Dan Rather, Emmy-award winning former CBS anchor and 2012 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award, comes to the Sarasota Opera House on Dec. 5 to deliver an address on America’s mental health crisis and take part in a panel discussion with community leaders to address concerns in Sarasota specifically. Since retiring, Rather has adopted mental health as a chief concern, touring the country to speak about issues involving access to services, treatment within the jail system and hospital preparedness.

Rather’s attendance on Dec. 5 marks the seventh in a series of community dialogues on mental health underwritten by The Isermann Family Foundation, previously bringing figures such as Tipper Gore, Richard Dreyfuss, Carrie Fisher and others to speak to their personal experience with mental illness and political possibilities for change.

“What can we actually do as citizens to bring awareness of these problems?” asked Bunny Coelingh, former community awareness director at Mental Health Community Centers who came out of retirement to do this "one more time” as event coordinator for the Isermanns and this event. “This is their passion,” she said, “to end the stigma of mental illness.”

Rather will deliver an address on the nation’s treatment and awareness of mental health before being joined by local experts including: Dr. Parlane Reid, chief psychiatrist at Bayside Center at Sarasota Memorial Hospital; Dr. David Sutton, director of social services for the Salvation Army; and Davis Tornabene from the bioethics committee at SMH. The discussion will turn to the particulars in Sarasota. This ties directly into the growing discussion surrounding the area’s homeless population, which includes individuals who suffer from mental illness, said Coelingh. This should be one more opportunity to have a substantive conversation and bring mental illness into the open, she said.

“We want to erase that stigma, but nobody wants to be a part of opening the dialogue,” said Coelingh. “It’s an uphill battle and whatever we can do is good.”

Dan Rather will be at the Sarasota Opera House for this free community event on Dec. 5 at 1:30pm. Attendance is free but registration is required at 941-925-2970.