(9-16-20)  Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Use, has been accused in an article posted on a popular health news website of repeating President Donald J. Trump’s pandemic statements for political reasons and politicizing the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Writing in STAT, an American health-oriented news site read by medical professionals, journalist Alison Insinger reports that current and former SAMHSA officials have complained that Dr. McCance-Katz is “politicizing the office and reinforcing administration arguments about Covid-19 that aren’t supported by sound scientific evidence.”

The STAT article, entitled, “Top health official echoes Trump’s Covid-19 views, drawing accusations of politicizing mental health agency,” was written after Dr. McCance-Katz spoke during an hour long podcast posted Friday on the HHS website.

STAT noted that Dr. McCance-Katz did not respond to an emailed request for comment, nor did spokespersons for SAMHSA and HHS.

In that podcast interview, Dr. McCance-Katz can be heard describing Covid 19 as “a very contagious infectious disease which in most people, by the way, is a mild and asymptomatic disease if you are below age 45 and younger…” She adds that Covid is not a life threatening illness for a majority of children, saying at one point, “What is this nonsense that it is unsafe for children to be in school?”

The interview was conducted by Michael Caputo and when he states, “I don’t think the U.S. media gives a damn about public health information,” Dr. McCance-Katz replies: “I don’t either.” She adds that “it appears to me that they (the media) make things up.”

A psychiatrist with a Ph.D. in infectious disease epidemiology from Yale, McCance-Katz argues that the harsh steps taken to contain the pandemic in the spring were excessive and have caused an increase in suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental illnesses.”We used a sledgehammer when I think we needed a scalpel.”

Dr. McCance-Katz’s statements mirror those of the president’s. He appointed her to serve as the head of SAMHSA and as the first assistant secretary at HHS for mental health and substance abuse in September 2017.

“She drank the Kool-Aid,” an anonymous source is quoted stating in the article.

I would strongly suggest that you form your own opinion by listening to the podcast.

During the first 20 minutes of the interview, Dr. McCance-Katz talks about her priorities at SAMHSA and promising steps that she has taken to reduce deaths caused by opioid abuse. 27 minutes into the interview, the subject turns to COVID.

“The people who make these decisions – the people who say it’s safer at home, stay at home, they tend to be people who are fairly affluent,” she states about isolation and the lockdown. “Yeah, it probably is safer at home for them because they go to some nice house, some big house with all the amenities…to get additional isolation and protection but for the majority of Americans, they can’t do that.”

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Healing Minds NOLA – August 28, 2020 – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D., Timothy Noonan from Spyboy Media, LLC. on Vimeo.

(9-14-20) A mother rushes her son with mental illness to a local hospital. He’s admitted because he is psychotic and considered a threat to himself or others. But when the mother calls later to check on her son, hospital officials refuse to acknowledge that he is a patient because of their interpretation of HIPAA – the  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

None of us should be surprised by this mother’s plight. What makes her story different is who shared it.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R.-La.) cited the mother, who he described as a friend of his family’s, during an interview with advocate Janet Hays for her Healing Minds NOLA series. More about HIPAA in a moment, but first let me write more about Hays’ work.

I participated in a discussion hosted by Hays and Eric Smith with Leslie Carpenter last month about civil commitment laws. Prior to that program, Miami Dade Judge Steven Leifman and Treatment Advocacy Center’s Executive Director John Snook spoke about alternatives to incarceration. Streamlining inpatient and outpatient care was the topic of a Sept. 4th program with psychiatrists Robert Laitman and Marvin Swartz. You can find all of these programs here.

This coming Friday, Sept. 18th, at 2 p.n. EST, the topic will be the “IMD Exclusion: The 1965 Federal Rule That Crushed Psychiatric Bed Capacity,” with guests former Representative Tim Murphy (R. Pa.), the primary author of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, and parent advocate Teresa Pasquini, who has written for my blog. 

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Three minutes into the above video, Bayless says he has no sympathy for Prescott.

(9-12-20) Sports commentator Skip Bayless is continuing to come under fire for his ignorant and hurtful statement that Dallas Cowboy’s quarterback Dak Prescott is “weak” because he revealed that he struggles with depression.

Bayless’s comment on Thursday’s  show “Undisputed” was immediately criticized.

As Nancy Armour noted in USA TODAY: “That Bayless made his comments on World Suicide Prevention Day, after Prescott said his brother Jace’s suicide contributed to his depression, was all the more cruel.”

Fox Sports immediately distanced itself from Bayless’s comments. Bayless reacted by claiming his comments had been “misconstrued” and opined that there is a difference between clinical depression  and being depressed during the pandemic. He didn’t apologize.

His comments were a hurtful reminder of why people who are struggling with depression are afraid to speak openly.

Athletes, especially NFL football players, can influence public opinion. Prescott should be commended for his openness, not condemned, just as former First Lady Michelle Obama should be praised for  recently disclosing that she has struggled with depression.

Bayless criticized the quarterback after he became emotional during an interview with Graham Bensinger on InDepth during which Prescott spoke about his brother’s suicide. (Interview below.)

It takes courage to speak out about depression. Those who criticize that honesty should apologize.

Here is the interview with Prescott.

(9-9-20) This is not specifically about mental illness but I think it does apply to individuals who want to be a leaders in mental heath.

While I generally don’t like simply posting articles or stories that I’ve read or watched, this seven-minute interview on Face the Nation with David Rubenstein about the qualities of leadership is worth your time.

I’m NOT posting it for political comment. It is not meant to endorse or defame either presidential candidate. Rather, I believe the lessons that Rubenstein proposes can be well used by all of us.

Here is the transcript if you’d rather read the interview.

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(9-7-20) I’ve been a long-time fan of Gabe Howard, a certified peer specialist, dynamic public speaker, author and popular podcast host. Gabe always has a smile on his face so I was surprised when he sent me a blog that he’d written about how “tired” he has felt recently.

I assumed it was a Covid caused lull. Former First Lady Michelle Obama recently disclosed that she has been dealing with “low-grade depression” – a combination of stress about the pandemic and our deeply divided political environment. One of my first step is to get gorilla glue CBD vape cart to help get through the pain. One in three Americans have reported symptoms of stress or anxiety during the pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. A report in the Oxford Journal of Medicine noted:

 Social isolation, anxiety, fear of contagion, uncertainty, chronic stress and economic difficulties may lead to the development or exacerbation of depressive, anxiety, substance use and other psychiatric disorders in vulnerable populations including individuals with pre-existing psychiatric disorders… 

Gabe said the grind was tied to his status as a peer.

“I’m tired – My Struggles As A Peer Advocate

By Gabe Howard

 A couple of years ago, I attended a conference where an incredible speaker gave a five-minute speech titled, “I’m Tired.” It had a simple delivery, almost a poetic cadence, where she would point out something she had to deal with on a daily basis. Then, after a slight pause, she’d say, “I’m tired.”

I don’t remember what made her tired, but I can still hear her powerful and commanding voice in my head dramatically saying “I’m tired.” That stuck with me because, like her, I felt tired.

And I am tired.

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(9-4-20) I deeply appreciate law enforcement officers who want to help individuals in crisis by undergoing Crisis Intervention Team training. Sadly, too many Americans with mental or drug problems end up being arrested, injured or dead after the police are called. This is why I favor community alternatives that put responsibility back on social services and the medical community, such as mobile crisis response teams and peer support, to de-escalate a situation, while acknowledging that sometimes police must get involved.

The Rochester N.Y. police department’s response to Daniel Prude is calling attention to the deaths of not only people of color, but those having a mental health/drug crisis, as noted today in The New York Times. Eugene, Or., is cited as an example of alternatives to having police always be the first responders. Compare that community’s approach to the horrific police killing of Patrick Kenny in Springfield, Or..  What makes Kenny’s death even more appalling is that all of the officers involved had undergone CIT yet none used any of the de-escalation tools taught to them.