Skip to main content

Brushes with Life presents annual fall exhibition and reception

Created in 2000 to provide artists recovering from mental illness a venue to exhibit their work, the UNC Brushes with Life Arts Program presented its annual exhibition and reception September 25. Following a reception at the UNC Starbucks, guests enjoyed art that was displayed in the N.C. Neurosciences Hospital.

Brushes with Life art includes works from different artists working in different media, including watercolors, acrylics, oils, pen, pencil, colored marker drawings, sketches, and paintings.  More than 70 artists from the Triangle and surrounding counties are represented in the newest exhibit.

The free exhibit will also be open daily from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Parking is available in the UNC Hospitals Dogwood Deck off Manning Drive and in nearby campus lots.

For information about the Brushes with Life Program, contact: Grayson Bowen, program coordinator, grayson_bowen@med.unc.edu.

 

Thanksgiving lunch for patients/clients in the community celebrates its 20th year

The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health continued a Thanksgiving lunch tradition started 20 years ago by Thava Mahadevan, MS, the current director of operations at the Center, on November 22  at the Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church. Mahadevan started the annual celebration when he was executive director of a nonprofit XDS Inc., which merged with the Center in 2011.

The Thanksgiving event provided a meal for clients/patients from the Center, the Department of Psychiatry, and others in the community. Center staff and community volunteers served lunch for nearly 90 participants. Thanks to volunteers, donors and the Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church for their continued support!

The Center, XDS Inc. and private donors funded this annual event. If you would like to contribute to next year’s event, contact Thava@unc.edu.

 

Center provides support for Hurricane Florence victims

The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health joined other UNC-Chapel Hill units to assist individuals impacted by Hurricane Florence in September. When the University and UNC Friday Center partnered with the American Red Cross in September to provide a shelter for hurricane disaster victims who were transferred from closing shelters, Center staff joined the efforts.

In collaboration with Cardinal Innovation Healthcare and local community providers, Thava Mahadevan, MS, director of operations, assisted in organizing clinicians from the Center as well as from other departments to cover shifts to provide mental health support for individuals and families housed at the Friday Center.

Additionally, the Center’s Institute for Best Practices set-up an “Amazon Wish List” to allow  Center donors to place an order for recovery supplies for patients at two Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams in Eastern North Carolina, where there was tremendous hurricane devastation. Amazon shipped these items directly to two community mental health providers, Physician Alliance for Mental Health in Wilmington, and the New Dimension Group in Rosehill for distribution to needy patients. Both agencies are headed by UNC-CH Alums.

 

Upcoming Events

STEP Symposium April 6, 2019
Contact: janice.linn@med.unc.edu

Ninth Annual NC Community Psychiatrists’ Leadership Symposium May 4, 2019
Contact: alice_lockhart@med.unc.edu