Join PsychOdyssey in supporting NAMI Mercer’s 2013 walk! Here’s an invitation from PsychOdyssey’s Tom Pyle:

Five years ago, mental illness nearly sank my family. Good thing we found NAMI Mercer early. NAMI gave us first knowledge, then contacts, then help, then confidence to brave the storm. Once connected, we never sailed alone. NAMI Mercer became emotional ballast that helped us right out ship.

NAMI Walk Intro Video

Though still our seas may surge, all is better now. NAMI taught us how to navigate the maelstrom. With NAMI’s help, now our sails are trimmed, our ship is strong, our hand is steady, and our sights are set. Though our odyssey is long, we are homeward bound in hope to a full recovery!

We never forget how hard it was—and how hard it is still for all who still suffer the storm alone. Never too old and never too late, to help others learn the ropes yet faster and better, on May 22 I will receive a new academic degree, an M.S. in Psychiatric Rehabilitation–and I am dedicating it to NAMI Mercer’s 2013 NAMI Walk.

So better to help the next family, we must keep NAMI strong. Please walk with me in person or in spirit. Please help me re-provision NAMI Mercer, an essential, effective, and indispensable community service enterprise. NAMI Mercer’s 2013 Walk is NAMI Mercer’s major yearly friending and funding exercise. Please co-sponsor my walk with, if you can, a robust contribution.  It’s a good investment: NAMI helps so many families, as it has helped mine, to conquer mental illness.

For this Walk my personal goal is broad, deep, and quick… All 5s: in 5 days, at least 50 sponsors collectively for at least $5000 to sponsor my 5k walk! Can you help me get there? Can you be a “fiver” for me?

[Sponsor Tom's walk with a donation here.]

Glenn Close Teams Up with NAMI Walks

No one would wish a mental illness on anyone, to be sure. Yet, strange to say, it can have its silver linings. It can be an emotional firestorm, without a doubt. Yet, as fire tempers steel, so can the experience of mental illness temper a family’s soul, especially for the loved one who bears its cross.  NAMI plays a critical role in helping families steel themselves so to be better for their loved ones in need. NAMI helps transform the maelstrom from an inexplicable burden to, hard to believe, even an inimitable blessing. NAMI is a critical organization doing critical work.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support.

Cheers,

P.S. Donations after the actual walk date (May 19) are A-OK, too.

[Sponsor Tom's walk with a donation here.]

Tom Pyle: Why I Walk

Inspiration: Bring Change 2 Life’s “One Man Army”

 [Sponsor Tom's walk with a donation here.]

Navigate with others

]]> http://www.psychodyssey.net/?feed=rss2&p=4818 0 http://www.psychodyssey.net/?p=4807 http://www.psychodyssey.net/?p=4807#comments Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:57:02 +0000 admin http://www.psychodyssey.net/?p=4807 Continue reading →]]> Madonna, gazillionaire hitmaker, lives large in London.  Madonna’s brother, Anthony Ciccone, alcoholic homeless man, lives under under a bridge in Michigan. Brother Anthony says that his sister has abandoned him because of his addiction…

For the family of a loved one in the hellish maelstrom of co-occuring disorders (i.e., a psychiatric disability and a substance abuse addiction), there may come many torturous moments when abandonment may seem like the only option left. Addictions are often ruinous. Enormous resentments can bend a family to the breaking post. Yet we must always remember that 50% of all loved ones with psychiatric disabilities also wrestle with addiction.

There is no end of advice to such family members. “Detach with love.” “Don’t care more for one’s recovery than one cares for it himself.” “Protect yourself.” “Exercise tough love.” “Let go and let God.” There is wisdom in all these injunctions. But these are more easily said than done, especially for loving parents.

Psychodyssey has just discovered that The Huffington Post recently ran an excellent video panel of very interesting experts on the family struggle. It includes: Dr. David Sack, addiction psychiatrist and CEO of Elements Behavioral Health in California, Dr. Robert Meyers, psychologist and inventor of the CRAFT, the Community Reinforcement and Family Training” approach to family support; Mr. David Sheff, author of “A Beautiful Boy” (one of most riveting books I have ever read uon the effects of son’s addiction on his father), and Mr. Tom Scarborough, former high school teacher, current CEO of Nouvelle Candle, and former alcoholic. We commend it to your viewing. To see the panel discussion (20 minutes), click here.

To see NAPHS’ website, click here. To see all of PsychOdyssey’s national links, click here.

See AACP’s website here. See all of PsychOdyssey’s national links here.

“In my search for the value concept dialogue in mental health, I came across a collection of essays under the promising title, Outcomes Measurement in the Human Services: Cross-Cutting Issues and Methods in the Era of Health Reform. Edited by Jennifer Magnabosco and Ronald Manderscheid, two giants in the human services field, Outcomes first catalogues “overarching issues and methods””…[Read more]…

To read the entire review of Outcomes Measurement in the Human Services, click here. To see all of PsychOdyssey’s book reviews, click here.

The national health care debate may be playing more to emotion (i.e., increasing access) than to reason (i.e., improving delivery). The focus should not be provider cost-reduction. It should be patient/consumer care value-maximization.  Cost-reduction inevitably leads to reduced availability and quality. Value maximization leads to better care over a correct continuum, which ultimately reduces costs even more and better. We should not be be bending the cost curve down; we should be bending the value curve up.

The concept of value is now being much discussed in the world of general healthcare. It is time to  begin discussing it in the world of behavioral healthcare. PsychOdyssey is developing its own ideas and resources about this important subject. We are pleased to share some of them here, to help all of us to imagine a mental health system based on value, not just outcomes.

See PsychOdyssey’s “Imagine… A Mental Health System Based On VALUE” here. See all of PsychOdyssey’s imaginings here.

To see all of PsychOdyssey’s “Understand…” topics, click here.

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To see all of PsychOdyssey’s recommended videos, click here.

Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has created an interesting six-minute video in which Paul Keckley, the Center’s executive director, describes the seven mega-trends that will influence the healthcare industry in 2013. All seven reinforce an undeniable reality — that business as usual won’t do — and present a “new normal.” It goes without saying that simply recognizing the mega-trends won’t do. Accepting them and changing is key. In other words, the dictum — using another well-worn cliche – is “change or die.”

Here are the mega-trends as defined by Keckley:

1. Demanding demographics: The U.S. population is changing — it’s more diverse and older than it used to be. There are also large income disparities within that population. The ability to access insurance and the desire to have more healthful lifestyles are creating the a unique set of demographics that is engaging with their healthcare and demanding more from the healthcare industry than previously.
2. Strategic globalization: U.S. companies involved in healthcare are looking to expand overseas. Not only is there inherent demand from the local population but medical tourism is on the rise: 25 percent of consumers report that they are willing to travel for a medical procedure. It’s important to look beyond U.S. borders for growth given projections like the U.S. share of global drug sales will drop 31 percent by 2015. And it’s not just pharma or device companies that need to look for growth in foreign soil, but insurance companies, providers, information technology companies as well.
3. Unconstrained connectivity: Smartphones and mobile devices have heralded an era of unconstrained connectivity, and consumers now can access personal health records and electronic medical records online. But users want “control over their technologies that deliver information they want and need.” The healthcare industry will be forever changed by this “unconstrained connectivity” through the leveraging of technology.
4. Constrained resources: Alongside unconstrained connectivity stands the challenge of constrained resources in healthcare. Like other industries, healthcare industry suffers from a shortage in talent and faces difficulty in accessing capital. But sometimes the bill for healthcare services gets passed on to others, so sometimes the constraint is not immediately felt.
5. Accelerated consolidation: Functioning under constrained resources requires the need for a bigger platform especially to achieve sustainability and scalability are important. In healthcare, a fragmented system — with more than 400 insurance operators, 5,800 hospitals, long-term care and home care industries — will see a heightened focus on consolidation.
6. Big data: Massive amounts of data is being generated but in healthcare what has changed is the availability of tools to translate that data into relevant information. What is also new in healthcare is how much demand there is from consumers to access that data. Big data is what will separate winners from losers in healthcare.
7. Consumer discontent: Six out of 10 consumers are satisfied with the cost they pay for healthcare. More people view healthcare and its underperformance as a result of its waste and inefficiency. And as we move forward, people will talk less of patients and clinical trial subjects and more of consumers.

Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2013/01/what-are-the-seven-megatrends-that-will-redefinethe-healthcare-industry-in-2013-and-beyond/#ixzz2H8HF6iNP