In the News
Dr. Lynn Todman Testifying Before City Council on Urban Housing &
Mental Health
07.20.11
Studies show foreclosed and abandoned buildings can have a devastating effect on not only a community’s financial health–but its mental health as well. Dr. Lynn Todman, Executive Director of the Adler School’s Institute on Social Exclusion (pictured above), testified today at a hearing of the Chicago City Council’s joint Committee on Housing and Real Estate and Zoning, examining change to the city’s vacant housing ordinance. Dr. Todman, a trained urban planner and a member of the city’s Community Development Commission, led a four-month Mental Health Impact Assessment (MHIA) last fall into how the proposal would impact mental health issues affecting residents of Chicago’s Englewood community. The MHIA team’s research identified how vacant buildings contribute to residents’ stress in disadvantaged communities.
Read and listen to the WBBM News Radio 780 AM report “Expert to Testify on Dangers of Vacant Houses.”
With their extensive work developing the MHIA approach, Dr. Todman and Dr. Eunha Kim, Core Faculty in the M.A. in Counseling Program at the Adler School, were invited to collaborate on an article for the HIA Connect Blog a major global source of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) information, hosted by Ben Harris-Roxas, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), part of the University of New South Wales Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity at the School of Public Health and Medicine. Their article sheds light on MHIA as groundbreaking work that is bringing mental health into a new perspective.
Read “Mental Health Impact Assessment: Advancing HIA practice in the US.”
Adler School of Professional Psychology has provided quality education through a scholar/practitioner model for more than 50 years. Its mission is to continue the pioneering work of Alfred Adler by graduating socially responsible practitioners, engaging communities, and advancing social justice. The Adler School has 11 graduate-level programs enrolling more than 1,000 students at its campuses in Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Contact:
Kim McCullough
Director of Communications
Adler School of Professional Psychology
312-662-4124
kmccullough@adler.edu