November 2014 Additional Articles, Magazines, and Videos From Around the Nation
Please note: Due to the fourth Thursdays falling on holidays for November and December, the Indianola family support group is changing the room and date of meeting for November and December. We will meet on the third Thursday for November (20thl) and December (18th) at 6:30p.m. in Room 216 on the south side of First United Methodist Church
The Cost of Not Caring
- 40,000 Suicides Annually, Yet America Shrugs
- Cost of Not Caring: Stigma Set in Stone
- Cost of Not Caring: Nowhere to Go
The Power of Mindfulness – How a Meditation Practice Can Help Kids Remain Focused, Less Anxious
Choices in Recovery – Newsletter #11 – Help Wanted, Tips and Strategies for Finding a Job
Koochiching County jail suicide highlights lapses in care of mentally ill - When Kathryn Schneider turned herself in last March on a drunken-driving warrant, her history of mental illness, drug use and a previous suicide attempt was well-known to the Koochiching County jailers. at
In 2013, the Clinton Foundation held a conference in California entitled “Health Matters”. Included in the discussion was Mental Health. The 1 ½ hour Mental Health Issues presentation and discussion was broadcast on C-span – you can view it, too, at Speakers and participants include Dr. David Satcher, former Surgeon General – 1998-2002, NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Connecticut Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT), and others talked about mental health and addiction.They discussed the challenges facing mental health illness, including the lack of funding and the stigma it creates.Two activists who lost their sons to mental illness and addiction also spoke.This forum was part of the annual Clinton Foundation “Health Matters” conference held in La Quinta, California.
Brain Research videos can be found at:
Ignoring the mentally ill won't make them go away- Many of those stories are painful. "They just want to sweep us under the rug," David (not his real name), a bright-eyed man in his late 40s told me. "We are invisible. People want to pretend we don't exist."
Three Who Discovered ‘inner GPS’ Win Nobel Prize in Medicine Three scientists, including a husband-and-wife team, have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine for deciphering the mechanism in the brain that allows us to find our way around.
From a Father’s Anguish, Comes a Plan to Help Mentally Ill Inmates out at age 19 with a five-story brick rental on Barrow Street, Mr. Greenburger built one of the city’s largest co-op conversion businesses in the 1970s and 80s, with projects that included the Delmonico Building, 1045 Park Avenue and the sprawling Clinton Hill Co-ops. Next came Midtown office towers, apartments from New Jersey to Berlin, and even the stray Nova Scotia outlet mall and Tallahassee, Fla., parking garage.
Yet for all of his 20-million-square-foot empire, the project Mr. Greenburger may be most excited about — certainly the one he is most determined to build — is a 25-bed center to treat convicts with mental illnesses.
“These aren’t criminals,” Mr. Greenburger said during an interview last week at his 15th floor office at 55 Fifth Avenue. “These are people who have committed crimes, mostly because they don’t know any better or they are acting out on impulse. And study after study has shown that prison only makes this behavior worse.”
A Son Fights to Save Mother From Fitchburg Streets - Joseph Parker hadn't seen his 68-year-old mother, Nancy A. Wenzel, in more than 20 years. She spent most of her life in and out of state mental institutions, shelters and on the streets, he said, and he had no idea where she was.
Children’s Mental Health Changes Aimed at Addressing ER Crisis Theplanincludes making more crisis stabilization and respite beds available for young people with mental health needs, additional funding to encourage providers to open more psychiatric residential treatment beds, and funds for additional therapeutic support for children with acute needs who live at home or in congregate care.
Mentally Ill Man After Family Says Pleas Were Ignored by Michigan’s Failed Mental Health System
Using Medicaid to Reduce Recidivism in States’ Corrections System Since 1997, states have been able to bill for Medicaid-enrolled inmates who leave prisons or jails longer than 24 hours for health treatment in a hospital or nursing facility.
That provision is an important but little-known exception to the federal prohibition on spending Medicaid funds for health services to inmates of state prisons and local jails, according to Dr. Nicole Jarrett, who spoke at September’s CSG Medicaid Leadership Policy Academy
Southtown Star/Chicago Sun Times:The Cost Of Saving On Mental Health Care
When I saw the news release about a Cook County Board hearing today to "look into mental health needs and services," I was sort of surprised. Surprised because it has been my experience that hardly anyone in this state cares very much about the needs of the mentally ill as long as such people don’t shoot them while they’re eating burgers at a McDonald’s. Since the closing of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center in 2012, Cook County Jail has become the largest facility treating mentally ill patients in Illinois. The city of Chicago shut down six of its 12 mental health clinics around the same time. Other than mental health advocates and a few medical professionals, few people noticed or cared (Phil Kadner, 10/14).
Des Moines Register:CoOportunity Pulling Out Of Iowa Medicaid Expansion Plan
The insurance carrier CoOportunity Health is pulling out of an Iowa program that provides government-financed coverage to moderate-income residents. The Iowa Department of Human Services announced today that CoOportunity has decided not to continue covering participants in the Marketplace Choice Plan next year. The program is an integral part of Iowa's version of Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act. CoOportunity's president said the company is losing money on the 9,700 people it is covering under the Marketplace Choice Plan, and couldn't continue to participate without charging more to other members. CoOportunity Health is one of two insurance carriers that provided coverage this year under the Marketplace Choice Plan. The other carrier, Coventry Health Care, plans to continue offering such coverage, the department said in a press release (Leys, 10/17).
How to Reduce Incarceration and Need for Housing People With Mental Illness - recommendations from a New York task force to the Mayor’s office.
Helping the severely mentally ill who don't realize they need to be helped- The speakers numbered nearly three dozen, and most shared heartbreaking tales of tragedies they'd witnessed -- homelessness, addiction, violence, suicide attempts -- because loved ones with severe mental illnesses refused treatment.
The Associated Press:Telemedicine Can Bridge Mental Health Gap In Indiana
Modern technology offers a way to deliver much-needed mental health care to rural sections of Indiana where little or none is available, experts told a legislative study committee Thursday. Providing psychiatric care through an encrypted computer video link is already helping some providers treat the mentally ill, doctors and officials told the Interim Study Committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health, and Human Services. That care can include a social worker counseling a patient through a video link in the patient’s own home or multi-window, video conference group sessions led by a psychiatrist. Setting up necessary computer and video technology for a caregiver or patient can cost less than $1,000, the experts said. Ordinary video commnication software doesn’t work because the data must be encrypted to protect patients’ privacy, they said (Wilson, 9/25).
Bloomberg: Screaming Inmates Make L.A. Rethink Jailing Mentally Ill
Inmates in suicide-proof gowns scream and bang on their cell doors one floor below Terri McDonald’s office in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. The bedlam is a reminder, if she needs one, that the mentally ill population in the largest U.S. jail system is out of control. ... Conditions for mentally ill inmates in the county have been a focus of federal probes since 1997, and the number with psychiatric disorders was an issue in a recent debate over a new jail. Keeping a mentally ill person behind bars can cost more than $50,000 annually, while treatment could run two-thirds less. Criminal justice systems from Seattle to Miami with aggressive jail-diversion efforts have cut inmate headcounts -- and lowered recidivism rates (Nash, 9/26).
What Does It Say About America That We Jail Teens for Having Sex or Being Late to School - AlterNet
The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention. On top of the cost, in its recent report No Place for Kids, the AECF presents evidence to show that youth incarceration does not reduce recidivism rates, does not benefit public safety and exposes those imprisoned to further abuse and violence.Read More.
Great Read for Writers in Juvenile Hall, Sentences can be Liberating - Los Angeles Times
Eminem's "The Monster" ricocheted off the cinder-block walls and worn linoleum floor at Sylmar's Juvenile Hall. "I'm friends with the monster that's under my bed Get along with the voices inside of my head You're trying to save me, stop holding your breath And you think I'm crazy, yeah, you think I'm crazy" Ten teenagers, some of them awaiting trial on charges of murder, attempted rape or armed robbery, sat around a makeshift table in a hallway near the guard station, eyes closed, heads nodding to the beat. In the middle of the group, appearing scarcely older than the inmates and wearing a dark hoodie and canvas sneakers, Scott Budnick asked the young men to write about the lyrics that spoke to them. One had caught his eye.Read More.
As Another Young Boy Commits Suicide in an Adult Prison, We Must Rethink the Prosecution of Children as Adults - Huffington Post
Zachary Proper, age 15, committed suicide two weeks ago in an adult prison in Pennsylvania. There has been little media coverage of his death, suggesting a disturbing complacency about suicide by youth who would rather take their own lives than endure decades in jail. How did Zachary end up serving time as an "adult"? At the age of 13, he was charged with killing his grandparents. Under Pennsylvania law, because Zachary was charged with murder, state law required that he be charged as an adult. He ultimately plead guilty to third degree murder of his grandparents and was sentenced to 35-80 years in prison.Read More.
Suicide in Fairfield: Iowa Town Struggles with Mental Health Awareness
When you live in a small town, you have a connection to just about everyone. With a recent string of suicides in my community in Fairfield, Iowa, it has felt personal every time, whether it was a classmate, childhood friend, neighbor or someone I saw out for a drink the weekend before.
Role of Untreated Severe Mental Illness Missing from New FBI Report
Public shootings have more than doubled over the last 14 years, according to a new report from the FBI. “At the heart of the problem is the sheer number of people falling through the cracks of our nation’s mental illness treatment system,” said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Mental Health Patients Forced to Seek Treatment Outside Sonoma County
Maria Cepeda said she knows exactly how she will end her life. She won’t use pills as she has several times before. Her final attempt, she said, will be with a rope, and alcohol will buy her the courage.
Mental Illness Program Could Transform L.A. County Justice System
Los Angeles officials announced Wednesday the launch of an alternative sentencing program aimed at diverting mentally ill, low-level offenders from jail into treatment, a project they hope will signal a dramatic shift for the county's criminal justice system.
New Los Angeles Program Working To Divert Mentally Ill, Homeless From Jail
Court. Jail. Homelessness. Repeat. That cycle so familiar to many Californians with mental illnesses may soon be interrupted thanks to the new Third District Diversion and Alternative Sentencing Program in Los Angeles County. Designed for adults who are chronically homeless, seriously mentally ill, and who commit specific misdemeanor and low-level felony crimes, the demonstration project could help reduce recidivism by as much as two-thirds, Third District Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said (Stephens, 10/20).
Relatives Say White House TrespassersNeeded Treatment Not Incarceration
With more than 800 rounds of ammunition and a machete, Omar Gonzalez, a war veteran, jumped the fence at the White House, entered the building and made his way toward the North Portico before being arrested by Secret Service last Friday.
The Crime They Say Coming: How the State Failed to Adequately Treat Ron Roude Until It Was Too Late
Ron Roude’s mother is so ashamed of what her son did that, more than six months after it happened, she still can’t show her face.
"I just had not slept for weeks, just worrying about him. And I kept praying to God that he would take care of him," she said, asking that we conceal her identity.
"Well, this isn’t quite the way I wanted God to take care of him."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: In Reform Effort, State Hospital Will Give Families A Seat At The Table
Facing intense criticism from parents and patient advocates, the state’s largest psychiatric hospital is preparing to give families much greater say in the treatment of mentally ill patients. The move is part of a broad series of reforms at the embattled state hospital, which has struggled with staff turnover, incidents of patient maltreatment and serious security lapses. Hundreds of parents, siblings and spouses of patients will get letters this week from the state Department of Human Services, inviting them to become members of the first-ever family advisory council at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter. The council will advise the hospital, which houses about 225 of the state’s most dangerous and mentally ill patients, on everything from group therapy to patient security and room decor (Serres, 9/29).
Young Adults INCREASED Mental Health Service Use under ACA
The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) found health insurance spending for young adults (ages 19-25) grew at twice the rate of other adults in 2011-2012. Why? That’s when Affordable Care Act started to allow parents to include their adult children in family health plans. Mental health admissions and emergency room visits grew the most.
International Collaborative Effort Develops the Beginnings of a Blood Test for Psychosis
Stem Cell Technology Offers New Insight Into Brain Mechanisms Underlying Schizophrenia
You Tube Video from National Convention
Opening Plenary – 54 minutes
Moderator: Ron Homberg – Attorney and Policy Director for NAMI National
Speakers: Mary Giliberti, NAMI National CEO
Patrick Kennedy, former U.S. House Representative from Rhode Island
Creigh Deeds, State Senator from Virginia
Demi Lovato, Actress and Singer
Also
Access to power point presentations at the National Convention – many to choose from
An outstanding presentation we recommend you look at is the:
Research Plenary – pdf file – Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
Also
Recording of the Webinar entitled “CIT: Transforming Communities After Tragedy”This webinar featured Major Sam Cochran (retired), Project Director at the University of Memphis Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Center, Paton Blough, Mental Health Advocate and founder of Rehinge.com, and Laura Usher, CIT Program Manager at NAMI. CIT programs do more than train police to respond to mental health crisis safely and humanely. They help to transform tragic events into an opportunity for communities to improve mental health crisis response, build partnerships and break down the stigma of mental illness.
Watch the webinarand see how you can help bring this important program to your community.
Also
Bright Spot: NAMI Ohio
NAMI promotes the 'first resort' of person-centered services to engage individuals respectfully and effectively in their treatment, but we also need to advocate for a last resort safety net to cover the gaps. Court-ordered treatment is never the preferred option, but it can be helpful for those relatively few individuals who are unwilling to engage in needed treatment and supportive services and deteriorate to the point of dangerousness to self or others or grave disability as a consequence.