Hi Bill! Wow! Hi! This forum has really evolved! Good work, my friend! And this is fabulous news for our vets! What I have to say is...it's about time! "PTSD is the most common mental health problem among the troops returning home. The ailment, which results from exposure involving direct or indirect threat of serious injury or death, results in recurrent thoughts of trauma, reduced involvement in work or outside interests, hyper alertness, anxiety and irritability". I find it interesting and I'd like to point out that when you change the word, "troops" to "inmates"... this definition also applys. Which most likely doubles or even more, the people needing help... Now that I have become involved with this life, it has opened my eyes to so much around me...I have discovered that it is more prevelant than you or I especially, ever thought...in fact, it is all around us and it is making me a much kinder, more receptive, person. As for the other guy, I can really see the stimatic reactions and I want to stop them and say, no, no, but you don't understand...Instead, I just say a silent prayer that they will eventually become enlightened. Hope all is well in your world, Bill. Things are as good as can be on my end... See you again soon, Your friend in Oregon, Julia Youngblood "The Ink Lady'

Hi Julia It really is nice to get news of new programs and treatments that help improve the lives of those with a mental illness and their loved ones. Even if we do eventually start to recognize the fact that our system is truly failing and we begin doing things to make improvements in the lives of those who have a mental illness, we still have another facet of this spectrum to improve upon. You kind of touched on this in your post. It's about the families and loved ones left in the wake of someone with a mental illness. This is one of the sadest things about mental illness. It has a tendency to devastate whole families rather than just the person afflicted. The following article is about just this type of a situation and what this young lady did to try to help. The link for the rest of the article is at the bottom. For families of depressed, a lifeline By Stephanie V. Siek, Globe Staff | February 16, 2006 Julie Totten knew her brother was unhappy, but she didn't realize how unhappy until he took his life. Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts That was 15 years ago. Totten since has made it her mission to find out what signs she had missed, and has launched what may be the first support group in the nation specifically for family and friends of people with depression and bipolar disorder. ''At the time, I didn't know what was wrong with him," Totten said. ''We didn't know he had depression." He had physical symptoms -- headaches and low energy -- but no one saw them as manifestations of mental illness. ''I kept urging him to see a doctor," Totten said, ''and I thought I had done my job. Totten, who was raised in Newton, spent months after her brother's death trying to learn more about why people kill themselves. She noticed similar physical symptoms of depression in her father. She was hesitant to bring it up, afraid he would dismiss her concerns. She finally persuaded him to see a doctor by suggesting that his symptoms were caused by the flu. Then she called the doctor and told him she was worried her father really might have depression. Hearing from his doctor that he had a ''real illness" prompted her father to seek treatment, Totten said, adding that he now is doing well. Totten wanted to use her own experience to help others, but she couldn't find an organization that focused especially on families' needs. So in 2001 she decided to start one. Families for Depression Awareness began with Totten as its only staffer, and with a desk in her apartment as its headquarters. Now the organization has its own offices, four full-time staff members, and a national reach through its website, which was launched in 2002. The advisory board has expanded from five clinicians to nearly 50 healthcare professionals, family members, and patients. The organization helps parents, spouses, and siblings find information on services, such as respite care, or just a sympathetic ear. Gloria Pope, a spokeswoman for the national Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, said most groups focus on people suffering from mental illness rather than on the needs of their family members. Pope said she did not know of another group like that in Waltham. On the website for Families for Depression Awareness, families share their experiences, comforting others in similar situations with the knowledge that they are not alone. The group is also developing ''wellness guides" that help families gauge what treatments are or are not working for their loved one. A version for teenagers is being tested. Among the advisory board members is psychiatrist Linda Zamvil, whose practice is at Advocates Inc., which has offices in Marlborough and Framingham.Continued... http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/02/16/for_families_of_depressed_a_lifeline/ May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Forums http://wv0079721.betteruniverse.com http://www.ourpowerforcedmatrix.com/team.php?UID=10561

Greetings Friends Over the years of studying mental illness and it's impact on societies I have discovered one very interesting fact. People with mental illness are treated the same way all over the world. No matter what country I get research reports from, the results are the same. Every country recognizes the fact that more needs to be done to improve the lives of those with a mental illness. Every country recognizes the fact that it is much more expensive to house the mentally ill in jails than it is to place them in effective treatment programs. The following link will take you to an article about the mental health system in Ireland. You will see that things there are pretty much the same as here. Why do you suppose this is the case worldwide. I am looking hard for answers to this and other questions about mental health care and I would appreciate any information that you might have. http://www.imt.ie/displayarticle.asp?AID=10112&NS=1&SID=1 May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Forums http://wv0079721.betteruniverse.com http://www.ourpowerforcedmatrix.com/team.php?UID=10561

Greetings Friends Cheers to Minnesota. It is great to see that some public officials are taking note of the true failures of our present system of mental health care in America. Key words here, early intervention, proper care and expanding crises care. Now, if we can just get the rest of the country to see things in this light we will finally make some headway in mental health. Please read this article and let me know if this plan makes sense to you. I think it is a wonderful plan. Plan integrates health care for people with mental illness Nearly one in four Minnesotans has a mental illness at some point in their lives. Yet despite this prevalence and the devastating effects of untreated mental illness, many Minnesotans with mental illness do not get the care they need when they need it. They often become very sick before they receive appropriate services. Recently a broad cross-section of community leaders joined together at Regions Hospital in St. Paul to discuss how to address this growing crisis in Ramsey County. They identified a number of possible strategies, including: • Making mental health medications available to everyone who needs them. • Tracking available psychiatric beds in real time to ease the strain on emergency rooms, where many people with mental illness first turn for help. • Expanding crisis services and other interventions that prevent hospitalization. • Integrating mental health care with physical health care and the other social and educational supports that promote recovery and resilience. The group agreed to continue working toward local solutions to the problem. Meanwhile, a proposal that contains nearly all of these strategies is making its way through the Legislature. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and a bipartisan group of legislators advanced the initiative, building on three years of research and planning by the Minnesota Mental Health Action Group. The initiative promotes consistency by giving clients in all publicly funded health care programs access to a common set of state-of-the-art treatments in all parts of Minnesota. It addresses current problems with cost shifting and cost avoidance by creating financial incentives for early identification, early intervention and timely and effective treatment. Significantly, it recognizes that mental health treatment needs to move into the mainstream of health care delivery rather than exist on the margins. The proposal promotes a holistic approach to a person's health by integrating physical and mental health care services with social services and education. A proposed infusion of $50 million in new funds over the next three years includes investments that would benefit people with mental illness in both the public and private health care systems: • A statewide mental health crisis intervention and stabilization system serving as a first-line safety net for children and adults. • Services for people with illnesses such as eating disorders that require highly specialized treatment. • Services for racial and ethnic minority populations requiring specialized communications and knowledge to draw on the context and strength of their cultures. • Increased payment rates for psychiatrists and other critical mental health professionals in the public health care system, to address the current shortages of these professionals. You can learn more about this proposal as it moves through the Legislature by visiting our Web site at www.dhs.state.mn.us/MHInitiative. As Ramsey County's efforts gain momentum, it makes sense to begin moving all of Minnesota in the same direction by making the bipartisan 2006 mental health initiative law this spring. Goodno is commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Opportunities Probuilders has to be the best opportunity on the entire internet. Here is my link. Go check it out for yourself. http://billyvan.probuilderplus.com/

Hello Friends Once again our so called political leaders are placing our mental health system on the chopping block. Another smokescreen masterminded by Senator Frist and company designed to make it appear like things are getting better when actually, things are getting much worse. We need to all get together and write to these congressional leaders and tell them that we don't like their ideas about how to deal with mental illness in this country. I consider Bill Frist to be the single most dangerous man in political office when it comes to human rights and the mentally ill. Remember, he is the one who slipped a bill, attatched to a 1,500 page defense budget bill, that completely relieved drug companies of any liability for damages caused by their drugs. This bill was aimed specifically at the families suffering from the results of lead in childhood immunizations that cause autism. Now, all of the victims of this atrocity have no legal recourse. Basically, the pharmacuetical companies have a license to injure and maim our children in the name of profit. Please read this latest update that I just recieved from NAMI and get involved. Please write a letter to your state reps and senators and ask them to help our mentally ill, not hurt them. April 26, 2006 Senate Health Insurance Legislation Places State Parity Laws At Risk Legislation now before the U.S. Senate would place at risk the 39 existing state laws that require health plans to cover treatment for mental illness on the same terms and conditions as all other illnesses. The legislation, known as the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act (S 1955), is intended to make health insurance more affordable to small employers. While NAMI supports this laudable goal, the bill includes provisions that would allow most employers to offer health plans that do not have to comply with existing state parity requirements. S 1955 was reported by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on March 15, 2006. It may called up before the full Senate sometime soon. If the bill remains in its current form -- and allows for a massive new loophole for health plans to avoid compliance with mental illness insurance parity laws -- NAMI will continue to oppose it. Read the letter from the Mental Health Liaison Group to Senate leadership. NAMI Needs Your Support! Help us to continue helping others. NAMI offers several ways to contribute in support of our programs and services. Please make a donation to NAMI now! Mental Health Liaison Group April 12, 2006 The Honorable Bill Frist, M.D. The Honorable Harry Reid Majority Leader Minority Leader U.S. Senate U.S. Senate Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senators Frist and Reid: The undersigned organizations in the Mental Health Liaison Group are writing in opposition to the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005, S. 1955. All of our organizations share Chairman’s Enzi’s concern with taking action to address the needs of the many millions of uninsured Americans, but we believe this controversial legislation would on balance, do too much harm to the coverage of the many millions of Americans each year who require mental health care. Specifically, this bill would preempt state insurance laws, not just in the small group market (as is done by Association Health Plan legislation), but also in the individual and large group markets. S. 1955 would thwart years of state-level efforts to ensure that consumers have adequate health and mental health coverage. S. 1955 would create a federal ceiling on consumer protections that would undermine carefully crafted protections offered to consumers in virtually every state. Most importantly, the bill would have the effect of repealing state laws that have been enacted to ensure that consumers have access to adequate mental health benefits. The bill would preempt state benefit, service and provider mandate laws that states have adopted to ensure that consumers have adequate health and mental health benefits. · As approved by the HELP Committee on March 15, an insurer must meet only a single requirement – that offers wholly inadequate protection -- in order to bypass a state’s mental health and other benefit protections. That is, the insurer must offer consumers, as an alternative to an even more limited health plan option, the option of a plan that resembles one offered to state employees in one of the five most populous states. As such, given the variability among applicable state offerings, beneficiaries could find themselves with only the most limited of mental health benefits (to include a high deductible plan with virtually no outpatient mental health coverage). · This bill would sweepingly override the work of 39 state legislatures that have passed mental health parity laws aimed at preventing discriminatory coverage of mental health services, and in doing so, would leave residents of those states without the protection those laws have afforded them. And, 32 state minimum mental health benefit mandate or mandated offering laws would also be preempted. These laws ensure that consumers have some level of coverage should mental health disorders arise. National organizations representing consumers, family members, advocates, professionals and providers c/o Peter Newbould, American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002 Senators Frist & Reid April 12, 2006 Page 2 · Under this legislation, state incentives to enact laws in the future and be laboratories for healthcare innovation would be undermined because states would lose their ability to protect large segments of their own residents. · For what is expected to become many millions of insureds covered under federally prescribed rating rules, S. 1955 also would preempt stronger state laws that limit the ability of insurers to vary premiums based on health status, age, gender and geography. For many older and sicker residents, this would price them out of the health insurance market, undermining the very purpose of the legislation. Furthermore, the bill imposes on all the states an outdated model law created by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), rather than using the NAIC’s current model standard that is more protective. A bill that preempts over 1,000 state laws for millions of insureds warrants much closer review before it is approved on the Senate floor. There is no evidence how this bill will affect premiums across all insured groups or whether it will increase the number of Americans with adequate health insurance. As we have found through analysis of the federal AHP legislation, a proposal that purports to provide more affordable and expanded coverage sometimes can fail to do what it claims and even make existing access and cost problems worse. While the sponsors of S. 1955 have made a sincere effort to address shortcomings of the AHP legislation, their solution would make things worse by endangering the quality of health and mental health care for the 68 million Americans in state-regulated group health plans and 16.5 million with individual coverage. We urge your opposition to this legislation. Sincerely, Alliance for Children and Families American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy American Association of Pastoral Counselors American Association of Practicing Psychiatrists American Counseling Association American Group Psychotherapy Association American Nurses Association American Occupational Therapy Association American Psychiatric Nurses Association American Psychoanalytic Association American Psychological Association American Psychotherapy Association Anxiety Disorders Association of America Association for the Advancement of Psychology Senators Frist & Reid April 12, 2006 Page 3 Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Clinical Social Work Federation Clinical Social Work Guild 49, OPEIU Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals National Alliance on Mental Illness National Association for Children’s Behavioral Health National Association for Rural Mental Health National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders -- ANAD National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors National Association of Mental Health Planning & Advisory Councils National Association of Social Workers National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare National Disability Rights Network National Mental Health Association Suicide Prevention Action Network USA Therapeutic Communities of America Tourette Syndrome Association U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association May a smile follow you to sleep each night ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and be ther waiting, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Opportunities Probuilders has to be the best opportunity on the entire internet. Here is my link. Go check it out for yourself. http://billyvan.probuilderplus.com/