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Bipolar News
December 8, 2004
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Florida
Kerry supporters meet for group therapy
Boca Raton News - Boca
Raton,FL,USA
... We may use visualization and some techniques designed for bipolar
disease and other mental disorders. That might help them adjust to
reality.". ...
Tool
may help diagnose bipolar disorder
Indianapolis Star -
Indianapolis,IN,USA
Imaging technology called magnetic resonance spectroscopy may make it
easier for psychiatrists to diagnose people with bipolar
disorder. ...
Slain
couple laid to rest in Luverne
Montgomery Advertiser -
Montgomery,AL,USA
... depression. "I was crying and could not handle being in
my body anymore," said Springford, who suffers from bipolar
disorder. The ...
Murder
trial set for woman in killing of husband in Douglas
Seattle Post Intelligencer -
Seattle,WA,USA
... She told investigators she was subjected to domestic violence
in a previous marriage, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder
and believed she was acting in ...
Novasite
Pharmaceuticals and the Stanley Medical Research ...
Business Wire (press release) -
San Francisco,CA,USA
... (Novasite) and The Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI),
a foundation dedicated to fund research in schizophrenia and bipolar
disorders, today announced ...
Port
Charlotte woman incompetent for trial in child's death
Miami Herald (subscription) -
Miami,FL,USA
... Hannah. Burns has a long history of mental instability and
her family said she suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder. ...
Panel
looks at kids' moods
Kennebec Journal - Augusta,ME,USA
... Bipolar disorder is difficult to diagnose in
teenagers, he said, because people that age don't show the same symptoms
as adults. ...
IMAGES
OF BIPOLAR DISORDER AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
BENEFIT BASH A Santa-size party
Newsday; 12/5/2004; CYNTHIA DANIELS
Newsday
12-05-2004
BENEFIT BASH
A Santa-size party
BY CYNTHIA DANIELS. STAFF WRITER
Some might consider Lenny Crowe, 68, a modern-day Santa
Claus.
For 31 years, the retired Entenmann's employee, has organized the Town
of
Islip/Sons of Amvets Holiday Party for disabled children ages 3 to 83.
Children, Crowe says, "because they are all children of God."
The idea for the party began when Crowe enrolled his son, who has
dyslexia
and bipolar disorder, into a school for
disabled children in Pennsylvania. He
said he noticed the children needed special treatment and developed the
party
just for them. The first holiday bash hosted 17 children in the American
Legion
Hall with the help of the Islip Elks Lodge 2533.
This year's celebration, co-sponsored by the town and the Amvets, an
American veterans service organization, garnered nearly 200 children and
adults. Crowe said the party costs about $500 to put together and could
not
estimate how many children have benefited from the program over the
years.
"I never thought it would get this big," said Rose Crowe, the
unofficial
Mrs. Claus, who helps her husband plan the event. "He says every
year this is
the last year but I think the grim reaper is the only one who will stop
him."
Crowe starts preparing for the event six months in advance - approaching
local merchants for donations like balloons and lunch meat, holding
fund-raisers to cover some of the expenses and buying decorations. By
the
party's eve, Christmas tree decorations, doughnuts, and candy bombard
his Islip
Terrace home.
"It just makes me feel better," Crowe said. "I'm not
getting any younger
but as long as there is a handicapped child out there, I will do what I
can."
It's because of Crowe that Amvets Post 18 on Carleton Avenue in East
Islip
was jumping yesterday. Adults, some in wheelchairs, danced to tunes like
the
"Locomotion" and "YMCA," while children played with
their favorite cartoon
characters, including Garfield and the Care Bears. Town and Amvets Post
18
volunteers passed out sandwiches, books and other goodies.
But the party stopped when a special guest arrived.
Santa Claus, played Dave Johnson Jr., a member of the Sons of Amvets,
delivered an individualized gift to each guest. Delighted screams echoed
through the room as unwrapped presents revealed Barbie dolls, art sets,
CDs and
more.
"[This party] gives them some sort of socialization," said
Barbara Sotello,
who has attended the party for at least 15 years with her daughter
Suzanne
Hellers, 36, who is mentally retarded and legally blind. "There's a
lot of love
in this room. [The volunteers] make them all feel special."
While Sotello and Hellers danced, Crowe, the mastermind behind that
"special" feeling, tiptoed into the kitchen for a bowl of
chocolate ice cream.
Copyright 2004, Newsday Inc.
Colleges work to prevent student suicides
International Herald Tribune; 12/4/2004; Karen
W. Arenson
International Herald Tribune
12-04-2004
Nicole Thompson had been at Columbia University for only a few weeks
when she went out drinking with a group of friends downtown last year
and became separated from them. She had skipped her medication for bipolar
disorder. Now it was 3 a.m., and crying and in a panic, she called
friends saying she ''just wished the traffic would take me out.''
Although Thompson made it back to campus safely, her friends had already
notified Columbia that they were worried about her. For Columbia
officials, it was the first clue that Thompson faced any kind of mental
health problems. ''I wasn't on Columbia's radar at all,'' said Thompson,
who is back on campus now after being forced to take a medical leave.
Increasingly, college officials and mental health experts have come to
realize that many of the most vulnerable students the ones prone to
self-injury and suicide are like Thompson: They never go near the
counseling centers or reveal anything about their experience before
college. As a result, colleges are stepping up efforts to find them and
to get them into treatment, sometimes even forcing them to go home. The
goal is to help students like Thompson. But colleges have more at stake.
Suicide the second-biggest cause of death on campuses after accidents
can be costly, injuring reputations and prompting litigation. The
suicide of Elizabeth Shin, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, in 2000, and strings of suicides at New York University,
George Washington University and the University of Illinois, have drawn
wide attention. There has been an increase in lawsuits against colleges
in cases of student suicides as well. Ann Franke, a vice president of
United Educators, which insures 1,200 universities, colleges and
schools, said suicide prevention had definitely risen in priority as
claims have risen; her company, she said, now has a ''handful'' of
claims, up from none six years ago. ''They can be very severe claims
financially,'' Franke said, ''not to mention the emotional and
reputational impact they can have on a school.'' Mental health experts
say they believe the rate of suicides among college students has been
steady for years about 1,100 a year, or about 7.5 per 100,000
students, which is actually lower than the rate for young adults not in
college. But the numbers are based on a study of a dozen universities in
the 1980s, and experts say reports of suicides do not always reflect
students who commit suicide off campus. To address the problem, Emory
University in Atlanta and the University of North Carolina are now
inviting students to fill out anonymous mental health questionnaires.
Duke University, also in North Carolina, is asking faculty members to be
alert to changes in student behavior noticing, for example, when a
student suddenly becomes sullen or quiet, or stays away from class.
Columbia, New York University and Cornell now place counselors in
residence halls. The University of Illinois and the University of Puget
Sound are requiring any student who threatens or attempts suicide to
attend counseling sessions. But the best way to reach these students
remains unclear, and students do not always welcome the intervention.
Some experts fear that forcing students to enter treatment or to
withdraw from school can dissuade other students from asking for help
and discourage their friends from sounding the alarm. For years,
colleges and universities like Columbia have been grappling with an
increasing number of students with histories of mental illness. Most
colleges have expanded the number of counselors and the hours they are
available. But now they are going further. Some are turning to the
Internet as a way to bring troubled students in for help. The American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention has developed an anonymous online
mental health questionnaire and a program to steer troubled students to
counseling, which is being tested at Emory and the University of North
Carolina. Those involved say the initial results seem promising. At
Emory, which started using the program in 2002, only 8 percent of the
students who received the survey filled it out, but of those who did, 85
percent were deemed at moderate or high risk of suicide or other severe
problems, based on their responses to the questionnaire. They are
encouraged to speak to a counselor on or off campus, or to consult
anonymously with a counselor online. ''The yield is relatively small,''
said Ann Haas, research director for the foundation. ''However, we are
absolutely convinced that those kids would not have gotten into
treatment. We think we are reaching the right kids.'' Many campuses,
including Duke and MIT, are asking faculty and staff members and
students to tell a dean or the counseling office if they see students
who show signs of depression or potential suicide. At Duke, when faculty
members or parents relay concerns about students to Larry Moneta, the
vice president for student affairs, he and members of the residence hall
staff check up on the students, sometimes surreptitiously. ''Many times
I've called the residence hall staff and asked if they can dispatch a
paraprofessional to inadvertently drop by a student's room as if it were
a casual encounter,'' Moneta said. ''I do that all the time.'' After the
suicide of Elizabeth Shin, MIT began training sessions for faculty
members, departmental administrators, athletic coaches, dormitory
personnel, fraternities and sororities to help them identify people
showing signs of problems one of a number of steps recommended by a
mental health task force the university created after the suicide.
Cornell is making a special effort to reach out to Asian and
Asian-American students. Among 16 student deaths since 1996, nine were
by students of Asian descent. The university created a task force to
explore how to help them when they have problems, because they do not
use Cornell's counseling services at the same rate as their classmates,
said Susan Murphy, the university's vice president for student and
academic services. Often when they do seek help, ''they are in real
crisis,'' she said. Colleges are also increasingly encouraging students
who show suicidal tendencies to enter counseling. Several have adopted,
and other are considering, a program developed by the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which requires any student who threatens
or attempts suicide to attend at least four counseling sessions. Paul
Joffe, the program's director, said the results had been good: All but
one of nearly 2,000 students in the program over 20 years remained at
the university during the counseling sessions, and none committed
suicide. And although the university has had suicides among students not
in the program including six in the last academic year it says its
suicide rate is about half what it was before the program started.
© 2004 Copyright International Herald Tribune.
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