The Hurdalsjøen Recovery Center, which is a private psychiatric hospital located about forty minutes north of Oslo, on the banks of stunning Lake Hurdal, was set up by its director, Ole Andreas Underland, to provide “medication-free” care for those who wanted such treatment or who wanted to taper from their psychiatric drugs. Norway’s health minister was urging public mental hospitals to offer such treatment, and this private hospital stepped forward before any public hospital had taken the plunge.

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Anthropologists who study the psychiatric field recently had papers published in two highly influential journals. The New England Journal of Medicine featured a commentary by Gardner and Kleinman, “Medicine and the Mind — The Consequences of Psychiatry’s Identity Crisis” while “Merging Intensive Peer Support and Dialogic Practice: Implementation Lessons From Parachute NYC” by Hopper and colleagues was in Psychiatric Services. Arthur Kleinman and Kim Hopper are leaders in their field. For this reason alone, these papers are worthy of review. While they both call for or describe reform initiatives, they point us in different directions with regard to the future role of psychiatrists.

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William Collins has bought a memoir by Tanya Frank investigating her son’s schizoaffective disorder, extended from a New York Times feature which generated an “extraordinary response” from readers.
Assistant commissioning editor Grace Pengelly acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Finn at C&W. Zig-Zag Boy will be published in spring 2021.
The memoir, developed from the feature "Unmoored by a Psychotic Break", will detail the life-changing experience of caring for a teenager with psychosis and highlight the ways in which mental disorders forever alter the relationship between mother and son.

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In an effort to help break down stigmas surrounding mental health, "CBS This Morning" broadcast a special live audience event, "Stop the Stigma: A Conversation About Mental Health." Guests include "Queer Eye" star Karamo, a former social worker, mental health advocate and relationship expert who will discuss his experience with depression, and Cynthia Germanotta, who founded Born This Way Foundation with daughter Lady Gaga, about how mental illnesses affect a family.

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Based on successful program in Trieste, Italy. Read the entire paper below

Tiffany Martinez was a 17-year-old college freshman when she began hearing voices, seeing shadowy figures and experiencing troubling, intrusive thoughts. Her friends at the University of Southern Maine, where she was majoring in psychology, noticed that she was acting strangely and urged her to get help.
They most likely saved her from a crippling mental health crisis, prevented the derailment of her education and ultimately enabled her to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner who can help other young people avert a psychiatric crisis

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By Nev Jones, Ph.D.

In an important and provocative study reported in this issue of Psychiatric Services, Cook and colleagues detail findings stemming from a rigorous and well-powered investigation of self-directed care for adults with serious mental illness living in Texas. The investigators found significant improvements in multiple key domains, including recovery, self-esteem, coping, autonomy support, and employment and education, all at no additional cost.

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