The effect of having an abortion

The JAMANetwork just published a study that looks at the mental health of women five years after either having or being denied an abortion. The study found that… …compared with having an abortion, being denied an abortion may be associated with greater risk of initially experiencing adverse psychological outcomes. Psychological well-being improved over time so …

Traumatized Syrians go online for mental health care

This ABC story lifts the curtain just a little on the effect of war on Syrians. Here’s a timeline of the Syrian civil war, up through May.

Massachusetts’ mental health system is broken

Read the Boston Globe’s Spotlight’s latest effort. And thanks, Jac, for sending the link. And don’t think, just because you don’t live in Massachusetts, that things are cool in your state. They’re not. If other states had these kinds of reporters, they’d tell sadly similar stories.

We simply cannot afford to balance our budget on the backs of people with mental illness

Connecticut is in a budgetary free-fall, but we need to apply the knife verrry carefully. We pay now, or we pay later, particularly when we cut programs for people with mental health issues. Connecticut is a leader in preventing and ending homelessness. Will this budget crisis set us back? Depends on how we make our cuts. I …

Can we talk about mental health now?

Lucy Steigerwald at Reason suggests the Aurora shooting might be our opportunity to talk about mental health in America. She writes: Maybe the problem isn’t Hollywood, a lack of Christian ethics, guns, Occupy Wall Street, nerds, or the Tea Party. Maybe the problem is crazy people sometimes shoot other people. And maybe what is most surprising …