April/May 2001: Volume VI, Number 2
NEW YORK CITYVOICES
A Consumer Journal for Mental Health Advocacy
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Ward Stories
CINDY SOSTCHEN, Poetry Editor
"Alison Carb Sussman ... is the recipient of an honorable mention in the Amelia Magazine poetry contest."


Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Teen's World 
of Irrational Unreality
By ELIZABETH DRUCKER 
"If I could gather all the people who suffer from this excruciating disorder, I would tell them to hang in there and always remember that there is hope and help."


Bronx Peer Advocacy Center
By ISACC BROWN
"We hope to help educate both our peers and other people ... about how the Bronx Peer Advocacy Center can help our brothers and sisters in the mental health system"


And The Good News Is…
By MARY SPEED
"the smile on his face, as he helped get the bike out of my car certainly constitutes 'good news.'"


Alzheimer's Disease: The Nightmare
By ROSA SANTANA
"I will never know where this beautiful and intelligent woman disappeared to. By age 53 she was unable to walk and bedridden."


Double Trouble: Gays
In Psychiatric Hospitals
By ERIC JACKSON
"There are many retrograde ideas about homosexuality within the population of psychiatric hospitals. There is also open homophobia and discrimination."


LesBiGay-Transgender  Program at Heights-Hill Clinic
By NATHANIEL HUTNER
"A unique program for consumers who suffer from the dual stigma of homosexuality and mental illness is  approaching middle age"


Hands-On Graduate Program
By JANINE BUDAH, CSW
"How are the institutions of higher learning adapting to ensure that the new crop of graduates are prepared to serve the current needs of the mentally ill?"


Ask the Therapist
By RITA SEIDEN, C.S.W., Ph.D.
"I have a terrible time getting up in the morning. I feel cold and grumpy. Is this part of mental illness?
 
Baby Stories...

The Procreative Urge
By SHEILA HAGEMAN
"And then the deeper questions surface. Will I be a good mother? Will I pass on my illness to our    children? I know I'll be a good mom, but...wait, how can I know?"

A Pregnant Pause: Anti-Psychotic Medication And Growing A Baby
By BONNIE CHERNIN
"Growing a baby while taking anti-psychotic medication can be a reality. I have only to hold my two-month-old daughter in my arms to know this is true."


News from NAMI...

Bush's New Freedom Initiative For People With Disabilities

Statement on the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act Of 2001

Call For Routine Screening of Children for Mental Illness

NAMI's New Executive Director


NMHA Statement on the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act Of 2001
By MICHAEL FAENZA, 
President and CEO, NMHA
"We know that parity is affordable and effective. Now, we need to act on that knowledge."


MHANYS' Annual 
Legislative Conference
By DANNY FREY
"Mental health workers in the not-for-profit sector continue to be paid at or near the poverty level."


Taking Charge
By JOAN L. NOBILING, MS Ed
"participants identify and achieve personal goals, assess skills, make informed decisions and attain competencies"


Saint Dymphna: Patron
Saint Of The Mentally Ill
By WILLIAM JIANG, MLS
"Under Dymphna's patronage, the inhabitants of Gheel have been known for the care they have given to those with mental illness."


Ask the Doctor
By STEPHEN M. GOLDFINGER, M.D. 
"All of the older medications were developed by testing to see how effectively they block dopamine in test tubes or laboratory animals."


Ask the Attorney
By JEANETTE ZELHOF
"Remember, Social Security is a huge bureaucracy that processes enormous amounts of information. So be prepared to be your own advocate"
Remembering Julius Green
By TROY P. COHEN, GREGORY HICK, LAVERNE MILLER, & DANNY FREY
"Julius believed that people who are challenged with mental health issues need support, need to be enlightened, and have the right to live healthy and productive lives."


5 New Recovery Stories...

   My Detailed Autobiography
    By LORRE LEON MENDELSON
   Experiencing The 
   Obstacles Around Me
    By ROSEMARY THOMAS
   Suicide Survivor
    By JEAN J. ESPLIN
   Story of Schizophrenia
    By RICHARDO MARTINEZ
   My Autobiography (another)
    By RUSSELL SKOP


Recovering Lost Abilities 
With Computer Technology
By MINNIE BERMAN, M.S., CRC
"Seemingly irreversible neurological damage can be repaired ... Memory retention, sustaining attention, problem solving, concentration, sequential planning and even reading skills all improve."


Self-Help Source
By SHIFRA LAWNER, 
Director, Self-Help Source
"a peer-run project of the Resource Center, Inc., ... sharing as wide a variety as possible of mental health-related self-help information"


Rae Unzicker Dies
By DANNY FREY
"Her articles and essays were widely published, and she was named an Outstanding Woman in America by Woman's Day magazine in 1987."


Psychiatric AIDS
By BERT COFFMAN
"Just as we pay special attention to Pediatric AIDS and Geriatric AIDS, we need to pay attention to 'Psychiatric AIDS.'"


Writing Ken Steele's Life
By CLAIRE BERMAN
"'What was it like to work with Ken Steele?' asked Danny Frey"


Who Moved my Clubhouse?
By ANNETTE CAMPBELL
"inside walls ... 'terraced' in four, five, and six-foot high ledges await plants to be selected and cared for by members of the horticulture unit."


Editor at Large: As I See It
By MARVIN SPIELER
"If Julius Green, so vitally alive and productive, could succumb to suicide, what about me? What about other peers? He seemed to have everything in the world going for him. Depression can be a  killer. We all know" 


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