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Depression Screening Test to Become Part of Google Search Tool
Click here to see an article from Psychology Advisor about Google teaming up with NAMI to provide a depression screening test as part of the Google Search Tool.
Genetic Factors Shared Between Major Mood Disorder (MDD) and Alcohol Dependence
Click here for an interesting and informative article from Psychology Advisor on the genetic association between Major Mood Disorders (MMD) and Alcohol Dependency.
Mood Disturbances in Older Adults with Impaired Vision
Individuals who at risk of losing their vision often experience higher rates of anxiety than people who have already lost their vision.
Click here for a very informative article from Psychology Advisor on the topic of Mood Disturbances in Older Adults with Impaired Vision.
“Nanny” Cell Malfunctions May Contribute to Schizophrenia By Hugh Brady
A research team led by Dr. Steven Goldman at the University of Copenhagen may have uncovered some important clues about how schizophrenia develops. Schizophrenia has many causes and may, in fact, actually be several different diseases with overlapping symptoms. Goldman’s research looks at a set of causes different from what most research considers. Up until now, most research into schizophrenia has looked at defects in the neurons, the nerve cells that transmit messages to one another. But Goldman’s research looks at glial cells.
Glial cells are the support system for the neurons, and more than half of the brain’s mass is made up of these glial cells. Oftentimes a neuron is attended by 6 or 8 glial cells. One article calls them “nanny cells” because they support an nurture the neurons.
Glial cells come in two types, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes:
Oligodendrocytes help create the myelin sheaths that insulate and protect the axons and dendrites that extend from the central body of the neuron and connect to other neurons.
Astrocytes function in the synapses, the junctions between neurons, and help regulate the neurotransmitters that carry the nerve signals across the synapses.
Together the glial cells allow the neurons to, as one summary of the research puts it, “do what they do best – transmit messages.”
In the developing human embryo a particular type of stem cell, the progenitor cell, gives rise to the glial cells. Researchers suspected that a genetic defect in the creation of the progenitor cells may lead to defective glial cells, which in turn harm the functioning of some neurons and so gives rise to the malfunctions that characterize schizophrenia. In other words, malfunctioning glial cells lead to miscommunication between neurons and hence to schizophrenia.
It is often difficult to experiment on human brains – people do, after all, like to keep their brains intact. And mice, often the subjects of medical experiments, have brains and other systems that don’t function exactly as human brains and systems do. That is part of the reason new disease treatments that work wonderfully in mice often fail in human tests.
So Goldman and his team came up with an amazing way to experiment on mice; the modified mouse brains to more closely resemble human brains. Of course they remain mouse-sized brains, but they mimic more of the chemistry and cell functions of actual human brains.
Goldman’s team devised a way to seed mouse brains with progenitor cells from people living which schizophrenia. As the defective progenitor cells spread through the mouse brains, the mice developed symptoms very similar to some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, including severe anxiety, anti-social behavior and sleep problems. No way to tell, of course, if the mice were hearing voices or suffering from delusions.
The team then compared the results to mice whose brains had been seeded with progenitor cells from people without a mental illness. The mice receiving these progenitor cells behaved normally.
Glial cells are nerve cells that constitute the brain’s supportive tissue in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Glial cells constitute the largest group of nerve cells and their volume accounts for more than half of the human brain with 9-10 glial cells for each nerve cell. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only. Credit: OpenStax.
Neuroscientists have long believed that as the human brain matures, to goes through a process known as selective pruning in which redundant and unused neurons are discarded or pruned. One of the biggest prunings takes place in late adolescence just about the same time as schizophrenia begins to show itself. It is thought that errors in the pruning process lead to excess pruning and to the Illness. Goldman’s research team believes that errors in the progenitor cells may lead to abnormalities in the glial cells, and without the proper support of the glial cells, some of the resulting underperforming neurons atrophy. The body then sees them as excess and prunes them away.
Several genes that lead to the creation of progenitor cells have been identified and may point the way to the development of medications that can insure that the progenitor cells function correctly.
Goldman’s team thinks that continued research in this area may lead to the ability to infuse the brains of people with schizophrenia with properly functioning progenitor cells which could then create properly functioning glial cells and possibly repair the damage done by the illness.
Dr. Goldman noted, ““It was through studies of mice with human glial cells that we succeeded in testing how dysfunctional glial cells may cause abnormalities in the formation of the brain’s neural networks, which may in turn cause severe anxiety, anti-social behavior and severe sleep problems. We see these problems in the mice, just as in human patients. This is an important discovery because it will now enable us to develop methods that can counteract the unwanted development of progenitor cells “
Amazing, isn’t it?
For more information, see
http://neurosciencenews.com/glial-cells-schizophrenia-7139/
https://www.sciencealert.com/schizophrenia-found-to-be-caused-by-faulty-helper-cells-in-the-brain
South Suburbs of Chicago Job Opportunities
Oak Forest American Job Center - Free Services for job seeker.
August 27, 2017, Career Exploration Fair
The Career Development Ministry
The Senate Is Deciding The Future Of Mental Health Care
Senators are back from July 4th recess, where they heard from advocates like you about the harmful consequences of the Senate health reform bill (the Better Care Reconciliation Act).
Thank you for speaking up, but the fight is not over. The future of mental health coverage is being decided right now.
Currently, 1 in 5 Americans live with a mental illness but only half get needed treatment. This bill will make it even harder for people to get psychiatric medications, case management and mental health services.
If this bill passes, millions of Americans will lose coverage for mental health care.
Senators need to keep hearing from you. Tell them to oppose any health reform bill that:
Leaves fewer Americans with coverage for mental illness
Takes away protections for people with mental health conditions
Caps or limits Medicaid
Ends Medicaid expansion
Tell your Senators to #Act4MentalHealth to ensure that we have more coverage for mental health care, not less.
The Senate Is Betraying The Promise Of Better Mental Health Care.
One in five Americans are affected by mental illness and more than 50% do not receive treatment. We need more coverage for mental health care, not less.
The Senate health reform bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA), will take us backwards.
The BCRA will allow states to let health insurance plans drop mental health and substance use coverage. It is outrageous to even suggest that mental health coverage is optional.
The Senate bill will also devastate community mental health programs by cutting Medicaid funding, making it harder for people to get psychiatric medications, case management and mental health services.
It will result in less mental health care and shift people with mental illnesses into already-strained emergency rooms, hospitals and jails.
Help keep the promise of better mental health care alive. Tell your Senators: Vote NO on the BCRA.
Will the Senate Take Away Your Mental Health Care?
The Senate is discussing a version of the American Health Care Act and may take action soon. They have a decision to make: protect mental health care or make devastating cuts to Medicaid.
Medicaid is the foundation of our community mental health system. It is the main provider of mental health services for people with serious mental illness.
Many in the Senate want to cap Medicaid (a fixed amount of federal funding per person). If Medicaid is capped, it will be harder for people to get psychiatric medications, case management and mental health services. And some people will lose their eligibility for Medicaid.
Simply put, Medicaid caps would DEVASTATE mental health services.
Capping Medicaid would be a move in the wrong direction and push people with mental illness into costly emergency rooms, hospitals and jails.
We need more coverage for mental health care, not less.
Act today. Tell your Senators to take Medicaid caps off the table and protect mental health care.
NAMI and Advocacy: Staying United in the Face of Challenging Times
By Mary Giliberti, J.D. | Jun. 16, 2017
As I’ve been thinking about the upcoming NAMI National Convention, I wanted to share some reflections with all of you on advocacy—recognizing that not everyone will be able to attend at the end of June. Advocacy has always been at the core of NAMI’s mission. It was a passion of NAMI’s founders and remains so today. Why? Because advocacy is one of the best ways we can address the systematic injustices and disparities that people with mental illness and their families face every day.
I see these injustices firsthand across the nation. One of the most important responsibilities of my job as NAMI’s CEO is attending state NAMIconventions with our members and visiting places where people with mental illness are—such as the Cook County jail in Chicago, homeless shelters in San Francisco and early psychosis programs in Boston. I also talk with our members and staff after tragedies happen in their families because of mental illness, including suicide.
Like you, I am pained by our nation’s mental health crisis and how it affects the people I work with and serve. But I take some comfort in knowing that NAMI advocates work tirelessly to advance research, mitigate the tragic consequences that stem from lack of services and promote programs that offer promise and hope to future generations.
The power of NAMI’s advocacy is not in having a large team of lobbyists or a political action fund. In fact, we have neither. NAMI’s advocacy power comes from being a nonpartisan organization with passionate grassroots members who are willing to speak up, each with a different story, on behalf of people who live with mental illness—particularly those with the most serious conditions.
Advocacy has never been more important than it is today, as Congress considers an unprecedented assault on Medicaid, the backbone of services for people with the most serious mental illnesses. That’s why the location of our National Convention this year is so important: Washington, D.C.
NAMI will be unleashing the power of more than 1,000 NAMI advocates—a record number—to go to Capitol Hill and let their elected officials know that we need more research, more services and more coverage for mental illness, not less.
NAMI is leading the fight, along with colleague organizations, to protect Medicaid and insurance for people with mental illness. And again, our grassroots advocates are stepping up to the plate. This year, advocates across the country helped us send a record number of emails urging members of Congress to protect Medicaid for people with mental illness, including many of our nation’s veterans. With your help, our advocacy will continue to grow and, with it, our ability to fight threats and work for a better future for people with mental illness and their families.
As we head to Capitol Hill, it’s important to remind ourselves that our visits are building on significant policy accomplishments:
- Perhaps most exciting is the work we are doing on promoting early identification and intervention in the treatment of psychosis. Historically, there has been a lag of more than 10 years from the time symptoms of psychosis first emerge and the time an accurate diagnosis is made and treatment commences. During these years, once promising lives frequently go off track and dreams of school, work and independence are abandoned. First Episode Psychosis (FEP) programs are the most promising practices to emerge in decades and are expanding in communities across the country.
NAMI’s advocacy has been instrumental in making this happen. Our work led to a doubling of federal funding for FEP programs. NAMI is working closely with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to strategically expand these research-based programs so every young person experiencing psychosis and his or her family has access to the most effective care. NAMI has been a true catalyst for change: We’ve helped grow early psychosis programs from a handful of programs in four states to 114 programs across nearly every state in just a few years. The research conclusively establishes that while young adults are participating in these programs, they achieve better outcomes in school and work.
- NAMI’s advocacy also played a key role in the passage of mental health reform legislation in 2016 as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. NAMI sent over 100,000 emails to Congress and helped deliver 230,000 petition signatures. NAMI also worked with congressional staff to ensure that the act included key provisions to elevate the federal role in addressing the mental health crisis in America, including provisions that:
- Support local initiatives to divert people with mental illness from incarceration into treatment
- Increase crisis services and track inpatient psychiatric beds
- Provide training on the proper implementation of HIPAA
- Increase the number of mental health professionals
During our fight, we were grateful to longstanding champions such as Congressman Tim Murphy and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. We also found new supporters in the Senate to champion some of these provisions, including Senators John Cornyn and Chris Murphy, who will be speaking at convention. Senator Bill Cassidy, another leading advocate for mental health reforms in the Senate stated: “Without the support of NAMI, who tirelessly worked the hallways of Congress and implemented an impressive grassroots campaign, this legislation would not have been possible.”
- NAMI also leads the way in fighting for alternatives to incarceration, including implementing our Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs for police and other first responders. We don’t hesitate to get involved in cases that may not be popular, but reflect the worst abuses that occur when people with mental illnesses don’t get the help they need, including efforts to end the use of solitary confinement and the death penalty for people with mental illness.
- NAMI has also successfully advocated for research at NIMH on housing and mental health services. At a time when other programs were seeing budget cuts in 2017’s fiscal year, we saw funding:
- Increase by $53.5 million for NIMH
- Increase by $51 million for SAMHSA, including a $30 million increase for the mental health block grant program,
- Increase by $133 million for McKinney-Vento Homeless Act programs, including $10 million for new Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities, including mental illness.
The NAMI National Convention is rapidly approaching. I can’t wait to see NAMI members on Capitol Hill, advocating for more research and better services for people with mental illnesses. If you cannot join us in person, join our advocacy virtually. I look forward to working with all of you as we advocate together.
Ted Danson & Ken Duckworth Interview
Monday, June 5th, NAMI medical director Ken Duckworth was interviewed by host Ted Danson on the National Geographic's cable channel.
The interview will be on an episode of the EXPLORER series, titled "New Treatment for Mental Illness.". EXPLORER is cable television's longest-running documentary series.
The episode can be seen on Friday, June 9th at 10 p.m. ET (9 p.m. CST).
You can see a 2.5-minute preview by clicking here.
Tell Congress #DontCutOurCare
"[Medicaid] allows me to afford medications that have allowed me to go back to work — after panic attacks and self-injury kept me down for a long time," Marc M.
The House passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) in early May. The Senate is now drafting its own version of the bill and they are considering permanent changes to Medicaid, like per capita caps.
Per capita caps (a fixed amount of federal funding per person) may sound reasonable, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that they would cut $834 billion dollars from Medicaid funding over 10 years.
This would force states to slash mental health services and reduce eligibility for Medicaid, leaving an estimated 14 million fewer people covered by 2026.
Today, Medicaid is the only source of insurance coverage for millions of Americans with mental illness. Whether it's called Medi-Cal (California), HealthWave (Kansas), MassHealth (Massachusetts) or SoonerCare (Oklahoma) in your state, Medicaid provides a lifeline for people with mental health conditions to lead full lives.
We need your help to tell your Senators to say:
- NO cuts to Medicaid, a critical source of mental health services, especially for people with severe mental illness.
The Senate is also conducting changes to health insurance plans. Tell your Senators that any "fix" to the Affordable Care Act shouldn't be at the expense of people with mental health conditions. Tell your Senators:
- NO allowing plans to drop coverage of mental health and substance use.
- NO Charging people higher premiums if they have a pre-existing condition, like depression or anxiety.
- No yearly and lifetime limits on mental health coverage.
Tell your Senators #DontCutOurCare.
National NAMI AHCA Press Release
ARLINGTON, Va., May 25, 2017 – Today, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) noted that the newly released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score confirms devastating losses to mental health care in the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA).
“Under the American Health Care Act, it is estimated that 23 million Americans will lose coverage for mental health care by 2026, including 14 million who will no longer be covered by Medicaid,” said Mary Giliberti, CEO of NAMI. “This will force people with mental illness out of work, onto the streets, and in our jails and emergency rooms. All this will do is shift costs and overwhelm local communities, emergency rooms and law enforcement.”
According to the CBO report, the AHCA will slash $834 billion from Medicaid over ten years. “Medicaid is the cornerstone of the public mental health system. Cuts of this magnitude will deplete mental health services and jeopardize care for people with the most severe mental health conditions,” said Giliberti.
The CBO also makes it clear that premiums for health insurance will drop for younger, healthier people because older people and people with chronic conditions, like mental illness, will be forced to carry the burden and be charged much more for coverage. In addition, states will be able to allow health plans to no longer cover mental health treatment.
“People shouldn’t be charged more because they have a mental health condition and it’s outrageous that mental health coverage could be optional. No one would ever consider making coverage for diabetes or heart disease optional,” said Giliberti, “Mental illness does not discriminate by political party and it’s an issue that has strong bipartisan support. This CBO score makes it clearer than ever that the Senate should reject the AHCA and work to improve, not dismantle, our nation’s mental health system.”
This brings to light the need for us to consider helping NAMI bring awareness to issues that impact the population of patients living with mental disorders. One way for you to help is to get involved. Contact your local State Representative.