Amid COVID, People Involuntarily Confined in Psych Hospitals Must Be Released
From Truthout Holding people in congregate environments dramatically increases risk of coronavirus-related illness up to and including death.
Suicide & Candy Corn: The Utility and Challenges of Risk Assessments
Researchers admit their suicide risk assessments work only about as well as random guessing, and they can lead to harm. We can instead focus on finding new ways to form connections that might help tether someone to this world.
Chinese Philosophy Has Long Known That Mental Health Is Communal
From Psyche: Often overlooked are the ways in which social norms, cultural beliefs and communal attitudes contribute to mental illness.
Kerry O’Malley: A Personal Struggle Against Forced Medication
Neglect for personal autonomy is a pervasive attitude in the mental health system. No human being should be stripped of their dignity and autonomy, much less a vulnerable 74-year-old woman.
Instrument of the Machine No More
Early in my social work career, I truly believed that medication and forced confinement helped heal “mental illness.” Then an abrupt awakening completely altered my worldview.
ECT Depression Therapy Should Be Suspended, Study Suggests
From The BBC: The study's joint author, Prof Irving Kirsch, said "The failure to find any meaningful benefits in long-term benefits compared to placebo groups are particularly distressing."
Is It Time to Rethink Mental Illness in Light of the Pandemic?
Now that so many are experiencing distress because of the coronavirus, can we not appreciate that many who have been labeled mentally ill have long experienced these kinds of hardships?
The “Mentally Ill” Are LESS Dangerous
From Daniel Kriegman: Releasees who had been identified as having a mental illness but lacked a history of substance abuse had the lowest rate of recidivism.
Defunding the Police: Replacing Guns With Prescription Pads Is Not the Answer
Mental health workers responding to emergency calls and crises results in coercion, labelling and othering, paternalism, force, and, yes, even violence, all under the guise of “for your own good.”
I Lost Direction, Forgot the Way Home – Fighting ECT
From Israel Hayom: Just as they do not know how the treatment mechanism works, they also do not know how to predict damages or prevent them.
Study Finds SSRIs Associated with Increased Risk for Violent Crime
Study finds an apparent connection between SSRIs, the most commonly prescribed type of antidepressant, and increased risk of violent crime.
D.C.’s Mayor Fights for Control of Her City at Trump’s Front Door
From The New York Times: Kenneth T. Kucinelli of the Department of Homeland Security compared Mayor Bowser's requests with the mentally ill wanting less medication.
JAMA Psychiatry Retracts Antidepressant Study
Once an appropriate statistical method was used, the study findings were “no longer valid,” according to the editors of JAMA and JAMA Psychiatry.
Does Stranger Mean Danger?
Are those diagnosed with “mental illness” more dangerous than other people? Or have we evolved to sense danger from anything that we believe to be different or "strange"?
Stop Saying This: Phrases That Sound Helpful, But Are Actually Gaslighting, Part 1
Therapists seem to have a reference book where they go to find phrases that sound really helpful but are actually gaslighting and self-serving.
Donald Trump’s Assault on Mental Health
From CNN: Chris Cillizza explains how Trump has a pattern of using mental health and mental illness to mock and denigrate his enemies
Black Suicidality and Mental Health #BlackLivesMatter
Suicides in Black communities can be understood to be caused by an institutionalized inequality that requires Black folks to negotiate their quality of life with life itself.
George Floyd’s Autopsy and the Structural Gaslighting of America
From Scientific American: As physicians, we will not be complicit in the ongoing manipulation of medical expertise to erase government-sanctioned violence.
End Police “Wellness Checks.” Now.
If you are a mental health worker or advocate, there's a way to help dismantle police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S.
12 Black Mental Health and Wellness Resources to Follow on Instagram
From Vogue: For us to be able to do this work constantly, we have to take care of ourselves, and that is so hinged on us having access and tools
14 Organizations and People Working to Support BIPOC Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis
From SELF: We have compiled a list of organizations and people working to support BIPOC’s mental health during the new coronavirus crisis
Exercise for Youth Mental Health in the Lockdown: Interview with Psychologist Scott Greenspan
School Psychologist Scott Greenspan discusses how to promote exercise and mental wellbeing for adolescents stuck indoors during the pandemic.
We Must Not Be Silent On George Floyd & Systemic Racism.
Dear Mad in America community: How much have we grown? Can we join together in working toward our liberation, bound together as activists?
We Don’t Need Cops to Become Social Workers: We Need Peer Support
From Medium: Can social workers do good work? Sure. But this is not about bad apples. This is about unrelenting systemic racism, ableism, and classism
Withdrawing Kids from Psych Drugs: Why, How, and When
Here are methods for reducing or eliminating a child's psychiatric medications that I have seen work well over years of supporting families through this process.
