On April 29, and April 30, 2011, in conjunction with Marist College and The Hudson Valley Family Business Institute, AMHF sponsored the workshop Small Family Business, Big Family Stress. We hope you will want to view the following 2-minute video. This workshop is the first in the AMHF-Stefan de Schill Memorial series The Healthy Organization. […]
By: Evander LomkeThe New York Times continues its coverage of the abuse of the developmentally disabled in New York State: “Moving to end the…lax oversight of the developmentally disabled, the Cuomo administration on Wednesday announced an agreement with the State Police to establish guidelines for reporting possible crimes against the disabled to law enforcement authorities.” The entire […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Many higher-level persons with autism are fascinated by trains. Trains are predictable: They run on a schedule, are limited to staying on a track that only goes certain places, and have very structured seating plans that no doubt came to be after much consultation between engineers, designers, and draftspersons. To some extent, buses share these […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.I wish to call our UK readers’ attention to The Violent Person by Dr. Raymond B. Flannery, an AMHF Book and the first title issued by our foundation in late 2009. It is a thoroughly up-to-date study of violence, the emotional and physiological reactions to it (in its most-extreme form, PTSD), and how professionals and […]
By: Evander LomkeA stock market that swings erratically every few years is looking to be the new normal: Many even doubt that a ten-year horizon is a safe one for long-term investors or those planning retirement. Economic worries are real. They can be all-consuming. Yet, often unacknowledged is the role of one’s emotional experience in diluting or […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Sallie Mae has recently added tuition-refund insurance to its spectrum of financial offerings, according to the July 22 edition of the New York Times. This can refund tuition that has already been paid when a student withdraws from classes due to illness. There is a catch, however: although the coverage will pay for 100 percent […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Once focus of American Mental Health Foundation this past year has been to increase awareness and research of suicide. We have done this through our support of Suicide Prevention International. Recently ex-major-league pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead in his home in California. He had apparently committed suicide by hanging himself. What made this even […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Two new books of interest from The American Counseling Association (ACA): Integrating Spirituality and Religion Into Counseling: A Guide to Competent Practice, Second Edition, edited by Craig S. Cashwell and J. Scott Young. The ACA noted: “An introductory text for counselors-in-training and clinicians, this book describes the knowledge base and skills necessary to effectively engage […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The evolution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM I, II, III, IV, IV-TR) and upcoming DSM V is an interesting one. The first manual was a short volume with a small number of diagnoses. The diagnosis itself was often not as important as the detailed clinical description written about the patient, often written from […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Counseling Today (a journal of the American Counseling Association in their July 2011 issue reports on a survey released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the needs of families who have children experiencing mental illness. The Adolescent Action Center of NAMI did a survey of over 500 respondents. Each of these was […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Peter Kramer, M.D., writing in the July 9 issue of the New York Times Magazine, responded to a number of recent articles in the media that criticize the efficacy of antidepressant medications. One of the reviews mentioned was an essay in the New York Review of Books, wherein Marsha Angell, former editor of the New […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.With Betty Ford’s passing, we are again reminded that there is a great deal of work to be done in the field of alcohol and substance abuse. Margarita Alegria, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research and full professor at Harvard University’s Medical School in psychiatry. In her work she examines […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.In the news: Betty Ford, former First Lady of the United States of America, has died. The much-beloved wife of President Gerald Ford died at the age of 93, as reported in the July 11, 2011, edition of The New York Daily News. Mrs. Ford was born in Chicago, reared in modest circumstances, became a […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Previously we have written about Marsha Linehan, clinical psychologist who developed dialectical behavioral therapy, and who has worked throughout her career with persons who display severe suicidal behaviors or symptoms of what is called borderline personality disorder. On June 23, 2011, the New York Times presented an intriguing story, Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.In Chicago, on June 20, 2011 Vice President
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Therese Borchard, associate editor of Psych Central, offers everyone 6 Tips to Help Summer Depression. She notes 5 causes of summer depression, as suggested by Dr. Ian Cook of the Depression Research Project at UCLA. The following 5 factors may contribute to summertime depression: disrupted summer schedules, body image issues (i.e., fitting into that swimsuit), […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Time magazine on June 20, 2011, reports that a certain Misery Index has reached a 28-year high. This survey tool, when it was concocted in the 1960s, wasn’t meant to be a scientific and comprehensive measure of human behavior. Rather, it is a shorthand measure combining unemployment and inflation to gauge the effect of both […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Over on The Corner at National Review, Jack Fowler (AMHF Board Chairman), shows protesters in Madison, Wisconsin, disrupting a Special Olympics visit to the state capital. Special Olympians rarely if ever disrupt or protest the peaceful activities of others, as they are so absorbed in their sport and the joy and fellowship accompanying this. They […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Since part of the mission of AMHF is to keep continual focus on the mental-health needs of the developmentally disabled, a recent article deserves our attention. On June 5, 2011, the New York Times reported that Jonathan Carey, a thirteen-year-old boy who has autism, was asphyxiated and died in the back of a NYS-owned van […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The above video, by Jasmin Singer and Evan Creem, records the May 7, 2011, Stefan de Schill Award ceremony. The Award was given to Herbert Hendin, M.D., on behalf of Suicide Prevention International at the seventh annual Walk For Life in Riverside Park, New York City. For the first Stefan de Schill Award, click here.
By: Evander LomkeAs part of the AMHF series on Bullying, we call your attention to the American Psychological Association (APA) new video by Dr. Norman B. Anderson, CEO of the APA. Dr. Anderson states… The problem of bullying has received a great deal of media attention recently, and for good reason. Bullying can lead to lasting psychological […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.This month marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to bring Americans to the moon within the end of that decade. The goal was met. Now his nephew, former Representative Patrick Kennedy (D., R.I.) is using one of what was arguably his uncle’s greatest achievements as a metaphor in fighting mental illness, […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Piers Morgan hosted the Axelrods who eloquently and movingly diagnosed the sorry state of epilepsy research in the United States and their 29-year-old daughter’s battle (along with her family) against this condition. Epilepsy is a so-called orphaned disease in the United States. (Two new anticonvulsants are currently available in Canada, finally set for FDA approval […]
By: Evander LomkeRearing a child with autism brings challenges too many to mention. A particular sadness, recurring frequently, is the inability to travel with your child due to difficulties that occur in boarding airplanes. Many citizen without autism now avoid the flight lines and procedures, and drive, take the train, or just stay home. For young people […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.I was fortunate to be at the Boat Basin on Saturday morning May 7, 2011, when Evander Lomke, executive director of AMHF, presented Suicide Prevention International (SPI) with only the second Stefan de Schill Award. We were celebrating this at the West Side Boat Basin in Riverside Park. At least one-hundred enthusiastic persons, young and […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Judi Chamberlin, international activist for people with mental illnesses, died sixteen months ago at age 65. Chamberlin was a board member of MindFreedom International, and in the 1970s she established the then-fashionably named Mental Patients’ Liberation Front. She helped found the Ruby Rogers Advocacy and Drop-In Center, which is staffed by people who have had […]
By: Evander Lomke“We are happy to join 54,000 other Americans in pledging to end the use of the R-word at www.r-word.org….including pending legislation in Congress to remove the R-word from federal law.”…I do not attribute this quote since there is no need. Does such “removal” of “a derogatory word” in any way help individuals that truly need […]
By: Evander LomkeFrom New York Able Newspaper May 2011: Manhattan’s first Mental Health Court, which recently opened at 100 Centre Street, is dedicated to keeping defendants with mental illness from engaging in further criminal behavior. This special court will handle nonviolent cases of defendants with serious and continuing mental illness. It is part of the New York […]
By: Evander LomkeOn a clear, virtually cloudless May 7, 2011, morning, AMHF granted the second Stefan de Schill Award to a most worthy nonprofit, Suicide Prevention Initiatives (formerly Suicide Prevention International) as prelude to the “Walk For Life” in Riverside Park, New York City. What appeared to be at least one-hundred walkers were on hand. In all, […]
By: Evander LomkeAll the flowers in bloom and their reflections made the Hudson River Valley look like a giant impressionist painting Friday and Saturday April 29 and 30. AMHF, along with Marist College School of Management, sponsored the Conference “Small Family Business, Big Family Stress” at the Dutchess Country Club in Poughkeepsie, New York. On Friday night […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.
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