Tai Mendenhall addresses coping with chronic disease at Kidney Patient Social Summit

Department of Family Social Science (FSOS) Professor Tai Mendenhall presented “Mental Health and Coping with Chronic Disease” at the Kidney Patient Social Summit in Minneapolis on March 12. The event, sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation, brings together those affected by kidney disease to learn about topics that concern patients and their families.

Mendenhall’s presentation was all about resilience. He defined contemporary understandings of what resilience is and isn’t; identified ways to harness resilience across individual, family, social, and spiritual systems; and described how resilience is related to health outcomes and quality of life.

Managing any chronic illness is more than finding the right medicine or the best exercise regimen, doctor, or inspiring resources, Mendenhall explained. It’s also more than engaging family members involvement and peer support. It is all of these things put together. Health is a systemic phenomenon.

In this talk, Mendenhall described these multiple layers’ reciprocal influences on people and outlined empirically supported ways to take part as active participants—not passive recipients—in health and health care. He also provided real-life examples of patients and families navigating kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions, and offered resources for accessing support in these types of journeys.

Mendenhall is a medical family therapist and professor in FSOS’ PhD program—Couple and Family Therapy specialization. He is also an adjunct professor in the UMN Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. He serves as the director of the UMN Medical Reserve Corps’ Mental Health Disaster-Response Teams and is the associate director of the UMN Citizen Professional Center. He works actively in the conduct of collaborative family health care and community-based participatory research focused on a variety of public health issues.