by LaMara HunterKelly | Aug 16, 2016 | In The News
BOSTON GLOBE -AUGUST 12, 2016
OPINION | By Sera Davidow
THE AVERAGE citizen has now heard (multiple times) the story of people with psychiatric diagnoses who are slipping through the state’s cracks, how their families are desperate but lack resources, and how the mental health system is failing us all. Yet there are two related stories that are hardly getting told: one good, and the other very, very bad.
Let’s start with the latter. While so many people argue for increased access to treatment, few stop to examine those elements of which it is composed. Here’s just a handful of the many points getting missed:
• Patients of the mental health system are dying, on average, 25 years younger than the rest of us, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.
• The highest suicide risk directly follows forced hospitalization.
• Unlike with diseases such as diabetes, outcomes for psychiatric diagnoses have not improved.
• Long-term use of psychiatric drugs appears to beckon worse outcomes for many, and even short-term use potentially increases the risk of violence.
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Aug 8, 2016 | In The News
Caroline White at the office of the Hearing Voices Network in Holyoke, Mass. The program, which relies on members supporting one another, does not use the words “patient” or “treatment.” Ms. White, who hears voices in her head, said psychiatric therapy had made her feel “hopeless, because the drugs just made me feel worse.” Photo Credit – Sasha Maslov for The New York TimesBy Benedict Carey
Aug. 8, 2016
HOLYOKE, Mass. — Some of the voices inside Caroline White’s head have been a lifelong comfort, as protective as a favorite aunt. It was the others — “you’re nothing, they’re out to get you, to kill you” — that led her down a rabbit hole of failed treatments and over a decade of hospitalizations, therapy and medications, all aimed at silencing those internal threats.
At a support group here for so-called voice-hearers, however, she tried something radically different. She allowed other members of the group to address the voice, directly:
What is it you want?
“After I thought about it, I realized that the voice valued my safety, wanted me to be respected and better supported by others,” said Ms. White, 34, who, since that session in late 2014, has become a leader in a growing alliance of such groups, called the Hearing Voices Network, or HVN.
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 8, 2015 | In The News
Advocates for adult mental health resource centers, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health through an umbrella program, are asking supporters to contact legislators to prevent the program’s budget from being slashed in half in Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The budget is currently before the House Ways & Means Committee, and supporters say its proposals might force the closure of resource centers created through Recovery Learning Communities.
Currently six Recovery Learning Communities share a budget of $3.4 million. The program’s funding dates to 2007, and the communities’ centers are described as offering peer-to-peer support for individuals who have had a psychiatric diagnosis or have experienced addiction or a trauma and need to access resources. The communities’ centers are designed to give immediate assistance…
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 7, 2015 | In The News
Supporters of the Recovery Learning Community are in Boston today to rally and advocate at the State House against a proposed 50 percent cut to the community’s $3.4 million budget. It has been funded since 2007, through the Department of Mental Health, and the reduction is part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed state budgetfor the new fiscal year.
There are six Recovery Learning Communities in the state, and they were created by the DMH to offer peer-to-peer support to individuals who have experienced a psychiatric illness, substance abuse problem or a related challenge. Each RLC operates through its own area partners to offer a variety of resources.
Advocates say their value is in the fact they offer immediate assistance without the need for a referral or intake process.
Baker’s proposed budget is said to increase, by 1.7 percent, funding for the DMH whose budget would be $12.4 million. The proposed budget is also said to include $17. 8 million, an increase of 5.1 percent, in funding to adult mental health and support services. This amount includes……
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