• Sharing – But first, we need to talk about it

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We have gotten better at discussing mental health over the last couple of years, and one thing that has become clear is how broken that system is. How underfunded and under-resourced mental health services are and how many people are forced to go without them.

    We wouldn’t know all this if we didn’t start talking about it. Hopefully, this increased attention brings about real change, not a return to not talking about it. The subject of child abuse is still considered a “downer” that people don’t want to discuss. So we don’t, and we don’t spend much time and energy as a society finding solid solutions. The problem just gets worse in silence, and the people living with that kind of trauma live in silence without the things they need.

  • Reviews Elsewhere – Addiction: Notes From the Belly of the Beast

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    This brief review from Canada piqued my interest because while we tend to read a lot about addiction, one of the points of view we don’t get enough is from the addict.

    From their book description, I thought it might interest the many readers who struggle with addictions themselves or know someone who is dealing with them now.

  • Sharing – Mental Health Professionals Really Can Assume Some Police Duties

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    It’s been trialed in several areas, sending out a mental health team instead of the police to respond to certain kinds of calls. Typically calls that involve a mental health crisis, addiction, etc. What we didn’t have yet were real studies to show whether this was having the desired effect. It’s early, but this is promising:

  • Journalism and Mental Health Resources

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    There are a ton of links from there. What I found unique about the page is that they are tackling the issue from two different perspectives. One, how journalists should write about mental health and people dealing with mental illnesses or PTSD from traumatic events, and secondly, how to take care of their mental health as they cover war, disaster, etc.

    Both are important topics, and I would love for anyone, from professional journalists covering a war to a blogger writing about mental health or sharing a story of trauma, to consider them. Please consider how we cover trauma and mental health, and how we make sure to take care of ourselves in the process.

  • Sharing – Calls are up, but many 988 call centers lack resources to offer in-person help

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The hard work is developing the proper resources for people who need help after the immediate crisis. That costs money. Money that a significant number of people in the US will balk at paying because it goes to “other people.” These are the same people who balk at paying taxes for schools when they don’t have kids or at higher insurance premiums, let alone the taxes necessary for things like Medicaid, that pay for people who “made poor health decisions.” So, rather than stand up to that kind of thinking, many politicians at the state and local levels will go along with that. They won’t even attempt to provide funds for mental health services.

    Some will even go so far as to say those services are just propping up “weak” people who need to get over those issues.

    At the end of the day, while we can point to the number of people who talk about mental health and are supported for talking about it, we cannot say we’ve eliminated the stigma associated with it until we all put our money where our mouth is and provide the help that people need.

    Until then, I’m afraid that many people will learn lessons the hard way, that it’s easy to write off funding resources for “other people” until you or someone you love winds up being one of them.