mental health
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Texas Governor Signs ‘Weakened’ Sandra Bland Act Into Law
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Sandra Bland Act into law Thursday, in what was supposed to be a decisive move to address the issues that led to Bland’s death. As the Texas Tribune notes, the act obligates county jails to channel individuals with mental-health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, and to make it…
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No Pressure
The other day, I decided I was going to take a “writing day.” I had heard my writer friends speak of this often. They wake, have a cup of coffee or tea, eat breakfast, change their clothes, and then either sit at a desk or take themselves to Starbucks to work. They treat their writing…
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So I Just Became a Mental Health First Aid Instructor And Here Is What I Learned
I can breathe now. After spending the past 13 months trying to get accepted and five days powering through a dense curriculum and teaching simulations, I finally received my certification as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor. Therapy and chicken wings for everyone. I first heard of the Mental Health First Aid course as a…
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Shame and Other Pre-Existing Conditions
I go to stores at 3:15 on weekdays. Lunchtime is crowded with people rushing to squeeze in errands during the workday. Noon to 3 is for the stay-at-home moms killing time before they join the school-pickup lines. Anything after 5 is an absolute no unless I can get there an hour or two before closing.…
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Chirlane McCray on ‘the Invisible Disease’
The saying goes, “Healthy mind, healthy body.” But how often do we tend, acknowledge and nurture our mental health? Mental illness shouldn’t be dismissed as something to simply “walk off.” Nor will “manning up” do the job. And being pegged as “crazy” is worlds away from resolving the problem. Mental illness is a disease that…
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Nothing Can Prepare You for How Powerful The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Is
Writers tell stories in hopes that not only are they read but they also come to life. This is what has happened to Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which chronicles the tragic tale of Lacks, a 31-year-old black woman from Clover, Va., whose terminal-cancer diagnosis and undying cells ended up changing…
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Kanye West’s ‘Breakdown’ Subject of University Lecture
A professor at Washington University in Saint Louis is using Kanye West’s recent hospitalization as part of his course’s final lecture on mental illness. Jeffrey McCune’s lecture, titled “Name One Genius That Ain’t Crazy: Kanye West and the Politics of Self-Diagnosis,” will take a look at how someone like West can be considered both a…
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Giants: A YouTube Series That Tackles Mental Health and Masculinity in the Black Community
Issa Rae’s YouTube channel recently launched Giants, a new series written and directed by James Bland and starring Vanessa Baden, William Catlett and Bland himself. The series is about “three millennials determined to live life on their own terms, no matter the cost, [who] quickly learn that when life starts to kick your ass, you…
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Outside the House: How 1 Documentary Sheds Light on Mental Health in the Black Community
There’s a saying in the black community that what goes on inside the house shouldn’t be taken outside the house, and mental health has always been the secret many black people didn’t take outside. In Darnell Lamont Walker’s documentary Outside the House, he’s breaking down the barriers and stigmas when it comes to black people…
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Chicago Cop Who Killed College Student and Innocent Bystander Will Face No Charges
A Chicago police officer who shot and killed a college student and his downstairs neighbor by mistake will face no charges in the two deaths. The Cook County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the officer on Friday, saying that there was insufficient evidence that he was not acting in self-defense. On the day after…