Roundtable Breakfast - Mediation When Mental Illness Is a Factor

Monthly NYC-DR Roundtable Breakfast

DAN BERSTEIN

26.2% of adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year.  That’s 1 in 4! What ways can mediators help parties communicate through mental illness?  This interactive presentation discusses when cases are suitable for mediation, which agreements lend themselves to mediation, and how mediators can adapt their practices to accommodate mental illness.  We will also talk about ways to begin reaching out to the mental health community.

DAN BERSTEIN is a speaker, support group facilitator, and mediator living with bipolar disorder.  He became a mediator in the hopes of helping people communicate through mental illness, and he has recently established MH Mediate (mhmediate.org) as a community for practitioners interested in exploring mediation in mental health contexts.

As a speaker for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Dan reaches audiences including attorneys, safety professionals, counselors, students, family members, and mental health consumers.  He is the speaker for NAMI Queens/Nassau’s “Let’s Talk Mental Illness” program, hosting school assemblies about mental illness and mental health.  Dan is also a support group facilitator and operations committee member for the Mood Disorder Support Group of New York City (MDSG), where he facilitates groups of mental health consumers as well as family and friend groups.  Trained as a mediator by the New York Peace Institute (NYPI), Dan volunteers for their community mediation and conflict coaching programs.