A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
StopSIM When Skinny Hobbit shared an iNews article with me the other day about the mistreatment of high-service-needs people with mental illness, I had no idea just how deep of a rabbit hole the whole thing would be. The story of Serenity Integrated Mentoring, the NHS (the UK's National Health Service), and the way the… Continue reading Serenity Integrated Mentoring: Suicide Attempt? Do Not Pass Go
I've written before about defunding the police as a way to address the mismatch of the standard police approach and appropriate mental health crisis response. The picture below from a "wellness check" is a good illustration of just how significant that mismatch is. In June of this year, information became public about an incident that… Continue reading A Police Wellness Check/”Arrest” Gone Wrong
Black Lives Matter has been leading the charge in calling for defunding the police. While that may initially sound like a very bad idea, taking money away from the police is only half of the picture. The money that would be spent on police is instead shifted to community programs and supports to handle the… Continue reading Defunding the Police: What It Could Mean for Mental Illness
In this emerging blogger post, HealthComesFirst!!! Blogger writes about the stigma around bipolar disorder. I have often felt that the stigma associated with bipolar illness is as big if not bigger (twice as big) than dealing with the illness itself. Every time there is a school shooting or a gun incident or a drug cartel… Continue reading Bipolar Stigma (Guest Post)
Have you seen some of the claims out there that suicide is 100% preventable? There are a variety of organizations that promote a zero suicide goal. One example is the Zero Suicide Alliance, which is based in the UK and offers free suicide prevention training. There's a Suicide Is Preventable website, which belongs to Know… Continue reading Can Suicide Ever Be 100% Preventable?
Mental illness is a health issue, not a criminal one, but the police role in mental health crises can end up blurring that line. In some places, people struggling with their mental health are routinely handcuffed to be taken to hospital by police. How is that appropriate? It seems like a practice that accomplishes little… Continue reading Should People in Mental Health Crisis Be Handcuffed?
There's lots of information out there about crisis resources for people thinking about suicide, but resources accomplish very little if we don't reach out to access them. There are many potential barriers to help-seeking, and I wanted to talk about a few of them here, based on my own experience with major depressive disorder and… Continue reading Barriers to Help-Seeking for Suicidal Ideation