Tagged: Mental Health

An audit of the Veterans Affairs office in Fayetteville says employees have not conducted proper follow-up procedures for veterans at a high risk of suicide.  Federal policy calls for offices to get in touch with high-risk patients for a month after they visit the VA hospital.  The audit says the Fayetteville office followed up with patients for two weeks in nine out of ten cases.  Fayetteville VA executive director Elizabeth Goolsby says the office has a large case load of high-risk patients.

"We regret that is the circumstance that they found," Goolsby says.

Treatment for mental illness that is safe, healthy, and not too expensive can be hard to find. But new research from  Duke University suggests that yoga might be effective in treating certain psychiatric symptoms.

The Latino immigrant population faces a host of unique problems when it comes to mental health treatment. Migration trauma and separation issues are just a few of their struggles. The population in North Carolina is underserved, which is why a group of mental health professionals formed the group El Futuro. The group serves the mental health needs of the state’s Latino population, and it is hosting a conference this Friday on the topic. Host Frank Stasio talks about Latino mental health with Luke Smith, executive director of El Futuro; and Karla Siu, clinical manager at El Futuro.

What is this ability to step into someone else’s shoes? To imagine how they feel - and to hurt for them or be happy for them?  Host Frank Stasio is joined by a panel of experts to discuss empathy, the trait that makes us uniquely human.

A public-private partnership is doing a good job of taking care of people suffering from mental illness. --- That, according to a new report from The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.

Three-way contracts were instituted more than four years ago as part of a new initiative from the Division of Mental Health. The contracts allow the state to buy beds in local hospitals to provide care for people who are in crisis. Mebane Rash is an Attorney with state Center for Public Policy Research.

The bible of the psychiatric community is undergoing a major revision. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness or DSM has just approved its fifth revision. The DSM-V includes big changes to certain categories, including depression, dementia and autism. Some say the changes go too far.