Grant to Produce In-Depth Report

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- University of Arkansas public radio station KUAF 91.3 FM has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the American Psychiatric Foundation for the production of a year-long five-part series of in-depth reports on mental health and the elderly.

Working in collaboration with renowned geriatrician David A. Lipschitz, M.D., Ph.D., and the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education of Northwest Arkansas, KUAF news producer and NPR correspondent Jacqueline Froelich will examine the latest research and science recognizing and treating chronic depression and anxiety, mental health issues among elderly people of color, chronic confabulation and dementia, underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of mental health problems in the elderly, and the lack of, or improper treatment for, these conditions.

"This series will help adult children better cope with caring for aging parents, a realm with which most of us are ill-prepared," said Froelich. "And with more than 70 million so-called baby boomers surging into old age, the series will also inform those listeners about some of the psychological obstacles they may expect to encounter."

The five-segment series will be packaged for broadcast in 2007 on KUAF’s weekend news magazine, Ozarks at Large. Programming will also air nationally on the syndicated public radio program, The Health Show, heard on nearly 160 public radio and ABC radio stations in the United States and in 138 countries and on U.S. Armed Forces Radio.

"This series will allow us another opportunity to provide in-depth coverage of a serious subject,” said Kyle Kellams, KUAF’s news director. “I think our audience will benefit from this series and find it an important part of Ozarks at Large.”

The American Psychiatric Foundation’s mission is to advance public understanding of mental illnesses by promoting awareness of mental illnesses and the effectiveness of treatment, the importance of early intervention, access to care and the need for high quality services and treatment through a combination of grants, programs, research funding and awards.

Each audio segment of the series will be streamed live on http://www.kuaf.com. Archived programs will be available for download from the Web site and made available to Ozarks at Large podcast subscribers.