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The Washington Post – May 10, 2010
Summary: Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s new book, “Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis” describes the obstacles faced by people with mental illness and offers some ideas about how to remove these obstacles.  Carter’s goal is better treatment for people with mental illness, both in the medical and general sense. “Stigma is the most damaging factor in the life of anyone who has a mental illness,” Carter writes. “It humiliates and embarrasses; it is painful; it generates stereotypes, fear, and rejection; it leads to terrible discrimination.” She also points out that, in addition to stigma, people with mental illness are under-served by the health care system and are more likely to die prematurely than others. Her suggestions include: volunteering in the community, contacting Congress, watching your children for signs of mental illness and encouraging more open communication.

The New York Times – January 10, 2010
Summary: The New York Times recently published an essay by Ethan Watters, adapted from his book “Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche.” In this essay, Watters argues that one of the effects of American-led globalization is “Americanizing the world’s understanding of mental health and illness.” Recent research has suggested that mental illnesses have never been the same throughout the world, but are “inevitably sparked and shaped by the ethos of particular times and places.” According to Watters, “For more than a generation now, we in the West have aggressively spread our modern knowledge of mental illness around the world.” The effect of this, he argues, has been to export not only the treatments, but also the expression of mental illness in other cultures. He believes that “mental illness is an illness of the mind and cannot be understood without understanding the ideas, habits and predispositions – the idiosyncratic cultural trappings – of the mind that is its host.”

The Guardian – December 9, 2009
Summary: Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, writes about his vision for mental health services in the UK. McCulloch points out that, ten years ago, the National Service Framework (NSF) was launched in the UK. This framework was a new approach to detailed policy-making in healthcare. This marked a major victory for mental health advocates in that one of the three priorities of this initiative was mental health and demonstrated that its importance had been recognized. Since then, mental health services in England have been at least partly transformed, and resources increased by about 50%. Despite this significant progress, McCulloch argues that the enormous need is still not being met. “Mental illness costs the UK economy £100bn a year, and one in four adults experience a mental health problem each year”, he states. After a 2-year collaboration between the mental health sector and the government, New Horizons, a vision for mental health, has been launched. This program is important for several reasons: it understands that good mental health can be delivered only by cross-government action, it highlights the need for a mentally healthy population, and it acknowledges the fact that our mental health is important to all of us. “When is comes to helping those with a severe or enduring mental illness, the vision advocates a recovery-based approach. This means services will need to support individuals to rebuild their lives and achieve the goals they want…..The next stage must be to work on the specifics, but the challenge will be to do with so little resource.”

The Globe and Mail – October 31, 2009
Summary: According to a recent article in The Globe and Mail, the cost of mental illness to the Canadian economy is enormous – $51 billion a year. This includes $5 billion in direct medical costs, $9.3 billion in lost productivity due to short-term sick leave, $8.5 billion in lost productivity due to long-term disability and $28 billion attributed to “reductions in health-related quality of life”. Some other staggering statistics quoted in the article are:

• 500,000 Canadians every day are absent from work due to psychiatric and psychological problems.
• 40% of all disability claims involve mental health conditions.
• 18 % of workers in Canada have had a diagnosis of clinical depression.
  In addition, the World Health Organization estimates that “by 2020, depression will be the leading cause of disability on the planet.

ABC News – October 21, 2009
Summary: Actress Glenn Close is speaking out for the first time on television about mental illness in her own family and is teaming up with her sister, Jessie, in a public service campaign to promote a dialogue about a condition that the actress believes we should “talk about as openly as cancer or diabetes.” Jessie Close has bipolar disorder and Jessie’s son, Calen Pick, has schizo-affective disorder. Glenn Close is also the creator of BringChange2Mind, an organization with the purpose of raising awareness about mental illness and providing support and information to those affected. Jessie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 47, “after living with it probably her whole life,” said her sister. Her son was diagnosed at the age of 15 with schizo-affective disorder, which means he has both schizophrenia and bipolar disease. Jessie’s message to others is to “be patient with yourself, love yourself” and rely on the support of family and friends.

The Huffington Post – October 21, 2009
Summary: In an article in The Huffington Post, award-winning actress Glenn Close talks about the stigma of mental illness. Close’s own family has been deeply affected by mental illness: her sister suffers from bipolar disorder and her nephew from schizo-affective disorder. She writes, “There has, in fact, been a lot of depression and alcoholism in my family and, traditionally, no one ever spoke about it. It just wasn’t done. The stigma is toxic.” Despite progress with medicine and therapy to treat mental illness, the social stigma remains intact. What our society needs is more openness, candor and conversation about mental illness. We need to promote the understanding that many people, given the right treatment, can be full participants in our society. Close has started a non-profit organization, BringChange2Mind, to encourage open discussion about mental illness and to break through the silence and fear.