Search results for 'Target Zero'

The first priority in treating a mood disorder is ensuring that the person is out of immediate crisis. But should this be the end goal? Too often researchers, providers, family members, and peers consider a stable mood as a measurement of a successful outcome.

On April 1, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) kicked off a month-long program challenging the mental health community to raise expectations from fewer symptoms to zero symptoms. “Target Zero to Thrive” is a campaign to insist on new standards for research and treatment that raise the bar from stability to lives of wellness.

Twenty-one million people in the U.S. live with mood disorders, and persisting symptoms increase the likelihood of:

• relapse
• functional impairment that increases the challenges of work, family, and day-to-day living
• life-threatening co-occurring conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension
• death by suicide

According to Allen Doederlein, president of DBSA, “Living with a mood disorder can damage hope and lower expectations so a person may not expect or think they deserve a full life. We as peers, clinicians, researchers, and family need to help them expect and achieve more.”

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What’s more American than hot dogs, and fireworks on the 4th July? How about celebrating that we live in a country that allows us to have a voice in public policy and encourages us to exercise our freedom to stand up and be heard? Where should you begin? Who needs to hear your voice? Consider lending your support to fund the BRAIN.

Now that the Fireworks are Over, Let’s Really Celebrate the 4th of July Holiday
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is seeking $4.5 billion to implement the “Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies” (BRAIN) initiative. That makes this one of the more aggressive initiatives since the space race.

During a White House briefing in April 2013, President Obama stated the goal of the project is to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.”

While the executive branch has committed $1 million to jump-start the project, Congress needs to appropriate the majority of the funding. And we’re all going to need to do our part to educate them that funding the BRAIN is the right thing to do.

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During the month of June, Care For Your Mind explored with our readers the nuances of HIPAA regulations. Each weekly post included a short poll to assist in better understanding the views of the CFYM readership around this topic. The polls asked questions about individual privacy protection, as well as a family member’s right to be involved in a loved one’s mental health care.

Readers Reveal Thoughts about HIPAA Reform in Online Survey

CFYM readership while not self-disclosing, is positioned towards individuals living with a mood disorder, their families, and policy makers. It would be reasonable to believe that readers responding to the polls fall into one of those three categories. However, because respondents are not asked to self-disclose, one cannot not make any calculations about trends within those categories.

What can be determined from the poll results, is that further dialogue about individual privacy protection and the rights of family members to be included when a loved one’s mental health is at stake needs to continue.

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Gregory Simon, MD, MPH
Investigator, Center for Health Studies Group Health Cooperative

Can You Thrive with a Mood Disorder?

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance has designated 2014 as the Year of Thriving. Throughout the year, they are challenging the organization and the mental health community to set higher goals, to shift the conversation from “surviving” or “managing” a mood disorder to truly thriving.

In a recent DBSA podcast, Dr. Joseph Calabrese and I discuss the limitations of current treatment options for mood disorders and the need within the clinical and patient communities to shift expectations and raise treatment goals to complete remission of symptoms and sustained wellness.

We are challenging our entire field—clinicians, researchers, administrators, and policy makers—to set higher goals for mental health treatment. Our goal is not simply to control or reduce symptoms, but to eliminate them.

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Care for Your Mind

Fifty-four percent of people who died by suicide did not have a known mental health condition.

That’s a key message from the June 2018 issue of “Vital Signs,” published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (download). What should we interpret this number to mean?

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National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention with Families for Depression Awareness

It’s Suicide Prevention Month. What is happening with national suicide prevention efforts?

The steady increase in suicide rates in the U.S. since 1999 underscores the need for coordinated and comprehensive prevention efforts involving government agencies, communities, organizations, families, and individuals.

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Jill M. Harkavy-Friedman, PhD, Vice President of Research
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Roughly 40 percent of people who die by suicide were seen in an emergency room in the year prior to their death. Yet less than 50 percent would have received a mental health diagnosis there.

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