Remember a few Saturday Sanities ago when I tipped you all off on www.everyminute.org and its super cool petition-signing tool? Well, Jace Freeman from www.everyminute.org has graciously sent MHN some more detailed information about the Web site, its mission, and how you can get involved.

I’ll let him do the talking:

everyminute.org is a grassroots campaign organizing a lobbying force to advocate before Congress to accelerate mental health research to promote recovery and resilience through individual treatment plans that eliminate the need for trial and error diagnosis. Funded by a grant from the Jene and Curtis Graves Foundation, the website, http://www.everyminute.org, was started by a NAMI member that understands the effect that mental illness has on a family.

So, what is an individualized treatment plan? An individualized treatment plan eliminates trial and error diagnosis by objectively diagnosing disorders by analyzing genes and other physical factors like biomarkers in the blood. A recovery plan is then created identifying the best drugs to treat the individual’ illness itself, no longer just reducing the symptoms the individual is experiencing. When side effects can be worse than the illness, imagine a treatment plan that is specifically put together to be the best possible effective recovery option for each unique person. With the proper funding for mental health research, individualized treatment plans are within 10 years of becoming a viable method of diagnosing and treating mental illness. However, recently research has not being properly funded and a ‘chilling’ effect is now happening where less money means young researchers are abandoning the mental health research.

Where does everyminute.org come in? everyminute.org is giving voice to the millions of Americans that are sick of haphazardly trying medications to find the magic cocktail for their recovery. When a suicide is attempted every minute, the time is now to push for individualized treatment plans that offer stability and hope. According to NIMH, there are over 57 million Americans affected by mental illness personally every year. everyminute.org is the unifying coalition that will organize these individuals and their friends and family into a lobbying force that will change national priority by the sheer weight of collected signatures.

How can you help? All everyminute.org is asking for is a signature. The website has an innovative signature capture tool where advocates can physically sign the online declaration in support of mental health.

Just by word-of-mouth promotion, over 100 people have signed the Online Declaration in under two weeks as many Americans have recognized the need for the campaign.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over and sign the declaration to make your voice heard!

Image source and credit.

Post from: Blisstree

Team Up With everyminute.org And Make Your Voice Heard!

Or, soccer, for American readers.

I love Saturday Sanity.

Not only does it give me a chance to recognize all the important mental health-related news I discover throughout the week (that, for one reason or another, I don’t have time to talk about in depth), but it also gives me a chance to let you all know about things going on here at Mental Health Notes and the rest of the b5media Science & Health Channel.

• Yesterday I told you about the work The National Council is doing via Second Life. Soon after I posted it, I found out that Preferred Family Healthcare (a member of The National Council) is also doing great things with the help of Second Life. Hopefully I can get some more information on this soon!
• Taking care of yourself should be the first item on your list of priorities today and every day, and I firmly believe that in order to best take care of both your physical and mental health, you need to take care of your soul – regardless of what your religious (or nonreligious) definition of “soul” may be. Having said that, Mark over at A Dozen Steps is good for his thought-provoking posts, and two of his most recent are Things That Nurture My Soul and Things That Rot My Soul.
• Autism Vox’s Kristina Chew highlights a new study on rare genetic mutations and schizophrenia, but reminds us that “80-85% of people with schizophrenia do not have the mutations.”
• In an effort to treat and manage depression and/or bipolar disorder, are you upping your intake of omega-3 fatty acids like me? If so, and if you have babies (specifically babies you feed infant formula), you may be interested in one of Ruth’s latest posts, Infants Need Omega-3 and AA Omega-6 Fatty Acids, at Eating Fabulous.
• Dr. Frederick W. Reimherr of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and his colleagues report that women with ADHD are more impaired than men. And, speaking of ADHD, in addition to ADHDFamilies, which I added a while back, I’ve also added a wonderful new ADHD-related blog to the blogroll: ADHD-Living. Check it out!
• And how awesome is this news? In an effort to keep “mental health publicity” from being “mainly people just out of hospital stabbing someone,” Janette Hynes, founder of the London-based Positive Mental Attitude League, runs two football leagues for mental health consumers which she claims has both “positive psychological and physical benefits.”
• Speaking of the psychological benefits of football (or any sport, I’m assuming), check out Mental Help Net’s The Relationship Between Exercise and Mood by Natalie Staats Reiss, Ph.D.
• NAMI New Jersey’s Eric Arauz and NAMI New York City Metro’s Mary Ann Ceron spoke frankly on the ABC News digital cable channel’s “Mind and Mood” program about living with bipolar disorder. Getting on national television and discussing your mental illness? How’s THAT for busting stigma!
• I’m sure by now most, if not all, of you are aware of the reports of drug traces in our drinking water – including mental health drugs. While many of us could use a little extra help (a joke, and one in poor taste, I admit it), Mark Shannon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is addressing the demand for cleaner H2O.
• Not only am I passionate about mental health advocacy, but I’m also passionate about mental health care and advocacy within the prison system. Imagine my delight when I found out “[t]he four-month-old NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal is investigating how to maintain the human rights and dignity of people detained in a mental health facility, or serving a community treatment order issued by a court.”

That’s all for this week, lovelies! Remember, if you have any mental health-related news you feel is worthy of Saturday Sanity, send it my way!

Cool image source and credit.

Post from: Blisstree

Saturday Sanity: Are You Ready For Some Football?

Nutrition, drug abuse, pregnant teens, and new blogs – it’s all part of this week’s Saturday Sanity!

• Did you know March is National Nutrition Month? In honor of that, we here at the b5media Science & Health Channel chose nutrition as the topic for our monthly theme day. See what I had to say about brain-boosting foods, then check out the wisdom the rest of the gang passed on. And don’t forget to thank Ruth at Eating Fabulous for hosting this month!
• A Mental Health Notes reader wrote to me this week to let me know about the many mental health-related articles New York Times writer Benedict Carey has written for the publication. Upon searching the publication’s archives, I found that Carey has indeed written a plethora of articles about topics ranging from brain enhancement to gunmen and antidepressants to autism to perfectionism. Check them out.
• Another Mental Health Notes reader has decided to put her years of teaching experience to another kind of use – blogging. Reflections of a Teacher is about a plethora of student- and mental health-related issues such as violence, bullying, and parent involvement. The blog is in its infant stage and could use some participation from readers like you!
• Go with your gut – intuition is more than just a hunch, says Leeds research. According to Professor Gerard Hodgkinson (Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School) and his team of researchers, intuition and “gut feelings” aren’t just reasons to open our own psychic hotlines. They’re actually “the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.”
• Reuters has been on top of the mental health scene in the past couple of weeks reporting drug use and mental health issues by state (I was surprised to see my home state falls smack in the middle), a higher number of black teen mothers become depressed and pregnant again than white teen mothers (this is actually something I think I saw when I was in high school), psychological distress, rather than depression, is linked with strokes, college students are abusing prescription medication (gee, you don’t say), and mental health issues are associated with physical health issues and bad habits (gee, you don’t say, again).

Remember, if you have any Saturday Sanity-worthy news, feel free to send it my way!

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Post from: Blisstree

Saturday Sanity: New Blogs, Articles, Resources, And Reports

Today’s Saturday Sanity will definitely appeal to those of you who are parents, grandparents, or other guardians of children as it’s packed with information about children and teens.

Of course, a couple of mental health group-related events are sprinkled in along the way.

• Jerry at ADHDFamilies brought this to my attention: “The North Carolina company Play Attention claims that the have created a game that will help persons affected by ADHD have better attention spans.” Jerry does a great job of explaining why this kind of technology is exciting, so head on over there and don’t forget to let her know what you think.
• Lively Women’s Kristen King has a few things to say about “American’s Tween Sweetheart” Miley Cyrus and brings up an interesting question about histrionic personality disorder in Does Miley Cyrus Have Histrionic Personality Disorder, or Is She Just Plain Annoying?
• “No Health Without Mental Health.” Mental Health America (MHA) is calling on everyone who believes “that mental health is integral to the public health [...] to join the foremost leaders in the field as we explore the latest in prevention and promotion science, and set a course for promoting wellness in individuals, communities and the nation.” The event? MHA’s 2008 Conference featuring the Inaugural Promotion and Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C., June 4-7.
• Not to be outdone, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is presenting “The Power of Peers,” their 2008 National Conference in Northfolk, VA. I’m always interested in anything that focuses on just how beneficial peer-oriented help can be, and registration prices don’t seem to be too steep.
• Very Young Found To Process Fear Memories In Unique Way. According to this research, “[v]ery young brains process memories of fear differently than more mature ones.”
• Social class may affect teens’ view of their health. Studies show that teens from low-income families tend to view their overall health better when their mental health is attended to, while teens from higher-income families don’t seem to throw good mental health into the mix.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Image credit.

Post from: Blisstree

Mental Health Notes Is Baby Crazy This Saturday!