In the past few decades our society has witnessed unprecedented change in almost every area of life. This includes our professional experiences. The work we do and the ways we carry it out bear little resemblance to what most people took for granted at the start of the new millennium.
In the field of healthcare sweeping change has taken place at lightning speed and continues to be the “new normal.”
In the past week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its most recent data on suicide rates in the U.S. Sadly, this announcement was book-ended by the deaths of two celebrities, designer Kate Spade and chef/television personality Anthony Bourdain.
Vermont Department of Mental Health
The following piece published on the the website of the Vermont Department of Mental Health offers valuable insight that can help us resist the urge to entertain one-dimensional solutions to the increase in violent and antisocial behaviors across our country.
Introduction
Dr. Randy O. Frost, Ph.D., discusses the current understanding of compulsive hoarding and effective ways to treat this often debilitating illness.
Following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Fla., our nation is once again deadlocked in a debate over how to put an end to the seemingly endless string of gun-related tragedies playing out in our schools and places of work.
President Trump has suggested that we can solve the problem by arming teachers. He has also suggested that we should open more mental hospitals as a way of getting perpetrators of these crimes “out of our communities.”
Determining the appropriate level of care for a patient is as much an art as it is a science. Serious psychiatric symptoms that affect a person’s ability to function safely may appear as obvious indicators of those who require inpatient care.
Recent events have caused the entire nation to attempt to make sense of the losses sustained in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico; and now, in a different way, Las Vegas. Despite these disasters taking place over a thousand miles away from Vermont, our community struggles with the cumulative trauma from tragedies that are difficult to make sense of.
On August 20th the Brattleboro Reformer published an article about the Brattleboro Retreat's Annual Ride For Heroes, a motorcycle rally and fundraiser for the hospital’s Uniformed Service Program. On that day, Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark did a courageous thing: he publicly shared his story of experiencing a major depression, his decision to seek treatment, and his consequent recovery. As I read his account I found myself saying: Thank you, many times.
Published in March of 2017, “No One Cares About Crazy People” seamlessly weaves together the analysis of society’s historically harsh treatment of the mentally ill with journalist Ron Powers’ own very personal story. In this Keep Talking episode, he shares what he has learned as the parent of two sons with schizophrenia, his convictions about medical compliance, and his compassion for those who suffer with a chronic mental illness.
“SUICIDE.” I intentionally write it in capital letters, and place it in quotes, because so many of us find the word extremely difficult to see and to say. And yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified suicide as an epidemic in the U.S., with rates having reached a 30-year peak since they began to climb in 1999.
