Mental

U.K.’s Film and TV Charity Launches Program For Better Mental Health

The U.K.’s Film and TV Charity has launched the Whole Picture Program, a two-year initiative designed to to improve the mental health and wellbeing of the 200,000 people who work behind the scenes in film, TV and cinema.

The Film and TV Charity has now secured £3 million ($3.87 million) in funding from Amazon Prime Video, Banijay U.K., BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, IMG, ITV, Sky, Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia to deliver the program that is supported by the BFI and backed by U.K. mental health charity Mind. The charity estimates that mental health problems, including staff turnover, cost the sector at least £300 million ($387 million) in losses each year.

The program will deliver a toolkit for mentally healthy productions; enhanced professional and peer support for freelancers; people skills and training guides; industry actions to improve behavior; and anti-bullying services and

By [email protected]_84 / October 14, 2020

health professional

mental health coronavirus coping symptoms tips emotions diana chavez

Diana J. Chavez, Special to The News-Press
Published 10:16 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2020

Diana Chavez (Photo: Special to The News-Press)

You notice the check engine light comes on and schedule a car inspection. You notice you are having flu-like symptoms and visit the doctor. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? When your interest in doing things dwindles? When you find yourself tired or sleeping less?

Perhaps chronic headaches, shoulder pain, nausea, chest tightness, or difficulties breathing have less to do with our physical health and more with our mental health. It is common to simply plow through these sensations often explaining them away by rationalizing, “I have a deadline… Work has been too stressful… I’ve been sick…” And this may be true.

However, ignoring these physical and emotional sensations, particularly after they’ve been around for a while, can negatively affect the connection between one’s physical and mental

By [email protected]_84 / October 14, 2020

health professional

Brightline Launches First Covid-19 Behavioral Health Indicator (COBI) to Help Parents Concerned About Children’s Mental Health

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Brightline, the first family-focused behavioral health platform for children and families, announces the launch of a new public health initiative to help parents learn about potential behavioral health impacts of Covid-19 on children’s behavioral health. The Covid-19 Behavioral Health Indicator (“COBI”) will launch online and be available for free, nationwide, on October 13 via www.hellobrightline.com/cobi.

COBI is a 30-question survey that helps parents inform themselves about how their family is doing in four key areas that may be linked to children’s wellness, including pre-existing medical and behavioral health conditions, direct effects of Covid-19, psychological stress, and family resilience. COBI is intended to equip parents with information to facilitate a conversation with a health care provider.

“As a mom of three young kids, these past months there have been so many times I have wondered if my kids are weathering

By [email protected]_84 / October 14, 2020

health professional

Train Faith Leaders to Tackle Africa’s Mental Health Needs

Africa, Headlines, Health

Opinion

In countries like Malawi, there are simply not enough mental health professionals to go around. The local faith community can help fill this void. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.

BLANTYRE, Malawi, Oct 14 2020 (IPS) – The world is actually in the throes of two pandemics. The first is COVID-19. The second is the wave of stress and anxiety, depression and substance use it has unleashed around the world. Most mental health disorders are treatable.

This so called “second pandemic” is raging in poor and wealthy countries alike. But across Africa, and in much of the Global South, people facing mental health crises have nowhere to turn.

The reason is that governments and aid agencies are not making the investments needed to provide these services. In the lead up to “World Mental Health Day,” the World Federation for Mental Health recently released new statistics on the share

By [email protected]_84 / October 14, 2020

health professional

A ‘second wave’ of mental health devastation due to COVID-19 is imminent, experts say

While the world struggles to manage the initial waves of death and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is mounting evidence accumulating that “a second wave” linked to rising rates of mental health and substance use disorders could be building, according to an article published Monday in the medical journal JAMA.”A second wave of devastation is imminent, attributable to mental health consequences of COVID-19,” wrote authors Dr. Naomi Simon, Dr. Glenn Saxe and Dr. Charles Marmar, all from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.”The magnitude of this second wave is likely to overwhelm the already frayed mental health system, leading to access problems, particularly for the most vulnerable persons.” This second mental health wave, the researchers suggested, will bring further challenges, such as increased deaths from suicide and drug overdoses, and will have a disproportionate effect on the same groups that the first wave did: Black and Hispanic … Read More

By [email protected]_84 / October 14, 2020

health informatics

Maternal mental health focus of upcoming conference | Local News

Demonstration (copy) — Demonstrators march in June to SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital for maternal justice in Madison. Black women are more likely than white women to have preterm births and to give birth to babies with low birthweight, which can have long-term implications for a child’s future development.

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES

The 2020 Multicultural Maternal Mental Health Conference, to be held online this month and hosted in Madison, will look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected diverse communities in politics, business, incarceration, preventive services and health care.

Organizer Shonita Roach, of Madison, said the event, held for the first time last October in Milwaukee, aims to bring awareness to the mental health needs of pregnant women and mothers from various cultures and to services available to help them. Many women suffer postpartum depression or other problems in silence, said Roach, whose 21-month-old son died in Chicago in 2002.

“This

By [email protected]_84 / October 13, 2020

health professional

Take care of your mental health this election season

Content

Regardless of political party, elections weigh on many Americans, and with long-lasting coverage, it can be difficult to escape the political noise. A Baylor College of Medicine expert offers advice to those experiencing distress throughout election season.

“There is uncertainty with change,” said Dr. Eric Storch, professor and vice chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and vice chair of psychology in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor. “People worry about how their lives will change depending on the election results or that the elected individual may not represent them or their values – this can heighten feelings of distress throughout the election.”

Keeping up with your mental health is crucial if you feel triggered by political events. If you’re experiencing heightened levels of stress due to the election, try to address those feelings by being an active participant in the political process:

Make your voice

By [email protected]_84 / October 13, 2020

health professional

Beyond the Stigma: Mental health challenges at college during a pandemic (Commentary)

Jim Malatras has been the chancellor of the State University of New York system since August 2020. From July 2019 until his appointment as chancellor, he was president of SUNY’s Empire State College.

There is often a lot of pressure and anxiety that comes with being a college student. While mental health issues among college students are not new, the Covid-19 pandemic is exacerbating them. In a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late June, 63% of 18-to-24-year-olds reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the prevalence of depression among graduate and professional students is two times higher in 2020 compared to 2019.

But like the great diversity of our students at one of our 64 campuses across the state, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Institutions must enlist health professionals in their community, maximize touchpoints and support layers, mobilize young people who want to

By [email protected]_84 / October 13, 2020

health professional

Study finds that unit cohesion may mitigate mental health issues from combat exposure

Concerns around the mental health of returning service members—particularly those with combat exposure—continues to dominate discussion amongst military and medical professionals.

A range of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and suicidal ideation, commonly surface in service members post-deployment. Honoring the service members who protect us, then, involves actively seeking to mitigate these effects and to protect them, too.

To this end, the U.S. Department of Defense funded a study to determine the impact of unit cohesion during deployment on post-deployment mental health—and the findings show that taking a more preliminary approach to addressing mental health may be the way forward.

“Our team identified unit cohesion, the shared identity and mutually supportive relationships that develop among members of the same unit, as the key potential factor for reducing the adverse mental health outcomes of combat exposure,” Flynn says.

Using longitudinal survey data

By [email protected]_84 / October 13, 2020

health professional

More Than Half of Americans Say Their Mental Health is Suffering Because of the Presidential Election, Survey Finds

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Political tensions in the U.S. are taking a toll on the wellbeing of Americans, especially younger adults, with 52 percent of the adult population reporting that their mental health has suffered due to the 2020 presidential election, according to results from a national CARAVAN® survey conducted on behalf of The Maple Counseling Center, a nonprofit mental health organization.

Stress and anxiety are the top factors among adults who say their mental health has suffered, with 31 percent of survey respondents experiencing more of these symptoms due to the election, followed by those who are feeling more worried (29 percent), and those who are undergoing more hopelessness (16 percent). Feeling angrier at other people’s political opinions, and not being able to sleep at night, rounded out the list of how Americans’ mental health has been impacted as a result of the upcoming election.

By [email protected]_84 / October 13, 2020