Mental Health in the Media
Whether you are reading the newspaper, searching the internet or watching TV, mental health topics seem to be popping up everywhere in the media. Here are some of the most recent we have found:
In-Depth: Kids In Crisis
Voices For Children Advocacy Day At MN State Capital
USCRI Healthy Living Toolkit
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has recently posted ten new health brochures available in ARABIC, VIETNAMESE, ENGLISH, BURMESE, KAREN, SWAHILI, FRENCH, SOMALI, SPANISH, HMONG, FARSI, KIRUNDI, BOSNIAN, and RUSSIAN.
The USCRI Healthy Living Toolkit is designed to educate refugees and immigrants to become proactive health consumers and promoters in their communities. The Toolkit supports health professionals, health promoters, ESL teachers, resettlement case managers in assisting refugees and immigrants to navigate the health system in order to reduce the health disparities among these populations. The toolkit has been developed in a culturally appropriate manner.
Hope For Kids With Autism - Elk River Star News - March 6, 2008
Four years ago when doctors told Laura Behrendt of Rogers her daughter had autism and would likely never speak, she went into a deep depression. When she finally realized that her daughter’s best hope at a normal life rested on her shoulders, Behrendt decided to something. Read the story.
House Passes Mental Health Parity Bill March 6, 2008
By a vote of 268-148, the US House of Representatives on March 5th passed its version of the mental health insurance parity bill (HR 1424), setting up what is likely to be a difficult negotiation with the Senate, which passed its version (S 558) unanimously this past fall. Both bills require group health plans to cover mental illness and substance abuse disorders on the same terms and conditions as all other illnesses - equity with respect to durational treatment limits (inpatient days and outpatient visits) and financial limitations (cost sharing, deductibles, out-of-pocket limits, etc.). However, there are important differences between the House and Senate bills that must be resolved.
ACT NOW!
Equitable coverage of mental illness treatment has been a top legislative priority for NAMI for nearly 20 years. 2008 represents a historic opportunity to finally pass insurance parity legislation. Send a letter to your member of Congress and tell them that Congress cannot allow this historic opportunity to enact insurance parity to slip away. Now is the time to come to an agreement that can get through the House, the Senate and be signed by President Bush. Congress must act in 2008!
Historic Debate in the House
The debate in the House was remarkable in the level of consensus over long held principles that NAMI has sought to achieve. While there were differences among members of Congress over the specifics in the House bill, there was unanimous agreement on the need for federal intervention to ensure equitable coverage of mental illness treatment. Democrats and Republicans of all political stripes spoke on the House floor about their personal experience with mental illness, the burden imposed by untreated mental illness and the need for covering and treating these costly disorders just like any other illness.
What Issues Must Be Resolved To Reach Consensus on Parity?
Learn more about the differences between S 558 and HR 1424 that must be resolved in order to achieve a bill that can pass this year.
Youth intervention Benefits: Published (3/4/2008)
For every dollar spent on youth intervention programs, the social return on investment is $4.89. That was one of the findings of an analysis done by Wilder Research and the University of Minnesota.
Speaking before the House Public Safety Finance Division, Paul A. Anton, chief economist at Wilder Research, said that the study showed intervention programs contributed to reductions in truancy, juvenile crime, court costs, school expenses and the need for drug treatment.
The programs improve health conditions, school performance and high school graduation rates.
A typical residential youth treatment program may run as much as $76,300 a year, Anton said, while an intervention program may cost $2,000 a year.
Different intervention programs include pre-court diversion programs, mentoring and counseling services.
New report offers comprehensive look at mental health in Minnesota; More than one in 10 Minnesotans diagnosed with a mental illness.
African American Families And Mental Health: What You Need To Know - NAMI Releases Family Guide To Mental Health
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has released A Family Guide to Mental Health: What You Need to Know, oriented especially to African-American families affected by medical illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
It can be downloaded, or multiple copies ordered at a bulk rate of 50 copies for $27.00, at National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The 2008 Presidential Primaries
Bringing Mental Healthcare to the Ballot - Explore the Candidates
Responding to Traumatic Events: Children in Life-Threatening Circumstances
There is never a one-time trauma. As human beings, we think, we feel, we remember. Interview with Dr. L. Read Sulik, MD, FAAP, Medical Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, St. Cloud Hospital Behavioral Health Clinic
Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say - New York Times
Educators and psychologists have long feared that children entering school with behavior problems were doomed to fall behind in the upper grades. But two new studies suggest that those fears are exaggerated.
New SAMSHA Report to Congress on Mental Health Emphasizes Promotion and Prevention
A new SAMHSA report to Congress promotes the use of research-based approaches that provide parenting support skills and child resilience – even in the face of adversity. Promotion and Prevention in Mental Health: Strengthening Parenting and Enhancing Child Resilience emphasizes that these proactive approaches help prevent mental health problems from developing or can greatly mitigate them if they do occur – especially among children and youth.
Redesigned Web Site Helps Users Find More Than 600 Resources Devoted to Countering Mental Health Stigma
New Insights on how Mental Health is Influenced by Culture and Immigration Status from the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Science News Science Update of July 11, 2007 is a description of a special issue of Research in Human Development (Volume: 4, Number 1-2, 2007) that focuses on the findings of NIMH-sponsored research of mental health among minority populations in the United States and the role that culture, race and ethnicity can play. Articles can be purchased at http://www.leaonline.com/toc/rhd/4/1-2.
Children at War by P.W. Singer is a comprehensive examination of the use of children as soldiers around the globe. The author explores the evolution of the phenomenon, shows how and why children are recruited, indoctrinated, trained and converted to soldiers, and then lays out the consequences for global security, with a special case study on terrorism. The book ends with an outline of a response that can end the use of child soldiers. (Publisher's description)
Depression and the Initiation of Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Youths Aged 12 to 17
National Study on Drug Use and Health Report (2006)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
This report examines past year major depressive episodes (MDE), past year initiation of alcohol and illicit drug use, and the association between MDE and the initiation of alcohol or other drug use in the past year among youths aged 12 to 17. All findings presented in this report are based on 2005 National Study on Drug Use and Health Report data.
Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006 (in press 10/2007)
NIIAH Partner: UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools Mental Health and Social Services (N. Brener, M. Weist, H. Adelman, L. Taylor, and M. Vernon-Smiley)
Journal of School Health, 77(8) 486-499.
The articles in this issue of the Journal of School Health, including the one referenced above, are generated from analysis of SHPPS – The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006. The largest, most comprehensive assessment of school health programs in the United States ever conducted, SHPPS 2006 is a new and important resource for school and public health practitioners, scientists, advocates, policymakers, and all those who care about the health and safety of youth and their ability to succeed academically and socially.
Steps and Tools to Guide Planning and Implementation of a Comprehensive System to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching
NIIAH Partner: UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools Mental Health and Social Services
As the title indicates, this publication is a planning guide designed to help with the initial phases of school improvement planning for establishing a Comprehensive System to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching. In addition to strategic, big picture insights and planning recommendations, the publication offers an extensive tools section.
Mental Health in Schools: Much More than Services for the Few
NIIAH Partner: UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools Mental Health and Social Services
The article stresses that leaders concerned with advancing mental health in school need to focus on much more than just increasing clinical services. That, of course, has long been the message conveyed by advocates for prevention programs. It is also the message conveyed by those who recognize that concerns about mental health involve much more than the focus on mental illness. This latter view includes an emphasis on promoting youth development, wellness, social and emotional learning, and fostering the emergence of a caring, supportive, and nurturing climate throughout a school. The article concludes with a call to action for a fundamental, systemic transformation in the ways schools, families, and communities address major barriers to learning and teaching.
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