News: Therapy or torture? Shocking children in Mass. school
ABC's Nightline airs a program (tonight) about aversive punishments including shock treatments at the Judge Rotenberg Center, a school for children with behavioral and emotional disabilities in Mass. . .
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News: College now a different scene

News: Preventing child abuse in residential treatment
Abuses in wilderness camps, therapeutic communities, and other residential treatment programs have fallen between the law and regulation. For lack of success in other treatment setting, parents of out-of-control adolescents with mental health, addiction, or behavior problems have turned to unlicensed programs. After hearings and law-suits detailed abuses such as the withholding of food, sex abuse, unlicensed treatment providers, and, in some instances, death, Rep. George Miller (D-Cal) re-introduced a bill (H.R. 911) to establish enforceable standards. Update (23 Feb....
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News: $2000 prize for student activists
The New York-based Jed Foundation which works for suicide prevention is sponsoring a contest for college students who have raised mental health issues at their school. Entrance requirements for submitting a video by Feb. 13 are available at the Jed Foundation....
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News: States in trouble
South Carolina announced cuts of at least 12 percent to its mental health budget. This will come as a result of closing programs, staff cuts, a freeze on hiring, and eliminaitng 75 in-patient beds. The projected $26 million reduction might increase by another $7.8 million. Advocates worry that the impact of reducing services will be transferred to emergency rooms, jails and homeless shelters. Elsewhere: A spike in anxiety, depression and suicide risks in Denver. In New York, reports the Poughkeepsie...
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Did You Know: School-based settings accounted for treatment for emotional or behavioral problems for roughly 3 million adolescents.
Read the report from the Office of Applied Studies....
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Track Legislation: Michelle's Law (HR 2851) goes to president
The Senate passed a bill (HR 2851) allowing college students to retain their insurance if they are health issues require taking a leave of absence. The measure, which the House approved in July, was named for a student named Michelle who died of colon cancer....
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Track Legislation: Michelle's Law (HR 2851) goes to president
The Senate passed a bill (HR 2851) allowing college students to retain their insurance if they are health issues require taking a leave of absence. The measure, which the House approved in July, was named for a student named Michelle who died of colon cancer....
Full Story | Topics: colleges, insurance, schools, students | Comments (0)

News: Helping kids who witness violence
Children who witness violence at home, or in their community or school, are at risk for PTSD. The San Francisco Chronicle reports a bill is now on the desk of California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would provide mental health services to these youngsters. Some consider this the first step in acknowledging this as a public health crisis....
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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: Services for college students
The "Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act" (S. 3311) was introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) to improve services for students on college campuses. The bill aims to increase the number of counselors available on campus. A survey by the American College Health Association indicated one in 11 students considered suicide and the numbers with anxiety disorder and depression had increased. Of the students who committed suicide, barely one in four had received counseling. Click here to read S. 3311...
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News: Beauty queen psychiatrist fights stigma
Dr. Gariane Gunter, a psychiatrist completing her training in South Carolina, was crowned Mrs. United States. According to the American Psychiatric Association, one of her projects includes fighting stigma about mental illness and she plans to start by teaching fifth graders and using Breaking the Silence, educational lesson plans designed by family and educators for students K-12....
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News: Depression in middle school students
A study of African American students (n=474) in Baltimore schools found that children showing difficulty mastering skills in the first grade are at risk for depression by middle school. The students were assessed in the first, sixth and seventh grades....
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News: Evaluating residential treatment for teens
A check list of questions, designed to help parents evaluate services at a private residential treatment program for teens, was released by the Federal Trade Commission. Congress has been looking into these programs which often reside in states having no regulations for accountability....
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News: Student privacy in Virginia
In a session that’s certain to invoke the tragedy at Virginia Tech many times, the Virginia General Assembly will be considering changes to mental health laws. One proposal introduced last week strips privacy from students by requiring high schools to forward mental health records to colleges accepting them. It is hard to imagine how this will encourage students to confidently seek help....
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News: Mirrors with a message
In Sioux City, South Dakota, a suicide prevention program distributes mirrors to students in 25 high schools, mirrors that not only reflect an image but are embedded with a help hotline telephone number. It’s part of an educational campaign to make it easier for students to ask for help....
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News: Anticipating disaster -- school preparedness
RAND, a nonprofit research organization, released a report saying schools should create programs to anticipate students needs after a hurricane, shooting or earthquake. An assessment of 196,000 students in grades K-12 displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, in 2005, indicated that even where emergency responses were adequate, six months later many programs had disappeared leaving PTSD, chronic stress, anxiety or depression untreated. Lisa H. Jaycox, study director, said schools must follow-up “for the months and years afterward when lingering mental...
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News: Swarthmore students debate depression, genes and existential suffering
In response to a student op-ed about depression, other students, and one father (Faud Issa, M.D., F.A.P.A), respond....
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News: Swarthmore students debate depression, genes and existential suffering
In response to a student op-ed about depression, other students, and one father (Faud Issa, M.D., F.A.P.A), respond....
Full Story | Topics: depression, schools, students | Comments (0)