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Educating, Supporting, and Breaking Down Stereotypes of the Mentally Ill and their Caregivers.
Collaboration First Step
Last Tuesday, twenty people from around the state met in Brookings to discuss creating temporary transitional housing for individuals coming out of long-term mental health care back into our community. The lack of this type of housing and support has been a recognized gap in Brookings for some time. The meeting on Tuesday served as a first…
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Books Donated by BEP
As part of their efforts to raise awareness about mental health needs and to reduce stigma of mental illness, Brookings Empowerment Project has donated the following books to the Brookings Public Library: Biology of Desire – Why Addiction is not a Disease by Mark Lewis Will Power is not Enough – Arnold Washton Ph.D.…
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BEP Book Review
Common Sense Parenting: Using Your Head as Well as Your Heart to Raise School-Aged Children by Ray Burke, Ron Herron, and Bridget A. Barnes Fourth Edition. Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press, 2015. Full disclosure: As a retired school counselor, I am not an unbiased reviewer of this book. I have taught adult classes on…
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Dual Diagnosis Mental Health Forum
Thank you to those pictured above who helped with the October 2nd Mental Health Forum on “Dual Diagnosis–Mental Illness and Addiction.” The Brookings Empowerment Project sponsored the forum with additional support provided by Brookings Area United Way and Thrivent Financial. Brookings Empowerment Project’s mission is to empower those with persistent mental illness through education as…
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Oct 2nd Mental Health Forum Planned
Brookings Empowerment Project is planning a Mental Health Forum for October 2nd. The forum will feature five speakers: Dr. Clay Pavlis, MD Chief Medical Officer of Midwest Specialty Clinics. He is board certified in Adult Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is currently the South Dakota State Psychiatric Director for the…
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Task Force Developing 2-1-1 Mental Health Resources
Brookings Mental Health Resource Guide The Brookings Mental Health Task Force is developing resources for mental health care calls to the 2-1-1 Helpline. The Task Force has split up into two sub-committees, each led by one of our two co-chairs: Nikki Eining and Mary Beth Fishback. The Resource sub-committee was tasked with developing a comprehensive…
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Our Common Struggle
Our Common Struggle A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction By Patrick Kennedy and Stephen Fried Patrick Kennedy, son of Senator Ted Kennedy, was a congressman from Rhode Island when he drove his car into a police barrier in front of the US Capitol in 2006. At the time…
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BEP Donates Books to Brookings Public Library
"books" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Stiller Beobachter Books, Books, and More Books Sometimes the perfect book is difficult to find. Once, for example, I needed a book that would talk about duel diagnosis. Duel diagnosis is what happens when the person has both a mental illness and an addiction. I needed to read about it. I needed to…
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NAMI South Dakota Annual Conference — Registration Open
NAMI South Dakota Annual Conference Registration Now Open
Read MoreMental Illness: Brain Disorders
Mental Illness – Brain Disorders instead of Behavior Disorders I just recently reviewed a TedxTalk from Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute for Mental Health. The title of his talk was “Towards a New Understanding of Mental Illness”. This talk took place in January of 2013. It is still valuable for us as…
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