Mental Health Awareness: Shedding Light on the Interplay between Suicide & Stigma

Christine Yu Moutier is a leader in the field of suicide prevention who joined AFSP in 2013.  It is through her passion and commitment to the work that we see a lasting impact via research, education and support to communities across the U.S. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and provided multiple Congressional briefings on suicide prevention, presented to the White House, spoken at the National Academy of Sciences, she co-anchored CNN’s Finding Hope suicide prevention town hall, and has appeared as an expert in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, The Economist, The Atlantic, Anderson Cooper 360, the BBC, CNN, NBC and other print and television outlets. Throughout her career she has focused on training healthcare leaders, physicians, and patient groups in order to change the healthcare system’s approach to mental health, fighting stigma and optimizing care for those suffering from mental health conditions. In addition to co-founding AFSP’s San Diego Chapter, Moutier co-led a successful suicide prevention and depression awareness program for health science faculty, residents, and students, which featured AFSP’s groundbreaking Interactive Screening Program. Since earning her medical degree and training in psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, Moutier has been a practicing psychiatrist, professor and dean in the UCSD School of Medicine, medical director of the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla, and has been clinically active with diverse patient populations, such as veterans, Asian refugee populations, as well as physicians and leaders with mental health conditions. She also served as co-investigator for the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression study (STAR*D), a large National Institute of Mental Health trial on the treatment of refractory depression. Moutier has authored articles and book chapters for publications such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Academic Medicine, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatric Times, Depression and Anxiety, Academic Psychiatry, and most recently co-authored Stahl’s Clinical Handbook: Suicide Prevention Edition.

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President of Research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, where she leads initiatives to fund research, train investigators, and share findings to support public awareness and advocacy. With over 40 years of experience as a clinician and researcher, she has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Harkavy-Friedman earned her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Florida, completing her internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She established the Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program at Montefiore Medical Center and has served as an associate professor at Columbia University. She joined AFSP in 2011 and maintained a clinical practice in Manhattan for nearly four decades.