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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 …read more

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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 …read more

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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 …read more

In case you haven’t heard, Lori Drew – the 49-year-old woman who played some role in creating a fake MySpace page to harass 13-year-old Megan Meier (harassment that eventually ended when the “fake” MySpace user told Meier the world would be a better place without her, and the already depressed Meier committed suicide) – was not convicted of felony charges related to the case. She was instead convicted of three misdemeanor charges of accessing a computer without authorization.
I don’t even know what that means. I mean, was the woman not using her own computer? Apparently it had something to do …read more

Ah, man, if this doesn’t bring a tear to your eye…

I recently found out the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and the Ad Council partnered together to launch that PSA to inform veterans about – and encourage them to join – Community of Veterans. Community of Veterans aims to provide an online community for veterans where they can support each other during the aftermath of war.
According to the site, Community of Veterans is:
[...] designed as a resource to our nation’s newest Veterans. Comprising less than 1 percent of the population, Veterans face a myriad of challenges while feeling …read more

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Lately, Nebraska is becoming an increasingly popular hot spot for parents across the nation looking to drop their kids into the care of someone else. That’s all thanks to Nebraska’s Safe Haven law.
According to an Iowa Independent article:
At last count 34 children, ranging in age from 20 months to 17 years, have been left at Nebraska hospitals under the auspices of a vaguely written “Safe Haven” law.
Nebraska isn’t the only state with a Safe Haven law, mind you – every state has one. So why are people driving from all over the country to drop their …read more

By now you’ve all probably heard about 19-year-old bipolar patient Abraham Biggs committing suicide live on Justin.tv last week. If not, msnbc and FOX can catch you up.
Like many others, I’m not exactly shocked Biggs decided to allow others to watch his suicide. Given the popularity of (and the content seen on) sites like MySpace and Facebook – not to mention blogs, webcams, and instant messengers – it’s pretty safe to say we are a culture that feels it’s OK to share very private details about ourselves to random strangers via the Internet.
I’m more shocked at how people actually watched …read more

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It seems like just a few Saturday Sanities ago I was talking about how warm and sunny it was outside; now, we’re covered in snow. We have been all week. I still don’t have a winter coat (I didn’t have one last year, either – I can be very serious about my procrastination) and Chopper doesn’t understand why we don’t go outside 9,375 times a day anymore.
Anyway…
This week at Mental Health Notes, I talked about a new study about the television viewing habits of unhappy people, commented on two legal situations involving mental health issues (the …read more

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Hello!
Did y’all know the winners of the Facing Us 2008 Music Contest were announced? If so, shame on you for not telling me (I’m a bit behind, apparently), and if not, well, obviously you’re not alone.
For those of you just tuning in, the Facing Us 2008 Music Contest was sponsored by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and Dave’s Spark with the intention of recognizing and embracing “the creative spark of so many individuals who live with mood disorders.”
Anyway – yay! The first, second, and third place winners are up, and I’ve just checked them out. …read more

Tammy Lewis may have recently received some good news, but Virdia Spain and Iluminada Tuzon most certainly have not.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Spain and Tuzon, employees of the Elgin Mental Health Center in Illinois, have each been “charged with a felony count of abuse of a long-term health-care facility resident” after a coroner’s jury ruled former patient Howard Morris’s death was “homicide by negligence.” (Hmm…seems like the felony charge should be, I don’t know, something related to “homicide by negligence” and not “abuse,” but, what do I know?)
Anyway, the story is that Morris was allergic to fish, but he …read more