Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 4-10, and Memorial Health’s Center for Behavioral Medicine is sponsoring several events that week to focus attention on a condition that affects nearly 44 million Americans every year. The events are free and open to the public and healthcare professionals. Continuing Medical Education credits are available.

For healthcare professionals, the Center for Behavioral Medicine will host an ethics panel discussion on Tuesday, October 6, from 10 a.m. to noon, and a psychology panel discussion on Wednesday, October 7, from noon to 2 p.m. Snacks will be available at the Tuesday discussion and an Italian lunch will be served at the Wednesday event.

The events for professionals and the general public on Thursday, October 8, are:

• 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Community Day Panel Discussion (includes boxed lunch for each participant);

• 2 – 3 p.m.: Depression and Antidepressants, with W. Klugh Kennedy, Pharm.D., clinical professor of pharmacy practice at Mercer University;

• 3:15 – 3:30 p.m.: Mind Storm 2.0 – Virtual Hallucination, which gives participants an opportunity to experience schizophrenia through a patient’s eyes;

• 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.: Medicare Part D / Low-Income Subsidy, with Jessica H. James of Xcenda; and

• 6 – 9:30 p.m.: Movie and Refreshments Night, free admission with a donation, which benefits the Memorial Health Foundation. T-shirts will be available for purchase.

All events are free and will be held in the Medical Education Auditorium at Memorial University Medical Center, 4700 Waters Avenue, Savannah.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, only 41 percent of adults in the U.S. with a mental health condition received help last year. Mental illness includes major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias.