My Parents: 69th Wedding Anniversary Today!

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My parents, Elmer and Jean, were married 69 years ago today.  For health reasons, my father took his bride after the wedding and headed west to Colorado from Pennsylvania. He had no job, only a few dollars in a checking account, and a car that couldn’t be driven at night because the  headlights didn’t work. If I had been their parents, I would have been horrified.

But they made it, just like so many of the Greatest Generation.  My mother has taken a photo every anniversary. I posted a blog about their 67th anniversary along with their scrapbook. You can view it here. I need to update it.

Or maybe I will just wait until they hit 70 years!

WE’VE LOST HOPE: Dr. Dinah Miller of Shrink Rap Responds to Parents

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On Monday, I published a plea from parents whose son doesn’t think he is sick or needs help. Today, Dr. Dinah Miller, a Baltimore psychiatrist, author and popular mental health blogger, offers her advice to the same concerned parents.

Dear Pete,

We have tried to get our son professional help. I think he has bipolar disorder, although he possibly could have schizophrenia. We know he has an alcohol addiction. He has not cooperated with hardly anything, and we’ve been unable to get him to go to our local mental health center, although officials there said he is eligible for treatment.

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We’ve Lost Hope: A Plea for Help from Frustrated Parents

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Each week, I receive emails from parents seeking advice. I am not a trained therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker. I’m just another parent. But I feel compelled to answer most of these emails with suggestions that are based on my travels and personal experiences.

What follows is an email that is representative. In addition to publishing my response, I  have asked several highly-respected advocates to respond to the same email. I will print one of their responses each day this coming week.  I hope this week-long exploration will spark a helpful exchange of ideas and  give parents practical advice.

Dear Pete,

We have tried to get our son professional help. I think he has bipolar disorder, although he possibly could have schizophrenia. We know he has an alcohol addiction. He has not cooperated with hardly anything, and we’ve been unable to get him to go to our local mental health center, although officials there said he is eligible for treatment.

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What I Learned About Homelessness: Walking the Streets of Georgetown

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After I wrote CRAZY, I wanted to write a book about homelessness so I contacted Gunther Stern, the Executive Director of the Georgetown Ministry Center [GMC} in Washington D.C. and asked if I could spend some time with him and his staff. Georgetown is one of the wealthiest sections of the nation’s capital. It attracts the homeless because it is a fertile place to panhandle and it is one of the safer areas in the city to sleep outside at night.

Georgetown’s wealthy residents have always been adamantly opposed to having a homeless shelter operate inside their exclusive neighborhood. But after an elderly homeless man died from exposure in 1984 while  sleeping in a Georgetown telephone booth, the community was shamed into action.  Several churches agreed to open their sanctuaries at night to homeless individuals.   Between November and March, churches take turns. For two weeks, a congregation will provide an evening meal and overnight shelter to persons who are in need of lodging. When that congregation’s two-week stint ends, the homeless group moves to the next church. This alleviates the need for a full time shelter by taking care of the homeless during the winter months.

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How Much Do They Earn? Salaries of Nonprofit Mental Health Leaders

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This is the time of year when envelopes arrive in the mail from charities asking for donations. Before I contribute to charities, I like to learn how much their  top executives are earning.

According to the website, Charity Navigator, the median salary for the chief executive of a charity is $132,739.  Executives in major cities are paid more. CEOs in the Northeast earn an average of $156,914. Keeping those figures in mind, I decided to check the pay scale at mental health groups that are well-known or often mentioned in news stories.

I was surprised at how much some mental health executives were paying themselves, especially when their charities were losing money. me.

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Can Anyone Predict Dangerousness?

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Can psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners predict violence?

Because of the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus, in Tucson and, more recently, in Aurora, it’s an important question.

A recent article published in the Association for Psychological Science magazine examines trends in how mental health professions assess risk and predict violence. The article’s authors, John Monahan of the University of Virginia, and Jennifer L. Skeem, of the University of California, Irvine, begin by examining the mostly commonly used methods.

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