PBS Program: Mental Illness and Life after Prison

A rare and intimate look into the lives of mentally ill offenders struggling to make it on the outside. This year alone, over 700,000 people will leave prison, more than half of them mentally ill. Typically, these offenders leave prison with a bus ticket, $75 in cash, and two weeks worth of medication. Within 18 months, nearly two-thirds will be re-arrested.

View Frontline's new program ' The Released,' which documents what happens to offenders with mental illness when they leave prison.

Libraries do balancing act as mentally ill find refuge

From the Denver Post
4/29/2009

They're gathered outside the library before the doors open — the man in the Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt talking loudly to no one, the guy crouched behind the book drop, his torn backpack overflowing with everything he owns.

Some, the ones sleeping on the streets, head straight for the bathroom to wash their faces and brush their teeth. Others immediately stake out a nook in the four-story Denver Public Library near downtown, settling in for the day.

Many libraries across the country have become day shelters for the mentally ill, a consequence of the country's lack of treatment programs for people with mental disorders, experts say.

Read the full article.

Teen Online-Moderated Support Groups

From Families for Depression Awareness

FFDW has launched a Teen Forum, please spread the word! The teen online-moderated support groups are a safe place for teens (ages 12-19) to talk about issues related to their own or a family member's mood disorder. This is a supportive environment, moderated by adults, in which teens can share ideas and thoughts about how to help one another.

Click here to download the flier and spread the word!

Live Your Life Well

From Mental Health America:

Live Your Life Well is a website designed to help people cope better with stress and create more of the life they want.

Maybe you're holding down two jobs or can't find work. Maybe you're the parents of young children or the children of aging parents. Maybe you face a rush of daily demands or one potentially life-changing challenge. Whatever your situation, this site is designed for you.

The non-profit Mental Health America has been working for 100 years to promote well-being for all Americans. Now we have put together the 10 Tools to Live Your Life Well. Based on extensive scientific evidence, these tools can help you relax, grow and flourish. They can help you Live Your Life Well.

Study Gives Broader Picture of College Mental Health

One in every four college students who has sought mental health assistance in campus counseling centers has seriously considered suicide, according to a new study. The study, which was released by the Center for the Study of Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State University, found that of the 28,000 students questioned who received mental health services at 66 campus counseling centers nationwide, 11 percent had seriously considered suicide only before they began college, six percent only after starting college, and eight percent both prior to and after beginning college. (The Harvard Crimson, 4/23/09)

Mental Health Family Tree

To help you uncover personal and family behavior patterns that may be associated with depression or bipolar disorder, Families for Depression Awareness developed the Mental Health Family Tree builder. After completing a simple questionnaire, you can print an easy-to-read "family tree" that maps the existence of behaviors associated with depression or bipolar disorder in your family. You can then share this family tree with your doctor or family.

"If I had built my Mental Health Family Tree earlier, it would have given my doctor and me a clearer picture of what I was dealing with," says Renee Rosolino. "It would have helped us realize that my father's constant mood swings and irritable behaviors may have been more than upsetting personality traits - he may have had bipolar disorder. Knowing this earlier could have helped my doctor differentiate my bipolar disorder from depression, and led to effective treatment and the happier life I have now much faster." - Renee Rosolino, Patient

"The Mental Health Family Tree is very useful in helping guide the differential diagnosis process (between depression and bipolar disorder) and in helping determine which treatment may be best for the patient." -Jean Endicott, Ph.D, Columbia University

Federal Government Seeks Public Comment on Issues Related to the Implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act signed into law in October 2008 consolidated longstanding efforts at the national and state level to establish parity between the financial health coverage for mental health/substance abuse conditions, and physical health disorders. The three federal government agencies principally responsible for implementing this law – the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service -- are issuing a request in the Federal Register seeking information and advice from the public addressing critical issues surrounding the best ways to implement the law and fulfill its objectives.

Among the issues that the departments are seeking information on are issues related to the most efficient and cost-effective ways of implementing this law. In addition, this request for information seeks information that would be helpful in the development of regulations needed to implement this law.

The Federal Register announcement can be accessed at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-9629.pdf

Want information on Federal mental health grants, publications, meetings, policies, programs and other useful material for mental health consumers? Join the CMHS Consumer Affairs Listserv at: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/listserv/