Empty-Nest Workshops – Learning to Live (and Love) in an Empty Nest

Posted by Andy Alt

This article recently appeared in TIME magazine. Below is an excerpt; click the link to read the full article on TIME’s web site.

Learning to Live (and Love) in an Empty Nest
Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
By Bonnie Rochman

[...]

There’s a growing cottage industry of experts who contend that sending kids off into the great wide open deserves at least as much attention as preparing to have them in the first place. Community centers and churches around the country are tuning in to the problem and hosting seminars in which parents try to reignite their relationship and figure out how to move forward as a twosome. Marriage therapists Claudia and David Arp call this stage “the second half of marriage.”

[...]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1916284,00.html

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Sexual Abuse: A Survivor’s Story

Merely Me's Profile on Health Central

By Merely Me / Merely Me’s SharePosts

March 17, 2009

My palms are sweating, my heart is beginning to pound, and I am already near tears.  I have just written my first sentence and I am already having an emotionally difficult time in writing this post.  I feel the subject is so important that I am willing to do this in hopes that I will help someone else who has been through this.  This isn’t some academic research article.  I am writing this as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

VFW Stands Up Against Military Suicides

Posted by Andy Alt on June 17, 2009

Something I recently came across on the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) web site.

(For Northfielder’s: to watch a video of the 2005 Northfield Veteran’s Memorial dedication, visit http://northfieldmn.wordpress.com/resources-s-z/veterans/)

VFW Stands Up Against Military Suicides (May 29, 2009 ?)

In an open letter, VFW Commander-in-Chief Glen Gardner is urging his 1.6 million members to help OEF/OIF veterans cope with the stresses of war.

Dear Comrades:

There is an enemy in our midst that is having a devastating effect on our servicemen and women in the field and at home. That enemy is stress.

Since 9/11, more military personnel and veterans have committed suicide than the total dead from both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined, and this tragedy is occurring despite the best of intentions and programs offered by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. That is because the need has overwhelmed the capacity of government and civilian mental health centers. It’s also because some people simply refuse to admit they need help.

UPDATE ON the Mental Health Humor: Cartoon-a-thon

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: UPDATE ON the Mental Health Humor: Cartoon-a-thon
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 12:50:36 -0400
From: Chato B. Stewart
Organization: Mental Health humor

Dear Peer, Provider or Caregiver,

Wow, what a great Mental Health Awareness month! This year so many
people are really putting in a lot of effort from the DBSA, NAMI and
many other organizations like Mental Health America and also not to for
get many of our peers and their individual efforts.

The Mental Health Humor Cartoon-A-Thon is a free and fun project to use
humor as a coping skill. Each day during the month I’ve volunteered to
draw one cartoon. Now we have 26 new cartoons for this month to use
humor to bring awareness to many different mental health issues. It’s
meant to use positive humor as a way to cope with our serious disorders.

TIME: Starting a diaper bank

Posted by Andy Alt

Recently an article appeared in TIME magazine about a volunteer-operated diaper bank, and how to start one:
Starting a Diaper Bank

[...]
“I saw a mother take a diaper off, empty the solids and put it back on,” says Goldblum. Not having enough diapers, she realized, has far-reaching effects. “Most day-care centers require parents to provide their own,” she says. And without day care, parents can’t look for work or go to school. Cloth diapers don’t help, because low-income families tend not to have washing machines or cars to get to the Laundromat. Moreover, she knew that babies who sit longer in their own waste get more diaper rashes and cry more. And she’d read the studies showing that more crying leads to more physical abuse.
[...]
FOR MORE DETAILS Download a free how-to manual at thediaperbank.org

Mother’s Mandated Mental Health Test, H.R. 20, S.324, Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act

Posted by Andy Alt on May 1, 2009

I received an email forward with the subject “Mother’s Mandated Mental Health Test.” A copy of it:

HR20-New Mother’s Mandated Mental Health Test-JUST PASSED HOUSE!
http://freedomfighterradio.net/?p=6603>
April 20, 2009
A sweeping government policy for all new births in the United States has just passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate. The Mother’s Act, if passed, will mandate that all new mothers be screened by means of a list of subjective questions that will determine if each mother is mentally fit to take their newborn home from the hospital. Just imagine that after your child is born, you are told that you can’t take the baby home since a multiple choice questionnaire wasn’t answered correctly. Just imagine being told that the only way you can take your child home is if you or your spouse goes into treatment or on anti- depressants, which we know can causes serious mental health problems if used on a person who is not actually serotonin deficient. It just doesn’t make sense. Unfortunately, this bill is on a fast track-No public debate, no public disclosure of the broad impact on our society and that is why we need you to act now!
The Mother’s Act violates our Constitutional right to privacy and your right to liberty and it is just outright dangerous. That is why we need you to help stop this. We urgently need you to call and email each Senator on the HELP Committee and tell them you STRONGLY OPPOSE the MOTHER’S ACT and that you are OUTRAGED that there was NO public debate or disclosure on the impact this would have on our society as a whole. Please call the following Senators on the HELP Committee and tell them that you want the Mother’s Act to die in committee.

Lisa Murkowski, R: 202-224-6665, AK
John McCain, R: 202-224-2235, AZ
Christopher Dodd, D: 202-224-2823, CT
Johnny Isakson, R: 202-224-3643, GA
Tom Harkin, D: 202-224-3254, IA
Pat Roberts, R: 202-224-4774, KS
Edward Kennedy D: 202-224-4543, MA
Barbara Mikulski D: 202-224-4654, MD
Richard Burr, R: 202-224-3154, NC
Kay Hagan, D: 202-224-6342, NC
Judd Gregg, R: 202-224-3324, NH
Jeff Bingaman, D: 202-224-5521, NM
Sherrod Brown, D 202-224-2315, OH
Tom Coburn, R 202-224-5754, OK
Jeff Merkley, D 202-224-3753, OR
Bob Casey, D 202-224-6324, PA
Jack Reed, D 202-224-4642, RI
Lamar Alexander R 202-224-4944, TN
Orrin Hatch R 202-224-5251, UT
Bernard Sanders, I: 202-224-5141, VT
Patty Murray, D, 202-224-2621, WA
Michael Enzi, R, 202-224-3424, WY
Debra O’Laughlin 920-757-6289 WI

I replied to all with the following information:

May is Mental Health Month, Warm Line and Crisis Line

Posted by Andy Alt on May 1, 2009

On the South Central Community Based Initiative Message Board there is a recent post by the admin titled May is Mental Health Month. The question is:

What are you doing to observe May as Mental Health Month? Share with us, or give suggestions that someone else may want to do.

I don’t have an answer for this yet. If you do, please visit the links above.

Indirectly related, yesterday I noticed a wrong phone number for the Warm Line showing on the South Central Community Based Initiative web site. It was on a graphic displayed on the left-hand side of their site. This morning I saw it had been corrected.

The Grief and Loss of Miscarriage

Merely Me's Profile on Health Central

By Merely Me / Merely Me’s SharePosts

March 24, 2009

I remember the day I was told that I was pregnant.  I was in shock for a few days.  It was my first pregnancy and I had no idea what to expect.  I felt a little scared about how my whole life would change.  I remember going out to dinner with my husband to celebrate and ordering a vegetable plate.  For the first time I was eating for two.  I smiled at the thought of it and gently patted my belly.

It wasn’t long before I was bonding with this baby to be.  I felt a joy and a love I had never experienced before.  I was seeing a therapist at the time and I told him that I was pregnant and happy.  He asked me a question I will never forget.  He asked, “Do you now believe that good things can happen to you?”  I warily nodded my head yes.

I went through the next weeks looking forward to a future which included a baby.

But it was not to be.

Want to read more?  Follow this link!