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What’s next?
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
Interesting story in the Toronto Star. Seems that some bright inventor decided to apply restaurant technology to hospital clinics and ER waiting rooms. So, (wait for it) here is the amazing way forward! Yes, you guessed it – beepers.
Preventing Youth Suicide: Doing the right thing or not?
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 2 Comments
Just had a chance to read a report put out by well meaning people on the topic of suicide prevention in youth. In that report the author kept repeating about the many community and school-based programs that have been proven to prevent youth suicide.
Digital Media and Mental Health—Another Opinion
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
True, maybe “callous reality television” is making us youth more ‘detached’, but maybe not. Ok, so we may not develop empathy watching the girls on The Hills shop for purses (except maybe for the poor cameramen who have to film Spencer and Heidi’s nauseating displays of affection), but what about reality shows that highlight very real issues like drug addiction, health problems and poverty?
Understanding Teens—Is it Possible?
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
So, our teenagers are a mess. They mostly cause trouble.
It’s Time To Focus On Triumphs
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
Recent reports from the BBC highlight the complexities of helping people with psychotic illnesses – specifically schizophrenia, live symptom free and positive lives.
New mtvU & Associated Press Poll Examines College Students’ Mental Health
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
As millions of college students graduate college this year, mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network and The Associated Press today revealed the results of a new poll examining the emotional health of college students as they face a global recession and a receding job market, finding that more than half of college seniors are worried they won’t be able to secure a job after graduation
If the world were a village of 100…
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
How do we make sense of numbers? Last year when when the economic crisis loomed the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary urged Congress to approve a $700 billion bailout of struggling financial institutions. I remember politicians and media going to great lengths to try and put this amount of money in context.
Parental Anguish, Teen Angst
Posted on 24/01/2012 | 2 Comments
The responsibility of civil society to help people who are, as a result of their mental condition, making terrible decisions about their well-being
Getting the Message
Posted on 18/01/2012 | 0 Comments
Why should the media harbor less stigma than the population in general? Should we expect reporters to know more about mental illness and write about it from a base of some expertise?
Reading Between the Lines
Posted on 06/01/2012 | 0 Comments
Let’s keep a critical eye on how stories about youth mental health are reported in the media this year.
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adhd anxiety disorders attention award awards behaviour bipolar blog brain & neurology bullying canada care carter center conference confidentiality control coping criminal justice system cruelty cutting depression discrimination doctor driving eating disordersRecent Comment
Thank you, Judith, for an interesting post, rasiing debate about such an important topic.I think more research is needed, but the kind of research that needs to be done is a matter of differing opinions. I think more attention needs to be given to the social conditions which affect people’s mental health. Like The Critical Psychiatry Network, I disagree with the emphasis on biological research. Both here and in the US so much research focuses on neurobiology and genetics. Yet, after many years of research, there is no evidence that brain disease is the basis of what are known as mental illnesses. The Campaign to Abolish Psychiatric Diagnoses (rightly in my view) calls for an end to the years of fruitless research to find biological correlates which continue to deliver nothing clinically useful.‘I would like to see more recognition of the importance of user-led research into issues of concern for the service user, which often professionally-led research has failed to address. I agree, Judith, that drug treatments have debilitating effects on the lives of people who take them. More research is neeeded to look into service users’ experiences of psychiatric drugs and into finding alternatives to drug treatments. The unaceptable adverse effects of drugs tends to be ignored or denied when research is initiated and funded by drugs companies motivated by their profits.I appreciate the good work and intentions of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign. We do need to fight against stigma, but perhaps we should look first at the stigmatising attitudes coming from within the mental health services and question the validity of stimatising diagnostic labels.
By Lesekele on March 13th
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