Recovery Michigan

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time "Assessing for and Addressing Trauma in Recovery-Oriented Practice"

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Featuring

Kevin Huckshorn, RN, MSN
Delaware Director for the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Paula Panzer, MD
Director of Training and Professional Development
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services

Eric Arauz, MLER
Arauz Inspirational Enterprises
Adjunct Instructor, Department of Psychiatry
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
New Jersey Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
American Psychiatric Nurses Association RTP Steering and Curriculum Committees

Moderated by
Larry Davidson, PhD
Recovery to Practice Project Director
Development Services Group, Inc.

Individuals suffering from mood and anxiety disorders such as bipolar, panic disorder and major depressive disorder may be more likely to abuse opioids, according to a new study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They found that mood and anxiety disorders are highly associated with non-medical prescription opioid use. The results are featured in a recent issue of the Journal of Psychological Medicine.

A new working definition of recovery from mental disorders and substance use disorders is being announced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The definition is the product of a year-long effort by SAMHSA and a wide range of partners in the behavioral health care community and other fields to develop a working definition of recovery that captures the essential, common experiences of those recovering from mental disorders and substance use disorders, along with major guiding principles that support the recovery definition. SAMHSA led this effort as part of its Recovery Support Strategic Initiative.

The new working definition of Recovery from Mental Disorders and Substance Use Disorders is as follows:

A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.

Chapter One: Journeying Back to Self’

This blog is an attempt to make sense of what brought me into the world of psychiatry as a child and of where it would take me for the next fourteen years.  It is an effort to document where I go from here and how I come to make sense of who I am apart from diagnoses and medications and mental hospitals.  In essence, I am embarking on a new journey towards ‘self’, towards gaining an understanding of what lies underneath the drugging, numbing, and altering that once, not so long ago, left me convinced that I was resigned to life as a chronic patient.

Researchers found people who live rough are likely to die more than 30 years earlier than the average British person.

According to new figures homeless people will die in their 40s - men on average at 47 while women have a life expectancy of 43.

The homeless life expectancy rate compares to that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Africa. In stark contrast, the average age of death for the general population in Britain currently is 77 years.

Similar to the Morbidity and Mortality Report for persons in the US with a history of severe mental illness.

Language Matters: Non-compliant

This post is a part of the Recovery 101 blog series. The series will explore ideas, philosophies, language, tools, and questions about mental health recovery. Submit any ideas for topics in the comments section of any tagged post.

We in social services know the importance of language. We know that words can hurt or empower. We know that labels may stigmatize. And yet so often our work comes from a place, system or history that promotes these very problems. As one part of the Recovery 101 series I want to explore the language and word that hurt the work we do, as well as the people we work with.

One of my greatest pet peeves is the term “non-compliant”. Direct from the medical and clinic model of treatment, it is usually used to refer to someone who stops taking their medication against medical advice. It may also refer to refusal to participate in other forms of treatment.

When I hear non-compliant I hear:

So a lot too commonly accompanying a mental breakdown, is total isolation and alienation from one’s former social network such an environment of loneliness and detachment is way from conducive to mental health recovery. The development of sturdy, progressive, and proactive social networks is instrumental for those full of a mental illness of any kind. Curiously, the 3 significant recovery-based mostly nations (the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand) have all adopted rather differing takes on the role of social networks in mental wellness.

Interesting international take on recovery. Maybe authored in New Zealand?

Social neuroscience has shown through MRI studies that people normally activate a network in the brain related to social cognition — thoughts, feelings, empathy, for example — when viewing pictures of others or thinking about their thoughts. But when participants in this study were asked to consider images of people they considered drug addicts, homeless people, and others they deemed low on the social ladder, parts of this network failed to engage.

What’s especially striking, the researchers said, is that people will easily ascribe social cognition — a belief in an internal life such as emotions — to animals and cars, but will avoid making eye contact with the homeless panhandler in the subway.

“We need to think about other people’s experience,” Fiske said. “It’s what makes them fully human to us.”

Take realism, for instance: study after study has shown that those suffering depression are better than "normal" people at assessing current threats and predicting future outcomes. Looking at Lincoln and Churchill among others, Ghaemi shows how depressive realism helped these men tackle challenges both personal and national. Or consider creativity, a quality psychiatrists have studied extensively in relation to bipolar disorder. A First-Rate Madness shows how mania inspired General Sherman and Ted Turner to design and execute their most creative-and successful-strategies.

"We focused on black American adults because this is a population that has reported, on average, more incidents of racism than other racial minority groups and because of the potential links between racism and not only mental health, but physical health as well," said lead author Alex Pieterse, PhD, of the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Researchers examined 66 studies comprising 18,140 black adults in the United States. To be included in the analysis, a study must have been published in a peer-reviewed journal or dissertation between 1996 and 2011; include a specific analysis of mental health indicators associated with racism; and focus specifically on black American adults in the United States.

Black Americans' psychological responses to racism are very similar to common responses to trauma, such as somatization, which is psychological distress expressed as physical pain; interpersonal sensitivity; and anxiety, according to the study. Individuals who said they experienced more and very stressful racism were more likely to report mental distress, the authors said