Even trained professionals cannot reliably determine mental illness by appearances alone.

To Fight Stigmas, Start With Treatment

Could a panel of experts — a psychiatrist, psychologist and a psychiatric nurse — tell them apart?

They could not. After watching hours of videotape, the experts correctly identified only two of the five people with a history of mental illness. And they misidentified two of the healthy people as having a mental illness.

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“Having a mental illness doesn’t have to become your defining characteristic,” wrote the producer, Rob Liddell, in describing the program. “It shouldn’t set you apart in society.” The leading mental health advocacy group in England and Wales, MIND, praised the program for encouraging viewers “to re-examine their preconceptions.”

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Altering public attitudes toward the mentally ill depends largely on whether they receive treatment that works. This, in turn, sets in motion a self-reinforcing momentum: the more that treatment is observed to work, the more it is encouraged.

We see this in some of the more recent trends in treatment promotion: Psychiatric medications are routinely advertised on television. The military is taking meaningful steps to make treatment for combat stress standard. And last fall, President George W. Bush signed a law that prohibits health insurance discrimination against patients with mental illness.

Antistigma campaigns are well-meaning but they lack a crucial element. No matter how sympathetic the public may be, attitudes about people with mental illness will inevitably rest upon how much or how little their symptoms set them apart.

I'm pretty open about being bi-polar though people don't usually know unless I tell them.  But once people know there is a small group that I can tell treat me differently... 

Posted via web from jimnichols's posterous

Dead on....

Z Magazine - Suicide Spike:

"For many mental health professionals, especially governmental ones, a 'good treatment outcome' consists of a troubled person adapting to a miserable, dehumanizing environment in a way that causes the least problems for authorities. Too few mental health professionals tell authorities that the best 'treatment' sometimes means helping a troubled person to exit from a miserable environment. Whether it is a troubled soldier in a horrifying war zone or a disruptive child in a boring school, mental health professionals are far less likely to recommend a radical altering of an environment than they are to recommend a chemical altering of the person suffering in it."

So true... so very true.

On attention spans and Jim's hard determinism

So I was a test subject (think mouse running on that wheel thing) in a research study looking at cognitive skill deficiencies (or something to that effect) in those with bipolar disorder.

It was fun.

One of the questions she asked me was about my attention span problems. I replied bio-chemical. To which she looked at me funny, paused, looked down and then tried to follow up. I replied that since I have been tested to have adhd, and that my Psychiatrist hoped that the antidepressant I started taking would reduce anxiety levels reducing problems with attention span (and it has), that it must be neurotransmitters. She wrote it down and moved on.

Something tells me most people don't blame things on their neurotransmitters. Go figure.

Mental health group formed to provide assistance

By Valerie Baldowski

vbaldowski@henryherald.com

A new mental health advocacy group has been formed to address the needs of those afflicted with mental health issues.

The group, called Georgia Mental Health United, was founded with the help of a $40,000 grant from the Atlanta United Way. Three of those organizing the new initiative are Henry County Democratic Committee Chairman Jim Nichols, Dawn A. Randolph, and Ellyn Jeager.

Randolph is president of DIR Consulting Group LLC, a public-policy consulting firm in Stockbridge. Jeager is interim executive director of Mental Health American of Georgia.

Nichols, the point of contact in Henry County, said the group is still in the fledgling stages, but hopes to educate the public about mental health issues. "It's basically trying to grow a grassroots organization that allows people to find out more about this issue," he said. "It's a brand new program [and] we are just getting off the ground."

The group will provide an opportunity for those affected by mental illness to get help and find out more information. "One in five people have mental health issues," said Nichols, who said he, himself, is bipolar. "It's empowering people and families concerned about mental illness. This has a huge impact on people."

The problems patients face are serious, he continued, and they need extra assistance to live a normal life. "People who are bipolar, who go untreated or undertreated, have problems," Nichols said. He added that other challenges can include drug abuse, incarceration and dysfunctional relationships.

Randolph, who like Jeager, is a statewide coordinator for the group, explained that the grant should last until June 2009. The money will be used for educating and training 200 volunteers to become mental health issue advocates in five regions of the state. "It's a good start," Randolph said. "It's never enough money, but we're grateful for what we have."

The organization's first training session was Nov. 22 in Atlanta. Subsequent training sessions are scheduled for Dec. 12 in Savannah, Dec. 13 in Augusta, Dec. 19 in Tifton and Dec. 20 in Carrollton.

After the legislative session starts Jan. 3, there will be weekly conference calls to mental health advocates, aimed at making it easier to get information on mental health issues, she said.

One of the critical problems, she said, centers around the lack of bus service in some areas, including Henry. "A lot of folks live in rural areas," Randolph emphasized. "If they have a crisis, how will they get treatment? When it comes to these types of services, we might just as well be in Tifton."

She said if legislators do not realize the importance of mental health services, funds for them will be cut, once the legislative session begins. One of the basic resources, she said, a crisis hot line, could be eliminated.

For more information, call Nichols at (770) 312-6736.