The Relationship Between Mental & Physical Health

DANBURY — Area health care providers, mental health practitioners and students in the health professions will have a rare opportunity to hear a well-respected psychologist and educator speak about the relationship between mental and physical health when the president of the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr Ronald Levant, visits Western Connecticut State University in October.

Dr Levant will discuss “Psychological Approaches to Health Care for the Whole Person” at noon on Friday, October 14, in the Student Center Theater, at 181 White Street on the university’s midtown campus. The lecture is free and the public is invited.

The subject of the talk will relate to Dr Levant’s APA Presidential Initiatives, one of which is “Promoting Health Care for the Whole Person.”

“We need to transform our biomedical health care system to one based on the biopsychosocial model, which will emphasize collaboration between medical and behavioral health care providers, and the integration of psychology into the very heart of health care,” said Dr Levant. “We need to put forth a vision of integrated care, a care system that offers ‘Health Care for the Whole Person.’ This is one of my major initiatives as president of the American Psychological Association.”

Dr Levant was recently named dean and professor of psychology at the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron. He will be in Connecticut in mid-October to receive the Distinguished Contribution Award at the 45th Annual Meeting of the New England Psychological Association and the 11th Northeastern Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, which will take place at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Western Connecticut State University offers several convenient, centrally located parking spaces for visitors to the university. Midtown visitor parking is in the lot next to Old Main (off White Street) and in designated spaces next to University Hall (also off White Street). Parking in the university’s White Street garage is restricted to commuter students, faculty and staff from 6 am to 6 pm Monday through Thursday; visitors are welcome to park in the garage all other times.

Up-to-date university parking rules and regulations, color-coded campus maps that show parking areas and shuttle bus stops, and shuttle bus schedules are available at www.wcsu.com/parking.

For more information, call WCSU Professor of Psychology Dr Norine Jalbert at 837-8470 or the WestConn Office of Public Relations at 837-8486.