Suicides triple in wake of Hurricane Katrina The emotional effects of seeing homes, neighborhoods and lives destroyed continue to plague residents of the Gulf Coast more than a year after the ...
Author Archive
Primary Care
Primary Care: A key to suicide prevention Suicidal patients. They’re passing through the offices of internists, family practitioners and other primary care providers (PCPs) in droves, often ...
Coming tsunami
“The current mental health delivery system is inadequate and unprepared to address the needs associated with the anticipated growth in the number of older persons requiring treatment for ...
Violent end for cultural icon
American “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson exemplified a male psyche of independence, strength and resistance to seeking help. Thompson, who died by suicide at age 67, had struggled with ...
Dying for help
Depression. Hopelessness. Lack of resiliency. All risk factors for suicide—and in all genders and age groups. These factors often appear during a time of intense change in a person’s ...
Dispelling denial
Increasing treatment-seeking behaviors H. Westley Clark will never forget the day in 1963 when a young man in his Detroit neighborhood shot himself. “I didn’t understand why he would do that. ...
Apart and alone
Bob Stern was one of a kind. He was a man’s man. A free spirit and adventure seeker who enjoyed being different and more capable—in his estimation—than others. Bob was a calculated risk taker, ...
Underdiagnosed, undertreated
FACT: Depression is not normal. It is a serious and potentially life-threatening illness with estimated costs of $44 billion annually in the U.S. FACT: Depression is a disorder that, much like ...
Physician education is key
Physician education in depression prevents suicide. So does restricting access to lethal means. This is borne out by a comprehensive review of research literature from 1966 to June 2005 for ...
Incarcerated youth
On any given night in juvenile detention facilities across the United States, more than 1900 vulnerable youths are warehoused as a last resort while awaiting mental health treatment that is not ...