Book Reviews: Two books on practicalities of recovery research
Paula Goring and Jijian Voronka, researchers in Canada's At Home project, review two books about the practicalities of recovery research. Read their review
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Consider This: Taking recovery from ideal to actual (Part 1)
. . .creating the change
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From Our Readers: Recovery, new health care law -- conference topics
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of New York Association for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS) writes about an upcoming conference: "In our upcoming "6th Annual Executive Seminar on System Transformation," NYAPRS once again seeks to connect experts on the most promising trends supporting the advance of recovery. This includes discussions of wellness, community integration, self-determination, new federal health care law, and innovative service approaches. More than 50 speakers, who represent local, state and national leaders, will spend two days discussing these important...
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News: Death of Judi Chamberlin, consumer activist and author

News: Review of psycho-social interventions for schizophrenia

News: Models beyond outpatient commitment

Commentary: Rose Hill defends rehab model, deflects critics

News: Clubhouses spared in Mass.

Book Reviews: Principled Leadership by Bill Anthony and Kevin Huckshorn

News: Congratulations David Oaks
David Oaks, founder of Mind Freedom International, was named one of Utne Reader's 50 visionaries changing the world. . .
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From Our Readers: First psychotic breaks -- conference topic
Peter Stastny,* MD, writes about an upcoming conference (Nov 23): "Alternative responses to first psychotic breaks: Rethinking psychiatric crisis." After several years, there is a renewed focus on treatment for first psychotic episodes. An emphasis on early intervention and prevention of psychosis, with the goal of shortening the "duration of untreated psychosis" has obscured the view on the actual services that are being offered to individuals in the midst of a first episode. Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health...
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News: Homework for psychiatric recovery

From Our Readers: Care I receive in Canada
by Lou Ross-Johns I have always lived in a separate room. I look in the window and the rest of the world is in some strange and mysterious party which I cannot understand or participate in, only watch through the window. This has always been with me and will ever be. I was a child who stayed on the edges of the playground, and who sat silently in her mind in the schoolroom. My experience with the health care system...
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News: Informative SAMHSA website

Did You Know: Medicaid spent $137 for a day of home health service compared to $1447 for one day in the hospital.
Read more from a report titled Olmstead. from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health...
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News: New model in Oregon hospital

News: Stimulus money prompts schizophrenia research

News: Recovery works, says Clifford W. Beers honoree

From Our Readers: Chronicle narratives: Recovery from Dissociative Identity Disorder
MIWatch received this story about recovery from a reader in Canada. STORMS AND BLESSINGS THE RECOVERY OF LOU, FROM DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER The young, sullen man leaned back in his chair, gazed at me with his moody, dark eyes, and said calmly, "You are hopeless, you have no hope." I sat in the circle, and noted that nobody was contradicting him, even the group leaders. I adjusted my arm, which was in a sling. Underneath the sling, a bandage, wrapping...
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News: Recovery in schizophrenia
For many years doctors said there was no recovery from schizophrenia and the best that could be hoped for was reducing symptoms. No more. The March issue of Schizophrenia Bulletin is devoted to "Functional Recovery in Schizophrenia." Four articles, written by authors from different academic centers, discuss the theme of "multiple elements of recovery" including how to measure functional recovery, how it differs from remission of clinical symptoms, and implications for early detection of psychosis. The Schizophrenia Bulleting is free...
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Consider This: Lobby lawmakers, Patrick Kennedy tells advocates
. . . ask for mental health reform
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Commentary: A courtroom miracle: mental health court

Film: "Take These Broken Wings"

News: Treatments lag for substance use
Research appearing in the January 2009 issue of Psychiatric Services indicates fewer parents in the child welfare system are offered treatment for substance use if they do not also have a mental illness. At the same time, writes Benedict Carey in the New York Times, it is estimated that "20 million Americans who could benefit from treatment do not get it." A lack of uniformity about models for rehab and recovery has contributed to a recognition that evidence does not...
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News: Recovery concepts for schizophrenia
Researchers from The Netherlands discuss concepts and measurement for recovery in "Clinical Recovery in First-Episode Psychosis." The research appears on-line in the free edition of Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin. Authors emphasize how different participants view the process, and differentiate between functional and symptomatic recovery....
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News: Measuring recovery from psychotic illness
As recovery is being realized by more and more, it's apparent than some people can manage a functional recovery despite lingering symptoms. And that remission of symptoms does not always improve function. In an attempt to create a scale to measure functional recovery, authors of an article in Schizophrenia Bulletin (Advance Access) encountered unanticipated issues for predicting real world situations....
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Commentary: Coming off medications: A harm reduction approach

Interviews: Q & A with Ron Manderscheid: agenda for reform


Dr. Ron Manderscheid, a national leader in policy and research about mental health and substance use care, discusses goal of the Whole Health Campaign with MIWatch.
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Consider This: PARITY PASSES -- Kudos
. . .Next steps essential
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Commentary: Helping college students: PADs on campus
When college students need help because of a mental illness, schools often don't know where to turn. Helping college students: PADs on campus could offer an answer. Dean Anna Scheyett and Adrienne Rooks (School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) explain how psychiatric advance directives can enlist students, faculty and administrators.
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Commentary: Helping college students: PADs on campus
When college students need help because of a mental illness, schools often don't know where to turn. Helping college students: PADs on campus could offer an answer. Dean Anna Scheyett and Adrienne Rooks (School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) explain how psychiatric advance directives can enlist students, faculty and administrators.
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Book Reviews: "A Fight To Be," Ronald Bassman, Ph.D.
Reviewed by Paul Pines* Ronald Bassman's book, A Fight To Be, is a daring and insightful portrait of psychosis and the "mental health" system we have put in place to address"chronic and persistent disorders". The book is a weave of three distinct threads: it is a personal memoir, a clinical meditation and, finally, rising from that dialogue, a call to action. The first thread offers the authority of the author's direct experience as one who was diagnosed with and treated...
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Consider This: Hats off to Dems
. . .for opening the closet door
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News: Wellness caucus in Denver a political first
With a good percentage of the 84 million who suffer from a mental illness or addictive disorders unable to get equal, early and appropriate treatment, or programs designed for recovery, the Whole Health Campaign (WHC) has been striving to make sure political candidates understand these concerns belong to discussions about health care reform. At next week's Democratic Convention in Denver, the WHC, a coalition of 70 organizations, will host a "wellness room," a significant achievement for focusing delegate attention...
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Commentary: Graduate school and mental illness...intertwined needs and success


Success in graduate school, like recovery from mental illness, is step-by-step. K. R. Avilés-Vázquez describes how good mentoring became a partner for her.
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News: Schizophrenia, voices and recovery
Dr. Benjamin Gray, an English mental health professional, didn't truly appreciate what hearing voices meant until after his own hospitalization, one decade into his career. In the on-line Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin (subscription required) Gray describes how acceptance of the narrative behind voices plays a role in treating a person's core experiences rather than a diagnostic category....
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Commentary: Economic Security: Key to Recovery and Self-Determination
by Judith A. Cook

Economic security assists people in recovery. Judith Cook and colleagues discuss how Independent Development Accounts can create an economic safety-net without endangering essential public benefits.
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Consider This: About the APA
Highlights. . .
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Film: Men Get Depression
“I would literally stare at [my computer] for an hour before doing anything.” . . . “I don’t want to think about anything, I don’t want to move. . . just leave me alone.” . . . “I was verbally abusive to people around me.” . . .“the only emotion that I showed was anger.”. . .“I had a high degree of anxiety; I had a sense of loss of self-worth.” This is how men describe what it feels...
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News: Military sends mixed messages
Calling PTSD the “unseen wounds” of war, Sec. of Defense Robert Gates is urging soldiers to get help “to remove the stigma.” Yet in practice, there are people like Sgt. Scott Metcalf, Minnesota National Guard, whose doctors say he has PTSD, but “the Army officially says he doesn't.” NPR reports on his 14-month hospitalized struggle, and the eventual disability rating of anxiety disorder, which carries a lesser benefit....
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Commentary: Psychiatric Advance Directives: A tool for patients and clinicians
by Marvin Swartz

More and more people are able to take control of their treatment plans by anticipating how to manage in a crisis. In Psychiatric Advance Directives: A tool for patients and clinicians, Dr. Marvin Swartz, a psychiatrist at Duke University Medical Center, discusses how they work to promote autonomy.
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News: Impact of work programs
A six-country international study (n= 312) evaluated work programs and subsequent clinical and social functioning for people with schizophrenia and depression using a battery of standard evaluations. An abstract is available online in Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin....
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MIWatch webcasts: Jeffrey Swanson, panelist, AHCJ conference
Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D., is a professor in psychiatry, Duke University School of Medicine. Here he speaks on a panel about violence and mental illness at the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, DC, March 28, 2007....
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MIWatch webcasts: Harvey Rosenthal, panelist, AHCJ conference
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of NYAPRS, addresses journalists at the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, DC, March 28, 2008....
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News: Experts debate violence and mental illness
With events like Virginia Tech indelibly linked to someone suffering from a psychiatric disorder, the question of how much violence is caused by people with a mental illness continues to draw public concern. In February, the entire issue of Psychiatric Services was devoted to essays, research and debate. Editor Howard Goldman's thoughtful introduction to the issue notes: how do the horrible, extreme events predetermine policy and opinion when their incidence is small in proportion to the attention they receive? And...
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News: Discharge planning
In Germany, doctors stumbled over something they think useful to promoting recovery – sending discharge letters to caregivers....
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News: Purpose and recovery
Charles Barber, on the faculty of Yale University, writes about the social context for recovery and points to his own experiences in “a life that had been reconfigured by illness.” Follow-up conversation appears in The Washington Post....
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News: Helping youth go forward
Older adolescents and younger adults -- men and women between 16 and 25 with mental health needs -- have not fit into established systems in New York State. Chance for Change, a report from the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, assesses what makes for a successful transition, and how to make it happen for an under-served age group. Special focus on adolescents aging out of foster care, those with special education needs, or those who have been involved in the...
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News: Activisits sue Schwarzenegger
Challenging a line-item veto for homeless services, a group of advocacy organizations filed suit against California's governor. Problems, they say, is that Schwarzenegger broke the law, and the promise of Prop 63, to serve mentally ill homeless recovery in the community....
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Commentary: Working with youthful offenders: Crossroads
by Judge Linda Teodosio

Judge Linda Teodosio, Summit County Juvenile Court, describes Crossroads, a unique and intense diversionary probation program for juveniles in Ohio. Since 2003, Crossroads has worked with community collaboration to help youthful offenders get the treatment, and the fresh start, they need. Judge Teodosio's program was recently cited as a model for juvenile justice by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ).


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News: Psychiatric directives gaining ground
Resources and reasons for psychiatric advance directives are discussed in a (free) article from the Wall Street Journal’s health blog....
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News: Ireland promotes work inclusion
Ireland's National Economic Social Forum (NESF) notes that work is a strategy for recovery that also dampens social isolation. A report calls for non-medical supports to increase employment, combat stigma, and provides models of social and work place supports. NESF estimates that loss of earnings due to mental illness costs about 3-4 percent of the GDP in Europe....
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Interviews: Q & A with Anela Ka’iliawa: Wellness in Action
By Sarah A.H. Ho
Sarah Ho speaks with Anela Ka’iliawa about the importance of a Wellness Recovery Action Program (WRAP), and how it has helped her learn about and manage her illness.


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News: Individually tailored follow-up
Schizophrenia Bulletin (advance online, requires subscription) reports a promising study (N=95) from Austin, Texas, indicating “individually tailored environmental support” was most likely to improve functional outcomes and medication adherence, although statistically significant differences diminished at six months....
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News: Early detection of psychosis
In an effort to speed treatment for a first psychotic episode, researchers in Norway and Denmark assessed the impact of a public information campaign about symptoms. An article in Schizophrenia Bulletin Advance Access (September 28) reports how multifaceted advertising -- television, newspapers, brochures, posters, lectures, videos and outreach to general practitioners -- educated the public. Students and teachers were a priority and every school in Norway was visited. "The main objective of this campaign was to provide knowledge about psychosis...
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News: Homeric legends help vets
Veterans Administration psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Shay has won a MacArthur genius award for his work with returning soldiers in a Boston outpatient clinic. Initially treating Vietnam vets, and now those from Iraq, Shay noticed similarities to struggles in Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey. Soon these classic tales became a staple in his work, and soldiers appreciated "that they're part of a long historical context — that they are not personally deficient for having become injured in war." At one point...
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News: Learn your illness, author suggests
"Try to learn your illness," says Elyn Sacks, author of The Center Cannot Hold. In an interview with Time Magazine Saks, a graduate of Yale Law School and a tenured law professor at USC, discusses the onset of depression, paranoia, and schizophrenia, plus treatments and forced hospitalizations when she was a student at Oxford University. Her recovery has allowed great successes but seems easier since she started taking the medicine clozaril. Now she recognizes breakthrough symptoms as transient psychotic thoughts....
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Commentary: A Personal Journey Wearing Three Hats: family, doctor and research director
by Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH
Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Lisa Dixon, is also a family member and a researcher. In "A personal journey wearing three hats" she writes about how her work has been informed by these roles while evaluating programs for families and consumers in the recovery process.

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News: Law school professor discusses her life, her illness
New York City talk-show host Lenny Lopate interviewed Elyn Saks (August 15), a law professor at USC, about her symptoms, treatments and, most of all, her successful work despite also suffering with schizophrenia....
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News: ACT delivers
NPR, July 2, 2007 (audio required) National Public Radio speaks to a woman who attributes Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) with helping her become self-sufficient despite years of co-occurring illnesses. This program, whose successes are found nationwide, began 40 years ago in Wisconsin in the early phases of de-institutionalization....
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News: Consumers drive recovery initiative
Seattle Times, July 1, 2007 The Seattle Times reports that Washington is one of eight states receiving federal funds ($14 million) to promote recovery based models of mental illness. Consumers are the driving force, filling key management positions, in Washington's Health Empowerment Network....
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Commentary: A Consumer's Voice--Hawai'i's Jail Diversion
by Sally A.M. Ho
Who decides which inmates get mental health treatment? Sally Ho takes us behind the scenes of setting up a jail diversion program in Hawaii in A Consumer's Voice.
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Commentary: Get Busy Living: A Fountain House Project at Manhattan Psychiatric Center
by Tom Malamud
Despite an image of shuttered hospital doors and deinstitutionalized patients after the 1970s, state hospitals still account for the care and treatment of more than 30,000 people. Many of them are buried in a deep sense of hopelessness, which is compounded by neglect from having been forgotten. Yet, with help, interest, and inspiration, they might gain hope, look to the future and plan for their post-hospital life.
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Book Reviews: "Social Inclusion of People with Mental Illness," by Julian Leff and Richard Warner
by Mark Ragins, MD
A book for "readers who are already inspired and passionate workers, advocates, or searchers in our world of mental illness. You’ll have more meat on your bones," says Ragins.
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Links: Recovery Focus
A select list of organizations driven by consumers or focused on tools for recovery.
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Links: Government Resources
Information about public resources, medication, legislation, or policy.
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Links: Issues / Advocacy
Action oriented non-profit groups with a national base promoting recovery, equity and social justice.
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Book Reviews: "Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy," by Kitty Dukakis and Larry Tye
reviewed by Sigurd Ackerman, MD
ECT has been alternately hailed as a medical miracle and denounced as a dehumanizing punishment. For author Kitty Dukakis, despite its risks and the side effects, it was the most successful therapeutic intervention she experienced in decades of fighting depression.
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Commentary: Succeed like Seabiscuit: the promise of a New York job training program
by Tom Malamud
People with mental illness are often under-employed despite their huge potential. New York City's Fountain House developed an employment program to guarantee that, like the race horse it's named after, Seabiscuit, members not only get to the starting gate, but they finish as winners.
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Commentary: Recovery, Psychiatric Education, and the Future
by Hunter L. McQuistion, MD The potential for building personal recovery is stronger than it's ever been. This is a paradigmatic change which, according to noted psychiatrist Hunter L. McQuistion, requires including models of recovery in post-graduate training programs.
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Book Reviews: "Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness," by Joshua Wolf Shenk
reviewed by Phyllis Vine
Within the context of a supportive community and watchful friends, part of Abraham Lincoln's courage came from the humility he acquired in his battles with depression and melancholy.
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