TEEN DEPRESSION IN COLORADO OVER THE TOP, WHAT'S GOING ON?

You say Colorado. I say Columbine. But with these new reports about teen mental health it now all makes sense. As reported in a recent Colorado Daily Camera article ("Study: Colorado Leader in Teen Depression" March 8, 2008), Colorado has a higher percentage of youth age 12 to 17 reporting symptoms of major depression than any other state in the nation. Similarly, while suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth age 15 to 19 nationally, it is the second leading cause of death for this age group in Colorado.

While the disturbing state trends are difficult to explain, the reasons behind the general increase in teen depression may not be as elusive. Local mental health professionals working with adolescents are seeing large numbers of teens suffering from depression as a function of stress from academic, social and family challenges. It is disturbing that for achievement-oriented youth a 4.0 grade point average is no longer enough. Social acceptance, always of key importance in adolescence, is even more difficult, with documented increases in bullying. Families are under more collective strain, which only intensifies anticipated parent-child conflict normally seen in adolescence.

The good news is that depression is very treatable...

Here is the rest of this story by Jan Hittelman at the DAILY CAMERA.

BRITNEY SPEARS CHECKS OUT OF PSYCH WARD

BRITNEY SPEARS CHECKS OUT
Britney Spears has been released from UCLA Medical Center. She slipped quietly out of the psych ward and may be heading home to one of her houses. A police officer said, "It occurred without any law enforcement intervention, and for the public that's a good thing."

DELTA BURKE CHECKS IN
The former Designing Women star decided she could use professional help herself. She voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed L.A.-area psychiatric hospital last week to deal with some longstanding mental-health issues

But what about African Americans and our mental health. As America throws attention and ultimately millions of dollars keep'n whites sane and tune up. We need this kind of attention and help but rarely get it why.


A 200-page report, "Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity," cites poverty and lack of insurance as key factors why many minorities do not receive proper mental health care. It found that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely than whites to have access to treatment, and those who do often receive a lesser quality of care.

If you go to the dentist twice a year and the medical doctor once a year... then once a year all of us should spend 3 days with a licensed mental health professional. Read on to HealthyPlace.com and see where Blacks folks must go to get proper mental health treatment.

SHOULD BLACK JAIL INMATES DEMAND THE HILTON TREATMENT?

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

A livid judge, police officials, prosecutors, and much of the public railed against Paris Hilton's release as blatant celebrity favoritism.

It was certainly that. But the irony is that Hilton was and should have been released early precisely because she couldn't get the quality treatment she needed at the jail.

The problem, of course, is that neither can any of those who aren't rich and famous like her, and won't get favored prisoner treatment.

A significant number of prisoners in the L.A. county jail, and in other overstuffed jails around the country are released without having had a medical exam.

There is no way of telling what kind of mental ailments they suffer from.

That virtually insures that those individuals with the same untreated mental problems that got them locked up in the first place will be jailed again.

Unlike Hilton, the overwhelming majority of them are poor, indigent, minority, and like her increasingly female.

They have absolutely no access to any quality psychiatric care and treatment behind bars. The majority of them, like Hilton, are not violent offenders, but were convicted of petty, low level crimes.

The magnitude of the crisis of the mentally challenged imprisoned is so great that the L.A. County system now has the dubious distinction of being the biggest mental health facility in the nation.

The Federal Bureau of Justice estimates that more than a quarter-million offenders are warehoused in America's jails and prisons that suffer acute mental problems.

That's about sixteen percent of the total jail population in America. In California's jails alone, an estimated 85,000 prisoners suffer mental ailments.

A report in 2004 lambasted the county for the chronic shortage of doctors, nurses, medicines, and support services at the L.A. jails.

While there have been some modest improvements in the general quality of medical care for inmates within the jails, for many inmates -- especially the mentally ill -- the conditions are still severe.

GET THE REST OF HUTCHINSON'S ARTICLE HERE.