Breaking the Silence by Mariette Hartley

Breaking the Silence is one actress’ surprising, powerful memoir of family secrets and personal courage, told with earthiness, spirit, humor, and unabashed honesty. From the beginning, Mariette Hartley seemed to have it all: brains, talent, looks, and charm – they ran in her family. But other things ran in her family as well. Read article here. Order book here.

The Bunny That Keeps On Giving

Linda Mallut of My Bunny and Me has a passion for things that multiply. She lives for fundraising, loves connecting people to people, and surrounds herself with those who live their lives to the fullest! Her EAR-resistible bunnies’ mission statement reflects that her goal is to give back. That’s why has partnered with AFSP and is donating 20% percent of the sales to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Just enter “AFSP” in the special comments section when you check out. Read more here.

Mental Illness: Questions to Ask Your Doctor

If you have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or another mental illness, you may have many questions for your doctor. To help you organize your thoughts, here is a list of questions to think about asking:

• What is my illness?
• What are the symptoms?
• What might have caused my illness?
• How might this illness affect me over time?
• What other medical problems often go along with this illness?
• What are the risk factors for this illness?
• How can you tell I have this illness?
• How is this illness treated?
• What will the treatment do for me?
• Are there side effects from the treatment?
• What are my options if this treatment fails?
• What will happen if I do not do anything about my illness?
• What can I do to help myself?
• Where can I go for help?
• Where can I go to learn more about my illness?

Feel free to raise any other questions or concerns you may have about your illness with your doctor. The more you know about your illness, the better prepared you will be to deal with it.

Getting Help
Not sure where to go for more help? Talk to someone who has worked with mental illness, such as a doctor, social worker, or church counselor. Other types of people and places that can help include:

• Your health plan
• Community mental health centers
• Hospital psychiatry departments
• Social service agencies
• Private clinics
• Employee assistance programs
• Local medical and/or psychiatric societies
• State hospital outpatient clinics

If your doctor puts you on 1 or more medications for a mental illness, here are some questions you may want to ask your doctor:

• What is the name of the medication, and what is it supposed to do?
• What are my chances of getting better with this treatment?
• How and when do I take it?
• How will I know if the medication is working?
• How long will I have to take it?
• Can I take this medication if I am pregnant or planning to have a baby soon?
• What foods, drinks, other medications, or activities should I avoid while taking this medication?
• What are the side effects?
• What should I do if I have side effects?
• Will this medication affect my sleep, my sex life, or my appetite?
• How will this medication interact with other medications I’m already taking?
• What should I do if I miss a dose?
• Can I have beer, wine, or other alcoholic drinks?

Never stop taking a medication without your doctor’s help.

Before you get a prescription, make sure your doctor knows:

• Your medical history
• What other medications you are taking
• If you have ever taken medications for a mental illness in the past
• If you are pregnant or planning to have a baby
• Past problems with medications or food side effects
• Other health conditions you may have (such as diabetes, heart disease, allergies, etc)
• If you are on a special diet or take supplements
• If you smoke, drink alcohol, or do “street drugs” (such as cocaine, pot, etc)

Remember
It is very important to ask your doctor any questions you may have. The more you know about your mental illness and the medications you will be taking for it, the better prepared you will be to take care of yourself. You should always take medications exactly the way your doctor tells you to. Read article here.

Youth Mental Health Disorders

Mayo Clinic researchers — in partnership with numerous national mental health advocacy organizations — are issuing new simple-to-understand tools to help identify youth who may have mental health disorders.

Despite well-documented levels of emotional and behavioral concerns in the nation’s youth, studies have repeatedly shown that up to 75% of youth with mental health disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, anxiety, and eating disorders are usually not identified, and youth do not receive the care they need. Read article here.

Insurance Plan Coverage for Mental Illness

Under the mental health parity law, insurance plans must provide coverage of all medically necessary treatment for nine enumerated severe mental illnesses, including eating disorders as well as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, autism, and serious emotional disturbances in children and adolescents. Read article here.

Putting A Face On Suicide

This is a copy of a post from Putting a Face on Suicide. You can read the original here.

Every 15 minutes someone dies by suicide in the United States; that’s 96 or so people each day just in the U.S. Internationally the statistic is every 40 seconds. Putting a Face on Suicide (PAFOS) is an ongoing project soliciting pictures of your loved ones who died by suicide. Each 96 pictures will be used in a poster and a video, representing one day’s loss. The posters and videos will be posted on the PAFOS Facebook page and may be freely used by any person or organization to promote suicide awareness and prevention. The goal of PAFOS is to collect 35040 faces representing 365 days of loss, and then to visually send a very powerful 35040-faced message.

Putting a Face on Suicide is the personal project of Mike Purcell, done in collaboration with the American Association of Suicidology. Mike’s son, 21-year-old Christopher Lee Purcell, died by suicide in 2008.

To submit a photo, either post it on the wall of the PAFOS Facebook page or email it to Mike Purcell. Please include your loved one’s full name and age at passing. If you wish to share a story or memorial page links, it will be posted as the description of the photo in the album. Please limit your submission to 300 words or less.

Behind the Faces
The PAFOS project is expanding by producing a personalized series of posters exclusively featuring your loved one’s face. The idea for Behind the Faces (BTF) is to equip passionate suicide awareness activists with tools to personally promote their own memorial foundations, suicide awareness organizations, or personal projects. BTF will enable people to get to know the story behind the face. To qualify for this program you need to meet the following criteria:

1. Print and publicly display the posters.
2. Use the posters to raise suicide awareness at walks, events, presentations, etc.
3. Post your progress on the PAFOS Facebook page to encourage others.

If you agree to the above, all you need to do is send a large copy of a high resolution picture of your amazing face along with a 300-word or less introduction to describe your loved one, full name, age at passing, and home town. You can also provide links to memorial pages, memorial foundations, causes, videos, etc., as well as provide the banner text/message for the poster. In exchange you will receive a PDF file of your personal poster as an 11×17, 8.5×11, and 4×6 to promote awareness and your project. Additionally your loved one will be featured in a joint poster as an 8.5×11 and 4×6, and tribute video of all the faces for whichever day s/he joined the project. The face of your loved one will also have a personal tribute page on the PAFOS Facebook page. Email Mike Purcell to share your story behind the face.

DISCLAIMER: By submitting materials to Putting a Face on Suicide (PAFOS), you grant PAFOS a perpetual, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to the contents at its sole discretion, for the inclusion into any publishable work.

CAUTION: Please use discretion in submitting your photos. Not all families are comfortable with disclosing or discussing the manner in which their loved one passed, let alone publicizing the face of their deceased. Please get permission from the family or next of kin prior to submitting.

World Suicide Prevention Day – 10 September, 2011

World Suicide Prevention Day is held on September 10th each year. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness around the globe that suicide can be prevented. Disseminating information, improving education and training, and decreasing stigmatization are important tasks in such an endeavour. The theme in 2011 is “Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies”.

Suicide prevention in multicultural societies needs to be targeted as a multidisciplinary effort. Effective suicide prevention involves a multifaceted and intersectoral approach to address the multiple pathways to suicidal behaviour in a socio-cultural context. People who can contribute to suicide prevention include, for instance, health and social care professionals, researchers, teachers, police, journalists, religious leaders, cultural leaders, politicians and community leaders, volunteers, and relatives and friends affected by suicidal behaviour. People also tend to open up to bartenders, hairdressers, and taxi drivers, among others. In short, suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and thus everyone can contribute. Read article here.

PTSD App Gives Veterans a New Coping Tool

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder have a new mobile resource to help combat the anxiety disorder’s many challenges.

The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs (VA) have jointly developed the PTSD Coach, a free smartphone application. Dr. Sonja Batten, who works on national mental health policy for the VA, says the app was developed with veterans in mind. The app allows users to track and manage symptoms, find support and get reliable information about PSTD. A self-assessment mode has 17 questions — the same ones used in clinical settings — to gauge distress levels. Read article here.

Coors Foundation Grants $500,000 to Youth Suicide Prevention Program

The Carson J. Spencer Foundation has received a $500,000 grant from the Adolph Coors Foundation to launch a social entrepreneurship program for prevention of youth suicide.

The FIRE Within program (Future Innovative and Resilient Entrepreneurs) takes students through a yearlong course in social entrepreneurship, mental health advocacy and leadership training. Its goal is to enable students to run enterprises that raise revenue and awareness for suicide prevention. Program participants compete for micro-grants to seed enterprises. Students receive mentoring from local leaders as they develop and run businesses. They also receive training as suicide-prevention advocates. Read article here.

AFSP Calendar

Check out the upcoming American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-Los Angeles events! Specific details about each event can be found here.

Preparations are already being made for the 2012 Overnight Walk in San Francisco. The Out of the Darkness Overnight is a fundraising walk of up to 18 miles throughout the night, designed to raise funds and make a bold statement to bring the issue of suicide out into the light. Join our team!