For the next two months, local universities and medical centers will host seminars featuring research about mental illnesses to highlight "the latest breakthroughs in mental health research." The seminars are free, open to the public, and sponsored by NARSAD. Some will be carried live by webcast.
NARSAD formed in the 1980s as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression for the purpose of funding research into mental illness. Federal research dollars were skimpy for mental health and the initial focus was on young scientists with promising careers who were helped to advance work they might have been forced to abandon without grants at the early stages in their professional development. Subsequent awards were developed to reward senior scientists. Many of the recipients, now conducting research in laboratories and teaching in medical centers around the country, participate in the Healthy Minds Across America seminars held over weekends in April and May.
