The Face Of Mental Health The BridgeWay Sherrie James Mental health care may not be the most exhilarating topic, but its practitioners are critical for caring for those experiencing serious, life-changing illnesses. In Arkansas, the field’s top facility is The BridgeWay, a 127-bed, freestanding behavioral acute care hospital offering specialized, tailored programming to all…
Next week, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will be offering free depression screenings. The screenings will be held Thursday, Oct. 10, from 9 am to 1 pm in the UAMS Medical Center lobby gallery. The week of Oct. 6 to Oct. 12 has been designated National Mental Illness Awareness Week for…
The Secret Postcard Society, a collective of creatives that includes musicians, a poet and a photographer, is opening up a conversation about mental health in their community. After realizing how many people he knew who personally struggled with addiction, trauma and mental illness, Drew Foote decided he wanted to create more than just a…
by Curtis Lanning If someone breaks an arm or gets a nasty cut on his or her leg, it’s off to the doctor so the problem can be fixed. But when it comes to mental health, people are unfortunately more likely to respond slower, if at all. While some mental health problems affect individuals, others…
by Dwain Hebda | Photography by Jamison Mosley Rev. Jay Clark stood in the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church pulpit and scanned a sea of grief-stricken faces gathered to mourn a young member of the congregation who took his own life. It was a human landscape he’d surveyed before, made up of the people left behind struggling…
by Howard M. Turney Our children misbehave, friendships become conflicted, family members act up during holiday celebrations. These are all experiences that may manifest in our lives. Because of our affection for the person behind these incidents, we may take for granted behaviors that could be defined as pathological. We do not see these behaviors…
by Sydne Tursky Every 16 hours, one Arkansan dies by suicide. That means a total 11,000 years of potential life lost annually. Among 15- to 34-year-olds, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the state, and the 10th leading cause over all age groups, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Five…
by Matthew King The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has held Out of the Darkness Walks in Arkansas since September 2008. The first local walk in Little Rock had approximately 400 participants and raised $40,000. “The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention leads the fight against suicide – we save lives and bring hope to those…
by Chris Price The numbers are staggering, but, so too is the stigma. One in five adults in America experiences a mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Yet many don’t know that they have it or are at risk. Even those who are diagnosed often have trouble finding resources to help…
by Jeanni Brosius Many Arkansans live with untreated mental illness. There are a couple of reasons these folks go untreated: stigma and cost. There is a wide gap for insurance coverage for mental illness compared to physical illness. “One in four Arkansans lives with mental illness,” says Luke Kramer, executive director of The STARR Coalition.…
