LGBT Youth Switch It Up Project Preview

How does hatred feel, sound, and look? Qualitative, creative experiences of homophobia and transphobia are expressed on cards in this video made for LGBTQ youth in Ontario, Canada. A mental health and social problem that causes more mental health issues for its victims. Videos like this one help to spread awareness and acceptance of all people as equally human. A preview for the Switch It Up project, made by LGBT Youth Line.

Come out, Come Out Wherever You Are

A call to shake off shame, come out of the closet and be open about mental health issues in order to fight social stigma. Compelling and well-written narration by Michael Kimber of the Colony of Losers blog, along with slick edited images including examples of famous people known to have psychiatric labels.

Myths of Madness: Media Representations of Mental Illness, Part 6 of 7

A clip from the Q&A after a panel presentation about mental illness in the media, discussing how people can share stories with public speaking to fight stigma. A women with bipolar disorder asks how people like her can contribute, and the reply describes a consumer who told her personal stories that were negative, and how they were resolved, and that sharing what worked for her was powerful. Another person in the audience talks about his experience with a speaker’s bureau and the importance of training and support for that work.

Greg Murray, The Quality of Life Scale

A collaboration with a psychiatry group at UBC in Vancouver and a Sydney, Australia researcher measuring quality of life in bipolar disorders, separate from its symptoms. Murray describes how they developed a scale, now available for free clinical and individual use (click here), through a series of questionnaires and analyses. They created a useful instrument for the treatment of bipolar disorder that considers important dimensions.

Michalak, E., Murray, G. (2010). Development of the QoL.BD: a disorder-specific scale to assess quality of life in bipolar disorder Bipolar Disorders, 12 (7), 727-740 DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2010.00865.x

Whats Goin On…

Mixed with the evocative music of Sia’s “Breathe Me,” an eighth grader creatively shares his story of bullying, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, ending on a touching and hopeful note. Jonah Mowry’s video was recorded last August when he was worried about returning to school, but recently went viral and celebrities from Lady Gaga to Perez Hilton to Jane Lynch have been expressing love and support for the 14 year old gay youth.

Possible Worlds: Hearing Voices or Uninvited Guests

Art video featuring performance poetry and imagery about modern living and madness. Winner of the 2011 reTHiNK Possible Worlds award, with the theme “We are all human beings navigating the maze of life.” reTHiNK Possible Worlds was a series of multimedia performance art shows developed to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ‘illness’ in Auckland, New Zealand. It incorporated a video contest and the best submissions, including the above, were featured at the shows at Galatos during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
An expert in “lie spotting” talks about detection deception and her new book. Implications in corporate fraud and politics are raised, along with social and evolutionary reasons for lying in our “post-truth society.” She reveals some behavioural cues of lying (using methods other than Paul Ekman’s FACS system). Meyer says that although newer neuroimaging methods have value, on a practical level, human interaction with people trained in spotting deception will lead the way to a more truthful society.

Milgram’s Obedience to Authority Experiment

Morality and responsibility for violence are explored in a re-enactment of Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on obedience to authority. Under the close supervision and direction of a professor, participants are told to administer increasingly dangerous electric shocks to a person in another room, under the pretense that it’s an experiment about learning and memory. They hear screams and protests from the “learner” pretending to be receiving shocks, but when the professor tells them to continue, most do, even after believing the “learner” may have died as a result. In Milgram’s first study, 65 percent went on to deliver the maximum 450 volt shock. Variations were conducted over the years with similar results. In the BBC experiment, only three people (of 12) refused to continue. 2011 is the 50th anniversary of Milgram’s original experiment, which began as a study of mutual morality after Nazi atrocities and was controversial due to ethical concerns. To learn more click here, check out the article “Identifying Systematic Disobedience in Milgram’s Obedience Experiments: A Meta-Analytic Review,” Dominic J. Packer, Perspectives on Psychological Science (subscription required), and read a 1974 interview with Stanley Milgram.

The Full Story – Soften the Fck Up

Mental health issues and young men, in an awareness campaign about depression, anxiety, suicide, shame, and social issues from male perspectives. Clips of personal narrative in a simple, accessible video. Check out other videos and the whole campaign at the Australian web site.

Creating a Healthier Future through Prevention of Child Maltreatment

Excellent panel presentation on effects of and strategies to prevent child maltreatment. Experts describe harms including a long list of psychological, cognitive and physical health issues, brain development and epigenetic consequences, fatalities, legal, government and social costs of abuse and neglect. The lifetime economic burden in the US is estimated between a conservative figure of $121 billion (2008) and an estimated half a trillion dollars, per year. They discuss what can be done for prevention with public health and policy approaches, including eliminating risk factors, and resource allocation from cost-benefit analyses. Evidence-based prevention programs include home visitations by nurses, maternity ward education, and the Positive Parenting Program (PPP) which all promote safe, supportive, nurturing relationships (SSNRs).

Talks are followed by a Q&A. The presentations are also available on a PDF.

If you are a parent interested in self-help skills development, check out PPP’s practical step-by-step resources for parents.