This year’s Concordia United States Summit—a nonprofit global affairs forum—took place in Raleigh on Tuesday.
Topics of discussion spanned from the role of AI to economic development, but the panel discussing US mental health brought UNC to the forefront.
Faculty Director of the Center for the Business of Health and UNC Professor Dr. Brad Staats spoke on the panel. One of the topics he mentioned was the shooting that took place on UNC’s campus in August.
“Obviously, when we get to crisis, we need to respond, and we need to go to those most serious of resources,” he said. “But how do we make sure we’re having those conversations, that it runs from orientation, through each step? That in the classes, where it’s appropriate, we’re talking about, ‘what are those coping skills individually? How do we support those around us?’”
Staats emphasized that mental health issues deserve to be recognized and treated in the way that physical diseases are.