Kennedy set to speak at Bryn Mawr College

BRYN MAWR Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy is to speak about mental-health issues at Bryn Mawr College on Monday night. His appearance is to be hosted by the DMAX Foundation and Main Line School Night.

Kennedy sponsored legislation that expanded access to mental-health treatment while representing Rhode Island in Congress, and he has spoken publicly about his own struggle with mental illness. Dan Gottlieb, host of WHYY-FM's Voices in the Family, will moderate the talk, starting at 7 p.m. in the college's Goodhart Hall.

"There have been so many people who have come to us who have said, 'We have someone in our family' " with mental illness, said Laurie Burstein-Maxwell, co-chair of the DMAX Foundation's board of directors. "There are so many families that are affected by mental illness."

Burstein-Maxwell and her husband, Lee Maxwell, started the DMAX Foundation after their son Dan's suicide in 2013. Dan Maxwell graduated from Radnor High School a month before his death. His family hopes to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.

The organization aims to begin clubs at colleges for students "to have conversations that matter," Burstein-Maxwell said.

Tickets for Monday's talk are available at dmaxfoundation.org.

- Laura McCrystal