SALISBURY — The Resource Center for the Brain – Rowan Inc. will hold its second anniversary dinner Aug. 25 at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 201 W Innes St. Dr. Chris Aiken, director of the Mood Treatment Center in Winston-Salem, will be the keynote speaker and is going to address “Mood Disorders in the Social World.”
Aiken is a psychiatrist who specializes in both psychotherapy and medication. He began his career as a research assistant at the National Institute of Mental Health in 1993. From there, he went on to complete medical school at Yale and residency at Cornell’s Payne-Whitney Clinic and at Duke University Medical Center.
Aiken believes in carefully choosing medications and behavior therapies to improve the long-term health of the brain and body. He contributed a chapter to the first textbook on this subject (called neuroprotection). He has published original research on the treatment and diagnosis of mood disorders and the management of side effects, and his work was cited in the International Encyclopedia of Depression.
Aiken is the president of the Forsyth County Psychiatric Association, chairman of the N.C. State Psychiatric Meeting and a Clinical Instructor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He directly supervises the work of other clinicians in his practice.
The Resource Center for the Brain – Rowan is dedicated to providing education and learning about the brain, its functions and what takes place when there is disorder in the brain. Brain disorders occur when injury, trauma or infection take place. Brain disorders also emerge due to degenerative, functional and developmental and genetic factors. Left untreated, brain disorders may lead to disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarnation, suicide, and school failure.
Often, when confronted with a brain disorder, individuals don’t understand what is taking place in their lives and that recovery is an option. Brain education gives the knowledge that, for some, choice, not chance determines destiny. With this discovery, lives can take on a new beginning and a person can become whom they really are. Myths and stigma about brain disorders are reduced, lives are enriched and all benefit — individuals, families, and communities.
Exhibits and materials will be on display prior to the dinner to help people to better understand just how the brain is affected by mental illness, the resulting behaviors, and coping modalities.
The dinner scheduled for Aug. 25 is also Resource Center for the Brain – Rowan’s annual fundraising event.
Reservations are $25 per person; a $10 scholarship will be given to individuals living with a brain disorder upon request. Reservations need to be made by Aug. 19. Contributions are tax deductible and checks may be mailed to RCB, P.O. Box 1871, Salisbury, NC 28145.
For more information, contact Sarah Keller-Boyd at 704-636-2780 or 980-234-6564