Monday, May 05, 2003
May 6 is Childhood Depression Awareness Day NMHA News Release - "On May 6, Childhood Depression Awareness Day, thousands of children, families, physicians and advocates will be working in communities around the nation to get the word out that childhood depression is real, common and treatable."
Ailment of Nurse Nightingale Is Diagnosed New York Times article on comments by Kathy Wisner, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, at a conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, that Florence Nightingale may have suffered from bipolar disorder. [Viewing
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Recovery center will host open house Friday (Wisconsin) La Crosse Tribune story on Partners in Empowerment, a drop-in and resource center in downtown La Crosse for individuals with mental health issues. The center is "run by peers for people with a mental health diagnosis. It offers a variety of services, including peer-to-peer mentoring, a support group, arts and crafts materials and classes, literacy programs, movies and a safe, nonjudgmental environment......The center also has five computers connected to the Internet, plus a library of materials on mental health as well as fiction and nonfiction books."
Editorial: New option needed for mental care (Montana) Billings Gazette editorial - "Mental patients committed by courts may be able to get treatment at a community inpatient facility, instead of Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs. That’s the good news on Montana’s public mental health system. The bad news is that there isn’t much new money for mental health after deep cuts in the past year. And a modest increase to cover inflation is dependent on having counties contribute money to leverage federal Medicaid funds."
Case spawns legislation (Pennsylvania) Lebanon Daily News story on legislation that grew out of a widely publicized rape case and mid-February hearings before state legislators in harrisburg at which "criminal justice experts urged lawmakers to enact procedures that would facilitate involuntary mental-health commitments of unreformed juvenile sex offenders."
Mental health care gets the ax: States’ budget woes force deep spending cuts MSNBC story - "With Louisiana running low on cash, lawmakers are considering cuts at state centers housing more than 1,600 mentally retarded and disabled people. Louisiana is not alone — thirty states have already slashed mental health funding this year and more cuts are on the way. Researchers worry the reduction in spending could lead to a rise in everything from the number of homeless on the streets to rising crime rates."
Mother fights mental health system (North Carolina) Story in the
Raleigh News-Observer on Diane Bauknight - "Her efforts to get her local mental health authority -- an arm of the state agency charged with caring for the mentally ill -- to provide better care for her daughter has made Bauknight something of a hero to families of the mentally ill in the mountains."
Mental Health Week 2003 Marks Fifteen Years of Government Neglect: Throne Speech Offers No Relief for Those Waiting for Services (Canada) Canada Newswire story - "Today is the first day of Mental Health Week 2003, but tragically there is little progress to report on alleviating waiting lists for life-saving services for the mentally ill, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario. The promise of increased income support for some people with mental illness is a step forward. However, last week's Throne Speech was yet another missed opportunity to ensure that Ontarians with mental illness and their families will have access to essential services when and where they need them, as community-based services continue to be eroded while the demand for these services increases."
