Press Release

College's Veterans Center Sponsors Talk by Dr. Paula J. Caplan on Thursday, September 22, 2011

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Psychologist Dr. Paula J. Caplan, author of When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans, will be a guest speaker at Bunker Hill Community College on September 22, 2011. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 1:00 in Lecture Hall C202. This talk is sponsored by the College's Veterans Center.

In When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home, Dr. Caplan evaluates the treatment traumatized veterans receive from their communities and psychologists when returning home from war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Caplan argues that mental health facilitators are inaccurate in diagnosing traumatized veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as "mentally ill."  In terms of the community, Dr. Caplan believes that citizens in America have not done their part in ensuring that our men and women in service are not continually sent to war. She gives advice on how the community can be of more assistance to veterans and how this can start with just a listening ear.

Dr. Caplan has published several works which focus on issues related to "Mental Health and Women" such as, Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship, Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis, Sex Differences in Human Cognition and The Myth of Women's Masochism. This will be Dr. Caplan's first visit to BHCC.

Bunker Hill Community College opened its Veterans Center in November 2010, when it served approximately 371 students. Current enrollment of veterans at BHCC stands at 440 students, which represents an increase of 19%. Celebrated war veteran and author Tim O'Brien will be returning to the College for his second visit on November 10th, 2011.

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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).