Monday, May 26, 2008

High-Tech Devices Keep Elderly Safe From Afar

First thing every morning, Lynn Pitet, of Cody, Wyo., checks her computer to see whether her mother, Helen Trost, has gotten out of bed, taken her medication and whether she is moving around inside her house hundreds of miles away in Minnesota.

Last summer, Mrs. Trost’s husband had a stroke and died, but she wanted to stay in the house, in Mankato, where she had lived for 36 years. She did not want a live-in helper, and she cannot drive. At 88, Mrs. Trost has macular degeneration and takes medications for seizures, memory loss and restless leg syndrome.

“She’s a feisty gal,” Mrs. Pitet said of her mother. “She is fine when she takes her medicines, but, even so, I was terrified of leaving her alone.”

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Recovery is Art, Part Three

Artistic creation, regardless of type, uses incremental acts to support a whole (non-incremental) purpose. As each step is taken, the artist reviews how well the current pattern fits into the intuited pattern.

Life is like that. We build ourselves through individual actions, constantly learning, and comparing ourselves with our goals.

Recovery is also a journey of discovery, as we move toward a partially seen future.

There is some whole we aim for, even if we only understand a little of what it will be.

Loose Screws Mental Health News

John Grohol at PsychCentral reports that the fate of the mental health parity bill is uncertain as its main champion, Sen. Ted Kennedy, takes a leave of absence to focus on treatment of his brain tumor. I echo John’s thoughts in hoping to see that other senators are willing to carry the torch and pass this important piece of legislation.

I came across a post from Kalea Chapman at pasadena therapist in which she linked to a WSJ article on whether veterans suffering from PTSD should be awarded the Purple Heart.

Supporters of awarding the Purple Heart to veterans with PTSD believe the move would reduce the stigma that surrounds the disorder and spur more soldiers and Marines to seek help without fear of limiting their careers.
…
Opponents argue that the Purple Heart should be reserved for physical injuries, as has been the case since the medal was reinstituted by Congress in 1932.

I side with the opponents. The Purple Heart should be awarded to be people who have visible evidence of bravery. With the rising number of PTSD prevalence, I’m afraid that the award would be handed out like candy. The rising number of veterans with PTSD on disability has caused enough of an issue that a Texas VA facility wanted mental health officials to stop diagnosing veterans with the condition.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

News and alerts from www.MindFreedom.org

You will NOT believe this one...

Now on YouTube watch a five-minute piece...

* * * The Normathon: A Mad Pride Miracle! * * *

See the five-foot Big Giant Psychiatric Pill chase the MindFreedom
Youth Committee from a statue of Ken Kesey through the streets of
Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Here's the link:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/norm

Will Norma -- tied five-point restraints -- escape the doctors
chasing her as the Youth Committee frantically push her bed her
through the Saturday Market?

And what about the teenager Skye?

After the Big Giant Pill lands on Skye, who will protect America's
youth from abuse by the psychiatric drug industry?

Will you?

Watch this Mad Pride Miracle on 17 May 2008 unfold before your eyes,
videoed & edited by MFI Youth Outreach Coordinator Martin Rafferty!

Here's that link again:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/norm

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Recovery mental Health

3 Major Focuses of Recovery for Optimized Mental Health

Focus on the Individual

The focus of recovery should be on the person or the individual and not the process of treatment. There is a constant shift in the manners by which people suffering from psychological disorders are being treated. During the past centuries, due partly to the drive to establish more reliable and effective treatment methods, most mental health professionals fail to focus on the process occurring in a patient, the changes he is undergoing throughout the treatment and the improvements that are associated with the treatment. Instead, the common point for most practitioners is the process of treatment itself- whether or not one treatment is more effective than the other or whether or not a specific therapy could actually work for all patients.

It is a good thing that mental illnesses are viewed now from the sufferer’s perspectives rather than the technicalities of the treatment or therapy. Individuals have various presentations of a mental disorder. Thus needing individualized forms of recovery treatments that are curtailed to the person’s preferences, unique characteristics such as resiliency, strengths and weaknesses, cultural background and experiences.

Focus on the Community

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Mental Health Parity Update: DBSA Advocacy Alert

The House of Representatives and the Senate have both passed their versions of Mental Health Parity (H.R. 1424 and S. 558, respectively); however, in a recent Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) Advocacy Alert, we’re reminded that the battle for Mental Health Parity isn’t quite finished, especially given the limited number of legislative days the House and the Senate have to come up with and agree on Mental Health Parity law that will benefit us all.

After seven years and a lot of blood, sweat and tears, victory is finally within reach. We are so close to the enactment of Mental Health Parity, legislation that would end the discrimination in health coverage between mental illness and “physical” illnesses like diabetes or heart disease.

Thanks to the DBSA, you can easily send an email to your legislators asking them to do just that.

And honestly, after reading the determined and moving passage quoted above, how can you not?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Reducing Stigma for American Military Personnel

Image by soldiersmediacenter via Flickr

To access the archived recording via telephone:

1. Call the playback dial-in number: 1-888-844-1786
2. When prompted, enter the reference number: 248035#

Teleconference Presentation [PDF Format – 1Mb]
Teleconference Presentation [PowerPoint Format - 2Mb]

Please choose to save the presentation file you select to your computer before opening it. Allow for extra processing time when opening large files.

The original name of this teleconference was “Reducing Stigma for American Soldiers” but it has come to our attention that the word "soldiers" is used primarily to refer to Army personnel. It was our intent that this teleconference would address stigma that all military personnel face, including veterans, reservists, and members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines—and their families. We apologize for any confusion and hope that military personnel of all branches, along with their families, providers, researchers, and other individuals will join us for this training event.

Recovery as Art, Part Two

What I'm Not Saying...

I am not saying that intuition is a useful way to evaluate treatment techniques before using them.

What I am saying....

I am saying that an artistic approach to the fundamental question of Recovery (what do I do next on this path?) better serves the purposes of the Recovery Model, which are not to prove or disprove any particular theory of mental illness or its treatment, or any particular technique of treatment or support. Rather, the purpose of Recovery is to

Create a unique history by, and explore the talents and possibilities of, a single unique human being

How does an artistic strategy support such a purpose?

Recovery as Art

I remember seeing a film of Pablo Picasso creating a painting. It was a time-lapse of, I believe, the 36 hours that it took to create the painting. I expected him to create a rough outline, major painting of the rough areas, and tweaking. Instead, he tried one kind of painting, then painted over it, then tried another kind of painting, then was satisfied with part of it, then over-painted another section, etc. It was obvious that he had a particular outcome in mind, but that outcome was not a photograph that he was trying to duplicate in his painting. It was more like something he would recognize when he saw it, or an amorphous intuition that he wouldn't be sure of until it was complete, all at once, on the canvas.

I also have a friend (Terry Gillespie) who has the broadest artistic talent of anyone I knew (music, instruments, graphics, poetry, etc.. I've known him since junior highschool. His father was a research physicist at Dow Chemical, and the conversations that I had with each were wildly different. This led to interesting interchanges when all three of us were engaged in the "same" conversation.

Interactions between me and his father were framed in the scientific and experimental framework we shared. This meant, among other things, that we could each anticipate where the other was headed from early in the comments.

Interactions with Terry were different. He would begin a response with a statement or two that had some connection to what we had said, but his final point would escape me until the last sentence of his utterance, when his point would suddenly gell, and I could see here he was headed, but only in retrospect.

I believe that the Recovery process for persons with mental illness is much more like the artistic processes described above than like the techniques or logical processes of the scientific and medical realm. I think this has real implications for how systems and people support recovery activity by any particular person, and I think an artistic sensibility provides a real straegy for navigating the many choices, backtracks, and off road efforts that actually comprise the Recovery Journey.

More next time.....

Monday, May 12, 2008

A New Day

from Gerald Butler:

5/11/2008

I can hear the whistle of the ‘Freedom Train’ blowing in the distance, and soon it will be here. For those who have been waiting to get into recovery, it is time to get on board. In the last ‘Visions’ letter I spoke about positive thinking and the responses have been varied. Many of you said you already think positive, some said they are working towards that goal. A few even said they didn’t feel they were capable of thinking positively for a whole month. The bottom line is this: self-esteem plays a major role in how well we do in recovery. The level to which others care about and respect us is related to how well we care about and respect ourselves.

The flyers, agenda, decorating, hiring the caterers, the brochure, securing the venue, everything except ordering the chairs for Empowerment Day 2008, is being done by the Peer Support Specialist Empowerment Committee. We started out with self-esteem and hope, both of which have grown while organizing this Celebration of Recovery. Then we received support from Detroit Wayne County CMH, Southwest Solutions, Michigan International Association of Psychosocial Rehab Services, MGM Grand, to name just a few. Consumers doing the actual work with support from administrators, this is system transformation at it’s best.

So leave your cares at home and come help us celebrate recovery on the 30^th of this Month. Recovery stories, comedy, the Recovery Band and consumer singers, history of the peer movement, prize drawings, are some of the things you’ll experience. What is really going to be cool will be to hear what Veda Sharp (D-WCCMHA) has to say about not only the current activities and programs in Wayne County but future system transformation initiatives. If at the end of the day, just one consumer feels better about him or herself, the Peer Committee will have accomplished our goal and feel better about ourselves.

Empowerment Day Schedule

THIRD ANNUAL EMPOWERMENT DAY 2008

AGENDA

8:30 – 9:30: Registration & Breakfast
9:30 – 9:45: Welcoming / Gerald Butler
9:45 – 10:00: Opening Remarks/ Veda Sharp, Director D-WCCMHA
10:00 – 10:15: “What’s in Your Bag” Drawing/ Peer Specialist Committee
10:15 – 10:25: Song & Story /Scott Davis
10:25 – 10:30: “What’s in Your Bag” Drawing/ Peer Specialist Committee
10:30 – 10:40 Song & Story/ Patti Charleston
10:40 – 11:00 Break/ Recovery Band
11:00 – 11:10 “What’s in Your Bag” Drawing/ Peer Specialist Committee

10) 11:10 – 11:20 “D. D. and System Transformation” Yuself Seegars

11) 11:20 –1130 Introduction of Keynote Speaker/ Gerald Butler

12) 11:30 –12:00 Keynote/ Mary Ann Bozenski: LMSW, ACSW, Prevention, Education, & Outreach Manager/ Gateway Community Health

LUNCH & MUSIC/ Recovery Band

13) 1:00 – 1:05 “What’s in Your Bag” Drawing/ Peer Specialist Committee

14) 1:05 – 1:15 Recovery Story/ Jaquetta

15) 1:15 – 1:25 Recovery Story/ Erby Norris

16) 1:25 – 1:35 Comedy/ Steven Jeffries

17) 1:35 – 1:50 Break & Music/ Recovery Band

18) 1:50 – 2:00 “What’s in Your Bag” Drawing/ Peer Specialist Committee

19) 2:00 – 2:10 Recovery Story/ Rogena Watts

20) 2:10 – 2:20 Recovery Story/ Heather Clay

21) 2:20 – 2:35 History of the Peer Support Movement/ Dr. Terry Lerma

22) 2: 35 – 2:50 Open Mike/ Consumers

23) 2:50 – 3:00 Closing Remarks/ Gerald Butler

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Why I Support Universal Healthcare

from the blog, Indeterminate Nature:

It should be no surprise to anyone that I am on Disability (Social Security, SSI-D). I am on Medicaid now, but the government may, at any time, deem me sufficiently able to go to work (whether my PTSD allows me to or not). Along with millions of Americans I now have a pre-existing condition. I can be refused healthcare if I cannot afford it coming off Medicaid. (Because if you are on a healthcare program they cannot legally deny you if you start a new policy at another company right away, but I will be paying exorbitant premiums because of my pre-existing condition and at this point in time there is no mental health parity so I will most likely not get funding for what I need most: my meds and my therapy, which my meds alone cost over $1000/month and my therapy over $400/month. Or at least that's what my friend in law school tells me.)

On top of that there are 47 million Americans who do not have health insurance. Hillary's plan is for Universal Health Care. Obama's would only cover children, which many states, including WA already have.

Her plan includes:
Limiting Premium payments
Extending Medicare to people who cannot afford any other insurance (Medicare is now only offered to people on SSI and is the cheapest of all since 98-99 cents goes directly to healthcare unlike other insurance companies where most goes to bureaucracy and people on SSI are generally living on <$1000/month)
Requires employers (including small businesses) to cover some of the costs of healthcare
Tax credits for those making under $250,000/year to help cover cost of insurance

People currently pay a hidden "tax" in their insurance premiums to cover uninsured people who need to visit the hospital and cannot pay. It also helps that there is currently a bill in the House called HR 676 that is about Single Payer Healthcare that creates Medicaid for All. These two coupled together would give us a completely Universal healthcare system that would be affordable to all. It doesn't have enough push to get through on its own. It does, however have 90 sponsors which is awesome.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Saturday, May 10, 2008

‘Mad Pride’ Fights a Stigma

IN the YouTube video, Liz Spikol is smiling and animated, the light glinting off her large hoop earrings. Deadpan, she holds up a diaper. It is not, she explains, a hygienic item for a giantess, but rather a prop to illustrate how much control people lose when they undergo electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, as she did 12 years ago.

In other videos and blog postings, Ms. Spikol, a 39-year-old writer in Philadelphia who has bipolar disorder, describes a period of psychosis so severe she jumped out of her mother’s car and ran away like a scared dog.

In lectures across the country, Elyn Saks, a law professor and associate dean at the University of Southern California, recounts the florid visions she has experienced during her lifelong battle with schizophrenia — dancing ashtrays, houses that spoke to her — and hospitalizations where she was strapped down with leather restraints and force-fed medications.

Like many Americans who have severe forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Ms. Saks and Ms. Spikol are speaking candidly and publicly about their demons. Their frank talk is part of a conversation about mental illness (or as some prefer to put it, “extreme mental states”) that stretches from college campuses to community health centers, from YouTube to online forums.

“Until now, the acceptance of mental illness has pretty much stopped at depression,” said Charles Barber, a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. “But a newer generation, fueled by the Internet and other sophisticated delivery systems, is saying, ‘We deserve to be heard, too.’ ”

Friday, May 9, 2008

Visit NAMI & DBSA Booths At Revoltion Health’s Women’s Health Expo!

I have some mental health news for you ladies and…well, just ladies, as this doesn’t really pertain to the gents; unless, of course, you’re looking to find mental health information for that special lady in your life!

Revolution Health, that lovely Web site that hosted the Revolution Health Online Health Fair last year, is at it again. Only, this time, they’re hosting the online Women’s Health Expo!

Both the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) are participating in the Revolution Health Women’s Health Expo.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Help Support Housing for Mentally Ill Persons

HR 5772 Proposes Innovative Section 811 Demonstration Program and Includes Long Overdue Reforms to Existing Section 811 Program

NAMI and our colleague disability advocacy organizations in the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force (CCD Housing Task Force) and the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) are pleased to announce that important legislation to spur investment in permanent supportive housing has been introduced in Congress. The bill, known as the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2008 (HR 5772), was introduced by Congressman Chris Murphy (D- CT) and Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R - IL). The bill is named in honor of the late Frank Melville, a longtime member of NAMI Connecticut, and the first board President of the Melville Charitable Trust - a leading force in promoting supportive housing for people with severe disabilities.

This ground-breaking legislation proposes important and significant changes and improvements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program. The bill would authorize a new Section 811 Demonstration Program that fulfills the promise of true community integration as envisioned in the Americans with Disabilities Act, and would enact long over-due reforms and improvements to the existing Section 811 production program essential for the program’s long-term viability. These changes will provide states and localities with a new infusion of critically needed Section 811 capital and project-based rent subsidy funding to produce more permanent supported housing.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Mind Freedom News Items

Three (3) brief May news items about a nonviolent revolution in
mental health:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) News Release - 3 May 2008

United Nations Treaty on Disability and Human Rights Now in
Effect Globally.

Psychiatric Survivors Play Important Role in Creating the
Legally Binding Treaty.

(2) News Report - 3 May 2008

MindFreedom Ireland Holds Successful Protest of Electroshock

Members of MindFreedom Ireland protested in Cork, Ireland on 3 May
2008 against the use of electroshock as a 'treatment' both in Irish
psychiatric institutions and worldwide.

(3) News release - 1 May 2008

"Double your money" for new members of MindFreedom International:

Helios Foundation announced on 1 May 2008 a matching grant for new
members of MindFreedom, for a limited time only.

Have you ever considered joining MindFreedom International?

Now is the time!

If you join MindFreedom International soon your donation will be
*doubled* by the Helios Resource Network Foundation!

The Recovering Life