March 23rd, 2020
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
The man is smiling now, released from the grip of the terrible depression that brought him to the hospital so many years ago. He smiles often as he anticipates his next trip to a restaurant in the city with his social worker. Movement from the locked hospital setting to the community is slow. Evaluations for safety must be completed, tribunals of experts convinced, judges brought on board, permissions given, obstacles anticipated, solutions planned, and steps taken, one at a time, into the wider world. He has run the course of illness and recovery, guilt and forgiveness, and has begun the [More]
Tags: emotion, mental illness, depression, treatment, patient, Dr. Bodnar, time, kindness, self understanding
Posted in Columnists, Articles | No Comments »
January 4th, 2020
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
One day last fall, my colleague Martin asked if I had seen what had become of the hospital where we used to work. Martin is the hospital’s memory, and his passion for history and the natural world makes him someone I take very seriously. So, when he told me that they had turned the place into luxury condos, I had to go and see for myself. Later that same afternoon, I turned off the main street onto the hospital road and into a landscape that bore little resemblance to the grounds I had walked with my patients for nearly two [More]
Tags: mental illness, hospital, treatment, memories, Dr. Alan Bodnar, remembering, time passage
Posted in Columnists | 1 Comment »
November 4th, 2019
By Janine Weisman
States with a high rate of access to mental health care tend to have low prevalence of mental illness, according to a new report ranking which states had the best overall mental health care in the country. QuoteWizard, a LendingTree company, analyzed data from Mental Health America to rank each state one to 50 as determined by a composite score of prevalence and access rankings. North Dakota ranked first while Maryland came in second and New Jersey was third. Each scored high for access to care and low for prevalence of mental illness. Nevada was at the very bottom behind [More]
Tags: mental illness, Maine, Connecticut, best mental health, ranking report, best overall mental health by state, health care providers
Posted in Leading Stories | No Comments »
October 10th, 2019
By Janine Weisman
The evidence suggests mass shootings perpetrated by individuals with mental illness account for less than one percent of gun-related homicides. But you wouldn’t know it from President Donald Trump’s comments after a pair of mass shootings during the first weekend in August killed more than 30 people in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Among Trump’s widely reported quotes: “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.” “The president is poorly informed about the research on gun violence generally and mass gun violence in particular,” said Robert Kinscherff, Ph.D., JD, a professor in the doctoral program in clinical [More]
Tags: mental illness, research, mass shooters, links, comprehensive public health approach, background checks, gun owners, psychological problem
Posted in General, Articles | 1 Comment »
October 9th, 2019
By John Grohol, Psy.D.
It may seem that trying to reduce the prejudice and discrimination that’s commonplace when talking about mental illness is a never-ending job. Because it is. But I believe that every single one of us needs to be responsible for helping to forward the conversation about mental illness. It can’t just be left to advocacy groups, government agencies, or professional associations. To me, that means challenging friends and even family members if they say something that is stigmatizing to people with mental illness, or suggest that a person with mental illness is somehow “less than.” After all, we wouldn’t let people [More]
Tags: mental illness, stigma, responsibility, insults, behavioral condition, attitudes in society
Posted in Columnists, Articles | No Comments »
July 5th, 2019
By Eileen Weber
Mentally ill patients often end up in emergency rooms, homeless shelters, or even jails instead of getting much needed psychiatric care. Senator Cathy Breen (D- ) Recently proposed legislation to address that problem. Breen’s bill calls for a community-based task force that would assess mental health needs before a patient ends up in a place without adequate psychiatric care. Local law enforcement is backing the legislation, hoping it will have an impact on the state’s incarceration rates. In a Senate press release, Breen, who serves as chair of the egislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, explained that the reason for [More]
Tags: mental illness, Maine, psychiatric care, community based task force, jail, mental health institution
Posted in Leading Stories, Articles | No Comments »
July 5th, 2019
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
In May, the Rhode Island Foundation awarded $2.6 million in grants to six non-profit organizations to fund behavioral health care services in the state. According to Jenny Pereira, vice president of the grant program at the R.I. Foundation, behavioral health is a high priority. In August 2018, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner created the Behavioral Health Fund with funding from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. The latter has committed to providing $5 million in funding. Overall, their focus is on preventing behavioral health problems before they arise, and identifying conditions or concerns in their earliest [More]
Tags: mental health issues, mental illness, behavioral health, Rhode Island Foundation, grants, non-profit organizations, alcohol use, post-traumatic stress
Posted in Leading Stories, Articles | No Comments »
May 28th, 2019
By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
One of the worst parts about struggling with mental illness is the loneliness. You feel like you’re the only person on the planet to suffer with these symptoms or stressors. You feel like you’re abnormal, inherently wrong, or “other.” So, when someone truly listens to you, cares, and says “me, too,” it can be transformative. People who have felt alone their entire lives can find connection and purpose, said Peter Starkey, executive director of the Monadnock Area Peer Support Agency (MPS) in Keene, New Hampshire. MPS is one of 10 agencies of this type across the state. Staff was involved [More]
Tags: trauma, mental illness, New Hampshire, depression, anxiety, empathy, MPS, Peer Support Agency, learning environment, bipolar disorder, hearing voices, identity, survivors of suicide, jail support group
Posted in General, Articles | No Comments »
January 5th, 2019
By Phyllis Hanlon
Television shows give the impression that forensics involves allure and excitement while specially trained professionals unravel subtle clues to track down serial killers. But those who are in the field of forensic psychology tell a different story. Shannon Bader, Ph.D, ABPP, chief of forensic evaluations for the state of New Hampshire, dismissed the notion of “glamour” in relation to forensic psychology; rather she noted that she occasionally gives testimony in court, but spends a significant amount of time reading, interviewing, and writing reports. Bader said that her religious background, in part, led her to this particular field where prisoners and [More]
Tags: mental illness, Forensic psychologists, psychological science, criminal court, Shannon Bader, prisoners, psychological assessment, trauma psychology
Posted in Leading Stories | No Comments »
January 4th, 2019
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
In exile, the heart longs for home. You can hear the longing in the voice of the man from the other side of the world, who has been stuck in the hospital for a decade through a combination of mental illness and legal problems. He recalls his childhood in a rural village and the spring where he filled a wooden bucket every day with fresh water for his family. That was long ago, and the world has changed. The spring is still there, and it still draws people from throughout the region, but that is about the only thing that [More]
Tags: mental illness, hospital, connection, longing for home, legal problems, missing life, what it means to be home
Posted in Columnists, Articles | No Comments »
