Back in early 2007, when b5media and Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei (the Channel Editor for the Health & Wellness Channel at the time, which, at the time, was still called the Science & Health Channel) created Mental Health Notes and gave me a chance to take my mental health advocacy online, I was ecstatic. I’ve really enjoyed writing about the numerous mental health topics I’ve covered here at MHN – from handing out A.S.S. Awards to pushing for mental health parity. However, now, a year and a half later, it’s time for me to move on. I’m not leaving the blogging world, or the mental health advocacy scene – on the contrary, I’m now going to blog for PsychCentral’s new celebrity mental health blog,... [Read more]

Back before we headed to the polls, I shared with you an email I received regarding now President-elect Barack Obama’s stance on mental health parity. Well, now I’ve received an email from Mental Health America urging me to send an electronic postcard to Obama to urge him to keep healthcare reform a top priority during his first year in office. From the email: As he prepares to take office, President-elect Barack Obama faces many pressing issues. And some will urge him to defer efforts to achieve healthcare reform, suggesting that it will be too costly, too difficult, or not a sufficiently high priority. Click the link to send the digital postcard to President-elect Obama and tell him that you want him to make healthcare reform a... [Read more]

Last week I shared my worries about Nebraska’s Safe Haven law, and the numerous children whose parents were driving them to Nebraska hospitals from all over the country. (To my understanding, Nebraska has since taken action to stop this in the form of revising the law so that only children who are 30 days or younger are eligible.) On my original post, though, reader Neva chimed in with the point-of-view of a mother. It’s definitely worth sharing, so I’ve included it below: I am the mother of a fourteen year-old boy who has struggled with an emotional disability for many years. His father and I divorced when he was eight and the entire thing was very difficult on him. He witnessed many horrific things in his young life and it... [Read more]

When Wendy Aron decided to spend her fortieth birthday in her therapist’s office, it was merely because she wanted to get in some quality time with the woman she viewed as her “closest ally” (or, because she was remembering how she’d wanted to commit suicide by jumping off the Y in the Hollywood sign when she lived in Los Angeles); what she got, however, was one hell of a swift kick in the pants when her therapist of over 10 years told her she may move across the country. After the initial panic subsided (and her plan to get herself committed to the psychiatric hospital she’d stayed at in her 20s failed – her admitting psychiatrist choked to his death on a chicken bone the night before admittance), Aron embarked on a year-long journey... [Read more]

It’s been a pretty hectic week for most of my American readers. A major national holiday and Black Friday, all in one week. Back to back, no less! The only thing that could rival that excitement would be a brand new Saturday Sanity, right? (Well, it was worth a shot.) As you read this, I’m most likely putting up Christmas decorations. And that is more exciting to me than any of it! This week at Mental Health Notes, things were sad. People watched as a fellow human being committed suicide live, the numbers of children being dropped off at Nebraska hospitals are rising (Marcie at Kids Health Notes has posted an update on the revision to Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law), and there was an update to the tragic Lori Drew/Megan Meier case.... [Read more]