Mental illness as a political football - an online presentation

The "politics of mental illness" is now an Internet feature.

The American Prospect’s has done a special edition called “The Politics of Mental Illness,” which can be found here.

The topics include:

"Media and Madness," by Richard A. Friedman, which delves into how the news media and entertainment industry shape public opinion about mental illness.

"A Professor's Story," by Elyn Saks, which discusses going public about mental illness is not like revealing any other kind of disease.

"Combat Fatigue," by Tara McKelvey, which looks at how returning veterans suffer post-traumatic stress disorder in record numbers, and how a controversial new drug is being tested that would dampen their memories.

"A Worthy Diversion," by Sasha Abramsky, which looks at how Pennsylvania has developed a model program to keep offenders with mental illness out of the criminal-justice system.

"Finding Funding," by Pete Earley, which seeks to show how states should link mental-health funding to dedicated revenue sources independent of the political whims of legislators.

"Programs That Work," by Kate Sheppard, which discusses how clubhouses and ACT are proven successes. She asks: So why aren't they better known or funded?

Memo to states: Mental health services need money, so pull out your checkbook

Waiting lists for mental health services are growing, just as money is disappearing.

No shock there.

But, in the midst of budget season for most states, why is mental health constantly left off the table - particularly when the state reaches a budget deal and realizes it has enough money?

Not only is left off the table, but it's also the first thing that's cut when public officials are scrounging for more cash.

Maybe each state government needs to realize that mental health services can be part of the solution - helping people get back on their feet, turning people into functional members of society, keeping them out of jail - rather than part of the problem.

In New Jersey, for instance, Governor Corzine and the state Legislature have a budget deal. But the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies Inc. called on the Legislature to provide an adequate contract increase to cover the expense of skyrocketing costs and to pay a livable wage to struggling employees.

“Because of inadequate resources, adults and children in need of mental health services often must wait weeks or months for services when they turn to non-profit mental health care providers for help. Our organizations have experienced double digit increases in insurance, fuel and energy,” said Megann Anderson, associate executive director of NJAMHA.

Anderson noted that the average starting salary of a community mental health care worker is only $30,000 and that state workers with comparable positions earn as much as 40 percent more.

As a result, vacancy and turnover rates are increasing in the community and individuals in need of mental health treatment and services often face long waits for services.

“Adults and children who cannot access service on a timely basis can deteriorate and end up in crisis, needing much more expensive treatment and services,” said Anderson. “We would not think of making a heart patient wait until he experiences a massive heart attack before providing treatment. We must end this discrimination against those with a mental illness.”

Two decades later, stability is within reach

I've often thought that if my stomach were my brain, I'd be the smartest person alive.

That perpetually grumbling thing beneath my ribs has always been a master manipulator that, unlike any other part of my body, has the ability to control. It's like some mad scientist kidnapped my body, carved out the nerve center of my brain and inserted into my digestive tract.

How my stomach reacts to stressful events, high levels of anxiety, hectic work schedules and my occasionally erratic diet will usually dictate how things go over a period of days – or, in some cases, even weeks.

Indeed, for much of the past two decades, I've suffered from anxiety that's turned some days – and many meals – into spin-the-wheel carnival games. Many times, I've woken up, my head spinning, wondering what stomach ailment would dictate my mood for the day: Acid reflux? Diarrhea? Gastroenteritis?

The residual effect has been on-an-off bouts with eating disorders that – while now manageable – have been debilitating and self-destructive. Feeling anxious and obsessing about what I'm about to eat – as well as the potential bloated side effects of eating and digesting a hot, fat-laden meal – has only added to stress that has caused me to, at times, withdraw from reality.

Not until I was about 30 years old – married, ready to have kids and accept responsibility – did I determine that the connection between my brain and stomach was too much to overcome. The realization forced me to seek help from a psychologists and psychiatrists who, through a combination of therapy and medication, have helped me feel as close to comfort as I've ever felt.

I also looked at my family history – three cases of alcoholism, combined with obsessive compulsive disorder that affected my great-grandfather, grandfather and mother – and saw a genetic line of mental illness that, very likely, did not skip my generation.

The best thing I can say about it is, thanks to therapy and willpower, I'm alive.

Indeed, it's been 20 years since I first experienced symptoms of eating disorders. The signs first appeared in the summer of 1988, after a break-up.

I'm of British descent, so I tried to keep a stiff upper lip. That’s how I was taught to handle a personal crisis. But being a rock is not in my DNA. Instead, I crumbled to the point that I couldn't eat or sleep for days at a time.

I ran five miles each morning, skipped my Rutgers classes so I could wallow in my bed during the afternoon, stare at the ceiling and cry. At night, I shoved my fingers down my throat, losing whatever bird-food-size portions of bread and crackers I ate for dinner.

Eating anything, in fact, gave me stomach gas and acid reflux so bad that I spent hours combing local drug stores in search of the right cure. I popped anywhere from 8 to 15 Tums and Gas-X tablets each day, hoping that some sizeable combination of antacids would calm my gut down.

As the months went by, however, things just got worse. It wasn't until one of my roommates literally pulled my out of the bathroom, forced me to sit in a chair and talked me out of my misery that I finally summoned up my strength, and pulled myself out of the abyss. By that point, I was 6 foot 2 inches tall, 132 pounds.

I never forced myself to throw up again. In the years after that initial bout with bulimia, I only forced myself not to throw up. But each time I faced some kind of crisis, I also had to summon up that same personal strength that forced me to face the immediate, as well as the long-term, future.

Still, life was a struggle, and marriage in 1996 finally brought stability my very unstable state-of-being.

Until then – just like my stomach – my work as a journalist was very erratic. My social behavior was also unsettling, and downright scary. I spent many weekends in Belmar, N.J. drinking until I was totally numb. I slept with various women who were so tanked up with tequila shots and beer that they passed out before we even left the bar.

But it was my wife who introduced me to therapy, where I finally learned - in 2000 - that there was something about me that was different. From there, we were able to work with what we have.

Mental illness, the final frontier

You may remember A Time to Kill, a 1996 movie from a John Grisham novel about a lawyer who took on a racist town. He defended a black man accused of murdering two white men after they raped his young daughter.

But the high drama came at the end -- easily the peak of Matthew McConaughey's acting career -- when he faced the white jurors and asked them to dream a dream.

Imagine a girl, he told them, who was stripped of everything short of her life. This girl could never have children of her own. She was urinated on, then tossed into a creek and "left to die," he said.

"Can you see her?" he asked the hushed jury. "Can you see her?"

"Now imagine she's white...."

Some jurors gasped; others picked their heads up, their eyes bulging. A few looked so appalled, they wept.

One could assume they looked in the mirror, and saw something in themselves that they hated: Racism, separatism, classism. They displayed a sense of generosity that, we hope, they gained while growing up and trying to cope with life in the post-civil-rights era of South. They determined that the black man, Carl Lee Hailey, was innocent.

Sure, it was only a movie. But it was symbolic of a South that's changing. A majority of conservatives, liberals and moderates now appear to share the belief that racism is wrong, even if they continue to display behavior that has a racist subtext. Those who publicly declare themselves racists - proud of it - are now the fringe. They're the radicals, the minority and, ultimately, the ones who mainstream society is now tossing into the creek.

Carl Lee Hailey's case isn't unique; octogenarian men who conspired in some of the heinous racist crimes of the 1950s and 1960s are now being brought to justice. Advocacy groups are using DNA testing to prove that men -- particularly black men -- were wrongly convicted of murder and other crimes.

Now African-Americans and Latino-Americans are elected to high offices in the once off-limits states of Mississippi and Georgia. Though their ideology may promote classism and separatism, even conservative pundits are quick to cry "racism" if even one of their own crosses the line.

And it's not just racism, but prejudice of any kind that's changing. Comedians who mocked homosexuality, ethnic groups and races -- particularly by mangling accents and using profane language such as the n-word -- have toned down their acts. Remember the movie "48 Hours," and how the Nick Nolte character used the n-word as often as he said "what?" Years ago, the T.V. version didn't edit the n-word. Now, on TNT, you won't hear it at all -- not even once.

America still has a long way to go, but it's grown to accept diversity. America's growth, however, has never been all-inclusive. Perhaps the final frontier of conquering prejudice -- and finding some happy medium between mainstream acceptance and political correctness -- is the legitimization of mental illness.

If the path to racial equality can be measured in, say, thousands of miles, then the distance toward achieving some mainstream mutual understanding and feeling of compassion for people with mental illness must be measured in light years.

Even in this age of political correctness, terms that the mental health community considers offensive (much like the black community considers the n-word to be offensive) are still being tossed around, and they're as much a part of the fabric of society as brushing your teeth and going to bed. Newspapers such as The New York Daily News and The New York Post never seem to even pause before blasting the word "Psycho" or "Wacko Jacko" in a headline. Since 1995, "wacko" has appeared in both The Daily News and The Post more than 500 times, according to a Lexis-Nexis search.

Hollywood has shown progress, with movies such as Good Will Hunting and, more recently, Matchstick Men garnering praise from mental health advocates and professionals for portraying mental illness in a sensitive and intelligent way.

But for every Good Will Hunting is a Me, Myself and Irene in which Jim Carrey portrays schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder (hard to tell what he's trying to portray, actually) in a manner that's as silly and stupid as a Gilligan's Island reunion T.V. movie.

The rise of conservative punditry, particularly on the cable news channels, has only made things worse. Media Matters is quick to jump on Don Imus for saying "nappy-headed hos" to describe the Rutgers University basketball team. But how many times has Media Matters done a You Tube search, inserted the terms "Bill O'Reilly" and "loon" and witnessed the seemingly endless list of items, each filled with some form of hate speech either from his legions of fans, or from O'Reilly himself?

Well, I've already done the search, so don't bother. Eighty-one items in all. Not all of them were videos of O'Reilly using the word, but his fans were quick to point out that the featured guests in each video were of the "far-left loon" variety (would You Tube change the description if they wrote the n-word instead? Just asking) who deserved the abuse they were getting.

I was inspired initially when I watched "The O'Reilly Factor" a year ago (call it a guilty pleasure) and saw Bill berate Sunsara Taylor from the anti-war group "World Can't Wait" because of her group's loud, rude protests regarding Iraq. I didn't expect the conversation to be pleasant, but Bill's cavalier and repetitive use of the word "loon" seemed to move O'Reilly to a new level of indecency and disrespect.

TAYLOR: Because of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people's lives have been destroyed, people have been killed, torture has been committed and legalized

O'REILLY: OK, but look...

TAYLOR: These things are not being discussed the way they should.

O'REILLY: Miss Taylor, that's your opinion, OK, and you're entitled under the Constitution to your opinion.

TAYLOR: Those are the facts.

O'REILLY: No, they're not facts. You are a loon. You are a lunatic. And if you weren't a lunatic, 90 percent of America would agree with you.

It's no wonder Congress or various state legislatures have failed to approve mental health parity health care coverage when society -- as well as those who act as spokespeople for it -- refuses to take schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, bulimia and other illnesses seriously. A poor woman suffering from postpartum depression has a better chance of getting hospital attention -- or, at the very least, health coverage -- if she breaks her arm.

Now, just for a second, imagine if she were white...

This article was printed in today's (May 29) Huffington Post. See the article here.

Childhood sex abuse shows link to bulimia

Childhood sex abuse can have long lasting unpredictable effects. Now add bulimia to the list of surprises.

A new study headed by Lena Sanci, a senior lecturer in general practice at the University of Melbourne in Australia, suggests that bulimia is just as likely to result from abuse as any other mental illness. Results were published in the March Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Sex abuse already has destroyed young people psychologically and rendered them vulnerable to a spate of mental illnesses — such as alcohol abuse, depression, drug abuse, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide attempts, according to writer Joan Arehart-Treichel.

Sanci and her coworkers randomly selected some 1,000 female students from 44 public, Catholic or private schools to participate in their study, according to Arehart-Treichel. They followed their subjects until they were young adults to see whether they developed bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.

Thirty-five were found to have acquired bulimia and 32 anorexia during that age span, said Arehart-Treichel.

At age 24, the subjects were asked certain questions to determine whether they had experienced sexual abuse before age 16, she said.

"We measured childhood sexual abuse in adulthood because our state has a statutory requirement to report all abuse in children younger than 17 years to government services," Sanci and her coworkers explained in their study report.

Ninety-six of the subjects reported one episode of sexual abuse, and 70 reported two or more episodes, according to Arehart-Treichel. The researchers then looked to see whether there were any links between subjects' retrospective reports of having been abused sexually as a child and their later developing bulimia or anorexia.

During this analysis, subjects' background differences — such as their parents' educational levels and whether their parents were divorced — were considered, said Arehart-Treichel.

Sanci and her colleagues found no link between reports of having been sexually abused in childhood and developing anorexia, but they did find a link with bulimia, said Arehart-Treichel. Compared with subjects who had experienced no childhood sexual abuse, the incidence of bulimia was three times higher among those who reported one episode and five times higher among those who reported two or more episodes.

Thus, "childhood sexual abuse seems to be a risk factor for the development of bulimic syndromes, not necessarily mediated by psychiatric morbidity or severe dieting," Sanci and her group concluded in their report.

Their findings largely jive with those obtained by other investigators, they pointed out. In four different studies, investigators were able to link childhood sexual abuse with both bulimia and anorexia, but the links they found were much stronger for bulimia, said Arehart-Treichel.

"I was surprised that we found such a clear association between childhood sexual abuse and bulimia symptoms, as there has been so much controversy in the past [about whether such a connection exists]," Sanci told Psychiatric News.

"This paper takes us a step further in confirming suspicions that clinicians have long had that childhood sexual abuse is common in young women with bulimia," George Patton, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and senior investigator of the study, added.

"The paper [also] takes us a step further by suggesting that sexual abuse may initiate a pattern of dealing with emotional distress that brings a high likelihood of bulimia. Young bulimics share both emotional secrecy and profound guilt with many victims of sexual abuse. It is possible that for some patients, this emotional style begins with the abusive experience. This psychological style may be an important focus for psychotherapy."

The study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Center for Excellence in Eating Disorders and a research grant from the Australian National Depression Initiative, said Arehart-Treichel.

MAD about pride - but how crazy is that?

The new MAD pride drive is gaining momentum - and publicity. But it's also drawing criticism and concerns from the mental health professionals who view it as nothing more than false hope.

At issue is a recent New York Times article that focuses on blogger and columnist Liz Spikol, who appeared in a You Tube video smiling and animated, "the light glinting off her large hoop earrings."

"Deadpan, she holds up a diaper," the article said. "It is not, she explains, a hygienic item for a giantess, but rather a prop to illustrate how much control people lose when they undergo electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, as she did 12 years ago."

According to the Times, Spikol is speaking candidly and publicly about her issues in a way that shows how her conditions do not preclude them from productive lives. Like many advocates, she's not afraid to call herself "mad," the Times said - to the point where people are using the term to promote their cause

The article then talks about "Mad Pride" events, organized by loosely connected groups in at least seven countries including Australia, South Africa and the United States, that draw thousands of participants. Recent activities include a Mad Pride Cabaret in Vancouver, British Columbia; a Mad Pride March in Accra, Ghana; and a Bonkersfest in London that drew 3,000 participants, the Time said.

But when author Paul Raeburn reads about the movement, he stumbles over the very first word, mostly because of it's attachment to stigma.

"Mad," he said, makes him "squirm."

"I understand the idea of co-opting pejorative words, but, geez. I just don't like it," he said. "Queer was co-opted a long time ago, as was the n-word, but those make me squirm, too."

Raeburn also asked if people should be proud of their illnesses.
"Would somebody be proud to be wasting away with breast cancer?" he said. "Proud to be wheezing with emphysema? Proud to be psychotic, or manic, or depressed?"

"To me, the idea of mad pride harks back to the old R.D. Laing notion that madness is some kind of gift of awareness, or it's the "mad" people who see the truth and the so-called "normal" people who are mad," he said.

"Or something - ick."

The changing face of homelessness

By LISA BIAGIOTTI
and TOM DAVIS
NYC24.com

[For an interactive web version of this story, click here.]

Growing up, Joe Wallinger had a distinct image of homelessness: drunks shuffling through the Staten Island Ferry Terminal begging for money and turning benches into beds.

But that image changed in 2005. Wallinger, a 56-year-old accountant and former resident of Tottenville in Staten Island, N.Y., now counts himself among the homeless.

Homelessness now hides behind shelter doors, walks in designer clothes and carries cell phones. Many homeless people are working-class, college graduates, parents or the elderly, according to Project Hospitality, a private nonprofit organization that operates Staten Island's homeless shelters and many food assistance programs.

Homelessness has blended into communities that still hold on to the image of the drunken or mentally ill nesting in the ferry terminal and don't "see" the new image.

Dennis Dell'Angelo, longtime resident of southern Staten Island, said homeless advocates and city officials manipulate the image of homelessness so they can justify expanding their services.

"If all the city agencies say we have a rise in the homeless, then the people who have facilities that deal with this will build them," said Dell'Angelo, 64, president of the Pleasant Plains/Princes' Bay/Richmond Valley Civic Association, a neighborhood watchdog group.

Staten Island, as a microcosm

But Staten Island now has the second-highest percentage of homelessness in the New York City, and the number of people seeking shelter has doubled since 2001. Fewer homeless people are living on the streets, but approximately 311 people crowd into Staten Island’s seven emergency shelters every night and wait in long lines for soup kitchens and food pantries.

"We've had people come in who've had condos and because they lost their job, they lost their condo and all their means of income," said Mamie E. Daniels, 76, who has run a soup kitchen at the Stapleton Church on the island since 1987. "Before you knew it, they're in a shelter."

Contrary to the worn image of chronic homelessness, today many people are either close to finding a home, or on the verge of losing one.

Almost 62,000 Staten Islanders eat at emergency food programs--up 300 percent since 2004, according to Hunger Safety Net 2007, a report produced by the Food Bank for New York City.

People gather outside the Stapleton Church Soup Kitchen at 3 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays for a prayer before mealtime.

Staten Island's nine soup kitchens serve 4.8 million meals a year. Lines for the island's 30 food pantries wind down church steps, and still, 70 percent of these food pantries and soup kitchens run out of food.

"The food pantry or soup kitchen is the last step of desperation," said the Rev. Will Nichols, director of Project Hospitality's communications and community outreach. "People who are coming here are homeless next."

It's not always obvious who is homeless unless they are walking into the Central Avenue “drop-in” center.

On a near-freezing April night, men and women wearing dark-blue Levi's, velour jumpsuits and sports jerseys signed-in to the center as "clients," before sitting upright in plastic-covered chairs. They covered themselves with thin, white blankets.

The city rejected Project Hospitality’s application for a permit to convert the facility into a full-scale, sleep-away shelter under pressure from local officials and residents.

Cassidy Mojica, a 9-year-old Staten Islander, knows about homelessness: Her cousin can't find a shelter.

Wallinger, an accountant with 72 credits toward his master's at Baruch College, calls the Central Avenue shelter home.

Wallinger left his apartment three years ago when he couldn’t feed himself, pay his rent and the $440 a month he owed in child support.

"This is what I have to do to make a living," said Wallinger, who lost his accounting job less than a year ago.

Wallinger was clean-shaven and wore an "Izod" brand pull-over and a clean pair of jeans when he fell into his "bed" -- a chair that resembled an airplane seat. He closed his eyes behind wire-framed glasses.

At 11 p.m., the lights went out and the cell phones popped open, glowing and bleeping amid the chatter of the dark room.

[Editors note: The writers put together this story as part of an interactive web magazine, NYC24.com, that's affiliated with Columbia University].

Dude, just chill... image isn't everything

Back when he had Bon Jovi hair, Andre Agassi used to appear in Canon camera ads and make millions of television viewers cringe by telling them: "Image.... is everything."

It was one of those forgettable pop-culture slogans that you hoped would have the life span of mosquito. But, dammit, there he was, every night for what seemed like years, exposing his God-awful Jersey hair in between innings of a baseball game or in the middle of an episode of the Simpsons. "Image.... is everything," he'd say. "Image is everything." It was like some kind of twisted Bohemian chant that was as intellectually bankrupt as a Lionel Richie song.

"Aaaarrgh!" you'd scream, though not necessarily in public.

Now retired, and bald, we thought we were rid of him and his corny words forever. Gone for good, Andre. A successful tennis career, yes. But that slogan...... somewhere buried in the trash heap of 1980s pop culture history, underneath Lionel Richie, Falco and "Baby-on-Board" signs.

Alas, it's back - the slogan, that is - but only in spirit. For, in my little corner of the world, the mere mention of the word "image" has been, at times, too much to handle. I'm attending grad school at Columbia University, and my fellow New Media students are pretty stressed out because we're working on an issue called "Image."

This week, as a result, image has been everything. It has consumed us. We are reminded of it while we sleep (sleep?) and eat. We telegraph it through telephone calls and emails. We type stories that we're convinced have a connection to "image." But, perhaps, the connection is not quite there. Yet, in our heads is that Agassian chant: "Image... is everything." "Image.... is everything."

The cringe-feeling has returned. But, this time, it's not caused by shame or embarrassment. Rather, it's the creation of tension that's as thick as smog. "Aaarggh" they're saying.

I'm reminded of another 1980s icon: Jeff Spicoli, the surfer-dude from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." To me, a guy wearing a flashy red cruise-ship shirt that's hanging wide-open - while he's sitting in a classroom with a pizza on his desk, sassing his teacher - was much cooler than a then-underachieving tennis player wearing a Miami Vice suit jacket and Ray-Ban shades.

Spicoli had a one-word solution for every problem - well, he had other solutions, too - that could prove to be useful advice for every one of us once we discover the computers that are supposed to create a new media landscape have more glitches than than rodeo clowns:

Chill.

Just chill.

The ability to chill is inside us. But it's locked up behind a wall of tension that has stunted our creativity and slowed our potential to imagine "Image."

We are a class of high-achieving, high-I.Q., high-SAT-scoring people. Virtually every one in this class has performed work that is the envy of journalism schools - and perhaps good enough to rival anything produced by the national news media. The "Image" issue is going to kick ass.

Yet, some of the work produced for the "Image" issue shows - at this point, at least - there has been a need for more imagination and confidence and less tension, pain, suffering and feelings of "Aaaargh."

Just chill.

How do you chill?

Back when I used to surf (poorly), we discovered ways of chilling. We didn't think hard. In fact, we never really ever thought hard about anything. But we discovered methods that were simple enough to follow, and effective enough to rival popular solutions produced by intense sessions of psychotherapy:

1. Work hard, yeah, but, you know, have a beer. Have two. OK, if beer's not your thing, have a glass of wine. OK, fine, make it a shot of Jack Daniels. But, please, chill.

2. Watch an episode of "House." Tape it, too, or put it on TiVo, because, with House, you've gotta be quick. Watch it a second time so you can pay close attention to every little obnoxious remark House makes. Once you process each little snide statement, you'll laugh your ass off.

3. While you're at it, watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Yeah, I know. You've seen it 20 times. Get the 25th anniversary edition, however, and watch the outtakes. Before they produced this work of art, they were a mess. But they got through it because, well, there was a lot of chilling going on (at times, they accomplished this through artificial means, but that's not the point).

4. Read that earlier paragraph about "kicking ass." Read it again. Know it. Learn it. Love it.

5. Use the style guide as a rule book, yes. But use it as a guide, too. Remember that each story should have a voice - get to know these voices. Enjoy these voices. Go out for a cup of coffee with the people who produce these voices. If you chill, they'll chill. Then you'll find more voices and, from there, a theme. Then you'll feel the Zen, and you'll find your nut graph that answers the question: What is this story about?

6. If chanting is your thing, as a way of psyching yourself up, forget Andre and consider the words of another American cultural icon, Bill Murray:

"It just doesn't matter."
"It just doesn't matter."
"It just doesn't matter."

Professionals take a step toward giving everyone better access to mental health services

For Hispanics, there's hope in mental health.

The National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health recently awarded its 2007 Hispanic Higher Education Scholarship Fund to three recipients.

They are: Ligia S. Carvalho and Luis R. Moncion, who are attending Kean University in New Jersey; and Rebecca Noreen Badillo, who is attending Rutgers University.

These individuals earned $2,000 scholarships each toward their educational pursuit of a master’s degree in social work.

The recipients successfully navigated the organization's competitive application process and meeting eligibility, which includes having a bilingual and Hispanic background and bilingual and having a baccalaureate degree.

The resource center created the scholarship fund in 2002 in response to the lack of qualified bilingual and bicultural clinicians available to meet the mental health needs of the growing Hispanic community, organizers say.

Funds have been raised throughout the year through direct mail campaigns, award galas and grant solicitations. To date, the resource center has assisted 20 individuals of Hispanic background with scholarship awards ranging from $500 to $2,000.

Organizers say it's also begun making a difference in increasing the number of bilingual and bicultural clinicians available to effectively serve Hispanics in need of critically important mental health services.

“By providing treatment in a language that many Hispanics feel comfortable speaking, Hispanic consumers who have depression or other mental illness are not dissuaded from seeking treatment," said Debra Wentz, member for the resource center's National Board of Advisors. "This helps them to achieve recovery and, therefore, strive toward their personal goals and enhance their quality of life,”

Studies have shown that Hispanics are more likely to remain in treatment and experience greater satisfaction when under the care of a Hispanic mental health care professional because of the common ties of culture and language, organizers say.

“The Hispanic Higher Education Scholarship Fund assists Hispanics in overcoming the financial barriers that keep them from pursuing a graduate school education. The NRCHMH has received an ever-growing number of requests for support since the fund’s inception. Any contribution is greatly welcomed and appreciated,” said Henry Acosta, executive director of the NRCHMH.

Individuals and organizations interested in contributing to the scholarship fund or in learning more about the NRCHMH may contact Acosta at (609) 838-5488, ext. 205, or visit www.nrchmh.org.

Mental health courts are growing, even though they have no guide

The number of mental health courts in the United States has steadily grown from a mere four in 1997 to over 175, according to Council of State Government Justice Center estimates.

Yet, because of the diversity of program models and their relative newness, there have not been any nationally accepted criteria for effective mental health courts, mental health advocates say.

The Justice Center, a watchdog group, addresses that issue in an updated edition of its paper "Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court."

The report can be viewed by clicking here.

The publication is the result of many rounds of rigorous review and describes the 10 important program elements that jurisdictions should consider when planning, implementing or enhancing a mental health court.

This latest edition of details the aspects of mental health court design and implementation that can be consistently found in successful courts.

“As communities across the country start mental health courts, they must have resources to help focus their efforts and ensure that their programs are based on collaboration among the criminal justice, mental health, substance abuse and related systems,” said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, the specialty courts coordinator of Nevada’s Second Judicial District and Justice Center board member.

Right: A mental health court in Alaska, where the convicted get cheered, not scorned.

“The essential elements, which reflect the consensus of researchers and practitioners, should be of great use to jurisdictions as they work to improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system," she added.

Personal note: I've written extensively about mental health courts throughout the country. Alaska has one of the leading justice programs that deals with this very issue. For more information, view my website at Tom-Davis.net.

Aircraft noise may be bad for your health and heart

A study is linking aircraft noise to hypertension, airline advocates said.

In a recently published study, the Hypertension and Exposure to Noise Near Airports (HYENA) study has linked aircraft noise to hypertension in residents near airports.

The New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise (NJCAAN) said the report shows how the Federal Aviation Administration has "completely ignored analyzing the significant public health, safety and welfare impacts of shifting low altitude departure patterns directly over residential communities in its 10-year effort to revamp the flight patterns in the metropolitan area. "

The group has called upon New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to block implementation of the FAA’s impending implementation of new low altitude departure patterns at Newark and Philadelphia airports and instruct environmental officials to investigate the health impacts of this plan.

Why should political wives suffer in silence as their spouses betray the public trust?

This time it's Silda Wall Spitzer, spouse of more than two decades to Eliot Spitzer, the New York ex-governor snared in a prostitution ring, who is the latest woman to play the supportive female in unseemly political scandal, notes Mary Sanchez of McClatchy Newspapers

As Sanchez noted: "Ever notice how the wife is always positioned in these media moments? She is a mute backdrop. Saintly, you might say, in her suffering."

Sanchez noted others who have played similar roles in what's becoming a trend: Sen. Larry Craig’s wife, Suzanne; Dina Matos McGreevey, who is now in the process of divorcing the former governor of New Jersey; and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita.

"Faced with the public humiliation of a cheating spouse, each woman stood to the side as her husband expressed remorse," Sanchez said. "They all knew the drill: At the end of his speech, the couple walks off the stage together, his hand gently touching her shoulder."

"It’s about time we start questioning this display," she added.

Stephanie Coontz, an expert on marriage and author of “Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage,” has closely observed how attitudes and expectations about marriage have changed, especially during the last 40 years in the United States, Sanchez said.

She notes that when a jilted woman appears “too pushy“ about her grief or anger, it tends to gain sympathy for the man, not herself, Sanchez said. "Don’t be caught throwing a fit about your husband’s transgressions," Sanchez added. "No, not in 2008!"

Here’s one to contemplate, Sanchez asked: What if the roles were reversed? Once the scandal was exposed, would the husband be a quiet creature of support? Or, Sanchez asked, would his rage be viewed as justified?

"Rather, would the male public reaction match the anger and hurt that no doubt is felt by any betrayed spouse but that, in the case of women, is left only to private venting?" Sanchez asked.

Rosalynn Carter works for change any way she can

Rosalynn Carter fawns over her fellow "fellows."

The former first lady talks about how they're making the world a better place. These journalists, each of whom is a part of her Mental Health Journalism Fellowship program, are "reducing stigmas" and promoting the cause of mental health advocacy.

"They're sending a message that many people with mental illness can live normal lives," she says.

That's why September may be her favorite time of year, she says. It's when she meets the newest 10 fellowship recipients - which, in the 2004-05 class, included me - who go to Atlanta every year to launch projects that dig into the tangled world of mental health.

Many public figures disdain media attention, because reporters may sensationalize and misinterpret whatever it is they represent. But Carter embraces it and believes her fellowship program advances a cause she's promoted for the past 30 years.

"We're getting more and more attention," she said when she met my class of fellows in 2004. "It's just been wonderful."

The Carter Center - led by her husband, former President Carter - has fought to reduce the spread of Guinea worm in Africa and Asia. It's monitored elections throughout the world and built foundations for democracy in countries once ruled by oppressive dictators. Her husband once won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

But the Mental Health Journalism Fellowship program, she says, is one of the best and most effective programs offered by the Carter Center. Those who have participated say it provides inspiration that helps get seemingly complex projects off the ground.

"It's something I wouldn't have been able to offer a commitment to without the help of the Carter Center," said Alex Spence, a New Zealand freelance journalist who published a magazine article on poverty and mental illness.

"It's the first magazine story I know of that deals with a person with mental illness, but that person wasn't involved in a crime," he added.

The Carter Center provides a stipend to fellows to pay for their projects. Each journalist has a year to finish it. During that period, each fellow is assigned mentors - some of whom are nationally renowned experts in mental health - who provide guidance and resources for the work.

As we did in 2004 and 2005, the fellows sit in meetings with Rosalynn Carter and her volunteer advisers. In these sessions, Carter is polite, encouraging and can even get a little teary-eyed as she listens to the journalists describe their projects.

Her staff, however, is tough, and they prod - and in some cases even pound - each fellow as they offer suggestions and encourage the journalists to produce the best work they can.

Her husband will participate in some of the discussions. He'll hear his wife talk - in her genteel, Southern way - and flash that famously big smile of his. He hears about these "fellows" all the time, he says.

"I think she loves the fellows more than she loves me!" he jokes.

But the approach works, the Carters say. Since the program began nearly a decade ago, it has produced work that has earned Pulitzer Prize nominations. More important, they say, the work has produced tangible results and changed lives.

"Robert Landauer, a 2000-2001 fellow, covered mental health issues for The Oregonian that contributed to increased public support for reform of the state's mental health service delivery system," said Thom Bornemann, director of the Carter Center's Mental Health Program.

Rosalynn Carter doesn't apologize for using her status to promote the program. If anything, she says, it was her public career that got her interested in mental health.

She first became interested in the early 1970s, when her husband was governor of Georgia. At a time when the de-institutionalization of people with mental illness was taking shape, the governor was deluged with requests from citizens who wanted something done to improve mental health care.

Soon after Carter left the presidency in 1981, she helped form a mental health task force that's helped reduce stigma, her advisers say. Her gentle and honest but selfless stewardship also has helped turn the fellowship into a nationally prestigious program.

Recently, I saw it myself. In 2003, I felt too many of the fellowship recipients were from large, national media like The Washington Post and "60 Minutes." So I wrote a letter that suggested the Carter Center consider that the negative stigma of mental illness is most pervasive in rural and suburban communities. Maybe the program should consider more papers like my own, I argued.

When I met Mrs. Carter in 2004, she praised me for the "great letter" I wrote. I apologized, saying I have a "big mouth" that sometimes gets me into trouble. I didn't mean to criticize, I said.

"No, no," she said. "You were right."

This article originally appeared in The Record of Bergen County, N.J. on Oct. 12, 2004.

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The Carter Center is currently taking applications for the Mental Health fellowship. The deadline is April 28, 2008. Anyone interested should contact Rebecca Palpant at (404) 420-5169 or rpalpan@emory.edu.

Mistreatment of mental health issues is not just an American problem

Following a four year investigation, Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) recently released a report detailing the human rights abuses perpetrated against children and adults in Serbia with disabilities, forced to live out thier lives in institutions.

"Torment not Treatment: Serbia's Segregation and Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities" describes children and adults tied to beds or never allowed to leave their cribs - some for years at a time. In addition, filthy conditions, contagious diseases, lack of medical care, rehabilitation and judicial oversight renders placement in a Serbian institution life threatening for both children and adults.

"These are Serbia's most vulnerable citizens. Thousands confined to institutions are subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and abuse. Children and adults tied down and restrained over a lifetime is dangerous and painful treatment tantamount to torture - clear violations of the European Convention on Human Rights," said Attorney Eric Rosenthal, Executive Director of MDRI and an expert on human rights law.

"We call on the government of Serbia to stop these abuses immediately and to respect the human rights of all people with disabilities," Rosenthal added.

An article from a recent issue of the International Herald Tribune further outlines MDRI's findings. For more information or to read our report, please visit the MDRI website.

MDRI is an international human rights and advocacy organization dedicated to the full participation in society of people with mental disabilities world wide. For more information, visit our website.

An abusive place now become a caring place - hopefully

One of the nation's most notorious psychiatric hospitals - where abuse and carelessness were once considered the norm, and where a famous patient, folk singer Woodie Guthrie, met Bob Dylan - has reopened.

New Jersey officials recently showed off the new Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital during an afternoon ceremony. Governor Corzine called the new $200 million facility symbolic of how the state's mental health system has evolved.

The 450-bed facility will replace aging buildings long plagued by shoddy conditions. Here are some other age-old problems with the facility, as reported by The New York Times:

- It's been long criticized as substandard and plagued by a rash of escapes and assaults on patients.

- Built in 1876, the hospital has been criticized over the last quarter-century by state judges and lawmakers as offering less than ideal care to its mentally ill patients.

- Its environment, in the physical and psychological sense, was once said to ''strain the meaning of humane.''

- During unannounced visits, committee investigators found some patients sitting idle in day rooms without lamps, reading materials or games. Others slept on floors.

- Some had no access to soap or toilet paper, and 44 more had to share four toilets because other toilets were broken.

The cost of the road can take a toll on the brain

My wife and I don't often look at our credit card bill. We don't like being surprised or scared.

But we don't like being poor, either. To be honest, we've had too many visits to the ATM where the machine said “insufficient funds.”

So lately, we've unsealed the unopened letters from the bank, and discovered what's obvious: Everything's going up. Gas. Groceries. Utility and cable bills.

It's certainly understandable. Services expand, so the costs go up. Our combined mortgage and tax bill now consumes more than 50 percent of my monthly salary.

The only one that's puzzling, however, is E-Z Pass, the toll service that allows vehicles to pass through without stopping. How does a bill keep inching closer to $300 every month when the highway toll rates haven't increased in five years?

It was the kind of tip-of-the-iceberg moment that makes hard-working families feel helpless, depressed and downright angry. And it's going to get worse now that the tolls rates on bridges, tunnels, ferries, highways and trains are all going up — by a lot. On the Hudson River crossings heading into New York, they increase by $2 as of today.

Some call the toll hikes just another cost-of-living adjustment that's part of American life. But, for many commuters, it's become virtually impossible to adjust when the cost-of-living is out-of-reach.

And what choices do you have when your income stays flat, the job market shrinks and there really isn't much of a mass transit alternative? How do you save to send you children to college? How do we pay our mortgage when property tax hikes make toll increases look like 50-cent Salvation Army donation?

“If I do drive into the city, I have to pay more for tolls — it’s a lot of money,” said Harry Adrian of New Jersey. “I can’t make a decent living by doing that.”

The obvious answer is to cut back. But how do cut back on a budget that, from our point of view, is already bare bones? Should we deny our children activities that help them grow and learn?

My wife has been shuffling the kids to more out-of-town extracurricular activities — a travel regimen that's contributing to the rising E-Z Pass costs. But karate and travel soccer have done wonders for our children's self-esteem and confidence. We've talked to psychologists who have endorsed this parental approach — though, I suppose, we wouldn't get the same response from financial planners.

Otherwise, we've virtually cut out any vacations. We've taken on additional jobs, such as teaching on an adjunct basis at local colleges. My wife teaches enrichment classes at the local YMCA.

We've also been using more mass transit — such as taking the train to get to New York City — and also staying home on occasion instead of working in the office.

But, as Adrian noted, these choices don't always serve as an equal substitute. Taking a train into the city every month costs around the same amount — or more — as paying for gas, sitting in traffic and using E-Z Pass to get into the city.

Once you get into the city, there's the additional cost of using the subway — and paying higher rates for that, too — or paying for a cab because, as Adrian noted, New York City's mass transit system doesn't always get people where they need to go.

All that takes a lot of time, Adrian noted, forcing him to spend too much time navigating a complicated system and not enough time seeing his family in Bogota.

“The roads that go into the city are always jammed up with cars — for that reason, I don't drive," said Adrian, who works for New York City Transit and takes the bus into the city. “I take public transportation, but it takes a lot of effort.”

The various transportation agencies have provided public forums for people to express their frustration regarding the rate hikes, and plea for change. But the six public hearings held in December to discuss toll and fare hikes on the Hudson River crossings and train lines usually attracted no more than five people at a time.

What people often fail to realize is that government will usually listen if you get loud.

I think of Steve Carrellas, New Jersey coordinator for the National Motorists Association, who got involved in transportation interests because he wanted the speed limit raised from 55 to 65.

He got that. But the more he paid attention to what's happening in New Jersey, the more he felt like he should get involved and provide a voice for the state's weary commuters.

Now the Port Authority and NJ. Gov. Jon Corzine actually lean on him for advice. They'll also brief him before they make a proposal to raise tolls — as the Corzine administration did earlier this month before it announced that it was raising tolls 500 percent over the next 15 years.

“We can support an increase if they can justify fairness and value,” Carrellas said. “If you can at least show some value [and invest in alternatives such as mass transit] then you can say it may be worth it.”

Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose

Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, the New York City medical examiner says.

"Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine," medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a news release that was reported by The Associated Press.

The medical examiner's office only provided generic names, so it is unknown whether he took generic or brand-name drugs, according to The Associated Press. Police had said they found six types of prescription drugs, including sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, in Ledger's apartment.

Oxycodone is a painkiller marketed as OxyContin and used in other painkillers such as Percodan and Percocet; hydrocodone is used in a number of painkillers, including Vicodin. Diazepam and alprazolam are the generic names for the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the other two drugs are sleep aids commonly sold under the brands Restoril and Unisom, according to The Associated Press.

Heath Ledger's autopsy results could be revealed; what will the public learn?

The answer to why Heath Ledger died could be revealed as early as today, according to the Melbourne Daily Sun.

But a public that has been clamoring for information regarding the late actor may not get all their questions answered - not right away, at least.

The New York Chief Medical Examiner's Office, responsible for Ledger's autopsy and deciphering tests undertaken on his blood and tissue, confirmed today it was close to announcing the cause of the 28-year-old Australian actor's death, the paper reported.

"We're expecting something in the next two days,'' Ellen Borakove, director of public affairs at the New York Chief Medical Examiner's office, said.

But other questions, such as the official estimated time Ledger died, will not be made public, according to the Sun.

The Sun reported there has been speculation since Ledger's body was discovered in the bedroom of his rented Manhattan apartment on Jan. 22 that the actor may have been saved if medical help was called earlier.

New York police have said masseuse Diana Wolozin, who found Ledger's lifeless body, called Hollywood actress Mary-Kate Olsen several times before alerting paramedics.

NYPD investigators who inspected Ledger's apartment, however, said there were no signs of foul play or evidence to suggest he committed suicide, according to the Sun. They also dismissed reports illegal drugs were found.

Police did find six different types of prescription drugs in the apartment, including pills to treat anxiety and insomnia.

That claim has inspired the media to do more than implicate that drugs contributed to his death (see New York Daily News cover, above) - despite the fact that much of the drug-death evidence is circumstantial.

The media frenzy has inspired many to do a Google search and ask questions that have led them to this blog. They've asked: Can anti-anxiety and anti-depressants be mixed? Was Heath Ledger a drug addict? How will Michelle Williams, his actress-girlfriend, cope?

Based on what's been said, we may never know.

How do you cope?

By DARCIE BORDEN
Featured Blogger

I'm sure you've heard this one before: "I believe everything happens for a reason." You may fall into one of two camps – you either agree with that statement wholeheartedly, or it irritates the hell out of you when someone says that. But, if you fall into the second camp, before you judge too harshly, consider this: we all have our own ways of coping.

What's yours?

From the beginning of time, people have looked for reasons outside of themselves as to why things happen. Early humans thought nature had emotions. So, if there was thunder and lightning, they thought the spirits were angry. Shamen helped them "cope" through various means. You might say a Shaman was an early combination of priest/therapist/pharmacist.

Some people believe in astrology, some believe in religion, some believe in therapy and medication and some just drink or smoke their problems away - only to see their problems return when the mind-altering haze disappears.

Whatever the means, it is human nature to need to find a way to cope with whatever life throws at us. We, unlike most animals, are keenly self-aware. I wonder, though, if the best way to cope is to remind ourselves from time to time that we were derived from the universe, we are merely a speck in the broad scope of things and we will return to the universe when we meet our end. When you think of it that way, what really matters in this life?

Well, I know what matters to me – when I'm on my deathbed, I won't be thinking, "Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office."

I have been thinking lately of how insignificant, yet miraculous, we are as I think about two new souls who will inhabit the earth this summer. My dear friend Kathy and my sister-in-law Cynthia are both in their second trimester of pregnancy. Their unborn babies can now recognize their fathers' voices, they can be startled by bright lights and loud noises, and they can make emotional facial expressions and will soon be able to even suck their thumbs.

But, before this trimester, they were like little time capsules of evolution. For example, the developing human embryo at one point has gill pouches almost identical to those of a fish embryo. We did, aft