¿Habla español? (BBI)
A press release from the National Mental Health Association:
NMHA RELEASES SPANISH-LANGUAGE MEDICARE WORKBOOK
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (December 28, 2005) – The National Mental Health Association’s widely used “Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Workbook for Mental Health Consumers,” which had over 10,000 downloads during its first four days online, is now available in Spanish at www.nmha.org. With this valuable tool, Spanish-speaking Medicare beneficiaries can learn about their drug plan options so they can enroll in the plan that best meets their needs by May 15, 2006, the deadline for enrollment.
“The new Medicare prescription drug plans will help millions of Americans access the medications they require,” said Cynthia Wainscott, Acting CEO of NMHA. “But for many beneficiaries, especially those who don’t speak English, the plans can be complex and confusing. Now, with the availability of NMHA’s Spanish-language Medicare workbook, these Americans have an easy-to-use resource to make sense of the process and select the plan that is best for them.”
The new Spanish-language Medicare consumer workbook includes:
liz | 8:55 PM | Uncategorized
Drugs and booze: Not as fun as you’d think
There are certain Internet-related phenomena that I simply don’t understand. The concept of open sourcing, for one thing, is still somewhat mysterious to me. Likewise certain portals that link you to articles by random and untested-in-print writers frighten me. Like About.com. I’m never sure who this strange person is taking their time to write about toys for pet mice (a subject I’m actually interested in) or snowman-pattern scrapbooking.
But today there’s a good entry on that website about drug and alcohol abuse among those who suffer from mental illness.
Self-medicating: When the cure IS the disease [About.com]
liz | 4:54 PM | Uncategorized
Gene Grant
When I first read the email titled “Gene Grant on mental health” I thought it was going to be about funding received for a genetic study on brain disorders. But Gene Grant is an actual person with an actually bad haircut. (I generally like dredlocks, but those two sticking straight out of your forehead, Gene? Not working.)
Grant is a columnist for the Albuquerque Tribune. (Is Albuquerque not the most awkwardly spelled city? I had to cut and paste just to make this parenthetical remark.) His column doesn’t have much of a point. But he’s right to raise the issue of the mental health of Colleen Nestler, the woman who sued David Letterman for sending her coded messages.
Gene Grant on mental health [Alb...whatever Tribune]
liz | 9:52 PM | Uncategorized
NY Times: Don’t think
Here’s an interesting article about the psychological benefits of going with your gut instincts rather than overanalyzing. For those of us with OCD, minutely assessing every punctuation mark, every casual comment, every interaction with every person on every form of public transportation is de riguer. This study shows we might be better off just not thinking at all.
Don’t Think Twice: It’s All Right
liz | 8:38 PM | Uncategorized
And now, some hometown news.
Today the Philadelphia Inquirer reveals that Brett Hartman, a New York psychologist, has written a memoir of his experience with mental illness. At first I thought it was the Brett Hartman who’s head of the local board games meetup, but it seems writer Hartman has enough on his plate without rounding up people for a cathartic game of Boggle.
Guy who lives in New York but was born in Philly—so it’s local—writes book [Philadelphia Inquirer]
liz | 5:17 PM | Uncategorized
Funny headline of the day
From OregonLive.com, this is a real, complete headline:
Donita Diamata Has Several Mental Illnesses, Furthermore
Can you even end a sentence—let alone a headline—with “furthermore”? Quoth the Raven: No frickin’ way.
And thus and such [OregonLive.com]
liz | 4:33 PM | Uncategorized
Coachella: More than just Autolux
Mental health facility extension to expire [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
liz | 4:35 PM | Uncategorized
Cute kitten No. 2
As promised, here’s a cute kitten. This is Sox, who’s a big winner on KittenWar.com, a hilarious site where you can vote for the cutest kitten from a group of submitted photos. I don’t know exactly why Sox has touched my heart, but I just want to bite her (his?) little face to pieces.
liz | 10:20 PM | Uncategorized
Slow Jews day…I mean news day.
Oy, I’m feeling sluggish today. I got my Christmas bonus, and I was thinking of doing something exciting with it. Then I realized I owe my psychiatrist money, so I paid him in cash this week. “Wow, a Benjamin,” he said, which I feel is a little too cool for a shrink to say. When I said goodbye, he said, “Word.” Okay, not really, but it’d be funny if he started talking like that—hip-hop circa 1985—all the time.
It’s a slow news day here at crazy.inc, so I’m hitting you with this story from Alberta, Canada:
Police training inadequate, mental health advocates say [CBC Calgary]
I once had a fling with a guy from Calgary. Very boring, but I thought his accent was kind of cute.
Check out “more Calgary news” at the bottom of the article. Apparently, anti-Semitic grinches are stealing arsonists’ handicapped parking spaces. Or something.
liz | 10:39 PM | Uncategorized
Back in action, kinda
I’m back from my visit to the boyfriend’s family in California. As soon as I woke up to go to L.A. a few days ago, I knew I was sick. By the time I got there, I was in wretched shape, and had to go immediately to bed. My boyfriend got sick the next day with a convulsive cough and a fever. Now he can hardly talk. Then an older member of the family took sick and is in the hospital, and the other adults are ill, as is my boyfriend’s niece. Only the nephew has survived—and he’s hiding out in his room playing videogames and trying to maintain a sterile environment.
My ears are completely clogged, and there are odd happenings in my sinus cavities. But enough about me. Let’s talk about some headlines from the last few days:
•Psychotherapy on the road to where? [NY Times]
•Police: Bipolar Detroit man goes on shooting spree before killing self [WLNS]
•Study: Owning pets is good for physical, mental health [Tahoe Daily Tribune]
•Pakistan: IOM mental health teams deploy in cities and camps [Geneva news service]
•Mental Health: Serious Depression Raises Risk of Heart Ailments [NY Times]
•One Year On From the Asian Tsunami: In Aceh, children’s mental health is the No. 1 priority [Korean news service]
liz | 5:37 PM | Uncategorized
