The Infinite Mind

Funding for Mindful Art
Grants for Young Artists with Disabilities (Deadline: June 19, 2009)

VSA arts, an international, non-profit organization working to help create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts, and Volkswagen Group America are now accepting entries for Accelerate, a juried exhibition  of young emerging artists with disabilities.   

The program is open to artists between the ages of 16 and 25 who are living in the United States and who have a physical, cognitive, mental, or sensory disability. 

Submissions must be original  work completed within the last three years and after the onset of disability.  Eligible media include, but are not limited to, paintings and  drawings (oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil, or charcoal), fine  art prints, photography, computer-generated prints, digital art,  and time-based media (video, film). Work must have a visual component. Both representational and abstract work are welcomed.   

The competition will present one grand prize of $20,000, a first-prize award of $10,000, a second-prize award of $6,000, and twelve awards of excellence of $2,000 each.   Complete entry guidelines are available at the VSA arts Web site.

Psychiatric Unit Run by City Accused of Abuse

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

February 5, 2009

The federal government has documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients at the psychiatric unit of a city-run Brooklyn hospital where a woman died in June on the floor of the emergency waiting room while staff members ignored her.

After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice portrayed the unit at Kings County Hospital Center as a nightmarish place where patients were not treated for suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and were frequently abused by other patients.

The details are laid out in a 58-page report to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that was made public on Thursday.

The investigators found that the psychiatric service operated like a prison. The report said that instead of meaningful treatment and diagnosis, the patients received frequent visual checks by the staff, and that even when patients were supposedly under watch, violence and attempted suicides occurred.

Among the most serious incidents the report documented were an October brawl among six patients that left one needing surgery, and an autistic patient being forced to perform oral sex in November. The report also included allegations that a woman was raped and that a 14-year-old was forced to engage in oral sex by a 16-year-old.

Bold new British mental health anti-stigma campaign is launched

"Time to Change" is a British public mental health awareness campaign aimed at ending discrimination faced by people who experience mental health problems.

The program involves 35 projects, and is funded  by England's public lottery fund and more than $3 million from British Comic Relief.  The program is evidence-based, and is being evaluated by the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London. At its heart are the personal experiences of people with mental health problems.

The campaign includes: local community projects; a national high-profile campaign; a mass-participation physical activity week; legal test cases; training for student doctors and teachers; and a network of grassroots activists combating discrimination. 

See more at http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/

View Public Service Annoucement from campaign: 

Another example of an apparent mental health inpact of the nation's economy; this time from New Mexico. 

Eviction notice leads to SWAT situation

January 31, 2009

LA LUZ, N.M. (KRQE) - Police have a home in Otero County surrounded Friday night, after the owner refused to obey an eviction order from the Otero County Sheriff's Department.

The New Mexico State Police, Las Cruces Police, Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department, Otero County Sheriff's Department and New Mexico Border Patrol are all assisting the SWAT standoff in La Luz, NM.  La Luz is a small community just north of the town of Alamogordo.

Approximately 11:30 Friday morning, Otero County Deputies showed up to a home on Cottonwood Canyon Road in La Luz to serve an eviction notice. The owner of the home refused to leave and then fired at least one shot at the deputies, shooting out the windshield of police unit.

Captain Ledbetter with the Otero County Sheriff's Department tells News 13 that, as of 8:00 p.m. Friday night, the standoff continues with two or three people in the home. At least one person armed. All residents in the area are being asked to stay inside their homes for safety.

Ledbetter went on to say that police are in touch with someone inside the home and negotiations continue. Two deputies at the scene suffered minor injuries.

Indiana University: 

Observers of first dates can predict outcome, study shows

Interested or deceptively flirting? Observers of first dates try to predict dating outcome in speed-dating study.

January 30, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- When it comes to assessing the romantic playing field -- who might be interested in whom -- men and women were shown to be equally good at gauging men's interest during an Indiana University study involving speed dating -- and equally bad at judging women's interest.

Researchers expected women to have a leg up in judging romantic interest, because theoretically they have more to lose from a bad relationship, but no such edge was found.

"The hardest-to-read women were being misperceived at a much higher rate than the hardest-to-read men. Those women were being flirtatious, but it turned out they weren't interested at all," said lead author Skyler Place, a doctoral student in IU's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences working with cognitive science Professor Peter Todd. "Nobody could really read what these deceptive females were doing, including other women."

Place's study, published in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science, focused on the ability of observers to judge romantic interest between others because this ability has evolutionary benefits when it comes to finding a mate. Decisions that other people around us make, said Place, can influence or inform our own choices.

"So, if you walk into a room and there's 20 people you've never met before, being able to know which individuals might be available and which are clearly smitten by others can make you more efficient in finding your own romantic interest to pursue," he said.

The New York Times reported this tragedy, which stemmed from the economic crisis.  As with the September 11th attacks and Hurricane Katrina, it has to be questioned what is being done to deal with the mental health impact of the economy. 

 

January 28, 2009

Man Kills His Wife and 5 Children

By REBECCA CATHCART and RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

LOS ANGELES — A man shot and killed his wife and five young children before taking his own life Tuesday, apparently out of despair after the couple lost their jobs at a hospital, the police and city officials said.

Officers responding to 911 calls placed by the man, Ervin A. Lupoe, and by a television station to which Mr. Lupoe had sent a fax around 8:30 a.m., found seven bodies in a house in Wilmington, a working-class neighborhood near the Port of Los Angeles.

A police spokesman said the bodies were identified as Mr. Lupoe; his wife, Ana; their 8-year-old daughter and two sets of twins (5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys).

Mr. Lupoe had telephoned and sent a fax to KABC-TV that indicated “he was despondent over a job situation and he saw no reasonable way out,” said Lt. John Romero, a police spokesman.

Will Wonderlands never cease?

Once upon a time, in 2000 to be exact, ABC-TV launched "Wonderland," a dramatic series produced by Peter Berg ("Hancock" and "Friday Night Lights"). The program told the stories of patients and doctors at the fictional New York City mental health facility, Rivervue Psychiatric Hospital, which was based on Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital.  

By the time the credits had finished rolling on the first episode, there was an immediate outcry from mental health advocates over what they said were the show's contrived story lines and stereotypical depictions of people with mental illness.  The show's critics pointed to one patient shown drooling into a public spring water cooler, another patient who erupted in the emergency room and used a pencil to stab a pregnant doctor in her stomach, and another who wildly shot six people in New York's Times Square before attempting suicide.   

A coalition of 15 major national mental health organizations maintained there was nothing redeeming about the program.  Bob Carolla of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said at the time, "This series exploits the most narrow view of mental illness and perpetuates relentless images of despair."  By the time the second episode aired a week later, ABC announced it was pulling the plug on the series. Producer Berg defended the program saying the cancellation was ''completely irrational," and that ABC executives aborted ''Wonderland'' without warning, even before the show had a chance to find an audience.  The cancellation left six episodes on the shelf, never to be seen.  Until now.

"Wonderland" show opening (theme music by Madonna).