Ammarell to lead mental health panel -Chapel Hill (NC) News

Mayor Kevin Foy has tapped Natalie Ammarell, a human services consultant, to lead the town's new Mental Health Task Force.

The state's failed mental health system has forced mentally ill residents to fend for themselves for treatment and medication, town officials said in a release. The location of UNC Hospitals uniquely affects Chapel Hill and Orange County because the hospital discharges some mentally ill patients who stay in Chapel Hill.

"The future of mental health care in Chapel Hill and throughout North Carolina is uncertain," Foy said. "Therefore, local municipalities must think more about how this will affect the health and vitality of our communities."

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Gun checks may violate federal law -Wilmington (DE) News-Journal

The Delaware State Police have been conducting secret background checks of some gun owners since 2001, a process known as "superchecks" that may violate federal law.

The checks have resulted in confiscation of weapons, some for legitimate reasons, but have subjected many citizens to a search of mental health records that in most cases police would be unable to access.

In Delaware, when someone attempts to purchase a pistol or rifle, he or she must first sign a consent form authorizing a criminal and mental health check by the state Firearms Transaction Approval Program.

These background checks are initiated when a gun dealer calls the firearms unit seeking approval to sell a weapon.

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State police background checks of mental health records hard to defend - Wilmington (DE) News Journal

The report on today's front page by investigative reporter Lee Williams about the Delaware State Police's use of so-called "superchecks" on gun possession is at least disturbing and possibly a violation of federal law. This is not the kind of information Delawareans want to read about their nationally recognized state law enforcement agency.

Simply because the state police can access mental health records from their portable computers isn't a reason to do it. But that's exactly what it looks like: They do it because they can.

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Demand up for mental health care -Denver Post

They come in for counseling related to a DUI, but it turns out the alcohol was meant to kill the depression of a lost job, a lost house, a lost spouse — or maybe all three.

They ask for help with gas money or car repairs so they can make their therapy appointment.

They struggle to make co-payments.

They rush to take advantage of employee assistance programs — sometimes fearful they might lose their job, sometimes trying to grapple with their job loss before employee benefits expire.

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Mental-health museum may put city on map -Salem (OR) Statesman Journal

In 1953, a teacher's average salary was $4,254 and a pound of round steak was 90 cents. The first color television sets appeared, selling for $1,175, and a gallon of gas cost 20 cents.

I graduated from eighth grade in Milwaukee, Wis., and Mental Health America of Licking County was started (formerly Mental Health Association) by local volunteers, some of whom still are involved.

Some things have changed, but not the good name of the MHA.

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County approves seed money for mental health specialist in Crawford County school districts - Dennison (IA) Bulletin Review

Louise Galbraith, central point coordinator (CPC) for the mental health budget of the county, received unanimous approval from the Crawford County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to use $60,000 from the mental health fund as seed money to start an in-school program offering a mental health therapist for Crawford County school students.

Denison Community School Superintendent Mike Pardun and John Sondag from West Iowa Community Mental Health Center (WICMHC) participated in the dialogue Galbraith initiated between the entities to formulate a plan with the goal of circumventing mental health issues before they get out of control.

"We're trying to be proactive instead of reactive," Pardun remarked, "That's the whole point of the project."

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State scrambles as cash tightens -Associated Press

HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell and legislative leaders are intensifying their search for budget cuts and spare millions as the deteriorating economy continues to unravel Pennsylvania’s $28.3 billion spending plan.

The state’s bleak revenue collections look certain to make November the seventh straight month that expectations have not been met as Rendell’s agency heads draw up a second round of spending cuts to try to avert a deficit.

Some of the biggest recipients of the state’s funding — hospitals and nursing homes that serve the poor and uninsured, and counties that administer safety nets for addiction treatment, mental health needs and neglected children — are worried about those cuts.

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How to fix a full jail -Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune

SARASOTA COUNTY - County leaders spent $20 million to expand the downtown jail five years ago, then they spent millions more on programs and a consultant to help delay the need for another jail.

The programs have worked to curb the jail population by speeding up inmates' court cases or diverting them to social programs so they are never in a cell in the first place.

But the jail has been overcrowded every month for the past year because of factors that criminal justice leaders say are beyond their control: a growing population, more law enforcement officers making more arrests and stricter policies for people on probation.

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Jail health care required, pricey -Concord (NH) Monitor

News stories that quote inmates griping about medical care at the Merrimack County jail really burn jail Superintendent Ron White.

He says those attacks cloud the real story: County taxpayers spend more than $1.3 million a year giving inmates, many of them in poor health, what White says is likely the best medical care they've ever received.

That care ranges from treating the common cold and prenatal pregnancy needs to serious illness and heart operations. The jail cannot refuse to treat a medical need. And if the inmate doesn't have insurance or the means to pay, which most don't, the county is obligated to pick up the tab.

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The 'treatment' of bipolar - Glen Falls (NY) Post Star

There is disturbing news emerging about the psychiatric treatment of pre-adolescent children.

First some background: Numerous writers have highlighted a significant increase, up to seven-fold, in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children in the United States over the last 10 years. Not only has there been a marked increase here, the prevalence of the diagnosis is significantly greater in this country than in Western Europe. Barbara Sahakian, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, has noted that the prevalence of bipolar disorder in children in Britain is far lower than in the United States.

Different reasons have been given for these trends. One difference is thought to be that we in the U.S. use a different diagnostic cookbook (the DSM-IV) than is used elsewhere in the world (the ICD-9) and that the DSM sets a lower bar in order to reach criteria for the disorder.

But more serious and disturbing is the view that pharmaceutical companies have exerted undue inducement and financial incentive for pediatricians and child psychiatrists to expand their view of the disorder.

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Drugs often a shortcut for care -Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press

Maybe it takes a wife of 58 years to tell, but Joe's demeanor has lightened since he stopped taking antipsychotic drugs. Dementia still leaves the 78-year-old unable to speak much more than a stray word amid mumbles.

"Hey-ha-hey-hey-ha - thank you!"

But he sure is smiling again.

It's a warm, broad smile that comes with new visitors and old memories, and it means everything to Ann when she sees Joe at his nursing home in West St. Paul. It's the most visible sign that weaning Joe off antipsychotics — which he started taking to control dementia-related aggression — was the right move.

"Smiling, happy, a very different personality," Ann said.

Antipsychotics are arguably the No. 1 controversy in elder care right now.

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State budget shortfall shouldn’t result in mental health cuts - Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times

North Carolina dodged the budget-tightening bullet longer than many states, but over the past two months, Gov. Mike Easley twice ordered spending cuts to position the state for expected shortfalls in revenue.

The governor deserves praise for being proactive, but he should be looking for ways to spare the state’s mental health system from belt-tightening

The epartment of Health and Human Services is among the hardest hit by the reductions, according to the Associated Press.

Overall spending directed to local mental health agencies has been trimmed by $10.5 million or 4.6 percent, DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton told the AP. Spending designated for mental health facilities has been cut by $8.5 million or 3 percent.

That’s left already understaffed mental hospitals looking for ways to reduce employee overtime without harming patient treatment and safety, Benton said.

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Plea deal offered to 8-year-old murder suspect -Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man in their eastern Arizona home, court records show.

Complete details of the offer weren't spelled out in a court filing posted Saturday on the Apache County Superior Court's Web site.

But County Attorney Criss Candelaria wrote that he has "tendered a plea offer to the juvenile's attorneys that would resolve all the charges in the juvenile court contingent on the results of the mental health evaluations."


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Locked wards 'harm patients' - The Observer (England)

The locking of mental health patients into their wards in NHS hospitals makes them more likely to be violent, harm themselves and refuse medication, new research shows.

Treating people with depression, schizophrenia or manic moods as if they were prisoners is designed to promote safety, but increases the risk of them attacking nurses or fellow patients, according to the study by London's City University.

'A locked-doors approach is more likely to leave the patient seeing the ward as a prison, themselves as prisoners and the staff as jailers,' said Professor Len Bowers, who led the research. He found half of all hospital wards which look after those being treated under the Mental Health Act use a 'locked doors' approach.

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Editorial: This 'culture' must change -Wilmington (NC) Star-News

Just how long does it take for a so-called health care institution to develop what one official described as a "culture" of neglect and abuse? Years? Decades?

Whatever the answer, Cherry Hospital apparently lost its mission statement long ago. North Carolinians already knew about the shameful events that led to the death of a 50-year-old psychiatric patient who was left sitting in a chair, without food or water, for almost a full day.

The Raleigh News & Observer recently posted videos showing several staff members at the Goldsboro mental hospital chatting, playing cards and actively ignoring Steven Sabock and one other patient as they sat in chairs a few feet away.

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Early diagnosis of children's mental health is key -Milford (MA) Daily News

The problems that plague children's mental health in Milford are the same statewide, with access and early diagnosis at the top of the list of issues discussed earlier this week at a brown-bag lunch.

"Nationally we don't do well by our kids," said Barbara Anthony, executive director of the Boston-based Health Law Advocates. "We talk a good game, but our rhetoric doesn't match our results."

According to the Children's Mental Health Campaign, Massachusetts has the ninth-highest rate of expulsion for preschool children in the nation - a problem that can be alleviated through early diagnosis.

"Parents don't want their kids labeled, but sometimes for the kids to get the help they need they need a label or diagnosis," said Kathy Segalla, coordinator of the Milford Community Partnership for Children. The partnership provides enrichment programs and childcare subsidies to families.

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Locked up, under watch, he still overdosed -Minneapolis-St Paul Pioneer Press

Debora Laugerude was scanning a newspaper two weeks ago when she came across the story of Jeff Berg, a jail inmate whose family is suing Hennepin County over his death behind bars. The cause of death: drug overdose.

Laugerude jumped to call the reporter. The case might as well have been her own son's.

"It's like, oh, God, no, it happened again," the Lakeville woman said.

On Jan. 25, while on suicide watch at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Rush City, her son David Laugerude, 28, died from an overdose of prescription and over-the-counter pills. The former school bus driver had been serving prison time since 2001 for a string of sexual assaults on young children, at least two of them disabled. He claimed several of them had been on his bus.

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A tragic case in need of answers -Sacramento Bee

he story of paranoid schizophrenic Ofiu Edwards Foto, detailed Sunday by The Bee's Andy Furillo, exposes dangerous loopholes in the state's mental health and criminal justice systems.

Foto has a 20-year history of extreme violence and several criminal convictions, yet the Sacramento man was housed in an unlocked group home in Sacramento's Oak Park, where in September, police say, he beat an elderly woman to death and severely injured the woman's husband.

At various times, Foto violently assaulted people while he was in a psychotic state. After each attack, records show, he was shunted from jail to state hospitals, then into community mental health facilities, some locked and some unlocked. Then he would assault someone else and the cycle would start all over.

In his last encounter with the criminal justice system before being charged with murder, Sacramento prosecutors allowed Foto to plead no contest to felony assault in the 2006 beating of a 76-year-old woman in a Florin-area group home for the mentally ill. Foto had offered to plead not guilty by reason of insanity in that case, but prosecutors rejected that offer and the judge placed him on probation instead.

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Facing funding crisis, AMHC nixes training trip to resort - Elizabeth City (NC) Daily Advance

Facing a severe funding shortfall, Albemarle Mental Health Center plans to pass up a trip to Pinehurst for a statewide conference of mental health program agencies.

AMHC’s funding crisis has led to layoffs of the center’s employees and reductions in services provided by center staff and private providers.

The N.C. Council of Community Programs is holding its annual conference for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse programs Dec. 10-12 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. The cost per person, including hotel accommodations, is $549. In addition, there would be travel costs associated with attending the event.

AMHC Board Chairman Richard Johnson, a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, said state administrators had told him the AMHC administrators and board members needed to attend the state conference in order to stay informed on important issues.

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Victim's family awarded $36 million in Wal-Mart shooting - Tuscon Citizen

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded $36 million to the family of a man shot to death by a mental patient in a Wal-Mart parking lot in 2005.

ValueOptions Inc., the company that held the state contract for providing behavioral health care until last year, was found 90 percent at fault in the death of Patrick Graham, 35, of Glendale. Graham was one of two men shot by Ed Liu, a ValueOptions patient who has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for more than 20 years.

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Treating depression seen important in heart failure - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Depression increases the risk of death in patients with heart failure, but the risk apparently disappears with antidepressant use, according to a study.

"Recent studies suggest that the use of antidepressants may be associated with increased mortality (death) in patients with cardiac disease," Dr. Christopher M. O'Connor, of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues note in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Because depression has also been shown to be associated with increased mortality in these patients, it remains unclear if this association is attributable to the use of antidepressants or to depression."

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Why can't Johnny adapt? -Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

Among the major challenges we face, as a society, is the widespread lack of resilience of many young people. Resilience is the capacity to overcome adversity, to let go of what doesn't work, to adapt and to mature. Growing evidence of its absence among the young is as ominous for our future as the threat of climate change or financial crisis.

A disturbing measure is the increasing number of children diagnosed with mental-health conditions characterized by rigid and self-harming attitudes and behaviours, such as bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders and "conduct" disorders. Hundreds of thousands of American children under 12 are being prescribed heavy-duty antipsychotic medications to control behaviours deemed unacceptable and unmanageable.

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Good Shepherd Center provides safety net -Wrightsville Beach (NC) Lumina News

Tucked away in a modest corner of downtown Wilmington stands an unassuming brick building within which functions the most comprehensive local organization fighting against hunger and homelessness — Good Shepherd Center.

What started as a small day-shelter and soup kitchen in 1983 has grown into a multi-facetted front against the estimated homeless population of 1,200 people in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties. Good Shepherd serves three meals a day and shelters 100-plus men, women and families with children 365 days a year.

“Breakfast and lunch is for anyone in the community who is hungry,” said Suesan Sullivan, director of resource development for Good Shepherd. “We make sure lunch is particularly nutritious and substantial because a lot of the low-income folks will come for lunch, and really, after they pay their rent and utilities, there’s not a lot left for food. It may be the only real meal they get in a day.”

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Mental illness defense raised in Craigslist murder case -Shakopee (MN) Valley News

Asperger's syndrome was brought forth as a possible defense in the Craigslist murder case by defense attorneys during a hearing this week.

Attorney Alan Margoles said that Michael John Anderson has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and was "laboring under it" so that he "didn't know the nature of his actions or that they were wrong.”

Anderson, 20, of Savage, is accused of first-degree murder for allegedly killing Katherine Ann Olson, 24, in his parents’ home at 12649 Kipling Ave. in October of last year. Police say Anderson used a fake Craigslist ad to lure Olson to his home and subsequently shot her in the back. He then put her body in the trunk of her car and drove it to the nearby Rudy Kraemer Park Preserve and also disposed of her purse and broken cell phone, plus a bloody towel with his name written on it, in Warren Butler Park.

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Jadwin House opens its doors mentally ill, homeless in Tri-Cities -Kennewick (WA) Tri-City Herald

Jadwin House manager Robert Peters says working in the house has helped him find a sense of purpose since getting out of jail. Owner Greg Dow had hoped to fill the home with homeless veterans but instead found a greater need for housing people with mental health issues. See story posted below.

Robert Peters believes God led him to a gray and white alphabet house in Richland where he's found redemption.

"He has chosen me to help out here," Peters said.

Peters is the house manager for Jadwin House, a place that's become home for five men who once were chronically homeless because of mental illness.

The home is operated by lawyer Greg Dow and his wife Carol Darley Dow. They bought Jadwin House from Sunderland Family Treatment Services, which sold what it ran as an eight-bed residential mental health treatment facility after it lost a bicounty public mental health contract.

Dow's original intent in buying Jadwin House was to create a place for homeless veterans, but when he talked to the Benton Franklin Community Action Committee, a local agency that places the homeless in housing, he learned there was a greater need for homes for people with mental illnesses.

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Still catching up

More posts from the past couple of days coming later this p.m.

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Severe mental illness sufferers more likely to be crime victims - Shreveport (LA) Times

People with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses are 11 times more likely than others to become crime victims.

That's according to a 2005 study, which also concluded that a fourth of people with severe mental illnesses were victims of some kind of crime.

Schizophrenics suffer from disorganized thoughts and often have trouble weighing risks and controlling impulses. That can put them in dangerous situations, although many people with schizophrenia tend to avoid other people, said Dr. Anita Kablinger, who heads the Psychopharmacology Research Clinic at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport.

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CCA faces scrutiny after man dies in jail -Nasheville Tennessean

The nation's largest private prison operator is under scrutiny again — this time from the relatives of a man who died of pneumonia while incarcerated in a Metro jail in Nashville.

Terry Battle, 55, suffered from hepatitis C, hypertension, gastroenteritis and blindness when he was in the custody of Corrections Corporation of America beginning in March 2007, his autopsy showed. Guards found him unresponsive in his cell June 3, a day after he'd been to see the prison doctor for a bout of diarrhea. The medical examiner said the cause of death was pneumonia.
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His family was stunned. They hired David Randolph Smith, a Nashville attorney, to investigate Battle's death and the circumstances that derailed his chance for freedom.

"It's really hard to accept when something like that is treatable," said Battle's sister, Tammy Williams. "You could only imagine the suffering from not getting proper treatment. The mind tends to run wild. We can imagine him

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Grant will aid inmates who are mentally ill - Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

DURHAM - Durham mental health professionals think nonviolent inmates who are mentally ill need treatment more than a stay in jail or prison. Thanks to a federal grant, they'll be able to help such inmates quicker.

The two-year, $200,000 grant will enable The Durham Center and a statewide outpatient agency to create a team to help those individuals instead of keeping them in jail.

Team members, who will begin work early next year, will help identify and assist inmates with mental disorders. About 35 inmates a year will be helped through the program.

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Chapel Hill task force to monitor mental health care - Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

CHAPEL HILL - Mayor Kevin Foy has tapped Natalie Ammarell, a human services consultant, to lead the town's new Mental Health Task Force.

The state's failed mental health system has forced mentally ill residents to fend for themselves for treatment and medication, town officials said in a release. The location of UNC Hospitals uniquely affects Chapel Hill and Orange County because the hospital discharges some mentally ill patients who stay in Chapel Hill.

"The future of mental health care in Chapel Hill and throughout North Carolina is uncertain," Foy says. "Therefore, local municipalities must think more about how this will affect the health and vitality of our communities."

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Eye divergence triples mental illness risk - UPI

ROCHESTER, Minn., Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Children with misaligned eyes have a higher risk of later developing mental illness, U.S.doctors say.

The Mayo Clinic study, published in Pediatrics, finds children whose eyes deviated outward had a three times increased risk over children with normal eye alignment of developing mental illness by early adulthood.

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Treatment services residents need a Merry Christmas, too - Burlington (NC) Times-News

Clients with mental health or substance abuse problems can get off alcohol and drugs and take advantage of short- and long-term residential treatment programs to get back on their feet.

The agency's Santa's Helper program helps out, too.
The program provides Christmas gifts for residents. Many come to RTSA with little more than the clothes on their back. Their relationships with friends and family may be frayed or even non-existent.

Like so many in Alamance County who need a hand, RTSA residents need a Merry Christmas, too.

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Freedom to be sick leaves families feeling chained - Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

Mary Liz Greene was in the midst of an animated conversation with her son when he suddenly lunged, grabbed her by the neck with two hands, then pushed his thumbs into the soft flesh of her throat, using the full force of his 6-foot, 200-pound frame.

Gasping for air, she felt the pressure let up for an instant, shoved him with all her might and fled to a neighbouring apartment to call 911.

“I'm lucky to be alive,” Ms. Greene said later, “although sometimes I doubt that.”

Her son, 24-year-old John Candow, suffers from severe bipolar disorder and, when untreated, is consumed by the delusion that he is Tony Soprano, the TV mobster. He has been living with his mother and, since he was diagnosed three years ago, has thrown knives at her, burned her with cigarettes, punched and kicked her repeatedly.

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Precarious time for the mentally ill -Kansas City Star

A sad reality is that Kansas City’s Municipal Correctional Institution has become a default refuge for people with mental illness.

Six of 10 prisoners have some form of mental illness, said Nancy Leazer, the superintendent.

Using resources from the Jackson County Mental Health Levy Board, the jail provides counseling and treatment for some troubled inmates. But once they leave, they’re on their own.

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Killer was insane, Scott County judge decides - Davenport (IA) Quad City Times

What he really planned to do was go talk with Kevin Mosier -- a neighbor he barely knew — about what he thought were continuing attempts to possess him. He took a knife with him.

When Mosier answered his door at the Lake Canyada Mobile Home Park, Hatch’s sense of being “spiritually invaded” grew stronger. It grew as Mosier stepped out onto the porch and the two began talking. And then it faded as Hatch began to stab Mosier.

“I took his soul back to him,” Hatch told one of the many psychologists who examined the 21-year-old in the past three years.

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Waiting for the visitors who never come - Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

Ben Robinson spent long months during his hospital stays pacing the halls alone, hoping someone would visit.

Hardly anyone did, except for his mother, even though he phoned friends specifically to ask for company. The people who eventually braved the locked ward at the Clarke Institute never stayed long. "Where are the white padded rooms?" they joked.

"It was a bit of freak show kind of thing," says Mr. Robinson, a 24-year-old part-time student in Toronto who has been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder - a condition defined by symptoms of both a mood disorder, such as depression, and schizophrenia. "Like, 'Whoo, let's go see my friend in the mental hospital.' "

Even so, those visits made all the difference, he remembers - a few moments to feel "semi-normal," to talk to someone from the outside and forget that he wasn't free to leave.

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State Health Department Reduces Services - Honolulu KITV

HONOLULU -- The state health department is ordering a reduction in services for thousands of mentally ill patients.

The department said agencies that provide help in the community are costing too much money and that the cutbacks can be made without hurting the patients.

Although they had been warned, the news still came as a shock to mental health providers who were told they must reduce the hours of service they offer by 75 percent to help the state save about $10 million.

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Body and Soul - Toronto Globe & Mail

Experts may classify people by disease, but the face of each person with a mental illness tells a unique story. Globe photographer Charla Jones travelled the country to listen to their individual experiences and share their stories

GREG STROLL

Mr. Stroll, 26, lives with his mother in the Notre Dame de Grace neighbourhood of Montreal. He was first diagnosed with depression at the age of 17 and then with schizophrenia when he was 21. He resisted the diagnosis until he began hearing voices at 23. He attended Dawson College and worked part-time in a computer store in the Alexis Nihon mall until the shop closed. Today, he is still in recovery.

"The very first thing you'll notice is, say, you believe the voices in your head are real people. … I was being mentally tortured by Nazis to draw out psychic capabilities. I don't know exactly how to describe what mental torture would be within the confines of your own mind. But try to think of things like conditioning, mind control. They made me believe they were altering my memories and, in effect, taking out the ones I found precious. It was just generally a very difficult experience. …

"All people who are mentally ill are individuals. The severity of their case would be dependent on the person. I wouldn't shy away from someone just because of what you've seen in a movie. This person may end up being your best friend, your lover."
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Police nab disturbed man in dad's slay -New York Daily News

A mentally disturbed Brooklyn man killed his 79-year-old father before a Thanksgiving feast and left the body for his younger brother to find, police sources said.

George Ledson arrived at his father's East Flatbush home at about 12:30 p.m. to pick up his dad for a holiday dinner.

When his father, also George Ledson, did not answer the door, the son looked in through a window - and saw his father sprawled on a sofa with a knife in his chest, sources said.

He called 911, telling the dispatcher that his older brother Gary was mentally ill and that he could see his wounded father inside the home.

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Mental health and the law - Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

Mental-health services are in short supply, even for those who want care. But for those who refuse treatment, the situation can be dire and deadly. Many end up caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system, their health — mental and physical — spiralling downward, Andre Picard writes in Friday's Globe and Mail.

In such cases people who care for a the person who refuses help end up in a situation that pits people's civil rights against their health and the safety of others.

There are about 60,000 admissions a year for involuntarily psychiatric care in Canada, and that doesn't include those in the criminal justice system, research by psychologist John Gray shows. Decades ago those peole were hospitalized indiscriminately and often treated in a horrific fashion.

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Jim Ryan stresses faith in recovering from son's suicide - Chicago Sun Times News Group

AURORA -- Jim Ryan admits he didn't know if he could move forward after the suicide of his youngest son Patrick.

Although his faith was shaken, it was the recovery of that faith that put Ryan, a former Illinois attorney general and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate, back on track to live the rest of his life.

"Hope is important, but I think faith is more important because the basis of hope is faith," Ryan said Sunday before a large crowd gathered for the Harvest of Hope brunch, a fund-raiser for Suicide Prevention Services, based in Aurora.

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Report: Skagit shooting defendant not competent -Associated Press

Mental-health experts have concluded that the man charged with killing six people in a Sept. 2 shooting rampage in Skagit County is currently incompetent to stand trial, a prosecutor says.

While the confidential Western State Hospital report has been sealed in Skagit County Superior Court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Erik Pedersen referred to its findings in briefs filed in the Isaac Zamora case.

Pedersen's brief noted that the 28-year-old Zamora was unwilling or unable to cooperate in assessments during his recent hospitalization at the Lakewood hospital, the Skagit Valley Herald reported Wednesday. Pedersen added that hospital evaluators say Zamora can neither understand the charges against him nor assist in his own defense. They add that he shows signs of a psychotic disorder

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Liquor Store Murder Suspect Found Naked in PA - Baltimore WMAR-TV

“He needed help and I failed to get it to him quick enough.”

A father's misplaced guilt for the son who needed mental help and is now an accused murderer. In an exclusive interview Carlton Briggs says, “I'm trying to keep from crying myself not just for him but for this lady because nobody deserves that I would feel lost if that happened to him and I feel lost because I lose him this way." Police say 23 year old David Briggs stabbed 24 year old Aysha Ring to death Saturday. Sunday Pennsylvania State Police picked him up, stranded near Pittsburg. His father says, “He was trying to find his way home.”

But he ended up finding himself at a homeless mission where he stripped naked and acted as if he were preaching. Police had to subdue him with a stun gun. The suspect’s father says, “I brought him home to get him some help because at that point I realized something was wrong.” But Baltimore county police matched his fingerprints from a previous crime and arrested him Monday.

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Federal Probe Under Way Into Suicides At Western State Mental Hospital - Seattle KIRO-TV

Video Reports.

"Something is very wrong" -- that's the reaction from mental health experts following a KIRO Team 7 Investigation into suicides at Western State Hospital.

Our continuing investigation also sparks new federal and state probes.

Team 7 Investigators revealed how state employees likely altered official state documents, which helped make it look like they adequately monitored a suicidal patient.

In reality, Anthony Gordon had plenty of time to hang himself with a sheet by propping up his bed. That bed was supposed to be bolted to the floor.

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When mental illness tarnishes your golden years - Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

VICTORIA — When Laura Baldwin, three months pregnant, began washing clean household linen and fussily ironing what didn't need ironing, her husband, Barry, shrugged it off as the elation of pregnancy.

When she began running compulsively on the beach and couldn't sleep, she went to see her doctor. "He also said I was just excited," she recalls.

It was 1969 and Mrs. Baldwin was in fact heading into her first major experience with bipolar disorder. That first event would result in her being hauled into a mental institution by five burly men and heavily medicated to get her to sleep.

Now 73, she has endured 13 such episodes. Each one takes her longer to bounce back. And like many seniors with mental-health issues, she faces mounting challenges to get the care she needs.

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Cherry workers found guilty of assault, seek trial -Goldsboro (NC) News-Argus

Two former Cherry Hospital workers accused of beating a patient were found guilty of misdemeanor assault on a handicapped person on Tuesday, Wayne County District Court officials said.

Before a "very small audience," Judge David Brantley weighed evidence presented by state Assistant Attorney General Doug Thorne and two attorneys for the defendants, a court clerk said.

Taniko Dominique Upton, 33, and William Kenneth Johnson, 52, were fired this summer after being accused of beating a male patient on Aug. 18. According to the arrest warrant, which was served by Cherry Hospital police, the pair were accused of striking the victim "on or about the abdomen area, knocking same to the floor, kicking and punching him in the head and side areas."

That was around the time federal investigators released a reported detailing the separate death of Steven Sabock, who died after allegedly being ignored by hospital staff for more than 22 hours. Read More Here ...
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Mental health advocate dies -Contra Costa (CA) Times

CONCORD — Herb Putnam always pushed the limits.

When he was 8, he was his class' marbles champion. At 13, he bicycled alone from St. Paul, Minn., where he lived, to Battle Lake, Minn., about 130 miles northwest.

In 1950, when he was 22, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and decided he would dedicate his life to helping others battling mental illness. And on Nov. 19, before he'd finished his life's work — at least in his own mind — Putnam died of lung cancer. He was 80.

In February, after six years of effort, Putnam founded Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc., a vocational rehabilitation center in Concord for people living with mental illness. He wanted to build Clubhouse facilities throughout the county, but died before that could happen.

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Vulnerable adult abuse -Kalamazo (MI)

MUSKEGON, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Muskegon residents are shocked and angered after an 85-year-old woman was found in the worst of conditions

"Nobody should have been left in those conditions, nobody," said Chief Tony Kleibecker of the Muskegon Police Dept. "I wouldn't leave an animal in those conditions, let alone a human being, let alone your mom."

The woman's home has been condemned, and police say her living conditions were the fault of her own family.

50-year-old Mark Anderson is in a Muskegon County Jail on Wednesday, charged with elder abuse. It w his mother who police found lying on a couch, surrounded by filth and a sickening smell.

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3 Ways to Be Wise About Psychiatric Drugsfor Kids - U.S. News & World Report

So now we hear that a Harvard psychiatrist apparently hid millions of dollars in payments from pharmaceutical companies, all while promoting the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs for children. This comes at a time when the big increase in prescriptions in bipolar disorder for children is ever more controversial. Given all this, how can parents decide whether medication is the right choice for their child?

Dismayed by this latest news, I called Robert Hendren, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, who points out that while there's plenty of controversy in child psychiatry about how to diagnose bipolar disorder, Joseph Biederman, the child psychiatrist at the center of the scandal, is not the only person contributing to the knowledge base. "We do think that we have good information," Hendren says. "We do see children and adolescents with bipolar disorder, and we do find that these medications work better than placebo."

But if the news of academic conflicts of interest has you feeling a bit more skeptical, here are three tactics to track down the most reliable evidence available:

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Patient-led drug trials defy medical establishment -Associaed Pess

CLAREMONT, Calif. — Until last year, Alan Felzer was an energetic engineering professor who took the stairs to his classes two steps at a time. Now the 64-year-old grandfather sits strapped to a wheelchair, able to move little but his left hand, his voice a near-whisper.

Felzer suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The fatal neurological disorder steals the body's ability to move, speak and ultimately to breathe. But rather than succumb to despair along with his illness, Felzer turned to the Web to become his own medical researcher - and his own guinea pig.

Dozens of ALS patients are testing treatments on their own without waiting on the slow pace of medical research. They are part of an emerging group of patients willing to share intimate health details on the Web in hopes of making their own medical discoveries.

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Patient-led drug trials defy medical establishment -Associaed Pess

CLAREMONT, Calif. — Until last year, Alan Felzer was an energetic engineering professor who took the stairs to his classes two steps at a time. Now the 64-year-old grandfather sits strapped to a wheelchair, able to move little but his left hand, his voice a near-whisper.

Felzer suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The fatal neurological disorder steals the body's ability to move, speak and ultimately to breathe. But rather than succumb to despair along with his illness, Felzer turned to the Web to become his own medical researcher - and his own guinea pig.

Dozens of ALS patients are testing treatments on their own without waiting on the slow pace of medical research. They are part of an emerging group of patients willing to share intimate health details on the Web in hopes of making their own medical discoveries.

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Resume executions or keep the ban? -Triangle Are (NC) Independent Weekly

Now that the legal battle over a doctor's role in death row executions is nearing a conclusion, the issue of capital punishment in North Carolina is about to land in the laps of the 2009 General Assembly and Governor-elect Bev Perdue.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments Nov. 18 in a case between the N.C. Medical Board and the N.C. Department of Correction over the meaning of a nearly century-old law requiring that a doctor be "present" during an execution. The fight between the two agencies, which began more than two years ago, has resulted in a virtual moratorium on executions; the last one took place in August 2006. A decision in the case is expected within a few months, but however it comes out, lawmakers and Perdue will decide the fates of 162 men and women on death row.

A Supreme Court ruling could open the execution floodgates if Perdue and the legislature want to make up for lost time. Conversely, the new governor—unlike outgoing Gov. Mike Easley—may choose to get behind the push for a formal moratorium on executions, as well as a legislative study of whether capital punishment can be handled fairly in this state.

In response to a question from the Indy, Governor-elect Perdue said in a statement that she supports the current moratorium while the court considers the case. "Once a decision is reached," she said, "I will direct the Department of Correction to proceed under an appropriate set of rules that abides by the Court's judgment."

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Program offers glimpse of schizophrenia symptoms - Rosebud (OR) News Review

The voices were harsh and degrading: “Worthless. … You’re a waste of space. … We hate you.” The sights were disturbing, the scents, pungent and rank.

Some mental health professionals who tried a virtual hallucination program designed to simulate symptoms of schizophrenia Tuesday at the Douglas County Mental Health Department could barely stand the experience for five minutes.

“Imagine if that’s you and you can’t get away from it for five minutes,” said Nancy West, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with the department.

Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc.’s “Virtual Hallucination: Mindstorm” program attempts to portray the types of auditory and visual hallucinations that some people with schizophrenia may endure.

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Man Killed Court Reporter Over BakedGoods - Columbia (SC) WLTX

ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Court reporter Julie Brandau baked homemade treats for the jurors in Judge Rowland Barnes' courtroom -- an act that cost Brandau her life at the hands of Brian Nichols.

That's according to a psychiatrist who has treated Nichols for over two years and who made that revelation on the stand on Tuesday.

Throughout the trial everyone has heard testimony from family and friends of Brandau who testified that she would make homemade treats for every jury in Judge Rowland Barnes' courtroom.

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2 years later, man in court for arson -Salem (OR) Statesman-Journal

A man accused of setting multiple fires in a crowded northeast Salem church appeared in court Tuesday on indicted charges, after spending two years in the Oregon State Hospital.

Daniel Chan, 55, faces charges of attempted murder, second-degree assault, first-degree arson and six counts of attempted aggravated murder.

He was committed to the Oregon State Hospital shortly after the Oct. 25, 2006, arson at Peoples Church at 4500 Lancaster Drive NE.

Four times, state hospital officials ruled that Chan was unable to assist in his defense, but last month hospital examiners determined Chan had improved to the point where he is able to help his attorney.

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Speaker used poor choice of words to describe John McCain - Pottstown (PA) Mercury

G. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College needs to change his use of the word schizophrenia. In the Nov. 14 edition of The Mercury, front page center, an article titled Change vs. Experience," writer Michael Hays quoted Madonna as saying "McCain… suffered from 'political schizophrenia,' carrying a record of supporting and opposing a myriad of policies…."

Schizophrenia has virtually nothing to do with split personality, as Madonna suggests. Multiple personalities are found in a psychiatric disorder called "Dissociative Identity Disorder" in which a person who has suffered trauma, such as childhood sexual abuse, develops "alters" or multiple personalities as a defensive coping mechanism.

Schizophrenia refers to a spectrum of psychiatric disorders, characterized by psychosis, hallucinations, distorted thinking and relationship difficulties. One percent of the population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. They deserve our compassion and accurate use of words. Semantics is important, because the meaning of words influences thoughts and actions.

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Family awarded $36M in 2005 shooting at Glendale Walmart - Phoenix Arizina Republic

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury today awarded $36 million to the family of a man shot to death by a mental patient in a Walmart parking lot in 2005.

ValueOptions Inc., the company that held the state contract for providing behavioral health care until last year, was found 90 percent at fault in the death of Patrick Graham, 35, of Glendale. Graham was one of two men shot by Ed Liu , a ValueOptions patient who has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for more than 20 years.

Liu, 56, of Peoria, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial for the death of Graham and Anthony Spangler, 18, also of Glendale. The two men were employed by the Walmart Supercenter on N. 83d Avenue, near Union Hills Dr. in Peoria. They were collecting shopping carts in the parking lot when Liu, who had been off his medications for nearly eight months, drove up and shot them without provocation.

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Insight on schizophrenia -Alton (IL) Telegraph

GRANITE CITY - Richard Horning graduated from high school, served in the military, and won honors and awards like many Americans.

His favorite magazine is Good Ole' Days, about how people used to live in the 1920s and 1930s during a recession much like Americans are living through today. Horning, 52, laughed at the irony of the situation.

"You bet," he said in comparing how now is similar to then. "Usually, I understand things."

Horning, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1990, also likes baseball and reads books about the sport. Many people with schizophrenia struggle to concentrate, remember and learn, and Horning admits to the same struggles.

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On stigma, doctors and mental health -Toronto (CA) Globe & Mail

Just as lawyers can face a barrage of bottom-feeder jokes, psychiatrists, both in film and real life, have long been seen as doctors of a lesser science, Carolyn Abraham writes in her article on the stigma psychiatrists face within the medical profession.

Even their own physician colleagues can view their patients as difficult and time-consuming, Ms. Abraham writes. The negativity, experts say, is contributing to a national shortage of psychiatrists and shoddy care for mentally ill people.

Heather Stuart, professor of community health and epidemiology at Queen's University, consults for both the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Medical Association. Both groups are working to erase the stigma mental illness carries in the health care profession and Prof. Stuart has conducted crucial research on effective strategies.

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Hospital workers on trial in patient's beating -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

GOLDSBORO - Two health-care technicians accused of beating a patient at Cherry Hospital are on trial today on misdemeanor assault charges.

Taniko Dominique Upton and William Kenneth Johnson were fired after the incident in August, in which they are charged with assaulting a handicapped person. The episode is among a number of complaints about patient mistreatment at the hospital.

The trial opened today before Wayne District Judge David Brantley; the state Attorney General's Office is handling the prosecution.

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Hospital reprisals aim low -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

It's pretty sad when records receive more doctoring than hospital patients.

But that's exactly what happened at Cherry Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Goldsboro. The case involves the late Steven Sabock, 50, a Roanoke Rapids man who choked and fell while taking his meds one night in April and then was left in a chair for more than 22 hours. He died shortly after of heart failure.

The incident was investigated, but the official version of events prepared by nursing director Bonnie Gray was studded with errors and omissions. Gray has declined to comment.

That Gray and hospital director Jack St. Clair remain in their positions, without publicly answering for what happened on their watch, is appalling. That Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton, who promised greater transparency in patient death reports, has not addressed the responsibility of Gray and St. Clair in this case is at least troubling.

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Judge's order moves man off death row -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

Ten years ago, a Halifax County jury gave Clinton Cebert Smith a death sentence for fatally poisoning his 6-year-old daughter, Britteny. They found that he had gone to the home of his former girlfriend and laced cherry Kool-Aid with a pesticide. His two younger children survived.

But this month, state Superior Court Judge John R. Jolly Jr. ordered Smith off death row. Jolly found that Smith, 48, is mentally retarded and therefore not capable of understanding his actions. Testimony at the trial suggested two motives: Smith did not want to continue paying child support and he was angry at his former girlfriend for seeing another man.

Smith's lawyers say the ruling means more than sparing Smith a lethal injection. They say it is another sign of Smith's innocence in a case that they contend has been twisted by hidden evidence, misleading testimony and inadequate representation by the defense lawyers during the trial. The lawyers representing Smith now are hoping app

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Faulted mental workers fight back -Raleigh News & Observer

RALEIGH - Five workers at a state mental hospital who violated rules by strapping a patient face-down to a bed said Monday that they are being treated as scapegoats for administrative failures.

The five -- a nurse and four health care technicians -- are on paid leave of up to 30 days from their jobs at Central Regional Hospital while state officials investigate. Another co-worker was fired, they said.

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning at Central Regional after a 24-year-old man resisted having his blood drawn for tests and made verbal threats, according to a staff report.

The employees admitted they had restrained the man face-down, instead of placing him on his back as they were taught during required training. Being restrained in a prone position can be life-threatening, causing the person to panic and making it difficult to breathe.

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Psychiatry: A specialty relegated to the basement - Toronto (Canada) Globe and Mail

Jai Shah could have been any sort of doctor he wished. Even before he graduated with honours from the University of Toronto's medical school, the 30-year-old Edmonton native had earned a master's degree in international health policy from the London School of Economics, published papers and worked for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Praise follows him wherever he goes. Except for last fall – when he decided to specialize in psychiatry.

“A psychiatrist?” some of his supervisors said, “But you're smart! … You're taking the easy way out … Your patients will make your life hell … Your patients will make you depressed … What a waste of talent!”

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Judge: North Macon man not guilty but insane in killing his father - Macon (GA) Telegraph

A north Macon man accused of fatally shooting his father in May 2007 was found not guilty by reason of insanity Monday in Bibb County Superior Court.

A judge determined in a non-jury trial that Kelly Alan Forehand, 42, should be sent to Central State Hospital for evaluation and treatment.
Grant Blankenship/The Telegraph Kelly Forehand enters Superior Court in the Bibb County Courthouse before his trial on murder charges stemming from the 2007 killing of his father in his Rivoli Drive home.

Forehand shot his father, 71-year-old Louie Forehand, multiple times in the neck and torso in late May 2007, according to court records. No family members were present for Monday’s proceedings.

Sherry Hills, a Central State Hospital psychologist, testified that she had evaluated Kelly Forehand.

She said he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was acting on “delusional compulsion” when he fatally shot his father.

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Disabled great-grandmother shot and killed then left on the street - Shreveport (LA) KSLA-TV

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Patricia Williams and Anita Abbott are the only two living children of 56-year-old Margaret Abbott.

Abbott, they say, was mentally disabled suffering from schizophrenia which they say happened after their sister died 30 years ago of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Tonight, police are looking for who killed the great-grandmother of two and grandmother of seven.

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Our view: We are diminished by the deaths of others - Middletown (CT) Press

On Wednesday, Abraham Biggs, a 19-year-old Broward (Fla.) College student, declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.

Viewers logged on to justin.tv and bodybuilding.com, and watched as Biggs swallowed a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.

This newspaper doesn’t wish to comment on the problems and demons of a troubled teen; depression is a terrible disease and can be overwhelming for one so young.


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Activists air concerns about Taser use -Columbia (MO) Missourian

COLUMBIA — A panel of six activists held a news conference Monday morning to discuss their findings after reviewing the records of 49 Taser incidents released by the Columbia Police Department last month. The Police Department released a response to the conference that same morning.

About 30 people sat inside the Labor Temple at 611 N. Garth Ave. There, the Taser Control Coalition discussed their impressions of the current state of the Columbia Police Department’s Taser policy.

The coalition is formed by four advocacy groups: the American Civil Liberties Union; the NAACP; the mid-Missouri chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; and Grass Roots Organizing, who first filed the Missouri Sunshine Law request.

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Man involved in shooting with police dies -Des Moines (IA) Register

A Boone man shot over the weekend during an altercation with police died today.

Boone police confronted Seth Miller, 27, after he allegedly threatened the manager of Eastside Hideaway Lounge in Boone with a gun just before 10:30 Sunday night.

A preliminary investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation indicates that three police officers fired their weapons. At 10:48 p.m., Boone police called for an ambulance. Miller was taken to the Boone County Hospital and later flown to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, where he later died.
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Miller’s sister, Megan Toney of Collins, said her brother had recently been diagnosed with borderline schizophrenia, and said he was armed with an unloaded BB gun when shot.

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Study: Off-label drugs should be researched for safety - USA Today

Among all the drugs prescribed to treat conditions for which they're not approved, doctors and patients should be most concerned about antipsychotics and antidepressants, a study suggests today.

This "off-label" prescribing is a legal, common practice that is being questioned in some cases because of inadequate scientific evidence to support its safety and effectiveness.

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First Comprehensive Map Of Genes Likely To Be Involved In Bipolar Disorder - Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2008) — Neuroscientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have created the first comprehensive map of genes likely to be involved in bipolar disorder, according to research published online Nov. 21 in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

The researchers combined data from the latest large-scale international gene hunting studies for bipolar disorder with information from their own studies and have identified the best candidate genes for the illness.

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To some psychiatric patients, life seemslike TV - Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — One man showed up at a federal building, asking for release from the reality show he was sure was being made of his life.

Another was convinced his every move was secretly being filmed for a TV contest. A third believed everything — the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed — was part of a phony, stage-set world with him as the involuntary star, like the 1998 movie "The Truman Show."

Researchers have begun documenting what they dub the "Truman syndrome," a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.

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Former correction officer Everett George, who killed his 2 kids, gets life in prison - New York Daily News

A deranged former corrections officer who killed his two kids in front of their mother was sentenced to life in prison Monday - the fourth anniversary of the horrific murders.

Former jail guard Everett George was expressionless as Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro laid down the harshest sentence possible.

"Your parents can talk to you, write you, touch you, even visit you," mom Tishaun Middleton said. "I visit my children at their gravesite. I now kiss their headstone."

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Psychotherapist lied about qualifications, board says - Colorado Springs Gazette

A Colorado Springs psychotherapist who for years has represented himself as a licensed psychologist - and been appointed by judges to conduct evaluations in numerous cases - has been suspended for lying about his qualifications.

Mark Hoffman was reprimanded Nov. 10 by the Colorado State Grievance Board, which said in its ruling that Hoffman had "provided substandard psychotherapy," "breached professional boundaries," "shared confidential information" and "used misleading advertising."

Hoffman declined comment Thursday other than to say, "I'm retired. I don't practice anymore."

His attorney, Denis Lane, did not return a call seeking comment.

For years, Hoffman has been appointed by 4th Judicial District judges to do evaluations in divorce cases and child custody cases. A number of attorneys and judges were surprised to learn Hoffman is not a licensed psychologist.

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Bisesi pleads not responsible due tomental disease - Syracuse (NY) NBC3

SYRACUSE -- A man accused of killing his parents appeared in Judge Anthony Aloi's court this morning. Joseph Bisesi III pleaded not responsible due to mental disease or defect.

In September, Bisesi was indicted on first and second degree murder and weapons charges. Investigators said the 27-year-old shot his parents, Joseph and JoEllen, at their Elbridge home in July. He then tried to dispose of their bodies by stuffing them inside a septic tank.

Bisesi suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and read a letter to the court, saying he believed his parents were impostors. In the letter, he also said he believed his real parents were killed by an organized crime family and he thought he had lost his identity. He told the court he turned himself in hoping to get back his name.

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Mentally ill GP puts thousands of patientsat risk - Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald

A MAJOR NSW Health Department investigation has found thousands of skin cancer patients treated by a mentally ill Sydney doctor are at risk due to his inadequate care.

The acting Chief Health Officer of NSW Health, Kerry Chant, yesterday announced the investigation had led the department to write to 6770 people urging them to seek medical attention.

David Lindsay, 43, a GP, operated his sole bulk-billing practice, Skin Cancer Clinic Sydney in George Street from 1998 to last December, until he was suspended after at least 60 complaints dating back to 1993.

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Friends of victim upset by her portrayalat trial - Pottstown (PA) Mercury

UPPER MERION — Family and friends of murder victim Ellen Robb were astounded by testimony describing her as a severely mentally disturbed woman who drove her husband, Rafael Robb, to lose control and kill her in a "hot blooded" rage.

During a sentencing hearing Wednesday, lasting nearly three hours, the slain 49-year-old victim was often characterized as suffering from mental disorders that made her a prime candidate for a psychiatric institution.

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First aid for mental illness -The New Statesman (England)

How do you spot when a colleague is suffering from mental health issues? Siobhan Jones suggests 10 signs to look out for that may indicate problems

Stress in the workplace is likely to increase as fears of unemployment grow

Having a job can help maintain your general wellbeing, but there are times when the workplace is a source of unnecessary and unhealthy stress.

In the UK, 32 million work days are lost each year because of symptoms of mental ill health and which can cost employers around £4 billion.

Lack of control, little work variety, low pay, poor working conditions and - these days - the fear of unemployment all contribute to stress among employees.

That stress then hits companies's coffers with a negative impact not just on firms's finances but also on the motivation and self-esteem of the entire workforce, denting productivity.

Unfortunately, employees often don’t know who to turn to at work. Government guidelines state it is the employers’s responsibility to provide “mentally safe” workspaces by, for example, offering flexible working hours and providing proper resources to do a job.

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Workers speak out about patient abuse claims - Raleigh (NC) WRAL-TV

Butner, N.C. — Poor training, understaffing and confusing work policies were to blame for an incident in which a patient was improperly restrained at the state's newest psychiatric hospital in Butner, workers said Monday.

Several workers spoke about the incident in which a 24-year-old male patient at Central Regional Hospital was strapped face down for nearly an hour last Wednesday.

One worker was fired and six others were placed on investigatory paid leave for up to 30 days, according to the North Carolina Public Worker's Union.

The workers said a doctor ordered them to do a forced blood draw on an aggressive and combative patient and that although they did not want to, they felt obligated to follow orders.
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Slim chance for parole from a prison of the mind -Toronto (Canada) Globe and Mail

CALGARY — Canadian courts are rarely using an innovative federal program designed to rehabilitate mentally ill teens responsible for horrendous crimes, raising concerns that Canada's most troubled youth are returning to the streets without treatment.

When Ottawa introduced the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2003, officials predicted 50 young offenders a year would qualify for the new intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision order - a regime based on the premise that because young minds are malleable, they are also treatable. But now, more than five years into the program, no more than two dozen teens overall have received the sentence.

Experts say the legislation is too restrictive and that Canada lacks the mental-health resources to deal with adolescent criminals. Some complain this last-ditch resource is being bypassed for frivolous reasons, such as offenders being caught smoking or oversleeping. Ottawa says it has taken some steps to remedy the situation, but those who work in the system argue that more needs to be done.

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Patients wait days for beds -Raleigh News & Observer

A man with schizophrenia has gone off his meds. He's also high on cocaine and acting psychotic. He is taken to the Wake County mental health crisis center.

The psychiatrist on duty determines that yes, no doubt, this man needs immediate psychiatric intervention.

An involuntary commitment order is signed.

But first the man needs to be "medically cleared." He's sent next door to the emergency department at WakeMed.

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Leon considers mental-health service expansion -Tallahassee (FL) Democrat

At a time when other Leon County government services are being cut, the County Commission on Tuesday will consider expanding mental-health services in the Frenchtown and Bond communities.
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While agreeing in September to cut overall spending by 6 percent from last year, the county also agreed to provide $100,000 for mental-health services in addition to $157,671 that was first budgeted in fiscal 2007-08.

The commission wants to provide the services to residents who can't afford them, said Shington Lamy, the county's special-projects director.

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Who should make choices for the elderly? -Salt Lake City (UT) Deseret News

A few weeks ago, Salt Lake County Aging Services got a call from a woman who was worried about her aunt. The aunt suffers from some dementia, she's a hoarder and her apartment was messy. But that's not what was bothering the niece.

It turns out the old woman had been placed in a locked Alzheimer's facility by another niece. "I want to go home," the old woman said when a county caseworker actually put the question to her. Now the agency is arranging for Meals on Wheels and other services so she can move back to her house.

Sometimes home is the best solution, and sometimes, for an elderly person who is frail, sick or confused, a nursing home or other facility is a safer choice. But who gets to decide that?

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Motive in homeless men's savage killingseludes cops - Detroit News

PONTIAC -- Those who know Thomas "TJ" McCloud Jr. and Dontez "Taz" Marc Tillman say they're typical 14-year-olds. They like to pal around, play videos and listen to CDs.

But police say they also engaged in deadly extracurricular activities: prowling the streets and alleys of Pontiac with a group of teens in search of victims. Prosecutors allege the Pontiac pair beat two homeless men so savagely they eventually died.

Three months after those four lives intersected on a Pontiac street, the boys' mothers say they have had problems but aren't killers. A minister who had helped one of the homeless men still can't believe someone ended his life. And police are still searching for answers, questioning if the killing was part of a gang initiation.

Both teens could finish school -- and spend the rest of their lives -- in prison.

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Three in Easley Cabinet might want to stay on -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

Will the Iron Cabinet outlast Easley?

Word is that at least three members of Gov. Mike Easley's administration may be interested in continuing in their posts:

Bryan Beatty: The former director of the State Bureau of Investigation has headed the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety since 2001.

Bill Ross: The environmental attorney has been head of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources since 2001 and claims the Clean Smokestacks Bill and the purchase of Chimney Rock State Park among his accomplishments.

Dempsey Benton: The newest member of Easley's Cabinet, Benton was brought in to clean up problems with the mental health system. The former Raleigh city manager was even cited as a keeper by Republican candidate Fred Smith.

Already, Easley's Cabinet is well-known for its longevity, with many of the original appointees from 2001 still serving.

Keeping some on board could be politically difficult for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, who promised to run a more hands-on administration.

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Mental health bill is Ramstad's legacy -Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

WASHINGTON -- Jim Ramstad capped his 18 years in Congress with one last visit to the Oval Office, where President Bush signed a document representing the Minnesota Republican's life work: a legacy bill opening the door to treatment for millions of Americans suffering from mental illness or chemical addiction.

The two men -- both of whom have publicly acknowledged past drinking problems -- shared a warm moment examining the president's historic Resolute desk, which Ramstad first viewed during the Kennedy administration in 1963. That was as part of a Boys Nation youth leadership group that included former President Bill Clinton.

"I guess we're both flying the coop," Bush told Ramstad. "Except I hear rumors you might be staying."

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Mental illness: Explore best ideas -Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Mental illness lies behind the problems of so many of the homeless people on the streets of Seattle. But homelessness itself becomes a huge barrier for anyone trying to improve his or her life.

As a Seattle P-I story earlier this month reported, King County has a major shortage of housing that can support the mentally ill. Some additional facilities can be expected from a new, local sales tax to help with mental illness and addiction, but the first projects won't be open until 2010.

In the meantime, the shortage has been exacerbated by controversy over what kind of housing is most appropriate. There's a trend toward smaller support houses, with perhaps a half-dozen or so residents and emphasizing independent living, as opposed to larger ones with dozens of residents and an on-site staff member at all times.

This is not just a King County problem. The Legislature needs to explore the best housing options as part of what should be a large-scale review of policies on mental illness.

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In healing process, retired sailor forgives his would-be killer - Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot

Jose Garcia's physical wounds are almost imperceptible.

When he tilts his head back, you can see a thin scar stretching from behind his right ear, along his jaw to his chin. If you look closely, you might notice that the right side of his mouth droops the tiniest bit, the result of permanent nerve damage.

The scars will always be with him, but Garcia refuses to be burdened by resentment over the random attack that almost killed him last year. He has forgiven the shipmate who slashed his throat, stabbed his chest and ripped open his abdomen.

Earlier this month, after a military judge found Seaman Richard Mott guilty of attempted murder for the attack aboard a Navy berthing barge, Garcia asked to meet privately with Mott's parents.

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Shelter for teen mothers closingin Tacoma - Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - After nearly 50 years, a shelter program for teenage mothers and their children is closing in Tacoma.

Director Ken Maaz says Faith Homes, which was recently renamed Jump Start, has lost donations because of the hard economic times.

The program was started by the Episcopal Diohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcese of Olympia in 1959 and became independent in the 1990s. Besides providing homes for teenage mothers, Faith Homes worked to recruit foster parents, find homes for abused teenage girls and seek short-term shelter for teens in families with drug abuse and mental illness.


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Family didn't know of warning foranti-psychotic drug - Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Bruce Bowman shouldn't have died the way he did, his children say.

His throat shouldn't have swelled up. His body shouldn't have gone rigid. He shouldn't have gotten pneumonia. The once strong former logger shouldn't have withered away. Two weeks before he died June 19, Bowman weighed 112 pounds.

The 71-year-old man had dementia and was a resident at Taylor Park Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhinelander.

Six months before he died, Bowman started taking Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug prescribed to control his "agitation" and "physical aggression," according to medical records.

Bowman's children believe the drug killed him.

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Ledger's family slams 'false' biography -Fairfax (Australia) Age

Heath Ledger's family has slammed a book written about the dead Australian actor that suggests he was mentally ill.

Ledger's family released a statement this afternoon slating the unauthorised biography, titled Heath: A Family's Tale.

The statement said author and News Limited journalist Janet Fife-Yeomans had falsely insinuated close family members had spoken to her.

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Some veterans say they struggle for care from VA clinic’s contractors -Wilmington (NC) Star News

The private company that has been running the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ outpatient clinic in Wilmington and racking up hundreds of complaints from area veterans will continue to manage the facility until the end of May.

The VA’s contract with Magnum Medical J.V. was set to expire Nov. 28. A VA spokesman said Thursday that the agreement was extended six months as the agency looks for space to lease in the area to open a larger clinic.

“We did this with an understanding that patient satisfaction was our No. 1 concern,” said Dave Raney, communications officer with the VA’s Mid-Atlantic Network that includes North Carolina.

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Like Mother Like Son -Dubuque (IA) Telegraph Herald

MANCHESTER, Iowa -- The voices called to him.

Teasing and taunting, the murmurs rambled through Matt Mitchell's mind. Swallowed by darkness, the Manchester teen felt the shadow's whispers sink into his soul.

"They are coming to get you," the night said. "They are coming."

Mitchell scrambled off the park bench serving as his bed, and he ran.

He raced to escape his ghosts -- his past, the cops, his drug dealers, his diagnosis. Yet the eyes of the monster behind him grew brighter, approaching at a speed he could not outrun, and Mitchell turned to face his demon.

A car door opened, and a silhouette crossed the headlights.

"Matt, are you OK?" his mother asked.

Her son, still high, thought she was not real.

"It's OK, Matt," she said. "I understand. You know I understand."

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A new hope for kids with mental illness -Staten Island (NY) Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A moment of confusion was all it took to land Ed Knight in jail.

A young man at the time, Knight, who has schizophrenia, got off his plane at the wrong stop. He hitchhiked a ride with some strangers, who left him lost in the middle of the country. Before he knew it, he was locked up in an isolation cell, where he remained for months.

As he recounted his story earlier this month at a Community Board 2 meeting, Knight said the ordeal could have been prevented if he knew how to deal with his illness. Now a psychologist, Knight is hoping to offer guidance to hundreds of children who feel lost and hopeless when grappling with their own mental illnesses.

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Locals travel to Iraq, share mental health best practices - Battle Creek (MI) Enquirer

American media have reported hundreds of thousands of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered post-traumatic stress disorders.
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These brave men and women have come home mentally shaken by the violence they witnessed overseas.

Yet for millions of people, there is no going home. Iraq is their home.

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Sacramento homicide spotlights gap in mental health care - Sacramentp Bee

In Sacramento, he punched a 76-year-old woman in the face and kicked her in the head, twice. In Burlingame, he broke another woman's jaw and knocked out three of her teeth. In San Bruno, he smashed in the windows of a house with a shovel and threatened to kill everybody inside.

He also told staff at the Sacramento Mental Health Treatment Center "voices from the TV were telling him to kill."

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and with a 20-year history of violence, Ofiu Edwards Foto still wound up living in a tiny, unlocked group home in Oak Park, where authorities say he exploded into violence again.

This time, on Sept. 5, investigators said, 6-foot-2, 300-pound Foto grabbed a wooden chair and beat Pausta Theresia Sibarani, 65, to death with it.

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Updated 7:32 AM - More Updates Later

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DHHS sells a cabinet containing personal information - Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

It was just a few weeks ago that the state Department of Health and Human Services had to apologize after a laptop with tens of thousands of unsecured Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee.

It turns out the agency's paper records weren't much safer.

The state sold as surplus a file cabinet from the Caswell Developmental Center, a state facility in Kinston for people with mental retardation, to a buyer from Aberdeen on Oct. 9. The cabinet came with something extra -- 57 client files still in it.

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Staff improperly restrained patient -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

Internal records show workers at a state mental hospital in Butner strapped a patient to a bed face-down for more than an hour earlier this week, violating proper procedures and potentially endangering the patient.

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning at Central Regional Hospital after a 24-year-old man resisted having his blood drawn for tests and made verbal threats, according to a staff report.

At least five health care technicians, working under the supervision of a nurse, responded by carrying the patient to a restraint room, placing him face down on a bed with his arms and legs strapped down.

It is not clear from the report why he was placed face-down, rather than on his back as the staff at state mental facilities are trained to do.

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NYC Churches Ordered Not To Shelter Homeless - WCBS-TV New York

NEW YORK (CBS) ― City officials have ordered 22 New York churches to stop providing beds to homeless people.

With temperatures well below freezing early Saturday, the churches must obey a city rule requiring faith-based shelters to be open at least five days a week -- or not at all.

Arnold Cohen, president of the Partnership for the Homeless, a nonprofit that serves as a link with the city, said he had to tell the churches they no longer qualify.

He said hundreds of people now won't have a place to sleep.

The Department of Homeless Services said the city offers other shelters with the capacity to accept all those who have been sleeping in the churches. The city had 8,000 beds waiting.

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Jailhouse suicides raise questions -Wenatchee (WA) World

While jail suicides are rare, this two-part series examines two deaths in 2005 and 2007 at Chelan County Regional Justice Center and efforts to prevent inmate suicides.

The day before she died, Carol Lynn Kurtzhals told a jail nurse she was going to hang herself with a bedsheet if she wasn’t let out of isolation.

Later in the same conversation, Kurtzhals began “laughing it off and said she would never hurt herself,” the jail nurse would tell a Chelan County Sheriff’s Office deputy.

The next day, a jail officer found Kurtzhals, 45, hanging from the door of her isolation cell in Chelan County Regional Justice Center.

Kurtzhals died in 2005. Another inmate, Anthony “Tony” Ackerman, hung himself in a cell last year while in segregated housing.

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Family Outraged, Distraught Over Florida Teen’s Webcam Suicide - FOX News

MIAMI — The family of a college student who killed himself in front of an Internet audience say they’re horrified his life ended before virtual spectators and infuriated that viewers and Web site operators didn’t act sooner to save him.

Only after police arrived to find Abraham Biggs dead in his father’s bed did the webcam feed stop Wednesday — 12 hours after the 19-year-old Broward College student first declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.

“It didn’t have to be,” said the victim’s sister, Rosalind Bigg. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.

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Lessons from Nebraska - Ottawa (Canada) Citizen

Mistakes can be great learning opportunities, and a recent error on the part of Nebraska lawmakers has provided a valuable lesson on how desperate parents of struggling families can become, and how ill-prepared governments can be to help them.

In 1999, Texas became the first U.S. state to pass a safe-haven law, which allows parents to anonymously leave newborns at safe locations without fear of prosecution. The intent of the law is to prevent unwanted babies from being thrown in dumpsters or left outside in the cold to die. Canadian provinces don't have safe-haven laws but are reluctant to prosecute young mothers who leave babies in places where they can be safely found

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$350,000 in mental health care funds may finally be released for triage center - Las Cruces (NM) Sun

LAS CRUCES — Bureaucratic hurdles have delayed $350,000 meant to boost mental health care in Doña Ana County, said a state senator who helped secure the dollars.

But Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, also said she expected the problem would be cleared up soon.

State officials confirmed Friday they've reached a solution that will get the funds to the county.

At issue is $350,000 approved by state legislators this year to help fund Doña Ana County's proposed crisis triage center, a facility aimed at improving mental health care for people in the custody of law enforcement. Mental health care proponents have said the facility will take pressure off the county jail, which some contend is being used as a de facto treatment center for the mentally ill.

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Raising a child with a mental illness -Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

On a Monday morning in September, 2006, during what they call their “darkest of days,” Heather Bishop and Sean Quigley committed their 10-year-old daughter, Erynn, to a psychiatric hospital.

The breaking point came after a Saturday shopping trip to a Sam's Club in their hometown of London, Ont. When Ms. Bishop casually suggested to Erynn that she put a toy back on the shelf, the girl's expression clouded, then she erupted into screams. There was no way to bring her back: Soon, she would be throwing punches. They had to get out of the store.

Mr. Quigley slung Erynn over his shoulder and Ms. Bishop abandoned the cart piled high with groceries, just as they had done dozens of time before. This was no simple tantrum. It was everyday life for the couple – trying to protect their daughter and everyone around her while she was consumed by rages she barely remembered afterward.

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Slaying site was group home for mentally ill -Tuscon (AZ) Citizen

The owner of the house where a homicide occurred Tuesday said she was renting it "as a group home" to mentally ill individuals who want to "be on their own."

Sada Simmons said she did not have to license the home with the state as a group home and said "supervision was not required" for her tenants.

She said the mentally ill adults had case managers who visited them at the house.

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Editorial: Not guilty – and mentally healthy? -Sacramento Bee

There is nothing pretty about Ronald Toppila's story. In 2004, Toppila was declared not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of his 87-year-old mother.

It was a particularly brutal killing. While he was in a psychotic state, Toppila stabbed her 52 times. Now state psychiatrists who have treated Toppila say he is no longer a threat. He is well enough, they say, to be released into a carefully monitored community treatment program.

A Sacramento judge earlier this week emphatically rejected their recommendations and ordered that Toppila remain confined at Napa State Hospital. Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McCormack called the testimony of the state psychiatrist in the case "horrifying." Even more troubling, he went on to say that the psychiatrist "clearly committed perjury" in his court.

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Mental patient was put at risk -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

RALEIGH - Internal records show workers at a state mental hospital in Butner strapped a patient to a bed face-down for more than an hour this week, violating proper procedures and endangering the patient.

A spokesman for the state Department and Health and Human Services said Friday that an extensive investigation has been started.

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning at Central Regional Hospital after a 24-year-old man resisted having his blood drawn for tests and made verbal threats, according to a staff report.

At least five health care technicians, working under the supervision of a nurse, responded by carrying the patient to a restraint room, placing him face down on a bed with his arms and legs strapped to the sides.

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Holmes has devoted much of her life to making adifference - Red Wing (MN) Republican Eagle

Making a difference has been Dorothy Holmes' goal in life.

Her success at bringing about positive change in other people's lives is well known, locally and at the state and national levels.

Holmes' name is the first to come to mind when anyone talks about services for people with mental illness. The longtime volunteer was in on the ground floor when people began advocating for mental health in Red Wing/Goodhue County, in Minnesota, and at the national level as well.

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327 mentally ill prisoners languishing in Punjab jails: report - The International News

As many as 327 mentally-disturbed prisoners are languishing in Punjab jails as authorities concerned are taking no step to transfer them to mental hospitals.

This was revealed in a report prepared by the Global Foundation, an NGO working on human rights.

Talking to ‘The News,’ Global Foundation President Ulfat Kazmi said that there are 327 mentally-disturbed prisoners in 32 jails of Punjab, out of which nine are totally abnormal while 76 are half mentally retarded. He alleged that jail administrations were torturing them with the purpose of normalising them, which is violation of human rights.

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