Newly minted pastor Ed Stetzer, writing in CNN.beliefnet, writes of his dealings with a man in his congregation. This person would often disappear for days at a time, and later Stetzer would hear that the fellow had spent hours praying the psalms. Later the man killed himself, leading Stetzer to reflect of aproaches churches could use to better engage parishioners with mental illness.

This led Spetzer to reflect on the kinds of practices that would lead to better acceptance of persons with mental illness. One of these is to view the church community as a refuge, as a place of welcome or safety. It is intriguing that the meaning of the word "asylum"—which not has such a negative connotation—means safe place or sanctuary.

Here are some worthwhile books that can be ordered from the American Counseling Association (ANA):

1. Hays, D. G. (2013). Assessment in Counseling: A Guide to the Use of Psychological Assessment Procedures. Fifth Edition.

This is a bestselling text, and the latest version includes updates and changes in assessment procedures. Test selection, interpretation of findings, and communication of these to others in a professional manner are covered. More than 100 tests are described.

The issue of assessment may be particularly important for those seeking masters-level licensing in counseling fields—some disorder, e.g., schizophrenia and major depression, among others, must be seen under supervision.

Most of us, unless we have the personalities of saintliness, find ourselves in an irritable mood once in a while. Parents may be particularly prone to these episodes. One hopes that they pass without even a cranky word; although it's difficult to stifle one's facial expression.

Justin Meyer, writing in the Washington Post, brings refreshing honesty to this topic. He hangs up on customer representatives. He watches his children on the playground with the guardedness of a Papa Bear. When driving, he says, "I cut off other drivers in traffic, then flip them the bird."

As Edward R. Murrow said, there are two sides to every story. Our previous probing into an increase and acceleration in funding for research into the brain waxed positively. A different viewpoint—now taken by major pharmaceutical industries—suggests that their interest in brain research is waning. Reuters reports the following:

"Many pharmaceutical companies harbor deep doubts about whether neuroscience is worth their investment dollars as a boom period for once-highly profitable psychiatric medicines comes to an end and new drugs prove hard to find."

President Barack Obama made headlines with his proposal to encourage American scientists to work toward understanding the great mysteries of the brain. Done as a massive project, this could rival past collective enterprises such as Getting a Man to the Moon; when President Kennedy suggested this, it took everyone's breath away. It looked unattainable in the early 1960s. But the country did it.

The new project has garnered unusual bipartisan support.

Since the Greek philosophers there has always been great interest in the brain. St. Thomas Aquinas believed it was necessary but not sufficient for human consciousness. Descartes believed there was an interaction between the brain and the soul: melding somewhere in the pineal gland.

Many other philosophers have speculated that consciousness is a byproduct of the brain itself and concluded that we are the products of the natural forces we are comprised of. As such, our lives our determined by the forces of chemistry, biology, genetics, and past experience.

Several months ago the Cuomo administration announced that budgets for nonprofit agencies serving the developmentally disabled would be cut.
This had led to an outcry from parents, community members, and those who work at these agencies. Recently it was announced that the cuts would be changed.

Although this is helpful, it still leaves most organizations with expenses that would not be covered by incoming monies. And the loss will be substantial.

The Mid-Hudson Valley in New York State may be atypical from many other localities: it has the highest proportion of developmentally disabled persons in the country. Over 10,000 developmentally disabled residents from Willowbrook, Letchworth Village, and Wassaic Developmental Center have been re-integrated into the community. A large number of jobs—private and nonprofit—are part of the caring network.

Federal budget cuts, and state cuts, will hurt the families and people with developmental disabilities, as well as reduce many jobs. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports this morning.

Several weeks ago Evander, as part of the series of films on mental health, posted a review of Fear Strikes Out. This unique story--coming out mid-point in outfielder Jimmy Piersall's career—highlights Piersall's emotional problems and strange behaviors: talking to Babe Ruth's statue in the Yankee Stadium outfield, squirting home plate with a water pistol so the umpire could see it better, and—ominously—having a temper tantrum while flailing is bat in the dugout with teammates nearby.

Paul Harvey might have said at this point, "and in a minute, we'll tell you the rest of the story."

Consumers of mental-health services may not realize the extensive system of codes that go into insurance billing and medical records, both for mental-health services and other medical services. For mental health, every person who receives insurance reimbursement receives a diagnostic code from the most current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, as well as a code describing the service. The codes are called CPTs (Current Procedural Terminologies).

There are nearly 300 diagnostic codes in the DSM IV TR. These range from well-known and common conditions such as major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. Lesser known diagnoses such as Munchausen's syndrome are also included. The clinician is also able to note a secondary code if a learning disorder, developmental disorder, or personality disorder is diagnosed.

After physicists split the atom, unanticipated positive effects emerged—such as medical isotopes—and many negative ones as well. Where do we store the waste? How do we understand fallout and its deadly effect? What happens when there are nuclear plant accidents?

Biologists work in a similar environment as they work to split the genome. Once again, there may be negative effects unrealized. One is the temptation to use genetic manipulation to "improve" humanity. A look at what happened a century ago gives pause. Then, and now, genetics may be viewed as a way to enhance human thinking and mental health.

It seems we are reminded every day about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It reveals itself in soldier suicides, which are occurring in a way that is more than we can bear. Shootings continue. In one city (Chicago), one mother has been so badly traumatized: She has lost four children over the years to street violence.

With all of this going on, it is good to review some of the things we know about PTSD. No doubt there would be a Nobel Prize for someone who found a fully effective treatment for everyone. This may never happen, but there are some things we know that help us to make a realistic assessment about what we know and what we don't know.

More and more in our society, any kind of testing that compares people with each other is viewed negatively. Different kinds of testing: No Child Left Behind, End of Year testing, and Intelligence Testing are all types of testing that come under criticism. Here is a different spin on the kinds of tests given by psychologists. In all that follows, assume that "testing" is always linked with "assessment"—the skilled interpretation that takes other factors into account.

Testing helps to resolve real-life problems. Many psychologists work with people at important decision points in their lives: placing children in schools, consulting in medical situations, or advising in medical and clinical situations. Testing can provide more data than observation or interviewing alone.

Testing can discover strengths and weaknesses. Joseph Matarazzo, former President to the American Psychological Association, likened test-givers to athletic coaches in that helpful feedback—affirming strengths and developing strategies for weaknesses—can be given. Coaches, and testers, may even become cheerleaders at times.

Testing can serve both individuals and groups. In many situations, testing may be conducted to help an individual: a college student takes an alcohol screening test to see if drinking has progressed beyond "experimenting" and has become a problem; an MMPI may be given to a middle-aged man at repeated intervals to see if his depression is responding to medication.

A new documentary film presents the emotional health history of a famous American family of artists—the Hemingways—according to CNN, whose sources we quote. This film, Running from Crazy, premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival. Oprah Winfrey is executive producer.

"'Suicide has no rhyme or reason,' [Mariel] Hemingway said. 'Some people, it's 20 dark minutes of their life that they decide to take their life that come out of the blue. It's very random, it's very frightening.'

From Counseling Today, some recommendations of new books:

*The Danger-to-Self-or-Others Exception to Confidentiality (C. Ahia, University Press of America)

This topic has been one that has been in the news this past year with tragedies including the movie theater shooting, train deaths in NYC, as well as the Newtown tragedy. The subject is an important one and there are many grey areas for clinicians—and a choice either way can involve important legal repercussions. This book will be an asset to clinicians when clients become dangerous to themselves or others and the clinician has to decide whether or not to breach confidentiality.

Peggy Noonan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, suggests that we listen to Eugene Kennedy, who spoke about the Newtown tragedy in a much different manner from other commentators: He does not believe that the many "solutions" bandied about will make children (or ourselves) safer. Rather, it is time for us to reflect on this event as a blow to our heart and what this tells us about our own vulnerability. Kennedy was interviewed by Andrew Malcolm and Melissa Clouthier in a podcast at Investors.com

On December 20, 2012, the American Psychiatric Association sent the following letter to Congressional leaders in Washington:


To: Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader McConnell, & Minority Leader Pelosi:

I am writing on behalf of the leadership and members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the medical specialty representing 36,000 psychiatric physicians, to convey our deepest sympathies to the families of the Newtown, Connecticut, victims of last week’s unspeakable tragedy. These events have touched us all, and like other Americans, we struggle to come to terms with and understand this profoundly inexplicable horror. We stand ready to do whatever we can to help alleviate the sufferings caused by the tragedy, and to help the survivors cope with life after a trauma of this unimaginable magnitude.

We know that you, as Congressional leaders, seek answers to the causes of such tragedy, along with effective responses. We respectfully urge you to proceed calmly and with deliberation to address both. Stigma remains one of the greatest barriers to early identification, intervention, and treatment for Americans seeking help for mental illness, and we hope that Congress will avoid making generalized assumptions about persons now in or seeking treatment for mental illness. The vast majority of violence in our society is not perpetrated by persons with serious mental disorders. Research suggests that individuals with mental illness engaged in regular treatment are considerably less likely to commit violent acts than those in need of, but not engaged in, appropriate mental health treatment (American Psychiatric Association, Resource Document on Access to by with Mental Illness, 2009).

Word from ABILITIES FIRST in Poughkeepsie, NY

October 5, 2012, Poughkeepsie, NY—As Dr. Lori Crispi’s term on the board of Abilities First, Inc., a Dutchess County based nonprofit that serves children and adults with disabilities, was coming to an end, she felt that she couldn’t just walk away. “I enjoyed being part of the organization so much, especially the work I did on a committee that allowed me to be around the adults with disabilities that the organization serves. It just didn’t feel right walking away, I wanted to do more.”

One of the areas of the organization in need of support had just the opportunity for Crispi, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Marist College. Abilities First’s Work Training Center (WTC) is a vocational program where adults are able to do paid work for private businesses with the assistance and support of Abilities First staff who are trained in working with adults with disabilities. Until 2009 the WTC was able to offer an adult education program through Dutchess County BOCES, who provided the staffing until funds for the program were no longer available. The participants at the Work Training Center were not happy. “For the past three years not a week goes by that one of our participants doesn’t ask me when the program is coming back,” says Charlie Bender, Director of WTC, “these are adults with disabilities that were school aged at a time when educational opportunities for them were limited or not available at all. Many of them have the capacity to learn but have never been given the opportunity.”

Previously I've written about Recovery International, founded by psychiatrist Abraham Low in the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Low initiated a revolutionary brand of treatment that we now call cognitive therapy: by changing one's thoughts, one could change troublesome feelings and through practice attain better mental health. Dr. Low used the word apprenticeship to denote the long-learning period needed to put his ideas into practice.

One of his most beloved books is Manage Your Fears, Manage Your Anger. This is a compendium of lectures he gave during the last two years of his life, recorded on tape and then transcribed. By reading them, one obtains not only an excellent overview of the Recovery method, but a glimpse into Dr. Low's compassionate but directive style.

Following are passages that give a glimpse at Dr. Low's personality and style.

Since the Supplement to the U.S. Surgeon General's Report Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity—A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, several events have occurred. These, say Lonnie R. Snowden, have established a national commitment to understanding African American-White American treatment disparities, their consequences, and opportunities for their reduction.

Snowden's article, "Health and Mental Health Policies' Role in Better Understanding and closing African-American-White American Disparities in Treatment Access and Quality of Care" appeared in the October 2012 Special Edition of American Psychologist.

Two important areas in mental health are prevention and resiliency. Prevention includes all efforts to prevent a person from developing a mental-health problem. One of the most effective prevention programs has been Head Start—from the 1960s, these centers have been a path for positive adjustment for many young persons of disadvantaged backgrounds. Another prevention program is the AMHF grant to Astor Services—we are hoping and trying to learn how to prevent schizophrenia and other serious psychoses among at-risk teens.

Related to prevention is resiliency: the quality of bouncing back from stress, staying at a high level or even becoming stronger when facing adversity. In the past decade numerous books have been written on how to inspire the development of resilient children.

These scholarly based endeavors are laudatory. But are we missing the great efforts in prevention of mental health problems and resiliency-building in an organization so well known to everyone that it risks becoming a mere brand of favored cookies?

A new commemorative coin, authorized by Public Law 111-86, honors the centennial of the founding of the Girl Scouts by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia on March 12, 1912. Current CEO Anna Maria Chavez said, "The Girl Scouts is committed to girls' leadership development and training and being the best leadership experience for girls. That will certainly continue to drive our work." The unveiling of a commemorative coin, the USA Centennial Silver Dollar of 2013, was noted in the November 2012 issue of The Numismatist.

Marilyn Reback, in the article "Girl Scouts Centennial Dollar Designs Unveiled," notes—