Medical Model

The medical model is something that many people with depression or mood swings feel frustrated about. The whole doctor-patient relationship with its power dynamics can seem exasperating, and at the same time, having an “illness” can seem as though it must be a source of stigma and shame. I’m not going to talk about the topic of the doctor-patient relationship, …

Stigma and Depression

Robin William’s death seemed to unleash a new level of openness to discussing depression and the ways that it affects the lives of so many of us. A Nature editorial (Nature is perhaps the premier scientific journal in the world) got me thinking about next steps… What would it take to eliminate the impact of stigma, and shame, and therefore …

Mental health in the UK

A little flaw in the UK’s ‘socialist’ medical service is poor provision for mental health. We have some of the leading surgeons in the world, some of our A&E departments are regarded as world-beaters too. To my knowledge hardly any of the staff were trained in Cuba or Russia and none of them is related to Che Guevara. But don’t you think …

Mental Health Parity Victory in California

On September 10th the California Supreme Court let stand a California Appeals Court decision that the California mental health parity law requires coverage of treatment that may have no equivalent in other medical specialties. Specifically, the Appeals Court held that Blue Shield of California must cover residential treatment for eating disorders. The Court noted that residential treatment was among the …

Ten Times More People With Serious Mental Illness in Jails Than Hospitals

  Quoted in its entirety from American Psychiatric Press’s News Updates – Ten times more individuals with serious mental illness are residing in state prisons and county jails +today than in the nation’s state psychiatric hospitals, according to a new study released +today by the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC). “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” found …

Blog for Mental Health 2014

One of the benefits of blogging is that you run into interesting people and ideas. If you blog on WordPress you also get regular information about others who are doing the same thing. This past week I learned about a group of bloggers who are all working to reduce stigma and increase understanding of mental health – the Blog for …

A Worthwhile Project

A good friend of this blog, and a wonderful woman who has energy, talent and a commitment to making a difference, recently sent me an update on a project that she is working on to develop a film and website to reduce the stigma of bipolar. She and her team have put up “beta” website announcing the project. And she …

Parity Final Rules Issued

Mental Health Parity Final Rules were issued by the Obama Administration on November 9th, 2013. Here is a preliminary summary of the rules and their implications, based in large part on the analysis of the American Psychiatric Association’s Government Affairs Department. We were also lucky enough to have an experienced attorney with a lot of knowledge of health care law …

Make Good on Parity

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the mental health parity bill which was to have ensured access to mental health services for all Americans with health insurance. Remarkably, the Obama administration has yet to issue the final regulations that will define how parity is implemented. In a very thoughtful piece published today in “The Hill” (a blog for lawmakers), former Representative …

Fair Health

As the result of a bike accident last year we had a chance to experience first hand the crazy world of medical billing and reimbursement. Since then we have been following with greater attention the series of articles in the New York Times that try to explain why things cost so much in this country. A good friend recently suggested …

Politics: How to Promote Mental Health in Government

I am back in Washington, DC for American Psychiatric Association governance meetings, and it is hard not to be thinking about politics in this incredibly political town. Ordinarily politics is a topic to avoid in a site like this one, but I am moved to ask you to help with one important and (relatively) non-partisan task – Join the entire …