Guest commentary on Virginia Tech shooter applies to accused Colorado theater...
Editor’s note: Five years ago, Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, a professor at the University of Denver, wrote a guest commentary in response to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, where Seung-Hui Cho...
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Examining the criminalization of mental illness
Serious mental illness is debilitating, confusing and overwhelming. As a society, one might imagine our response to mental illness might model the response to other public health challenges like heart...
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Celebrating recovering from mental illness the psychosocial clubhouse way
The other day, one of our clubhouse members told me he was “sick of being sick.” When I asked him what he meant, he said that he was tired of relying on SSDI, tired of not working full time and tired...
View ArticleAre the best days in mental health services behind us?
In a compelling story in a recent episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes, Virginia state Senator Creigh Deeds tells the wrenching story of losing his 24-year old son to suicide, shortly after his son had attacked...
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Does reframing mental illnesses as brain disorders reduce stigma?
Psychiatry is moving gradually toward characterizing “mental illnesses” as “brain disorders.” This movement is consistent with increasing understanding of the contribution of brain functioning to...
View ArticleIs psychiatry’s drug addiction increasing the stigma of mental illness?
I deliberately chose a tendentious title for this essay – misleadingly metaphorical rather than literal – to highlight, as one of my recent posts outlines, my alarm stemming from reading research on...
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Can public education decrease the stigma of mental illness?
I do not know the answer to this question, but I have some thoughts about one aspect of it. A significant public education effort has been mounted to decrease the stigma associated with mental...
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Do you want fries with that? A provider’s view on “drive-thru” mental health...
“Popular female celebrity has gone into rehab. She expects to make a full recovery and return to her tour and her fans by next month, says the publicist.” How many times have we read this in the news?...
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Caring for the mentally ill & combatting stigma is the heart & soul of...
Every year during National Nurses Week I think back on the start of my career more than 20 years ago and how I always knew that my life’s passion was nursing. (l-r) Nurses Rachel Lei, Avani Thakkar...
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Haven’t We All Needed a Crisis Hotline at Some Point?
My name is not Anonymous, but it will suffice for this blog post because I must be, well, anonymous. Volunteering to help others in a crisis I’m one of hundreds of suicide/crisis hotline volunteers...
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