club twice before.

Each luncheon ticket includes a three-course lunch. Tickets are $40 each; $35 for Club members who register online in advance (online registration closes at 5PM the day before the meeting). Payment by credit card or check is preferred. Tickets available for purchase only at the door.