Ned Vizzini ~ April 4, 1981 – December 19, 2013 If you’ve enjoyed reading young adult (YA) books or if you work in the field of behavioral health, then there is a good chance you know of Ned Vizzini and his books that deal with depression, bullying, and making connections in the real world. For...Read More

One step at a time…implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 On November 8, 2013, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury issued a press release that outlined their final rule increasing parity between mental health/substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits as applied in group and...Read More

A county locator map of California, with San Francisco County highlighted and enlarged in red. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) San Francisco Behavioral Health Court celebrates 10th Anniversary Have you ever heard of a Behavioral Health Court?  There is a good chance your answer to that question is “No!” However, it turns out that a number of...Read More

Quitting cigarette smoking is difficult… Have you ever smoked cigarettes? If your answer to this question is “yes”, then you know how hard it is to quit. First of all, cigarette smoking is very addictive. Secondly, cigarette smoking is still legal in our country and cigarettes are available in almost every convenience store, gas station,...Read More

Side Effects will open nationwide this weekend “one pill can change your life…” Over the past few months many movies have debuted which deal with mood disorders, addiction, alcoholism, and depression. We have posted about a few of these movies and it seems that our followers enjoyed reading these posts. For the record, while we...Read More

States rethinking mental health care cuts Yesterday morning the news was abuzz with headlines like this “states rethink mental health cuts after shootings.” Both the Associated Press and Reuters authored reports which are now being carried on the major news network and cable channels. Of course, the shootings being referenced are the theater shooting that...Read More

Picture of Aaron Swartz (Photo credit: Wikipedia) “Cryptic” message on Twitter feed… Do you use the social media software Twitter? If so, did you ever notice that sometimes you read a tweet about a person and you wonder “should I know this person?” On Friday, January 11, 2013, there was one such tweet posted around...Read More

Look For The Silver Lining Look for the silver lining When e’er a cloud appears in the blue. Remember some where the sun is shining, And so the right thing to do, Is make it shine for you. A heart, full of joy and gladness, Will always banish sadness and strife. So always look for...Read More

Have you ever been drawn into a family medical emergency? Most times the diagnosis is straightforward: The patient is evaluated during an office visit or presents at an emergency room and after reviewing the symptoms and perhaps running a few routine tests a course of treatment is proposed for the patient. Occasionally the diagnosis is...Read More