Mental Illness in Ink
Bringing you the best in mental health.
The artist, Shawn Cross, created a series of drawings depicting mental illnesses, including some you may have never heard of.
Click here to see what he came up with.
In Memory of the Forgotten

Bringing you the best of mental health every week.
On this Memorial Day, I’d like to remember the hundreds of people held in public institutions, sometimes for decades, for being poor or mentally ill, back in the 1800’s. During that time, Rochester had an insane asylum, almshouse, and penitentiary on South Avenue, near Highland, around where the Vietnam memorial is now. When the inmates died, they were buried in unmarked graves on the grounds. This graveyard was forgotten until 1984, when a bulldozer, landscaping the park, uncovered them.
Almost 300 skeletons were removed and re-interred in Mt Hope Cemetery, where a marker now stands.
If you’d like to read more about this grave site, click here.
Crisis Text Line
Bringing you the best of mental health every week.
Anyone who can text can text the Crisis Text Line at 741741 and they will be connected to a trained crisis counselor.
Anyone who fills out a 30-minute application, consents to a background check, and completes the 34-hour web-based training can be a trained crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line.
Is this a good idea to turn to a minimally trained volunteer when you are in the middle of a crisis?Continue reading “Crisis Text Line”
Whereas

Bringing you the best of mental health.
Is an apology that’s not said out loud really an apology? What if the person expressing the apology doesn’t draw attention to it?Continue reading “Whereas”
Making your Apology Stick
All too many people apologize and promise to change, but fail to follow it up. Not only do they fail to fulfill their promises, but they even fail to notice whether they’ve fulfilled them or not.Continue reading “Making your Apology Stick”
Announcement: A New Series of Shrink’s Links, Reviewing Rehabs
I’ve reviewed books here. Now I’m preparing to write a series of reviews on regional chemical dependency inpatient and detox facilities for this blog.
I am often asked by clients for recommendations. I can make them based on reports from other clients, as well as my own impressions, but I would like to have more to go on. I have written to the facilities themselves for outcome data and the like, but I would also like to hear your impressions of whatever facilities you have encountered.
If you’ve had experience as a patient, a professional, a family member, or a visitor with any rehab or detox in the region (anywhere in the Northeast) and care to share it, please fill out the form below. I won’t even ask your name, so your response will be kept confidential.
Feel free to forward this announcement to anyone else you think might be interested in this project.
Thanks
Keith
10 Ways to Screw Up an Apology
If you’ve decided you can’t apologize to the person you hurt because it would hurt him more, then go with God. If you’ve decided you can’t apologize to the person you hurt because it would hurt you more, then see you in Hell. But, if you’ve decided you will apologize to the person you hurt because it’s the right thing to do, read on. There are still mistakes you could make.Continue reading “10 Ways to Screw Up an Apology”
MOSAIC Threat Assessment System

Bringing you the best of mental health every week.
When you have a stalker, a troll, or a partner who is out of control with violence, it can be really hard to objectively assess the threat to your safety. Emotions so easily get involved. For this reason, the MOSAIC Threat Assessment System was developed. Just register and answer the questions in a lengthy questionnaire. MOSAIC helps you weigh your situation in light of expert opinion and research, and instantly compare it to past cases where the outcomes are known.
Confession to a Neutral Party

Once you have written your statement of responsibility for wronging someone, it’s time to put the show on the road. The essence of taking responsibility is to declare it to someone. It makes no sense to take responsibility in such a way that nobody hears it. When this particular tree falls in the forest, if no one is around, it makes no sound.Continue reading “Confession to a Neutral Party”
