Benefit Dinner
2009 LIFESAVERS DINNER
Research Award
The 2009 Research Award was presented to Drs. Barbara Stanley, Gregory Brown and Glenn Currier for their collaborative work on creating a suicide attempt registry as part of the Developing Centers on Interventions for the Prevention of Suicide. This AFSP-funded study, which collected data in three psychiatric emergency rooms, has provided an important new database for research and has led the National Institute of Mental Health to write a contract for researchers to participate in a general ER registry.
Barbara Stanley, Ph.D., is professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She has conducted research on clinical factors, neurobiology, and treatment of suicidal behavior, self injury, borderline personality disorder and depression. She has received more than 20 years of continual funding from NIMH and helped the institute develop guidelines for investigators who consider including suicidal patients in treatment trials. She has also consulted for the National Institutes of Health. Stanley is currently president of the New York City chapter of AFSP and serves on the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Gregory Brown, Ph.D., is a research associate professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as co-principal investigator of the NIMH-funded Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide. His research has focused on targeted psychotherapy interventions for individuals who are at highest risk for suicide, and has worked on developing suicide assessment and brief intervention strategies for suicide prevention in emergency departments. He is currently investigating the effectiveness of cognitive therapy for adult patients who recently attempted suicide and for suicidal older men. Brown serves on the AFSP Scientific Advisory Board and Research Grants Committee.
Glenn Currier, M.D., M.P.H., is an associate professor of psychiatry and emergency medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He is director of the Academic Health Centers Consortium for Mass Casualty Management, and associate chief for clinical research at the U.S. Veterans Administration Center of Excellence for Suicide Research in New York. He recently completed an NIMH-sponsored career development award designed to link discharged suicidal emergency department patients into outpatient mental health care. Currier is former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry, and is a member of the Training and Clinical Standards Sub-committee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Public Service Award
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and former Rep. Jim Ramstad received the 2009 Public Service Award for leading the effort to secure passage of groundbreaking mental health parity legislation last year in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Signed into law in October, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act ends a 12-year campaign to require group health plans to cover treatment for mental illness on the same terms and conditions as all other illnesses. The law is named after two senators who originally introduced this legislation in 1996.
“This is not about me. This is about the 80 million Americans suffering the ravages of mental illness and chemical addiction. And so many Americans are counting on this legislation to gain access to treatment,” Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic, said last year.
“For people like me who suffer from mental illness, this is about lifting the cloud of stigma and shame associated with our illness,” said Kennedy, who has been treated for depression and drug dependence.
Together with other national suicide prevention and mental health organizations, and as part of the Mental Health Liaison Group, AFSP has advocated for over a decade for greater health insurance coverage for persons with mental illness and for stopping insurance discrimination of those in need of mental health treatment. Accessible and affordable treatment for the illnesses that can lead to suicide will help save lives.
Survivor of Suicide Loss Award
The 2009 Survivor of Suicide Loss Award was presented to Al and Mary Kluesner, who lost their 21-year-old daughter, Amy, and 38-year-old son, Michael, to suicide.
Following Amy’s death in 1985, Al and Mary became cofounders of SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), an organization that works to prevent suicides by educating the public about depression. A decade later, they helped establish the National Council for Suicide Prevention, which is comprised of not-for-profit organizations, including AFSP, dedicated to preventing suicide.
Al and Mary also developed and implemented the concept of using billboards to educate Americans about the serious nature of depression, and to urge those clinically depressed to see their doctor.
They continue to be leading advocates in Minnesota, introducing suicide prevention legislation in the state, and have presented at various conferences both locally and nationally. Al currently chairs the AFSP pilot billboard campaign, which started in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area with funds raised by the Kluesners, and now after an evaluation, will be expanded to other major markets nationwide.
2008 LIFESAVERS DINNER
Lifetime Achievement Award
George Murphy, M.D., emeritus professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, and a pioneer in the study of suicide, received the AFSP Lifetime Achievement Award for helping to create an entirely new area of psychiatric research.
Over 50 years ago, Dr. Murphy collaborated in the first systematic study of suicide, inventing what is now commonly known as the psychological autopsy, which uses post-suicide interviews with those who had regular contact with the deceased to better determine the cause of suicide. His study also used a new system of diagnostic criteria -- which later became the basis for the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -- to diagnose the psychiatric health of the suicide victims. What Murphy and others found was that at the time of suicide death, at least 90 percent had some form of psychiatric illness.
They also found out that most had visited a physician within six weeks prior to their suicide, but the illness had gone unrecognized or untreated in most instances, and at least two-thirds had told someone they were thinking about ending their lives. From this came the idea to give people considering suicide a place to call, where they could speak with trained individuals and be referred to professional help. The Suicide Prevention Hotline, now known as Life Crisis Services, opened in 1966.
A long-standing member of AFSP’s Scientific Advisory Council, Murphy’s research has identified factors for increased suicide risk in alcoholics, as well as for the overall discrepancy in suicide rates between men and women. He has published 15 original papers on suicide and attempted suicide, as well as book chapters and invited commentary, and has been cited by scholars and universities worldwide.
Research Award
The 2008 Research Award was presented to Annette Beautrais, Ph.D., for investigations that contributed to the understanding of various aspects of suicidal behavior, and have advanced their identification and treatment.
Dr. Beautrais is principal investigator with the Canterbury Suicide Project at the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences in New Zealand. Her research has included psychological autopsy studies of suicide and medically serious but non-fatal suicide attempt in people of all ages; follow-up studies of people who have made suicide attempts; the needs of families bereaved by suicide; the development of a national (New Zealand) suicide assessment and risk monitoring program for children and adolescents receiving child welfare services; and national suicide prevention strategies. She has also worked on a 1000-person 30-year birth cohort examining developmental aspects of suicidal behavior in adolescence and young adulthood.
Her current research is focused on interventions for people who present to the emergency department with suicidal ideation or suicidal behavior, and she is also evaluating the development of a national postvention support initiative in New Zealand for people bereaved by suicide.
She has written numerous research papers and reviews about suicide, and has contributed to the development of a range of guidelines for professional groups about identifying and treating people with suicidal behavior. She works collaboratively with a number of international suicide research and prevention centers, is a member of the editorial boards of suicide journals and is an executive member of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, as well as co-editor-in-chief of IASP's journal, CRISIS.
Public Education Award
Academy award-winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, Mystic River), Emmy award-winner Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos, The Matrix) and writer-director Joseph Greco received AFSP’s Public Education Award for the film Canvas, a moving and accurate depiction of one family’s struggle with schizophrenia.
Inspired by Greco’s own personal experience (his mother was diagnosed with the disorder when he was a child), Canvas tells the story of a family stretched by the challenges of mental illness. While the mother (Harden) battles schizophrenia, the father (Pantoliano) struggles to find the proper care and treatment for her and does his best to hold the family together. Eventually, the father’s attention turns to building a sailboat -- a process that transports him to an earlier, more carefree time in his life. In working with his son to build the boat, the father is able to impart an understanding and acceptance of the family’s current challenges, while also providing his son with hope for the future.
Often films about mental illness can perpetuate the misunderstandings and myths that surround mood disorders. Joseph Greco’s film, and the performances by Harden and Pantoliano, have helped improve the public’s understanding of mental illness and its impact on families, and have helped to reduce the stigma surrounding these serious, but treatable illnesses.
Canvas, released to theaters in October 2007, won the Alice in the City Prize (Best Feature Film) at the Rome International Film Festival, and Best Feature Film awards at several film festivals across the country, including Fort Lauderdale, Nantucket, Sedona and Sarasota, and Official Selection by the New York Film Critics and AFI Dallas.
While promoting the film last year, Pantoliano announced that he has been suffering from clinical depression for the last decade, and that he was taking antidepressant medication. He also has founded a not-for-profit organization called No Kidding, Me Too! to unite members of the entertainment industry in educating the public about mental illness.
Survivor of Suicide Loss Award
The 2008 Survivor of Suicide Loss Award was presented to Eric Hipple, a former NFL quarterback who lost his 15-year-old son, Jeff, to suicide in 2000. Hipple’s 10-year football career was spent entirely with the Detroit Lions, from 1980 to 1990. His accomplishments include two playoff bids and a divisional championship.
After struggling with depression himself in the aftermath of his son’s death, Hipple decided to devote his energies to helping others to detect and treat depression, and to break down the stigma surrounding depressive illnesses. Hipple is currently an outreach coordinator and spokesperson for the University of Michigan Depression Center, and has given more than 100 presentations on the importance of early detection and prevention of depression to schools, communities, law enforcement, armed services and professional organizations including the NFL Players Association and the National Funeral Directors Association. His primary message is one of hope: that depression is a treatable illness. Hipple also serves on the boards of the Mental Illness Research Association and the American Association of Suicidology.
2007 LIFESAVERS DINNER
Lifetime Achievement Award
David Shaffer, F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych., received the AFSP Lifetime Achievement Award for his over 40 years of pioneering research into youth suicide. Responsible for the first epidemiological study of child and early adolescent suicide, which led to the development of the nationwide screening program known as the Columbia Teen Screen, Dr. Shaffer has been a strong proponent of suicide prevention through screening for and early identification of the disorders that predispose suicide.
Dr. Shaffer, the Irving Philips Professor of Child Psychiatry (and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics) at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, has a longstanding interest in developing new diagnostic instruments for children and adolescents. He was the lead investigator in developing the Children's Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS) and led a team of colleagues and investigators in developing and modifying the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC).
In addition, he has contributed to the debate about the relationship between SSRI antidepressants and suicidal behavior in youth for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, and both the American College and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Dr. Shaffer has served as a consultant on suicide prevention for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Indian Health Service and the New York State Office of Mental Health. He was a member of the Surgeon General's Advisory Task Force on Suicide Prevention, has served as co-chair of the DSM-IV Child and Adolescent Disorders Work Group and is currently working on DSM-V. He is a founder and past president of AFSP.
Dr. Shaffer has received awards from numerous professional organizations including the AACAP, APA, the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation and NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association. He received an AFSP award for his research in 1989.
Research Award
The 2007 Research Award was presented to J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D., for investigations that have contributed to the understanding of depression and bipolar disorder as genetic disorders, and have advanced their identification and treatment.
Dr. DePaulo is the Henry Phipps Professor and director of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and psychiatrist-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. As a faculty member in the department of psychiatry for the past 30 years, he has been an active clinician, teacher and researcher whose primary area of interest is in bipolar and depressive disorders.
Dr. Depaulo's major area of research has been on the genetics of depression and bipolar disorder. He has been the principal investigator of numerous research grants, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Stanley Medical Research Institute. He also received funding from AFSP for a decade-long genetic study of manic-depressive illness. The study helped to illuminate the genetic factors that present a risk for suicide.
He currently serves on the scientific boards of AFSP, NARSAD and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.
The author of more than 100 scientific publications, Dr. DePaulo has also co-authored two books written for the general public: How to Cope with Depression and Understanding Depression. He has received awards from NIMH for public education and from NARSAD and DBSA for genetic research into bipolar disorder.
Special Tribute Award
AFSP honored the founding survivors of the Foundation in 2007 with a special tribute award.
In 1987, Norman Brickell, Karen Dunne-Maxim, Mariette Hartley, Dr. Sherwin and Claire Kaufman, and Elinor Wohl came together with leading experts in the field to form an organization dedicated to funding the research and education programs necessary to prevent suicide.
Through their concerted efforts, AFSP was established, becoming the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those affected by suicide.
Former AFSP Chair Norman Brickell and longstanding AFSP board member Elinor Wohl lost their 18-year-old son, Rodd, to suicide in 1985. They have continued to provide leadership and support to AFSP and also run the Rodd D. Brickell Foundation to prevent youth suicide.
Since the loss of her youngest brother, Tim, to suicide in 1972, AFSP Survivor Council member Karen Dunne-Maxim has been trying to help survivors of suicide loss heal their pain. She is an experienced clinician who has developed new and innovative models for responding to the special needs of families bereaving suicide. A recognized expert on issues related to survivors of suicide loss, she is a frequent consultant to print and television media, and coauthored the first publication to deal with suicide from the survivor's perspective.
Emmy Award-winning actress, author and AFSP Honorary Director Mariette Hartley has been an advocate for suicide prevention for almost 20 years. After losing her father, she became one of the first celebrities to publicly discuss suicide. By writing a best-selling memoir, and through numerous television interviews, she has informed the public about depression and has helped reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. In 1999, she hosted AFSP's first National Survivors of Suicide Day broadcast.
AFSP board members Sherwin and Claire Kaufman lost their son, Michael, to suicide in 1988. Their concern for fellow survivors and to the cause of suicide prevention has contributed to the growth of the Foundation over the past 20 years.
2006 LIFESAVERS DINNER
Lifetime Achievement Award
Named one of "10 individuals who shaped the face of American psychiatry" and one of the five most influential psychotherapists of all time, Aaron T. Beck, M.D., will receive the AFSP Lifetime Achievement Award for his 50 years of pioneering research into suicide.
Dr. Beck is an emeritus professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, which he joined in 1954, and is the director of the Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Suicide. Since 1959 he has directed funded research investigations of the psychopathology of depression, suicide, anxiety disorders, panic disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse and personality disorders, and of cognitive therapy of these disorders. His work was supported by a 10-year M.E.R.I.T. Award from the National Institute of Mental Health and grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a study to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of a short-term cognitive therapy intervention for suicide attempters. His most recent work has focused on reducing suicide attempts among chronic suicide attempters and borderline personality disorder patients. He has also directed an international working group testing cognitive therapy of schizophrenia. He has published over 450 articles and authored or co-authored 17 books.
Dr. Beck has been a member or consultant for several review panels of the National Institute of Mental Health, served on the editorial boards of many journals and lectured throughout the world. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He has received awards from numerous professional organizations and is the only person to have received research awards from both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. He is also the recipient of the Heinz Award for "The Human Condition" and the Sarnat Award from the Institute of Medicine.
Public Service Award
Jane Pearson, Ph.D., will be honored with this year's Public Service Award for her dedication to suicide prevention research and for providing leadership within the public sector to help address the problem of suicide in this country.
Dr. Pearson played a key role in the establishment of the Developing Centers on Interventions for the Prevention of Suicide, a federal initiative which recently produced a network of three centers for suicide prevention and research. Pearson participated in the development of the Surgeon General's National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, has an active role on the Federal Steering Committee and has collaborated with AFSP and other not-for-profit organizations on important topics such as ethical issues in suicide research, responsible reporting on suicide by the media and the need for survivors of suicide research.
Dr. Pearson chairs the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Suicide Research Consortium. She is the acting deputy director for the Division of Services and Intervention Research (DSIR) at NIMH, and is also the associate director for preventive interventions in DSIR. Dr. Pearson serves as the National Institutes of Health representative to the DHHS Federal Steering Group on Suicide Prevention, and she assisted in the development of the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent Suicide and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Pearson is an adjunct associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and recipient of a U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for her work in suicide prevention. She has had a private practice in clinical psychology, and has authored papers on the ethical and methodological challenges of suicide research.
Research Award
The 2006 Research Award will be presented to Madelyn S. Gould, Ph.D., M.P.H., for her outstanding contributions to our understanding of suicide and its prevention.
Dr. Gould is a professor in child psychiatry and public health (epidemiology) at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Her long-standing research interests include the epidemiology of youth suicide, as well as the evaluation of youth suicide prevention interventions. Dr. Gould has received numerous federally funded grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control for studies examining risk factors for teenage suicide, various aspects of cluster suicides, the impact of the media on suicide, the effect of a peer's suicide on fellow students, suicide postvention programs in schools, the effect of youth suicide screening programs, the utility of telephone crisis services for teenagers, and has received grants funded from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration to evaluate crisis hotline outcomes for adults. She also received a W.T. Grant Faculty Scholar's Award to examine psychosocial risk factors for teenage suicide and a Distinguished Investigator Award from the AFSP to investigate the role of the media in the initiation of suicide clusters.
Dr. Gould authored the chapter on youth suicide prevention as part of the Surgeon General's National Suicide Prevention Strategy and has served as a leadership consultant for the Surgeon General's Leadership Working Group. She contributed to the Center for Disease Control's recommendations to optimize media reporting of suicide, and was a member of an international workgroup, sponsored by the AFSP and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which updated these media recommendations in 2001. She hasreceived the Shneidman Award for research from the American Association of Suicidology and and the New York State Office of Mental Health Research Award.
Survivor Award
CNN anchor and correspondent Randi Kaye lost her father, Gilbert, in November 2002 while she was a news anchor for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis.
Desperate for information about depression after losing her father, whom she would later describe as "a friend and a mentor," she found SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), a national not-for-profit suicide prevention agency based in Minneapolis. She currently serves on the board of directors of SAVE, and in 2004 was the host of the sixth annual SAVE golf tournament called Randi Kaye's Links for Life. Through the the loss of her father, Kaye has looked to make a difference by educating her community and other communities about depression and saving lives. For her efforts she will be honored with this year's Survivor Award.
Kaye joined CNN in December 2004. Since then, she has covered breaking news in addition to providing in-depth reports for "Anderson Cooper 360°" and "Paula Zahn Now," reporting live from areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and giving viewers a unique look at the storm's fury and aftermath in both New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss.
Her television career began at ABC in New York City where she worked at both "Nightline" and "World News Tonight." While at ABC, Kaye covered President Bill Clinton's campaign in Little Rock, Ark. She eventually moved to Arkansas to work at ABC affiliate KATV where she covered the Whitewater investigation.
Kaye also worked at ABC affiliate WFFA-TV in Dallas where she reported and anchored for "Good Morning Texas." At FOX affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis, she hosted the nationally syndicated "Everyday Living," and at UPN affiliate WWOR in New York City, Kaye was an anchor/reporter. Kaye's most memorable interviews include Hillary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, while one of her greatest reporting memories is flying with the Blue Angels at 700 m.p.h. in an F-18.
2005 LIFESAVERS DINNER
Public Education Award
NBC News' "TODAY" show was honored with the AFSP Public Education Award for bringing the stigmatized topic of depression and suicide into the homes of millions of Americans nationwide. Over the past year, "TODAY" has featured a revealing interview with talk show host Jane Pauley about her struggle with bipolar disorder, a "Parents' Worst Fears" segment about depression and suicide on college campuses, and segments focusing on antidepressants in youth, seasonal affective disorder, ageism in the healthcare system and depression in women, including symptoms and remedies for postpartum depression.
Public Service Award
The 2005 Public Service Award was presented to Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) for their willingness to speak out on the problem of suicide and for their bipartisan support that led to the passage in Congress of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (S.2634). This legislation authorized $82 million over three years to provide grants needed to develop and expand youth suicide prevention and intervention programs. It also authorized grants to colleges and universities to establish or enhance their mental health programs and suicide prevention efforts. The bill is in memory of Smith's son, Garrett, who died by suicide.
Research Award
This year's Research Award was presented to Danuta Wasserman, M.D., Ph.D., for her scientific contributions into the epidemiological, clinical, psychosocial and biological aspects of suicidal behavior and for her involvement in implementing suicide preventive measures in Sweden and in several other countries around the world. Dr. Wasserman is chairman of the department of Public Health Sciences at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and professor of psychiatry and suicidology at the Institute. She is also founding director of the National and Stockholm County Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health, and is advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, assisting in WHO's Five Continent Project -- a worldwide initiative for the prevention of suicide -- and the development of suicide prevention programs and research in Estonia, Germany, Ukraine, Uganda, China, Japan and Vietnam. Wasserman has published over 230 articles, books and papers pertaining to suicide. She is a member of the AFSP Scientific Advisory Council, and was part of the planning committee for the Foundation's National Suicide Prevention Strategies workshop.
Survivor Award
AFSP Survivor Award recipient Iris Bolton lost her 20-year-old son, Curtis Mitchell Bolton, to suicide in 1977. One year later she started one of the first survivor support groups in the country. In 1983, Bolton's book, My Son...My Son, a Guide to Healing After Death, Loss, or Suicide, was published, describing in detail the journey she made from the devastation of losing her son to the step by step healing that took place in her life. The book is now in its 18th pressing and is available around the world. As executive director of The Link Counseling Center in Atlanta, Bolton's work culminated in the creation of the Center's National Resource Center for Suicide Prevention and Aftercare. The Link's NRC provides awareness and education on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. Bolton is a member of the National Council for Suicide Prevention and has worked tirelessly in the field of suicide prevention for the past 28 years. She is co-founder of the North Atlanta Chapter of Compassionate Friends, a national, self-help organization for bereaved parents.
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