What is Normal in Mental Health?

by Deborah Mitchell at emaxhealth.com on Oct. 28.
Approximately 26.2 percent of Americans age 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, but how do you decide what’s normal or not normal when it comes to mental health? How do you know if your feelings of sadness or anxiety or occasional [...]

Looking Ahead to 2010

Mental Health America of Northeast Georgia will soon finalize its calendar for 2010. We’re looking now at the projects we will take on in the new year and the work to bring these projects to fruition.
Typically, we have the following events:
The Mental Health Benefit, which is held the last week of January;
Mental Health Day [...]

Colleges see rise in Mental Health Issues

by Deborah Franklin
They may not tell their roommates or even close friends, but on college campuses all across the United States, more students than ever before are seeking psychiatric help, according to recent national surveys of campus therapists.
And it’s not just for homesickness and relationship problems, says the University of Michigan’s Daniel Eisenberg. He [...]

Smoking by Pregnant Mom Linked to Psychosis in Children

from US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
If women need yet another reason to avoid smoking during pregnancy, researchers now say that tobacco use by expectant mothers may raise the risk that their children will develop psychotic symptoms.
Go here to read the whole article: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/10/01/smoking-in-pregnancy-linked-to-psychotic-symptoms.html

Making Mental Health Part of “the Physical”

New Movements Seek to Introduce Preventive, Mental Health Care in New Settings
This article comes from the Kaiser Health News website.
A nationwide effort to coordinate mental health with primary care is underway, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. “The idea is to give simple interventions in 15- to 30-minute visits that will address behavioral issues ranging from stress [...]

Family Mental History Shadows Children: an MSNBC report

by Melissa Schorr
Patrick Tracey watched helplessly as his two older sisters, mother and grandmother were all felled by the brutal blow of schizophrenia.
“It hits like a comet, the impact is so devastating,” says Tracey, who spent his 20s fearing inheriting the disease himself, and later, watching romantic relationships fizzle over his reluctance to pass that [...]

Stigma in Politics and Business: A Report from England

from the Guardian:
by Sarah Boseley
Gordon Brown may have emphatically denied he is taking prescription drugs, but the furore around Andrew Marr’s questioning of his health has underlined that there is still a stigma surrounding mental health conditions as well as widespread ignorance of their causes and effects.
Dr Peter Byrne, chair of the Royal College of [...]

Creative Consultants 2010

This week we will be joined by our team of public relations experts from the University of Georgia, Creative Consultants.
Last year’s team did a great job for us, but this year’s team faces new challenges as well as new opportunities.
We are going to be looking at increasing public awareness of our organization specifically [...]

Jewel Norman

I attended a meeting in Atlanta yesterday to discuss legislative priorities for the coming session of the General Assembly. Among those taking part was Jewel Norman. Here is the press release from July regarding her appointment as the disability ombudsman:
ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that he has appointed Jewel Norman as [...]

Workplace Stress

Most of us have felt “stressed out” at one time or another. When this feeling persists day after day, stress becomes chronic. Chronic stress can take a toll on our careers, on our quality of life and on our bodies, making us susceptible to a host of illnesses. In fact, what many of us don’t [...]