May 4: Professor to Discuss COVID-19, Rural Mental Health in National Press Foundation Briefing
Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato Professor Paul Force-Emery Mackie will discuss implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural mental health in a National Press Foundation briefing Monday, May 4 at 11 a.m. Central time.
According to a National Press Foundation preview of Monday’s event, Mackie will give details on the rural mental healthcare shortage and offer recommendations for handling mental health problems that arise during the pandemic.
Free registration information is available at: https://nationalpress.org/upcoming/covid-19-and-rural-mental-health-through-the-cracks/
The topic of Monday’s briefing is “COVID-19 and Rural Mental Health: Through the Cracks.”
Mackie is a professor of social work at Minnesota State Mankato and an expert in rural mental health. He is the director of the University’s Bachelor of Science in Social Work program. Mackie’s research focuses primarily on rural behavioral health labor force concerns, rural cultural, and policy development. Mackie may be reached at paul.mackie@mnsu.edu.
Mackie will speak following two Colorado journalists, Niki Turner and Susan Greene. According to the National Press Foundation: Turner and Greene won this year’s Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health Reporting for their coverage of the killing of a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia by a small town police officer who knew the man’s diagnosis but said he had no choice but to shoot. After the death, the town attempted to silence the story.
Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Social Work is part of the University’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,297 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.
