Treatment

Thinking Outside the Box to Treat Serious Mental Illnesses

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Chances are you may not be familiar with cognitive enhancement therapy, or CET. It’s a rehabilitation-focused approach which has been shown to improve thinking, memory, attention and other brain functions among individuals with schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses such as severe depression, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder. According to Ray Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Center for Cognition and Recovery in Cleveland, Ohio, CET is “physical therapy for your brain,” since it targets many of the common cognitive (thinking) difficulties seen among …

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Anger Management for Voters?

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Guest Blog by Joan Cook, Ph.D. It’s hard not to feel all the anger spilling out at presidential election campaign rallies, particularly from the fans of Donald Trump. As a psychologist who’s spent a lot of her professional life working with combat veterans, I’m very comfortable with intense trauma-related anger. But the causes and effects of sustained anger among voters are less clear to me. Anger is a normal, healthy emotion. It becomes problematic when it is experienced too frequently, …

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Take the “What Do You Know About Mental Health Medications?” Quiz

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Perhaps you or someone you care about takes medication to help manage a mental health condition. There’s a whole alphabet soup of such medications, from Abilify to Zyprexa and everything in between. There’s also a lot of inaccurate information out there about these types of medications. How savvy are you about the basics of mental health medications? Take this quick quiz, saying “True” or “False” for each of the 10 questions. The answers and explanations can be found below each question. …

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Benefits of University-Based Mental Health Training Clinics

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For over 26 years, a significant part of my job was to direct a university-based mental health center at the University of Kentucky (UK). The center’s mission is to provide effective and affordable mental health services to the community and to provide a site to train doctoral students in the Psychology Department’s clinical psychology Ph.D. program. These centers, also known as ‘training clinics,’ are found on many university campuses. They are typically affiliated with graduate programs in clinical or counseling …

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Psychiatric Advance Directives: A “Living Will” for Mental Health Treatment

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It’s likely you’ve heard of a “living will,” a legal document that outlines one’s preferences for their medical treatment in the event of a serious or terminal illness which renders them unable to express their wishes. But did you know there’s something like a “living will” for mental health care? It’s usually called a “psychiatric advance directive” or a “mental health advance directive.” It’s an important tool to know about, especially if you or someone you care about may be …

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How to Support Someone During a Psychiatric Hospitalization

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If someone you care about has been hospitalized related to a mental health condition, you may have found this situation confusing and overwhelming, and you may have felt you weren’t well-equipped to handle it. This can be even more stressful if it’s the first time you’ve ever faced this challenge. I worked for many years with patients and their families in psychiatric hospitals and I’ve found several tips and strategies that can make this difficult time perhaps just a little …

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8 Reasons Why People Don’t Get Treatment for Mental Illness

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It’s probably no big surprise that many people with mental health issues don’t readily seek treatment for their concerns. But how widespread is this pattern? A report by the World Health Organization reviewed rates of psychiatric treatment usage across 37 research studies. The findings are unbelievable. Between 30 and 80 percent of people with mental health concerns never receive treatment. From this analysis, the average non-treatment rates for specific disorders were: schizophrenia (32%), bipolar disorder (50%), panic disorder (55%), major …

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