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2019 State of Mental Health Report

For the fifth year in a row, Mental Health America (MHA) released its annual State of Mental Health Report, which ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on several mental health and access measures. This year, Minnesota came out on top overall with Nevada coming in 51st. The report also dives into addressing trauma in youth, and its long-term impact on performance and behavior in school.

MHA’s report also shines the spotlight on childhood Read More

Circle of Care Guidebook Assists Caregivers

Recently, NAMI partnered with the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) to create the Circle of Care guidebook, a new toolkit to provide resources and information to help  friends, family and neighbors who care for an adult with a mental health condition. The guidebook is made up of fact sheets to assist caregivers with finding help for the specific challenges that were identified by mental health caregivers from across the US who participated in the first national study on mental Read More

When kids with mental illness can’t live at home

January 31 Kelly Burch

Many of Christine Walker’s friends are just starting to help their teenage children plan to leave home, whether for a job, college or a gap year. But Walker’s 16-year-old son Schuyler has already lived away from his family for seven years, spending nearly half his life in residential treatment programs and schools for children with severe mental illness.

“When Schuyler was 7, that was when I had tried absolutely everything — every pill, every doctor, every diet, every Read More

Family Survival Guide

By Chris Aiken, M.D. | Feb. 06, 2017

“You seem like you’re walking on eggshells,” our family therapist told me with a wise nod. The image of cracked eggs under my bare feet was strangely comforting compared to what our family was really going through. We were living with mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder.

Psychiatrists don’t know enough about how to help families in this situation. I should know—I’m a psychiatrist myself. When mental illness hit my home, Read More

Understanding Psychotic Breaks

By Ryann Tanap | Mar. 20, 2017 

When you hear the phrase “psychotic break,” what comes to mind? Probably nothing good. In everyday conversation, the phrase carries a negative meaning for many because it’s perceived as a harsh and abrupt disconnect or “break” from reality—though it is more accurately described as an episode of psychosis.

Carlos Larrauri, for example, describes his experience with psychosis as more of a gradual decline, as opposed to a “break” occurring during a Read More