New mental hospital gets a director -Raleigh News & Observer

The state Department of Health and Human Services is calling a former manager out of retirement to run the new state mental hospital in Butner.

J. Michael Hennike, who retired in 2007 as head of all state institutions for DHHS, will become Central Regional Hospital's director Thursday.

He had been an assistant to the hospital's interim director, Dr. Michael Lancaster, for the last six months.

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Governor rakes the press -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

n an interview with the Greensboro News & Record, Easley complained about how newspapers, particularly The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, have treated him. Both papers are owned by Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co.

"My job is to be nice to other people, and their job is to be nice to me. Just because they're not doing theirs doesn't mean I shouldn't do mine," Easley said in audio of the interview posted on The News & Record's Web site on Christmas Day.

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Feds OK plan to treat inmates - Honolulu Advertiser

A state plan to improve treatment of mentally ill prisoners at O'ahu Community Correctional Center has been approved by federal officials who have harshly criticized the level and quality of treatment in the past, according to state Attorney General Mark Bennett.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state yesterday, along with a proposed settlement that gives the state three and a half years to complete improvements to mental health care at the prison.

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Valley health center may be shuttered -Merced (CA) Sun-Star

Fresno County leaders are set to meet next month to consider closing the region's only 24-hour psychiatric-treatment center.

County health officials say the closure would save the county $2.5 million as its mental health department faces a budget shortfall.

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Valley health center may be shuttered -Merced (CA) Sun-Star

Fresno County leaders are set to meet next month to consider closing the region's only 24-hour psychiatric-treatment center.

County health officials say the closure would save the county $2.5 million as its mental health department faces a budget shortfall.

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Settlement from state ends lengthy inmate death suit - Atlanta Journal Constitution

The state of Georgia has conceded defeat in a lawsuit filed by the mother of a mentally ill inmate who was beaten to death in his prison cell.

Johnnie Kitchen, whose son was killed six years ago, recently accepted the state attorney general’s office’s offer to allow a court-ordered judgment to be entered against prison officials. The state also agreed to pay Kitchen $500,000 and her attorneys’ fees.

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Hudson pleads guilty to kidnapping attorney - Anderson (IN) Bulletin

ANDERSON — A man faces 20 to 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty recently to kidnapping an Anderson attorney at knifepoint in July.

Richard L. Hudson, 52, Anderson, pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Dec. 23 to kidnapping and armed robbery for abducting attorney Thomas E. Hamer in July. Hudson faces 20 to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced in February, Deputy Prosecutor Rudolph Pyle III said Monday.

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In N.C., death penalty gets rarer -Raleigh (NC) Newss & Observer

North Carolina will finish this year with just one defendant sentenced to death, a record low since the penalty was reinstated 31 years ago.

The single capital murder conviction this year continues a downward trend fueled by better criminal defense lawyers and new laws that exclude the mentally challenged and make prosecution evidence more accessible.

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County workers to receive layoffnotices Tuesday - Porterville (CA) Record

Tulare County is experiencing a black Tuesday of its own this week as more than 300 county employees receive layoff notices, county officials said Monday.

Proposed restructuring could see closure of a health clinic in Lindsay and a potential increase in case work at the mental health clinic in Porterville.

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Perdue doesn't want to be hinderedby budget - Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Beverly Perdue will make history when she's sworn in as the state's first female governor. But once in office, she'll immediately face a problem that's become common for an incoming chief executive in North Carolina.

Perdue, a Democrat from New Bern, will begin her tenure with state government in a budget hole that some projections say could reach $1.6 billion by the end of June. It's an ominous figure. It took her predecessor, outgoing Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, three years to get out from under a budget shortfall he inherited after taking office in 2001 that initially totaled $850 million.

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Va. senator Webb sets sightson U.S. prison reform - Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Somewhere along the meandering career path that led James Webb to the U.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece, Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha, Neb., says he prefers Japan's legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? 'Because it's fair,' he said."

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Less deportees being sedated for removal -Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - Fewer deportees reportedly have been sedated with powerful medications during their removal from the country by federal immigration officials.

Data obtained by The Dallas Morning News show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sedated only 10 people in the past fiscal year. They used the anti-psychotic drug Haldol in only three cases.

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Budget cuts notwithstanding, mental health programsmust stay - Twin Falls (ID) Times News

Brent Reinke isn't sleeping well these days. The director of Idaho Department of Correction fears that cuts to drug, mental health and counseling programs in Idaho Department of Health and Welfare budget could make the state's slowly declining prison population increase again.

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Stability vital for the homeless -Pittsfield (MA) Berkshire Eagle

BOSTON — In 2006, 39-year-old Leticia Brown entered the House of Hope homeless shelter in Lowell. The shelter was a source of support during one of the low points in her life, but Brown had to abide by its many rules and regulations.

"The shelter was a huge blessing for me, but I felt like I didn't have control of my life," Brown said.

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nitiative aims to aid mentally ill inmates -Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal

For more than a decade, social workers and counselors at the Center for Urban Community Services in New York City watched clients with mental illness move through the criminal justice system's revolving door.

When they failed to take their prescribed medication, these men and women would experience behavioral problems that would land them in jail or prison. And too often, caseworkers found, the staff at the jails and prisons were either unable or unwilling to help mentally ill inmates manage their illness, triggering more behavioral problems behind bars.
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Prison care needs better oversight -Detroit Free Press

The Michigan Department of Corrections -- and state legislators -- must do far better at oversight of a prison health care system that has garnered national shame. Bringing in a new service provider doesn't guarantee the system will be fixed.

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Study: Family behavior key to healthof gay youth - Associated Presshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

SAN FRANCISCO -- Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study.

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Two very different caregivers share a similar love for their work - Middletown (OH) Journal

Pam Gann and Ryan Donovan have plenty of differences: gender, skin color, town of residence. But they have the most important thing in common, and it becomes apparent when they talk about their jobs.

Both are caregivers with Butler County Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. And they love their work.

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Balancing punishment, treatment when crimes are committed - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

For a while, Nick Monostory and Thomas Gergen were next-door neighbors at Western State Hospital's ward for the criminally insane. Though they shared a hallway, and similar diagnoses, they experienced vastly different fates in the mental health and criminal courts system.

Thirty-three years ago, Monostory came home late one night and knocked a neighbor down after she asked him to simmer down.

The neighbor hit her head when she fell, and died a few days later. Monostory, who suffers from a laundry list of mental disorders, including schizoaffective disorder, was charged with second-degree murder and found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1975, he was sent to Western, the state's hospital for the severely mentally ill.

Now 62, he's still there -- long past any likely sentence he would have received had he been found guilty.

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Mayview's closing brings fear and hope -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On the day Mayview State Hospital officially closed, 17 patients remained on the grounds, some stranded in a zoning dispute that encapsulates the struggle facing mentally ill people as they move from institution to community.

The ongoing battle pits the Department of Public Welfare and Mercy Behavior Health, the Pittsburgh firm hired to care for some of the former Mayview patients, against a group of citizens in Baldwin Township. Mercy wants to convert a closed nursing home into a long-term residence for mental patients who require 24-hour supervision.

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Jail time is not a cure-all -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

Last June, Charles "Bronson" Williams was off his psychiatric medications, high on drugs and just a little bit drunk when he stormed into his parents' home near Pittsboro and threatened to kill his mother.

"He ripped the phone lines out of the wall and kept walking toward me with those wild eyes," said Wilma Williams.

Luckily, a neighbor had called a few minutes earlier to warn Wilma that her son was on a rampage. Wilma had already called the police.

By the end of the day, Bronson Williams, 38, diagnosed bipolar and schizo-affective, was secured where far too many of the state's mentally ill end up: in jail.

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FBI's Eagleton files show no health details leaked -Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- A newspaper review of more than 1,000 pages of internal FBI documents on Thomas Eagleton found no evidence that the agency leaked information about his treatment for depression, a revelation that ended his vice presidential campaign.

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Family giving up custody of abused boy -Denver (CO) KUSA-TV

Video report at web link.

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Their father is still in prison, their mother served her time, but six children left in the wake of what Jefferson County Human Services employees describe as the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen continue to pay for the crimes of their parents.

There were six children under the age of 6 found in a motor home in the dead of winter in January 2002. The children were dirty and cold, the temperature inside was just 36 degrees. There was no running water.

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Advocacy group seeks members -Elizabeth City (NC) Daily Advance

A local advocacy group for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities wants more of those directly affected by mental illness to join its organization.

Seven months ago, three doctors and six other professionals working with people who have mental illnesses started the Albemarle Area Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

But Tonia Cassaday, chapter president, said that professionals shouldn’t be the backbone of the organization.

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Lack of sleep really can affect a person's sanityLondon (England )Telegraphy

Insomnia has been linked to paranoid delusions after researchers in the UK questioned people with a history of mental health problems and compared the results to answers from healthy volunteers.

Experts found that 70 per cent of ordinary people who scored highly for self-reported symptoms of paranoia had difficulty sleeping.

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Summit County man’s ski photography supports suicide prevention - Vail (CO) Daily

BRECKENRIDGE, Colorado — When Casey Day’s childhood pal J.T. Fielder committed suicide in 2006, it devastated a tight-knit group of friends dedicated to a love of backcountry skiing.

Both Day and Fielder were part of the Front Range Powder Factory, a 10-year-old group of high-school friends who created a website to display their photos and videos of their backcountry endeavors.

After the death of Fielder, the son of famed Colorado landscape photographer John Fielder, Day and his friends turned the operation into a nonprofit group to focus their fundraising efforts on supporting mental-health organizations.

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Case to be made for rationing medical care -Albany (NY) Times Union

I spoke recently on the thorny issue of medical futility, a subject particularly agonizing for family and caregivers in pediatric settings. I did so at the invitation of Dr. Tomas Silber, director of the ethics office at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

The use of interventions deemed medically ineffective squarely confronts us with the most plaguing moral question in health care today: Can we fairly and compassionately allocate limited medical resources?

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Work together, solve mental health issues -Clarion (MS) Ledger

In light of the recent articles published in The Clarion-Ledger concerning Mississippi's public mental health system, I would like to provide important facts and respond to several issues that are of particular importance to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health and to the citizens of Mississippi.

The department operates seven crisis intervention centers which were established by the Legislature as mental health holding centers and have been providing services to individuals who have been involuntarily committed for treatment. The centers are providing treatment closer to patients' homes and have contributed to the significant reduction in waiting time for services statewide.

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Give a handout to a homeless person? Your call -Portland Oregonian

Call me a sucker, but when someone comes up to me on the street and asks for money, I fork it over.

In a recent column ("Spare some change? Put it in the right hands," Dec. 12), The Oregonian's Anna Griffin advised readers never to give cash to a homeless person. A thoughtful letter to the editor from Sisters of the Road responded that there are many reasons people may panhandle, and that it's up to an individual to decide whether to give.

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Martin County eyeing switch from AMHC -Elizabeth City (NC) Daily Advance

Concerned about the financial condition of Albemarle Mental Health Center, officials in one of the 10 counties the agency serves are considering a switch to Greenville-based East Carolina Behavioral Health.

The Martin County Board of Commissioners met with AMHC staff Friday morning on the heels of a decision by the AMHC Board of Directors Thursday night to eliminate some 80 positions in "direct services."

The cuts are part of a change — pushed by state officials and long resisted by Albemarle Mental Health — from community mental health clinics to a network of private service providers.

Martin County officials have been especially concerned about the effect the Albemarle Mental Health funding crisis is having on Martin Enterprises, an agency providing vocational training and other services for adults with developmental disabilities.

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AMHC cuts jobs, closing clinics -Elizabeth City (NC) Daily Advance

Albemarle Mental Health Center is cutting more than 80 staff positions and closing its community clinics as it steps away from "direct services" to work entirely through private service providers.

The move marks the end of AMHC's battle with state mental health officials to continue operating the services.

State authorities for several years have pushed local mental health programs toward a management model in which services are delivered by private providers rather than through community mental health clinics.

John Morrison, attorney for the mental health center's board of directors, said Friday that AMHC had been the "last man standing" among the state's former network of community mental health clinics.

AMHC officials have handled the personnel cuts close-to-the-vest, even working out a way to approve the cuts at Thursday night's board of directors meeting without specifying the positions.

The board voted to reduce the AMHC work force "consistent with divesting of direct services."

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CHANGES

Please be advised that in several days this blog will be moving to ncmentalhope.org.

Also, posting will be a bit erratic through the holidays. Read more!

Cherry's troubles await Perdue -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

GOLDSBORO -- Among all the failures of North Carolina's eight-year effort to reform its troubled mental health system, Cherry Hospital might be the worst.

Fixing the Goldsboro institution will be a key test for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue and whomever she appoints as the new secretary of health and human services.

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Help for the victims - Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

Now that an N.C. House legislative committee has completed its study of compensation for victims of North Carolina's dreadful sterilization program, the N.C. General Assembly should put this issue at the top of its list when it convenes next month. The state has dragged its heels on this for five years, even as sterilization victims have continued to suffer and die off.

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Nebraska system leaves many frustrated in search for mental health treatment - Omaha World-Herald

One and a half years before Robert Hawkins' mass murder and suicide at Von Maur, a counselor recommended sending the troubled teen to a locked psychiatric treatment center.

But the state's Medicaid administrator refused to authorize the treatment.

Editor's Note Some sources spoke on the condition they not be fully identified to protect children's privacy.
Hawkins never went.

That denial shows how hard it can be to get children mental health treatment through the state's Medicaid managed-care program, created to contain taxpayer costs.

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Mental health advocates fret over cuts -Boston Globe

Before he had the right mix of medications and services, mental illness had pushed John Marcunas to the brink of hopelessness.

The Quincy man was 36 in 2000 when the onset of bipolar disorder - followed by the loss of relationships and a job - caused an emotional implosion, a dark despair he wasn't sure he could survive.

Marcunas rarely left home and saw few options.

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He saw need and tried to meet it -Baltimore Sun

There was thud and crackle when I stepped out of the car the other evening - my foot landing on a frozen puddle in a driveway and punching a hole in the ice. That's how cold it was, and I'm guessing 10 degrees colder than when I'd left downtown Baltimore just 50 minutes earlier. It had taken me that long to reach the country road where Steve Shaw said I'd find the "suburban homeless" woman.

"I am active with the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore," Shaw had introduced himself six weeks ago. "Many times during our meetings, the leaders speak of the homeless in downtown and ways to help ... which brings me to the suburban homeless thing."

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Mental health effort aimed at prevention, intervention - Ventura County (CA) Star

Ventura County health officials have teamed up with local educators to develop prevention and intervention programs for underserved students who might need mental health assistance.

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Clean, sober and now a mentor -Baltimore Sun

Link also includes video report.

A cold rain is falling in Pigtown, a forever-poor part of Southwest Baltimore where recessions don't come and go; they just lessen and worsen. From the lunchroom at Paul's Place outreach center, huddled forms are visible on Ward Street - men and women trying to stay dry until the doors open for a free meal of beef-and-rice casserole.

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Bernie's funda-mental defense -New York Daily News

Bernard Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities, returning to his Manhattan apartment after making a court appearance in New York.

If you thought Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion investment scheme was audacious, get ready for his alibi. Lawyers for the accused scammer are exploring an insanity defense, we hear.

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Bernie's funda-mental defense -New York Daily News

Bernard Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities, returning to his Manhattan apartment after making a court appearance in New York.

If you thought Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion investment scheme was audacious, get ready for his alibi. Lawyers for the accused scammer are exploring an insanity defense, we hear.

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A mind apart - Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune

Things began to go radically wrong in Elyn Saks' head when she was a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville in the early 1970s, but the warning signs had started when she was a child.

Growing up in Miami, Saks was 7 or 8 years old. Her father speaks sharply to her one day, and "then something odd happens," Saks writes in "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. "My awareness (of myself, of him, of the room, of the physical reality around and beyond us) instantly grows fuzzy. Or wobbly. I think I am dissolving. I feel --my mind feels -- like a sand castle with all the sand sliding away in the receding surf. What's happening to me? This is scary, please let it be over! I think maybe if I stand very still and quiet, it will stop."

It was the first episode of what Saks calls "disorganization," and her first steps on the wild ride of schizophrenia.

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A physician's scary journey from Nepal to a deathin county jail - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- In this mountainous country bordered by India and China, doctors are considered to be godlike.

That makes the fall of Dr. Shiva Lal Acharya, who left a farming village to attend Nepal's most prestigious medical school and then moved to Chicago for a residency program, even more shocking for his friends and family.

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Caregivers see past all disabilities -Oakland Press

When I was 8, I sprained my ankle on the playground roof of the Nellie Leland School for Crippled Children in downtown Detroit.

I couldn’t walk because of the sprain, although back then I could walk, because my cerebral palsy hadn’t advanced to where it is today. Now I use a wheelchair.

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Firefighters still seeing counselors -Charleston (SC) Post-Courier

Eighteen months after the deadly Sofa Super Store fire, a team of counselors still is working to help Charleston firefighters and their families cope with the blaze that killed nine men and shook a proud department to its core.

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Mayview State Hospital: Last reminder of a lost era closes -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Most of what remains at Mayview State Hospital has been abandoned for years. The rusting rail line, the cottages that housed physicians, and the echoing brick buildings once lived in by thousands of patients are reminders of an era that soon will pass into history. Allegheny County's only remaining state hospital for people with mental illness closes tomorrow.

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After 'sober home' deaths, state panel weighs regulation -Long Island (NY) Newsday

Not long after two men died last month at a Hempstead Village "sober home," New York's top substance abuse official contacted the leader of Oxford House, the nation's largest administrator of group housing for recovering addicts.

"I talked with him about the issue of finding suitable housing for people in recovery -- what's working here and what's not working," said Karen Carpenter-Palumbo, commissioner of the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. She said she had little control over an industry beset by overcrowding, unsafe conditions and neighborhood complaints.

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No. 4 — Mental health agency cuts jobs,closes clinics - Elizabeth City (NC) Daily Advance

Our countdown of the year's top stories continues with story No. 4 — coverage of Albemarle Mental Health Center's decision to cut more than 80 jobs and close its community health clinics.

The region’s top provider of mental health services lost its long fight with state officials in 2008 over the provision of “direct services,” deciding in late December to cut more than 80 staff positions and close its community clinics.

The move by Albemarle Mental Health Center followed a similar cost-cutting effort in October, when AMHC announced that it was eliminating more than 50 positions in its community support services division because of a critical funding shortfall.

AMHC officials acknowledged the agency had spent approximately $4.9 million from its reserve fund balance to serve patients over the past two years — a situation that could not continue.
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Mental health services in ‘crisis’ -Brazoria County (TX) The Facts

Lake Jackson therapist Beverly Bernzen is part of an effort to bring adequate mental health care to Brazoria County, where she said the lack of services is glaring. “We’re approaching a crisis point,” she said.

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Inmate hopes life begins anew with spring release -Providence (RI) Journal

After having spent most of her adult life in prison for her role in a 1994 murder, Ginger Collins, 37, is preparing to re-enter the community. Having been granted parole in October, Collins is on schedule for release in May.

“She’s doing so good,” says her mother, Donna. “She looks so good.”

Collins, who suffers from mental illness, was sentenced to 65 years for her participation in the murder of Roger B. Oliver Jr. Although she had been diagnosed as a teenager, she was not taking medications at the time of the murder.

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Here Now: Housing group aims to help those on brink - Wilmington (NC) Star News

The song says this is the most wonderful time of the year. But for many area residents, this holiday season is turning out to be a scary time.

Hundreds of people are losing their jobs as plants close or downsize. Others are seeing their hours cut or their benefits slashed.

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Dallas inmate's death still under review -Dallas Morning News

Six months after the death of a Dallas County jail inmate, sheriff's investigators are still looking into the circumstances behind a violent encounter the man had with several jail guards shortly before his death.

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Tenn. program helps mentally disabled adjust

MADISON, Tenn. — Beverly Hardison was having difficulty coping with bipolar disorder until a free makeover changed her life.

Hardison, 44, went to a day program for the mentally disabled to learn to care for herself. She had cinnamon brown highlights added to her coal black hair.

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Gazza's son fears ex-England star close to death -Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - Paul Gascoigne's son fears that the former England midfielder is losing his struggle against alcoholism and mental health problems.

"He's probably going to die soon," 12-year-old Regan Gascoigne told a British TV channel in a documentary to be shown next year. "I don't think there's any point helping him - we're wasting our time. If I could wish, I would wish that he would go away from us.

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Crisis lines busier in '08 -Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

Layoffs, foreclosures, cutbacks -- there have been plenty of grim economic statistics out there this holiday season. Perhaps the grimmest one of all is that calls to suicide hot lines have soared.

Mental-health experts said that the sour economy has turned what usually manifests as seasonal blues into a full-blown crisis.

Hopeline of North Carolina Inc. in Raleigh had a 50 percent increase of calls to its crisis line in October and November, said Courtney Atwood, the agency's executive director. The agency averaged about 400 calls a month in October and November.

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Crisis lines busier in '08 -Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

Layoffs, foreclosures, cutbacks -- there have been plenty of grim economic statistics out there this holiday season. Perhaps the grimmest one of all is that calls to suicide hot lines have soared.

Mental-health experts said that the sour economy has turned what usually manifests as seasonal blues into a full-blown crisis.

Hopeline of North Carolina Inc. in Raleigh had a 50 percent increase of calls to its crisis line in October and November, said Courtney Atwood, the agency's executive director. The agency averaged about 400 calls a month in October and November.

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Crisis lines busier in '08 -Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

Layoffs, foreclosures, cutbacks -- there have been plenty of grim economic statistics out there this holiday season. Perhaps the grimmest one of all is that calls to suicide hot lines have soared.

Mental-health experts said that the sour economy has turned what usually manifests as seasonal blues into a full-blown crisis.

Hopeline of North Carolina Inc. in Raleigh had a 50 percent increase of calls to its crisis line in October and November, said Courtney Atwood, the agency's executive director. The agency averaged about 400 calls a month in October and November.

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New River mental-health service reportsa big loss - Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

New River mental-health service reports a big loss

New financing model runs into problem as client base grows, strains budget

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By Sherry Youngquist

JOURNAL REPORTER

Published: December 27, 2008

BOONE - More than a year ago, New River Behavioral Healthcare began experimenting with a financing model that some hoped might solve part of the puzzle surrounding North Carolina's mental-health-care crisis.

But now New River, one of two public providers of mental-health care in the state, is reporting an operating loss of more than $1.5 million.

State officials say that it's still too soon to say whether the model will work. Three to five years are probably needed to see how successful New River can be, said Dick Oliver, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

"They will have to watch their costs," he said.

New River's financing model was meant to ensure a continuous cash flow to provide all the mental-health services in the mountain counties. The agency, which is based in Boone, provides a comprehensive list of services, including substance-abuse treatment, family therapy and day treatment programs for the chronically mentally ill.

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Psychiatric manual's update needs openness, not secrecy, critics say - Chicago Tribune

Whether revisions to the "bible" of mental illness should be carried out in secret might seem like an academic question.

But the issue carries real weight for parents desperate to address children's difficult behavior or people in distress over their mental state. It also speaks to citizens' concerns over news accounts of an overmedicated America and the troubling financial links between the pharmaceutical industry and some psychiatric researchers.

An update is under way for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM, which defines the emotional problems for which doctors prescribe drugs and insurance companies pay the bills. Psychiatrists working on the new manual were required to sign a strict confidentiality agreement.

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Getting childhood mental health care right - Milford (MA) Daily News

Although it was not her choice, Pat, a southeastern Massachusetts mom, has become an expert on children's mental health.

Each of her three sons has been diagnosed with mental or behavioral problems, ranging from autism to dyslexia. Pat said that because teachers only receive minimal training - what she refers to as a "vanilla disability list" - in special education and mental health, it's been tough getting adequate services and help from teachers.
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Vulnerability brings us together' -Toronto (Canada) Globe & Maqil

He comes from an elite Canadian political family, but Jean Vanier shed his privilege and dedicated his life to creating communities where people with mental handicaps can have meaningful encounters with other human beings. His insights and courage have inspired the world.

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Economy strains mental health help -Palm Beach (FL) Post

Eryn Allegra lost her house and her job, she told police. She thought about suicide for weeks. She said she checked into a hotel, smothered her 8-year-old son to death and tried to kill herself on Christmas Day.

The 31-year-old Port St. Lucie mother might have felt alone in her despair, but she was not. Amid an economic crash leading to the highest unemployment in Florida in 15 years, suicide calls in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast jumped 83 percent in the past year.

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Wife Whisked Away - Jacksonville (FL) Fox30

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A St. Augustine man is trying to figure out a way to bring his wife back home. He says the nursing home where she had been living sent her to another facility in Chicago, without his knowledge or permission.


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Taser excess? - Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune

On July 25 Phillip McDuffy walked precariously along the outside edge of the Providence Road bridge over Interstate 70, threatening to commit suicide by jumping. Police talked the man away from the center of the span to the edge, where the fall distance was less.

Then, in a controversial move, officers shot McDuffy twice with Tasers. After the first hit, McDuffy moved back over the highway, and after the second he fell a greater distance to the pavement and wound up in hospital intensive care for eight days with substantial injuries.

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Family of 4 given chance to make it -Daytona News Journal

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Megan Gross was embarrassed to tell her classmates she was going home every night to live with more than 80 people in a homeless shelter.

"I was afraid they'd make fun of me and say, 'You're poor,' " the 11-year-old said.
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A simple therapy that is down to earth yet uplifting - London (England) Times

You can tell that Gavin McCabe is comfortable working at Battersea Park garden in South London for the charity Thrive. He knows about plants and fits in to the calm and purposeful dynamic of the place. This primarily means fitting in with people, and the ease with which he does so is significant for a man who has spent much of his adult life in what he calls a chaotic state of withdrawal.

Mr McCabe, who is 46, was doing a PhD in biochemistry when he had a nervous breakdown in 1986. Schizophrenia was diagnosed a few months later and his hopes of a career in scientific research fell apart as he found himself in a psychiatric hospital.

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Ryn: They've seen the light on depression -Tuscon (AZ) Daily Citizen

Flo rocks. Not just because she was born in Coney Island and married a doting man she nicknamed Cookie.

Nor merely for her ability to spin hilarious yarns about her miniature pincher who is as fat as a moose or her two chihuahuas who engage in more antics than the year has days.

But because she is living with a debilitating and often fatal condition and is kicking its butt.

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Ending a crisis without bloodshed -Santa Ynex (CA) Valley Journal

Santa Barbara County’s negotiating team works steadfast to defuse crises and come to peaceful resolutions with troubled people.

When a disturbed person starts behaving in a way that threatens public peace and safety, a special kind of law enforcement is required — the crisis negotiation team.

This was recently demonstrated in Santa Barbara when Edward Van Tassel, a troubled Iraq War veteran, acted out his anguish on a freeway overpass.

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Expansion of Clinics Shapes a Bush Legacy -New York Times

NASHVILLE — Although the number of uninsured and the cost of coverage have ballooned under his watch, President Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: he has doubled federal financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas.

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Staffing issues plaguing mental health system -Dover (NH) Foster's Daily Democrat

CONCORD — Several off the 546 adults who participated in a new consumer survey about the state's mental health system had positive things to report. One person said their community mental health center "changed my life by allowing me to get 'stabilized' to really begin to heal myself back to where I was before I collapsed ... ."

Others had negative experiences to report when it came quality of treatment, services, accessibility and staffing.

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Valley mental health center may close -Fresno (CA) Bee

The only 24-hour psychiatric-treatment center in the region could close next year, another casualty of the recession.

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Spike in Army recruiter suicides spurs mental-health study. - Fayetteville (NC) Observer

t may be an all-volunteer Army, but keeping it that way is the job of the recruiter.

Army recruiters are missionaries garbed in camouflage. Their task is to go forth and win people over to Uncle Sam. As many people as they can, as quickly as they can. There are quotas to meet, front lines to replace.

Recruiters are a mix of proselytizer, coach and soldier. For the most part, they believe what they are saying:

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Project Helping Hands combs Detroit daily offering help and hope - Detroit Free Press

Armed with only blankets and food, the outreach workers of Project Helping Hands scour the hidden corners of downtown Detroit three times a day, in search of chronically homeless people battling raging addictions and powerful mental illnesses.

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Federal investigators takes Lake jail'shealth care pulse - Munster (IN) Times

CROWN POINT - The Lake County Jail recently passed two inspections of its inmate medical and mental health care delivery systems, jail officials said. But county officials still anxiously await an examination by federal civil rights investigators before declaring the lockup has a clean bill of health.

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Afghanistan's mentally ill left to superstition - Hartford (CT) Courant

SAMAR KHEL, Afghanistan — Wali Sultani has been chained to the wall of his cell for almost a month. He is wearing the same dirty clothes and he is eating the same diet every day—bread, black pepper and water. Sultani, 25, is no criminal. He is mentally ill.

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Area child advocates needvolunteer help - Brownsville (TX) Herald

BROWNSVILLE - She has worked with the same case for two years, assisting three children removed from their home after their great-grandfather molested the middle child.

Carol Berryman, a court-appointed special advocate, has remained at their side through every phase of their grievous journey, speaking for them at their schools, during appointments with Child Protective Services, standing up for them in court, and even speaking with them during visits with their family.

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Report gives SC a 'C' in emergency medical care - Associated Press

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- South Carolina has received a C from a national group of emergency room doctors for how it handles emergency medicine. The American College of Emergency Physicians praised the state for its quality of care and liability. But it flunked South Carolina on access to emergency care and injury prevention.

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Panel recommends mentally ill - Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A bipartisan legislative pansel says the 2009 Legislature should keep the justice system from becoming the default intervention program for mentally ill people.After 14 months of study, the Law and Justice Interim Committee is proposing four bills for the upcoming session.

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Deputies changing lives, providing hope -South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The man sleeping behind the gas station west of Lake Worth had a broken hip. He was beaten up, couldn't walk and depended on others for food.

For a long time, James Fisher resisted efforts by Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Essary to get him off the streets.

Then, in August, Essary and Sgt. Victor Scott found him lying under a tree after a rain. Fisher was drenched and covered in insect bites. He was unable to stand. Scott convinced the 58-year-old man to enter a program.

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Rock band of disabled NY musicians finds success - Associated Press

FORT PLAIN, N.Y. (AP) - A group of upstate rock musicians has a tour schedule that most local bands would love to have.

The band is called Flame, and all 10 of its members have disabilities, ranging from paralysis, to blindness, to cerebral palsy to mental retardation. The rock 'n' roll cover band was created five years ago at the Lexington Center, an agency in the Mohawk Valley that serves people with developmental disabilities.

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No Place to Call Home - Chicago Sun-Times News Group

Last December, we told stories of northwest suburban residents who were homeless.

Our staff report covered all aspects: mental illness, teens on the streets, the temporarily homeless, and social service agencies and volunteers. One reporter, Todd Shields, lived homeless so he could write first-hand about the situation.

In revisiting our stories one year later, we found things haven't gotten much better.

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As dad's health fails, unflagging spirit of love sustains family of 36 - Indianapolis Star

JAMESTOWN, Ind. -- Each Christmas, Larry and Linda Thorpe make sure their children -- all 34 of them -- have a holiday to remember.

"Everyone has to have someone to love them," said Larry Thorpe, 58, who, with his wife, Linda, 51, has built an extraordinary family.

The Thorpes have three children of their own, and they have adopted or taken guardianship of 31 other children. Twenty-two of their children -- ages 5 to 32 -- still live in the home, and almost all of them have some type of physical and/or mental disability.

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Casting a light on mental illness -Toronto (Canada) Globe and Mail

The ability to know the answer before others have even framed the question has marked Mr. Kirby's tenure as the first chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The answer is clearer than ever, he says: People with mental illness need a system that serves individuals, not budgets, and a society willing to talk about depression and schizophrenia as openly as it discusses breast cancer.

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District Seeks To Privatize Servicesfor Mentally Ill - Washington Post

D.C. officials are planning to privatize the city's mental health agency, a cost-cutting move that union leaders say would put about 200 health-care professionals out of work and force thousands of emotionally troubled residents to seek private care.

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Suicide hotlines see rise in calls as economy tanks - LA Times

Layoffs, foreclosures, cutbacks -- there are plenty of grim economic stats out there this holiday season. Here's perhaps the grimmest one of all: Calls to Los Angeles' busiest suicide hotline have soared as much as 60% over the last year. Mental health experts say the sour economy has turned what usually manifests as seasonal blues into a full-blown crisis.

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Mental Health Training Courses For Rabbis NowUnder Way - The Jewish Times

Nearly 100 pulpit rabbis attended the inaugural lecture of the Advanced Mental Health Training in Pastoral Counseling series in Brooklyn at the end of October. From substance abuse to religious conflict, suicide to premarital counseling, the intense ten-session course now under way, given over seven months, focuses on a breadth of mental-health issues affecting the Jewish community.

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Detroit clinic provides mental, physical care to former inmates - Detroit Free Press

For the mostly male clients who visit the fifth floor of the Herman Kiefer Health Complex in Detroit, there are no indelicate questions.

Just out of prison and trying to find a job or a place to live or both, clients undergo basic questions about their prison terms, and harder questions about their medical and sexual histories and any drug use.


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After living on the street for years, 91-year-old Waco homeless vet has place to stay - Waco (TX) Tribune

The small room is cozy and comfortable, warmed by a small space heater on the floor. A twin-size hospital bed pushed against the wall takes up most of the 14- by-8-foot space, and a minifridge on a small stand in the corner holds a one-person supply of water, diet soda and snack foods.

For John Attaway, it is everything he needed and more: It is home.

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Local advocates put face on mental health crisis - Pittsburgh Tribune

James Kindler knows first-hand what it's like to struggle with mental illness while trying to live a normal, productive life.

Originally diagnosed with depression, a diagnosis that changed over the years as medicine became more exacting and he was more open with his doctors, Kindler, 47, today works and enjoys life. He takes medication to control bipolar, once known as manic-depressive, behavior and schizophrenia.

Kindler has become an advocate for the mentally ill, and for the federal and state programs that helped him move from not wanting to leave his home to publicly speaking about the help he and others received.

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For some families, Christmas is a time for grieving - Dalton (GA) Daily Citizen

Labor Day weekend 2000 was supposed to be a time for Dawn Sisson to enjoy down time for her family, a cookout, getting ready for a teen’s birthday. But it didn’t work out as planned. Late Sunday afternoon Sisson and her 14-year-old daughter Tiffany were on their way home after shopping for Tiffany’s birthday present. Their car was hit by another driver.

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New center offering"hope" for mentally ill - MSNBC

LEE COUNTY: Changing lives through hope is the mission behind a new service center in Southwest Florida called the "Hope Clubhouse." The center will help mentally-ill adults regain confidence, self-esteem, and sense of purpose. Health leaders say another major mission will be to help them find work.

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Study will try to improve how mentally ill are cared for in ERs - Austin (TX) American Statesman

Mental health experts in Austin are hoping a research project will help them revamp the way psychiatric patients are treated in emergency rooms. Advocacy Inc., an Austin-based organization focused on disability rights, is examining what happens to mentally ill patients brought to Austin hospitals because of a psychiatric crisis.

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Mental hospital future remains uncertain in Baldwin Township - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Discussion on a would-be Baldwin Township residence for people with mental illnesses will continue into the new year.

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Lawsuit names SR police, city in death of delusional man - Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat

The parents of a mentally ill man shot to death during a confrontation with Santa Rosa police in January have filed a wrongful death suit in federal court.

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Boys found beaten remain 'extremely critical' -Arizona Republic

Two boys were not expected to survive injuries they suffered when attacked at a west Phoenix park with what appeared to be a baseball bat. Police said the children had extensive head injuries and remained in extremely critical condition Wednesday. Meanwhile, details of mental problems and neighborhood unrest emerged related to the suspect arrested in the case.

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Temporary homeless shelter open under bridge -Vancouver (Canada) Courier

More than 25 homeless people spent Sunday night in the city's newest temporary shelter to open under Mayor Gregor Robertson's plan to get people out of the cold. The 36-bed shelter is located in a building under the north end of the Granville Bridge and opened Saturday. It allows people to bring carts and pets.

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AstraZeneca says FDA asksfor Seroquel detail - Associated Press

AstraZeneca PLC said Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked for more information regarding the drug Seroquel, which AstraZeneca is trying to get approved for use by people suffering from depression.

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Shelters fill up as economy worsens -Clarion (MS) Ledger

As thousands of metro-area shoppers look for last-minute gifts, hundreds of others are searching for shelter. "This place can fill up quick. We have only 63 beds and 10 emergency mats. (Sunday) night, we had over 90 people in here, vying for a place to rest for the night," said James Barnes, a volunteer/counselor at Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson.

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ACLU Sues Laguna Beach for Giving Homeless the Boot - Orange County Weekly

The ACLU filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today against the city of Laguna Beach for its "unlawful and inhumane policy of harassing and intimidating disabled homeless people." The suit alleges that the city's prolonged arrests of its small, disabled homeless population under the guise of an anti-sleeping ordinance is "blatantly unconstitutional" and criminalizes an otherwise helpless disabled population.

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Economy chokes nonprofits - Detroit News

Michigan's long-running economic crisis is threatening Metro Detroit social service agencies dedicated to helping the needy as demand surges for food and other aid. As the holidays approach and public assistance requests peak, many of the state's approximately 43,000 nonprofits are reducing staff, scaling back operations or exploring partnerships to offset a steep decline in funding.

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Residents' battle to continue against home for people with disabilities in Williams Township - Easton (PA) Express Times

WILLIAMS TWP. | Residents neighboring an embattled group home for two men with autism do not object to the residents with disabilities but rather the allegedly questionable activities of the staff, the neighbors' attorney argued Tuesday.

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Psych Patients With Cost-Sharing Plans Use More Services - HealthDay

People whose insurance plans better share the burden of the cost for mental health services use these programs more than those whose plans pick up less of the bill, a new study says.

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Officials say Boone police shootingwas justified - Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Boone County attorney's office says the fatal shooting last month of a man who pointed an air pistol at police officers during a standoff was justified.

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Older Americans take risky combo of medications - CNN

Many older adults in the United States are taking a confusing combination of medications, some prescribed by doctors and others picked up over-the-counter or in health food stores.

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Mental patients isolated for years despite laws -Associated Press

STAUNTON, Va.—Mental patients sprinkled throughout the nation's psychiatric hospitals are being locked up alone for years despite laws aimed at preventing the practice, because medical workers say they're too dangerous to handle any other way.

Health officials call them outliers—rare, unpredictably violent people who don't respond to medication or other treatment. Advocates call them victims of a system that has lost patience and creativity in caring for those who are most difficult to treat.

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Mentally ill and locked away for a long time -Associated Press

Some examples The Associated Press found of patients at psychiatric hospitals being held in seclusion for months or years at a time:

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Closing of Balsam seen as temporary -Franklin (NC) Press

Faced with a critical shortage of nurses and clinical management staff, Smoky Mountain Center decided to temporarily close the Balsam Center's Adult Recovery Unit, according to community relations coordinator Shelly Lackey.

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Cold night for homeless who defy Code Blue -Philadelphia Inquirer

With a Code Blue in effect overnight, the vents and benches between City Hall and Rittenhouse Square were mostly clear of blanketed bodies around sunup this morning.

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Killer asks to stay in mental hospital -Panama City (FL) News Herald

By DAVID ANGIER / News Herald Writer

Monar Bowers was committed to going to the home he knows on Friday.

Bowers, 52, has lived in a state mental hospital since he was a teen. Since 1991, he's been under involuntary commitment for beating another patient to death with a metal pipe. He went before Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet on Friday for a ruling on whether his commitment status should be mitigated so Bowers could be relocated to a halfway house and begin transitioning into society.

But Bowers told Overstreet that he doesn't want to leave the hospital.

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Knoxville Death Row inmate called inevitable killer - Associated Press

KNOXVILLE — The newest defense tactics for a Death Row inmate claim she was an inevitable killer with the perfect storm of deadly characteristics.
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Nevertheless, a judge has rejected the efforts in behalf of Christa Gail Pike, already convicted in the 1995 torture death of a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student.

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Hospital may drop mental health service -Alexanderia (MN) Echo-Press

Concerned with rising costs and its ability to keep pace with increasing demand, Douglas County Hospital (DCH) is considering phasing out its mental health outpatient care unit.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif


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Who failed Gregory Moynagh? -Toronto (Canada) Sun

Distraught family and friends of Gregory Moynagh, shot to death early Sunday outside the apartment where he was staying by a Peel police officer, understandably want answers.

They're asking why the 25-year-old Mississauga man, who reportedly wielded a knife or knives in the confrontation with four police officers, couldn't have been wounded or stun-gunned or otherwise overcome.

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Mental concerns grow for detainees -Brownsville (TX) Herald

The number of mentally and developmentally disabled detainees in South Texas federal immigration detention centers has surged during the past year, according to area attorneys who call the trend "alarming."

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Man described run-in with police before it happened - Toronto (Canada) Globe & Mail

Michelle Burry started to weep softly as she recalled the last conversation she had with Gregory Moynagh. The two friends bumped into each other on Thursday and decided to catch up over a hot dog. Ms. Burry, 28, talked about day-to-day affairs while Mr. Moynagh, who suffered from bipolar disorder, described a chilling tale: a confrontation with police, spurred by him tossing items from an apartment balcony, ending in a hallway chase in which he surrenders by dropping two knives he is carrying.

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Woman who helped improve jail conditions dies -East Volusia (FL) News Journal

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The mother of a mentally ill woman, whose jail treatment was motivation to rally for improvements in how Vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifolusia County inmates are handled, has died.

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ADHD a challenge for spouses, too -Sacramento Bee

Life is not easy for a spouse of an adult with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

John Capel, a California psychologist with practices in Sacramento and Davis, would seem better equipped than many to deal with the ADHD of his wife, Cass.

But he says it's still a challenge. He deals with it with patients in his practice and deals with his own issues.

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WORKFORCE isn't working, advocates insistNYC City Limits

Fernando Le’Bron has provided legal assistance to welfare recipients since the 1980s. Ever since welfare reform took hold in New York City a decade ago, he’s seen a steady increase in the percentage of his clients on public assistance who are unable to work because of a physical or mental disability or a substance abuse problem. This is in part a reflection of the city’s success in moving “work ready” people—those who do not have a physical or mental barrier to employment—off of welfare and into jobs. Viewed from this perspective, the city has had success in promoting greater self-sufficiency.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif


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Deaths prompt facility shutdown -Montgomery Newspapers (PA)

About a week after residents of Willow Crest Manor in Upper Moreland were moved to different facilities throughout the region, one present lay under the lobby's Christmas tree.

"There is nothing to say," an employee said Dec. 18. "We have all these decorations and no one here to enjoy them."

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Go slow, official urges state -Savannah Morning News

State officials should slow plans to replace a local mental health group and close Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah, the head of the Chatham County Hospital Authority says.

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Family of man killed by cops seeks $5 million -San Francisco Chronicle

The family of a mentally ill man who was armed with a knife when Santa Rosa police shot and killed him has filed a $5 million federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging officers used excessive force.

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Mich. chooses prison health company, angers foes - Associated Press

Michigan is hiring a new company to treat state prisoners with medical problems after investigators criticized the existing health provider for low productivity and not having enough doctors.

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Buckelew won't locate near schools in wake of police shooting - Marin (CA) Independent Journal

Buckelew Programs will no longer rent homes next to schools for its mentally ill clients, the head of the social service agency said Thursday.

The announcement by executive director Steve Ramsland came after Tuesday's police shooting death of a mentally ill man outside a San Anselmo house that the nonprofit agency operated across the street from Wade Thomas Elementary School on Ross Avenue.

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Drug rehabilitation or revolving door? -International Herald Tribune

ROSEBURG, Oregon: Their first love might be the rum or vodka or gin and juice that is going around the bonfire. Or maybe the smoke, the potent marijuana that grows in the misted hills here like moss on a wet stone.

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New NYPD system alerts officers on the mentally ill - Newsday

A day after the NYPD used a stun gun on an emotionally disturbed man, Iman Morales, volunteers meticulously cleaned blood from the sidewalk. Morales died when he fell from the second floor ledge in Brooklyn. (Newsday Photo / Ari Mintz / September 25, 2008)

The New York Police Department has a new alert system that lets officers know if they are responding to locations where police have previously been sent to deal with the mentally ill, an initiative sparked by the fatal 2007 shooting of a man who confronted officers with a broken wine bottle.

Under terms of the month-old initiative, a 911 dispatcher handling a "triggering incident" -- anything from a "shots fired" call to an assault in progress -- checks the address to see if it has been the scene of three previous incidents involving an emotionally disturbed person in the preceding 365 days, according to an internal NYPD order.

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It's not true that suicides increase around the holidays, experts say - Cleveland Plain Dealder

Chances are that grown-ups know the truth about the holiday season's biggest myth — the one concerning a certain elf, his generosity and his peculiar mode of travel.

But there's another big lie that's almost as pervasive.

No, Virginia, suicides do not increase around the holidays.

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Marshall County Death Case Could Go Cold - WTOV Steuvenville (OH)

MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. -- It's a case with more questions than answers. The remains of a 21-year-old New York man found in Marshall County earlier this year still puzzles investigators. Deputies still don't know how Leo Lanci died or why he was in Marshall County.

“It's discouraging; it's like holding on to a ball of yarn that's unraveling," said Marshall County Sheriff John Gruzinskas.

Gruzinskas fears the case could go cold without new leads. He said Lanci's family in New York hasn't provided investigators with any more clues. Family members told investigators Lanci suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but that doesn't answer the countless questions detectives have.

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Magnetic bursts treating woman’s depression -Atlanta Journal Constitution

Once a week, Lucinda Smith tucks earplugs into both ears, flips her auburn hair over a neck rest and waits for a powerful magnetic burst to be aimed at her skull.

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In parts of Eastern Europe, mentally ill kept under wraps - International Herald Tribune

PRAVDA, Bulgaria: Across the former Soviet bloc, many mentally ill are without rights as a result of unrevised rules in place before free markets and democracy started taking hold, according to human rights groups.

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Kids with autism forge new path to adulthood - Northtwest Arkansas Times

SPRINGDALE - When T.J. Bennorth was in kindergarten, his teacher asked him to take attendance every morning.

Without leaving his seat or looking around, he could rattle off a list of every child who wasn't in the room.

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Grant will provide haven for male substanceabusers - Lumberton (NC) Robseonian

LUMBERTON — The battle against substance abuse in our corner of North Carolina has received a major boost with a state grant.

Southeastern Recovery Alternatives, in partnership with the Southeastern Regional Mental Health Authority, has been awarded an annual grant of $736,000 to expand the availability of services for addictive disorders in Southeastern North Carolina.

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Down for the holidays -Toronto Star

In her award-winning Coming Out Crazy blog, Sandy Naiman explores the mental health issues that can surface around the holidays

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House of hope - Fairmont (WV) Times West Virginian

With the economy currently in a recession, those unable to afford housing may have to turn to homeless shelters like Morgantown’s Bartlett House.

“The cost of living is high in Morgantown,” said Keri A. DeMasi, executive director of The Bartlett House. “People are coming in here with full-time jobs.”

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Man convicted in laundromat abductiongets 135 years - Richmond (IN) Palladium-Item

A Richmond man convicted of kidnapping, attempted rape and confinement in November has been sentenced to 135 years in prison.

Charles E. Hubbard, 47, 110 S. Third St., Apt. 5, was found guilty but mentally ill following a four-day trial that ended Nov. 21.

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ADD, ADHD distinct, common disorders -Springfield (MO) News-Leader

Angela R. Richmond, M.D., has been a pediatrician with Skaggs Regional Health Center for 13 years.

Q: What is the difference between Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

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Nurse shortage closes Balsam Center unit -Waynesville (NC) Mountaineer

The Adult Recovery Unit at the Balsam Center in Waynesville has shut its doors.

The center officially closed its doors on Dec. 12.
Staffing challenges was given as a reason for the closure. With Smoky Mountain Center getting the 16-bed behavioral unit at Haywood Regional Medical Center up and running, nurses were in short supply.

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SBI says officer lawfully shot man -Raleigh News & Observer

CARY -- The State Bureau of Investigation has determined that a Cary police officer was justified when he shot and wounded a man Sept. 28, and the officer will not face charges, the town announced today.

Patrol Officer Joseph Kennedy, 31, has been with Cary police since April 23, 2007. He has returned to patrol after being on administrative duty since the incident, according to a press release from Cary. On the night of the incident, Cary police received a call about 4:40 a.m. that James Cummings of Dundalk Way was having a mental health crisis.

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Tough climate for new mental health chief - North Bay (San Francisco) Business Journal

SONOMA COUNTY – Even with threats to slash close to $4 billion statewide in mental health funding, newly appointed Sonoma County Mental Health Services Director Mike Kennedy said he is excited about the challenge he inherited when he took office Dec. 11.

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Man slain by police had history of mental illness - Toronto (Canada) Star

Gregg Moynagh, the Mississauga man shot dead by police yesterday morning outside his father's apartment, was bipolar and had battled mental illness for years.

This weekend, he began taking new medication. Friends were hopeful he'd get better. Then yesterday, the 25-year-old snapped.

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L.A. County probation officials propose juvenile mentalhealth hospital - LA Times

In a move to improve mental healthcare in the troubled juvenile justice system, Los Angeles County probation officials are asking that a 70-bed hospital in Sylmar be built to house and treat the most seriously ill youths in custody.

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Mental health services could suffer more cuts

WAILUKU - A cap on case management may only be the beginning of cuts to mental health services facing a budget crunch, state health officials said.

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Jump Reported in Mental Health Referrals for Kids - Kitsap (WA) Sun

As the economy falters, anxiety about what tomorrow holds is exacerbating mental-health problems in children, driving a greater need for services.

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Hope Station is honored by mental health council -Greenville (NC) Daily Reflector

ast Carolina Behavioral Health was recently recognized with a Programs of Excellence Award for Consumer Directed Supports for their Hope Station Recovery Education and Peer Supports Center

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Residents of San Gabriel Valley less likely to seek mental health advice - West Covina (CA) San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Residents of the San Gabriel Valley are half as likely to seek mental health advice than people in the rest of the county, according to a report released this month.

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Councilman has self-professed history of mental problems = New York Daily News

Queens City Councilman Hiram Monserrate has self-professed history of mental problems

Troubled pol Hiram Monserrate has a history of mental problems - he said so himself.

"I suffer with adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder," Monserrate wrote in 1999.

Monserrate - who just racked up his second arrest after an alleged violent outburst - claimed to be struggling with psychological issues when he quit the NYPD after 11 years.

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Erratic posting in days to come

It being the holidays and trying to update and integrate this blog into the NC Mental Hope website, posts may be a bit hit or miss over the next couple of weeks, although they will ultimately be as complete as I can make them.

To those of you who have written in volunteering to help in these updates, I hope to contact you soon to see if there is still interest and to provide you instructions. Apologies for the delay, but wanting to wait until the transition to the new system is complete.

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State names interim director at Cherry Hospital -Goldsboro News-Argus

Carl Fitch, a Compass Group consultant on site at Cherry Hospital since October, has been named interim director of the hospital effective Jan. 1, Department of Health and Human Services officials announced Wednesday.

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Mental health agency plans to resume its child outreach

A Rocky Mount-based mental health agency, responding to recent public outcry, agreed this week to tap budget reserves and restore services to a number of developmentally disabled children.

The Beacon Center board decision to utilize $2.9 million — pending state approval — came a day after N.C. Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield, D-Wilson, made headlines chiding the agency for holding too tightly onto state mental health funds while forsaking mentally disadvantaged children.

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Pa. man gets prison for beating father over pot - Associated Press

WALNUTPORT, Pa. - A northeastern Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to prison for severely beating his father after he flushed his marijuana down the toilet.

Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Langley, of Walnutport, will serve at least 4 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault.

A Northampton County judge sentenced him to 4 to 8 years in prison Friday.

Langley's defense attorney says his client suffers from mental problems. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

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Mom’s stalker admits guilt, gets jail sentence -/Deleware County (PA) Daily Times

MEDIA COURTHOUSE — Gail Willard’s nightmare never seems to end.

Eric Jorgensen, 39, of Lansdowne, who has been plagued by mental illness and has repeatedly placed himself in the lives of the family of murdered college student Aimee Willard, admitted guilt this week to a charge he stalked them.

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Woman Posing as Daughter Found Not Guilty Due to Mental Disease - WBAY Green Bay

The woman accused of using her daughter's name to enroll herself in Ashwaubenon High School was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

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Charges dropped in allergy death of patient at Elgin Mental Health Center - Chicago Tribune

Criminal abuse charges were dropped Thursday against two Elgin Mental Health Center employees who were blamed in the death of a former Chicago man fed fish at the center despite warnings that he was allergic.

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Mother refuses mental testing - Associated Presss

Doctors have been unable to determine whether the woman accused of killing her four daughters and living with the bodies in her D.C. rowhouse is competent to stand trial, court records show.

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Don’t rush tDon’t rush to hand off care of patients in need -Atlanta-Journal Constitution

eorgia continues to experience the effects of a mental health system that is tragically broken. Georgia Department of Human Resources’ (DHR) has responded with some new proposals, one of which is privatizing and downsizing state mental hospitals.

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Mental health services slashedby budget cuts - ABC7 Chicago

Video Report:

Mental health services in Illinois have already been slashed by $25 million and another $80 million could be cut as well.

A $100 million cut could leave more than 62,000 people in Illinois who are struggling with mental illness out of care.

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Harrison man who admitted killing his mother sent to mental health center - Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent

CHILTON — A 38-year-old Harrison man who has admitted killing his mother will be committed to a mental health center.

However, state mental health assessors say they think Brian Eklund will regain his competency and be able to stand trial in a year.

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Insurer Health Net spent $690K lobbying in 3Q -Associated Press

Health insurer Health Net Inc. spent a total of $690,000 in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on health care coverage issues, according to recent disclosure forms.

The Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company lobbied on the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act,

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Official: Psych center patients to be segregated -Associated Press

LAS VEGAS—A state mental health official says violent patients are going to be separated from others at the Rawson Neal Psychiatric Hospital, following reports of two recent rapes involving patients.

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Children's mental health facility loses license -Associated Press

RIVERVIEW, Fla. (AP) - A Tampa Bay mental health treatment center is relocating the children and teens under its care after a state investigation determined that clients assaulted employees at the facility.

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Mental health services available for jobless -Silver City (NC) Sun-News

SILVER CITY — Professional mental health counseling, at little or no cost, is available to those recently laid off from Grant County's two copper mines through the Border Area Mental Health Services Inc. of Southwest New Mexico.

Mental health professionals and area law enforcement have warned that the layoffs could have a rippling effect throughout southwest New Mexico, causing some people who lose their jobs and incomes to suffer mild to severe mental

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Dealing with stigma of mental illness in teens - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The effect of mental illness on young people cannot be overstated. Its presence can have a dramatic negative impact on academic performance and social adjustment, leaving scars long into adulthood.

About 20 percent of children have a diagnosable disorder at a given time, and 5 percent have serious, ongoing disorders.

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mental health counselor convicted for using Internet to arrangeabuse of children - Naple Daily News

Fort Myers mental health counselor convicted for using Internet to arrange abuse of two children

NAPLES — A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a 78-year-old Fort Myers mental health counselor of using the Internet to arrahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnge to beat and sexually abuse two children.


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Mental health workers overwhelmedsince Mumbai attacks - LA Times

Reporting from Mumbai, India -- Since the gruesome Mumbai terrorist attacks, mental health experts understandably have been in big demand here. But India, with 1.1 billion people, has only 4,000 psychiatrists, and efforts to provide adequate professional help for those traumatized by the rampage is proving a daunting task.

Psychiatrists say it's not unusual to arrive at rural clinics and find 300 people waiting to see them. Each patient receives five minutes of attention at best. Many give up and go in search of more traditional forms of assistance.

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Officials discuss state of mental health system -South Carolina Now

FLORENCE — Pee Dee Mental Health officials met with area hospital representatives Tuesday morning to discuss ways to properly treat mentally ill patients who seek treatment in local emergency rooms.

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A closed door -Raliegh News & Observer

The understanding was clear in the fall of 2007, when Dempsey Benton, then the new state secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, met with editors of The News & Observer. He assured them that information pertaining to the deaths of patients in mental health facilities would be accessible. Not the patients' names or case numbers, but other data.

In the past year, nearly 600 reports on various cases at the hospitals were released with only the patients' names left out. The reports were cross-referenced by The N&O with other state records where the names of the dead are public, such as autopsy reports and death certificates. In March of this year, the newspaper reported the stories of 82 patients who had died in state mental hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled, including those stories where people were beaten to death or had suffocated because staff members had erred in restraining them.

Now, as The N&O reported Friday, there has been some backsliding, even though state lawmakers voted to require DHHS to report all state hospital deaths to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill, where records are public.
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Homeless dead to be honored with vigil -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

At one time, Carla Bagley was a newspaper editor at the Greensboro News & Record. A single mother, she had two children, a good education and a promising career.

Last year, Steven Baxter got into a motorcycle accident and was left crippled and unable to work. He liked to read.

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Father of slain man goes national -Almogordo (NM) Daily News

The father of a 33-year-old Alamogordo man who was killed in his sleep more than a year ago is hitting the national television airwaves next weekend.

James Dewald Sr., of Alamogordo, and his wife, Diane, visited the "Today Show" in New York on Dec. 12 to talk about his displeasure with how his daughter-in-law, Kristen Dewald, 39, formerly of Las Cruces, was found not guilty by reason of insanity earlier this month in the murder of his son, Jim Dewald.

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A bag filled with happiness -Akron (OH) Beacon Journal

CUYAHOGA FALLS: By the sound of the joy in Gloria Aikey's voice, you would have thought she had won the lottery.

Aikey, 64, broke into a million-dollar smile at her apartment this week when she received a holiday bag of personal items delivered by her case worker.

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Man gets 25 years for city murder - The Capital, Annapolis (MD)

Attorney says client has bipolar disorder.

An Annapolis man who fatally shot a friend in September 2007 after a "play fight" was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison.

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Butner hospital passes muster -Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

The new state mental hospital in Butner is no longer under threat of losing federal money because of safety problems.

State officials said Friday that inspectors no longer consider Central Regional Hospital dangerous for patients.

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Killer seeks release from court control -Hamilton (OH)

HAMILTON — An admitted killer who committed one of the county's most notorious crimes — but was found not guilty by reason of insanity — is seeking to be freed from any court control 18 years after decapitating his wife.

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Woman shot by S.F. police is moved from jail ward - San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO -- A judge ordered a mentally ill woman accused of assaulting two San Francisco police officers transferred Friday from a hospital jail ward into a locked psychiatric ward while awaiting a decision from prosecutors about whether to retry the case.

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Review: Harrowing narrative is somber reminder -Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

The crisis begins for the reader as abruptly as it did for the author: "On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad."

So opens "Hurry Down Sunshine," Michael Greenberg's thought-provoking memoir of his daughter's first episode of full-blown bipolar mania.

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Prisoner early release plan is terribly flawed -Sonora (CA) Union Democrat

Would the early release of about a third of Calfornia’s more than 150,000 prison inmates affect public safety?

That is the question before a three-judge federal panel now weighing a lawsuit claiming that conditions in the state’s 33-facility prison system are unconstitutionally dangerous. Filed on behalf of sick and mentally ill inmates, the suit contends that overcrowding means inmates are not getting the care they desperately need and to which they are legally entitled.

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Roy Ellis' Fate in Hands of 3-Judge Panel -

OMAHA (KPTM) - Roy Ellis' fate now lies in the hands of a three judge panel. Ellis was convicted of first degree murder for killing 12-year-old Amber Harris.

Friday, a hearing was held to determine whether or not Ellis is mentally stable to be given the death penalty.

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Being Carrie Fisher - Newsweek

Carrie Fisher's life has gone through more turns than a revolving door at Macy's. The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, she herself became a celebrity when she was cast as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" at age 19.

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Guilty Verdict For Wrong-Way Driver

Attorney argued his client was bipolar, and hadn't taken his medicine at the time of the crash.

A judge found a Cortland man guilty of eight counts, in connection with a May 2007 crash on Interstate 590 in Brighton which killed two people.

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Wishful Drinking - Variety

Carrie Fisher can't stop writing or talking about her life, but who can really blame her? With stories like these, there's no need for her to hide behind fiction any more. "Wishful Drinking" began as a stage show, and certain zingers have a polished Borscht Belt ring, while other passages are incredibly poetic; Fisher writes movingly about what it's like to be born into celebrity and never really leave. At the very least, her memoir lays waste to the tabazine conceit that stars are "just like us."

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Okie Found Guilty - WABI-TV Bangor (ME)

A jury has found 22-year-old John Okie guilty of murdering his former girlfriend and his father in July of 2007.

The prosecution argued Okie knew right from wrong, but the defense said he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

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Prosecutor Wants Psychiatrist to Go to Prison -WBAY-TV Green Bay (WI)

A prosecutor says he'll recommend prison for a former psychiatrist convicted of having inappropriate sexual contact with a patient.

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Privatizing Mental Health: Two Views - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Georgia continues to experience the effects of a mental health system that is tragically broken. Georgia Department of Human Resources’ (DHR) has responded with some new proposals, one of which is privatizing and downsizing state mental hospitals.

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Area veterans seek support for counseling center - Wilmington (NC) Star-News

Leroy Perry had one of his recurring dreams Wednesday night.

Perry, a 64-year-old retiree from the Army and Department of Defense, was back in Vietnam, fighting the war from his youth.

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Beacon wants to use $2.9 million -Wilson (NC) Daily Times

Parents who have children with developmental disabilities got some welcome news at The Beacon Center board meeting Tuesday night.

The Beacon Center's board voted to ask the state if they can use $2.9 million dollars from the center's reserves and put that money toward more services for people who need developmental therapies.

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