Cameron

Candid interview with a Fort McMurray, Alberta man who is homeless and dealing with a drug addiction, talking about the lack of accessible drug rehab programs, a dangerous story of life and death in dumpsters, what it’s like to experience withdrawal, and barriers to treatment. Part of Invisible People Road Trip 2011, a summer’s worth of street interviews with Canadians who are homeless. The short interviews reveal a variety of challenges including mental health issues, abuse, racism, and addictions. Click here for the full series of videos from Canada, and check out blog posts about other mental health issues around the world in the World Mental Health Day blog party.

Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation 2008 Lecture

Ian Hickie presents research on mental health issues in the Australian legal profession. He discusses help-seeking behaviours, productivity, disability, economic burden of illness, suicide and prevention efforts, substance use, neurobiology, treatments, gender and age differences, stigma and discrimination, and more. Extremely well-researched presentation with many statistics and perspectives. The 40 minute lecture is followed by a panel discussion, a Q&A session with the audience, and a brief talk by organization co-founder George Jepson. The Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation works to “raise awareness, improve education and build effective models of support which focus on mental health wellbeing” in the legal profession, and funds relevant research including that of Prof. Hickie.

The Downward Spiral of Upward Social Comparison

Comparisons among peers, acted out as situations around a fashion photo shoot and party, mixed with narrated citations. An unusual video format, with lots of good research info about media and peer comparisons affecting body image, drinking, eating disorders, identity, racism, individuality, suicide, and more.

Peter Whybrow

Cultural shifts in perceptions about the human body and brain, how the brain reacts to scarcity, abundance and social situations, and how modern Western society and market economics are straining our body’s limits and making us sick physically and mentally.

Big Think Interview with Nora Volkow

The Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse is interviewed about the scientific and social causes and courses of substance use disorders, and why they shouldn’t be criminalized. Includes transcript. See also: Volkow and others give lectures on addiction neurobiology at a 2006 symposium at the Picower Institute.

Brain Development & Addiction with Gabor Mate

A Vancouver, BC doctor specializing in treating chronic substance use disorders talks about the early childhood neurodevelopment and environmental conditions that lead to addictions. He suggests a compassionate approach to healing that takes social and other factors into consideration. DVD is available for purchase.

Epigenetic Landscapes

A scientist learns his twin brother is in the hospital from alcoholism and drives from Calgary to Vancouver to visit him, along the way explaining the basics of epigenetics to the camera operator. Great concept, nicely produced and edited with handmade graphics and beautiful video comparing epigenetics to landscapes in the Canadian Rockies. Another entry in the Gene Screen BC 2010 genetic science video contest, winner to be announced Sept. 8 [edit: Epigenetic Lanscapes won 3rd place and the People's Choice award. Congratulations!]. SciVee pubcast DOI: 10.4016/20905.01.

Effect of Smoking Scenes in Films on Immediate Smoking A Randomized Controlled Study

A pubcast (video about a peer-reviewed article) in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine’s channel. The video above explains the study in brief, but watch the pubcast at SciVee for the full multimedia experience with accompanying PDF. Among other findings, this study determined that exposure to images of smoking in movies had a causal link to adolescent tobacco smoking immediately after viewing scenes. [Contemporary movies, like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland with its smoking caterpiller, have warnings about smoking scenes.]

[Image by looking glass]

Alcohol: A women’s health issue

Seven women recount their experiences with alcoholism. Close captioned.

Health Matters: Behavior and Our Brain

An interview with the Terry Sejnowski, a renowned neuroscientist whose job titles alone take an entire paragraph to document, is interviewed for Heath Matters about neuroscience: what do we know and what can we learn? Foundations of human behaviour, language, learning, addiction, etc. An easy-to-digest and professionally produced show for the general public.