ASHLAND, Ore. — She ran away from her group home in Medford, Ore., and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. Finally, Nicole Clark, 14 years old, grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay. The price would come later.
They had sex, and he soon became her boyfriend. Then one day he threatened to kick her out if she did not have sex with several of his friends in exchange for money. Story continues here ➤
When author Pete Earley titled his last book “Crazy,” it was not in reference to people with mental illness, but rather to a flawed mental health system intended to help them. Earley became intimately familiar with what he calls “America’s mental health madness” after his son had a bipolar disorder breakdown during college — and ended up charged with a crime. The personal journey has taken the former Washington Post reporter (www.peteearley.com) to 44 states to investigate conditions, speak to groups, and ensure that the mentally ill get help, not unwarranted time in jail.
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Many military personnel who acquired post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are being inappropriately discharged, despite Pentagon assurances that proper policy is being followed.
The expression, “I had a bad childhood,” has never seemed sufficient for describing the horrors visited upon many youth. The expression’s inadequacy becomes apparent when one hears the story of Jani Schofield, a seven-year-old, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has already been hospitalized seven or eight times in psychiatric wards. Typically, psychotic disorders afflict people no earlier than their late teens.
Families and friends of people with mental illness gathered Tuesday in downtown Salt Lake to brainstorm ways to deal with pending layoffs at Valley Mental Health, the main link to health-care services for thousands of Utahns dealing with various degrees of mental and emotional disorders.
DURHAM — For years, shame and fear led Ajax’s Ben Verboom to inadvertently contribute to the stigma surrounding mental illness.
A graduate of Archbishop Denis O’Connor Catholic High School, Mr. Verboom grew up with two loving parents and siblings, but that all changed when, in Grade 9, he came home from school to find police cars waiting. Story continues here ➤
Post-entryAny good coach knows the off-season matters. That’s why Dr. Wilbur “Billy” Oaks has no plans to let his players slack off until spring.
The men of the Body and Soul Soccer Team at St. John’s Hospice (www.saintjohnshospice.org) may be homeless, but they must stay focused just like the pros. Story continues here ➤
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2009) — Homeless and marginally housed people have much higher mortality and shorter life expectancy than could be expected on the basis of low income alone, concludes a study from Canada published on bmj.com.
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PHOENIX (CNS)—Children with special needs deserve a chance at the full range of what life has to offer, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver told the Phoenix Catholic Physicians Guild.
“Studies show that more than 80 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome now get terminated in the womb. They’re killed because of a flaw in one of their chromosomes—a flaw that’s neither fatal nor contagious, but merely undesirable,” he said in an Oct. 16 address to the group. Story continues here ➤
Disabled Bay State residents may now face even more cuts to the services they urgently need, advocates said.
As Gov. Deval Patrick prepares to narrow the $600 million budget shortfall, mentally ill residents and their advocates say they are bracing for slow processing of disability claims, as well as cuts that could eliminate services. Story continues here ➤
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a recent study conducted for the NFL suggested that retired pro football players may have a higher rate than normal of Alzheimer’s disease or other memory afflictions, the NFL was quick to point out that the study did not prove a link between concussions and memory disorders.
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While working with children with chronic illness during her predoctoral internship, Jessica Borelli realized that little was understood about the psychological effect of chronic illness and the bond between parent and child.
Assaults on therapists, such as the stabbing of a doctor by a psychiatric patient in a Massachusetts General Hospital clinic yesterday, capture widespread attention, but several mental health professionals said such events are rare. Still, they said, doctors can take precautions when treating psychiatric patients.
DENVER – University of Colorado President Bruce Benson is bracing for the worst, expecting that Gov. Bill Ritter’s latest plan to re-balance the state budget will include more cuts in higher education spending, as well as other state programs.
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Facing an $8 million to $10 million deficit, Valley Mental Health officials met face to face Tuesday with mentally ill clients frightened by the uncertainty of what lies ahead when their service system is pared back, delivered by a staff with up to 125 fewer employees.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge will rule later on a possible new sentence for a Kansas nurse convicted of enslaving the mentally ill residents of a group home she ran with her husband.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declined to reserve the right to reduce its living wage ordinance for people who provide In-Home Support Services to the elderly and disabled, which could cost the county $1.5 million annually.
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BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – Teachers and counselors are looking for alternative ways to treat children in the “Evolutions” program and those who may need it in the future. It’s the state-run program for kids with severe behavioral problems, and it’s expected to shut down in less than two months. The closure could mean troubled children will wind up the public school system unprepared.
I can’t begin to imagine what it would have been like had I been forcibly taken from my parents at a young age and placed in a home with strangers.
TUESDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) — More than 65 percent of U.S. mothers with depression don’t receive adequate treatment, a new study has found.
Bea Arthur left $300,000 in her will to a New York organization that aids homeless gay youth.
California’s Department of Veterans Affairs isn’t delivering services as well as it should to the two million veterans living in the state, according to a report issued today by state auditor Elaine Howle.
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Fifteen active-duty members of the military took their own lives last year – a rate of 23 per 100,000 – versus 11 confirmed suicides in 2007, according to newly released Defence Department statistics.
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department recently filed a motion to intervene in Disability Advocates Inc. v. David Paterson, et al. in federal court in the Eastern District of New York.
The United States alleges that the state of New York has failed to house thousands of individuals with mental illness who currently reside in large, institutional “adult homes” in the most integrated setting, in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Story continues here ➤
CHICAGO – Up to a third of children and adolescents who took common antipsychotic drugs for the first time became overweight or obese in as little as 11 weeks, raising their risk for diabetes and heart disease, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.
RICHMOND, Va. – A severely mentally ill man who spent more than 15 years in seclusion at a Virginia psychiatric hospital has died, weeks after his family won a battle to have him moved closer to them.
Oct. 27, 2009 — The USF Health Rothman Center for Neuropsychiatry in St. Petersburg, FL, is conducting a two-year federal trial testing the effectiveness of behavioral psychotherapy in treating anxiety among young adolescents with autism.
Many pediatric and adolescent patients who received second-generation antipsychotic medications experienced significant weight gain, along with varied adverse effects on cholesterol and triglyceride levels and other metabolic measures, according to a study in the October 28 issue of JAMA.
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Consumers across the country soon will be able to find impartial information about out-of-network health care costs on a new Web site, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
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TUESDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) — In patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of DM slows the rate of cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a prospective, multi-center study in the Oct. 27 issue of Neurology. Story continues here ➤
LOS ANGELES—A lawsuit seeking health care coverage for the use of applied behavioral analysis in the treatment of autism has been cleared for trial by the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Story continues here ➤
PORTLAND — An overhaul of the way Oregon compensates foster parents means a big raise for most but some foster parents who care for some of the sickest children are facing deep cuts.
The 2009 Legislature put an additional $13 million in the 2009-11 budget for foster parent reimbursements, boosting the total Oregon will spend this year to $52 million. Story continues here ➤
On October 6, 2009, the popular television show Oprah aired a program about a 7 year old girl, Jani, who has “schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia is fairly rare within the population to begin with; it’s nearly unheard of in children as young as 7. That’s what made this an interesting and engaging program. The disorder apparently started at 2, with imaginary friends who started showing up in Jani’s life. Story continues here ➤
CHICAGO — Children on widely used psychiatric drugs can quickly gain an alarming amount of weight; many pack on nearly 20 pounds and become obese within just 11 weeks, a study found.
“Sometimes this stuff just happens like an explosion. You can actually see them grow between appointments,” said Dr. Christopher Varley, a psychiatrist with Seattle Children’s Hospital who called the study “sobering.” Story continues here ➤
A new study by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King’s College London has discovered abnormalities in the white matter of the brain that seem to be critical for the timing of schizophrenia. The study, led by Professor Phillip McGuire and Dr Sophia Frangou, has been published in this month’s edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
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A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.
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Health care advocates said Monday that they had met their goal of adding 10,000 Baltimore residents to Medicaid rolls since the state expanded coverage and lowered eligibility requirements last year.
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Emmy award winner Glenn Close teamed with director Ron Howard on a new project about mental illness. The celebrities are working on a public service announcement about mental illness…bipolar disorder, in particular.
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Reform is coming too slowly to institutions for adults with intellectual and mental health disabilities in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, where chronic neglect, filthy conditions, and the use of physical restraints and high-dosage drugs to control behaviour remain routine. Story continues here ➤
Joseph Rochford, associate professor of psychiatry at McGill and a director at the Douglas Hospital, hopes the hospital’s Mini-Psych School will help debunk myths surrounding people suffering from mental disorders
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