Expert on Latino suicide and immigration speaks on PFW campus

FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Purdue University Fort Wayne is bringing nationally known Latino and migrant suicide prevention and mental health treatment expert Luis Zayas to campus and the community for educational opportunities on Tuesday, September 25, as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Zayas is the dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, Robert Lee Sutherland chair in mental health and social policy, and professor of psychiatry at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

Zayas will offer two presentations on campus. His first presentation is called "Why Latinas Attempt Suicide and What We Can Do about It," and is based on his book Latinas Attempting Suicide: When Cultures, Families, and Daughters Collide (Oxford, 2011), which is based on his decades of clinical and research experience with Hispanic families and children. It will be held from noon to 1:30 in the Walb Student Union Classic Ballroom.

His second presentation is "The Harm of Immigration Enforcement on the Health and Development of Citizen-Children and Refugee Children," based on his book Forgotten Citizens: Deportation, Children, and the Making of American Exiles and Orphans (Oxford, 2015), about the plight of U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants who live under the constant threat of deportation or have been deported. It will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Walb Student Union Classic Ballroom.

“Being able to bring someone to campus and the community with so much expertise on the subjects of suicide and immigration, which are heavily saturating the news right now, is invaluable,” said Alice Jordan-Miles, director of the Behavioral Health and Family Studies Institute at Purdue Fort Wayne. “These are problems that must be addressed and we couldn’t be more excited to do our part to aid in the discussion.” 

Both presentations are free and open to the public and will include a question and answer period and a book signing.

Sponsors of the presentations are Parkview Health, The Lutheran Foundation, Latinos Count, Precision Mechanical Contractors, Greater Fort Wayne Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Valentin Company, Salsa Grille, and El Mexicano.

For additional information, contact Nicole Hahn at 260-481-4106 (work), 260-760-7409 (cell), or [email protected].

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