Posted by admin at 12:13 PM

March 29, 2007

Bowie Therapeutic Nursery Center, Inc. Wins MFP Award

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry announces that the Bowie Therapeutic Nursery Center (BTNC) was chosen to receive its 2007 Outstanding Merit Award. There were several nominees of high quality, making this a very difficult decision. The board was particularly impressed with the services that BTNC provides to emotionally disturbed and behaviorally disordered preschoolers in an early childhood educational setting.

The BTNC is one of only two licensed therapeutic nurseries in Maryland and it also has a mental health license as a psychiatric rehabilitation program. Because they share premises and administration with a regular nursery school they are able to schedule social integration of the children to facilitate learning from appropriately functioning peers so that those who are successful can be easily mainstreamed in a regular classroom. In addition they provide monthly dinners for enrolled families where they have group parent education with childcare provided. The BTNC also provides community consultation, education and referral to organizations and professionals who also serve special needs children.

The award will be presented at the Maryland Psychiatric Society annual meeting on April 26, 2007.

In addition, the board awarded Honorable Mention to the work of Helping Other People Through Empowerment (HOPE), of Baltimore, Compeer of Montgomery County, and NAMI-Metropolitan Baltimore's "Many Faces of Illness" project.

The annual Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry Outstanding Merit Award recognizes a worthy endeavor in Maryland that accomplishes one or more of the following:

• Increases public awareness and understanding of mental illness


• Enhances the quality of care for psychiatric illness


• Reduces the stigma of mental illness

Related Links:

- 2006 Winer: Edgar K. Wiggins, Executive Director of Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc.
- 2004 Winner: Western Maryland Office of Consumer Advocacy

Posted by admin at 01:53 PM | TrackBack

March 26, 2007

Our New Radio Ad

Our fourth radio advertisement has begun airing. It discusses the pros and cons of anti-depressant medications.

You can listen to it by selecting it in the controller at the top of the home page. If you don't see a controller, you may need to install Adobe's Flash Player (it's free). All of our ads are available for downloading as MP3 files, which should play in the majority of players.

Posted by admin at 04:48 PM

March 16, 2007

25th Annual Film and Lecture Series in March

The last four Fridays in March, the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis will be at The Baltimore Museum of Art at Charles and 31st Streets to present its film lecture series. This year's theme is:

Developmental Challenges, Childhood to Adulthood

• Tsotsi
• The Man Who Loved Women
• Men of Honor
• The Return

Films are chosen for this series because they are psychologically perceptive and stir the emotions and curiosity of the discussants.
Looking through the lens of psychoanalysis enriches the viewers' appreciation of the film, and stimulates psychological insight into the emotions and thoughts evoked by the images and sounds from the screen.

For further information, call 410.792.8060 or 301.470.3635, or visit www.bwanalysis.org. Read on for more information about the movies, including links to trailers when available.

TSOTSI (2006)

Rated R -- South Africa
Director: Gavin Hood
Discussant: Silvia Bell, Ph.D.
Friday, March 9, 7:30 p.m.
TRAILER

A ruthless thug (Tsotsi) shoots a woman as she desperately tries to impede him from stealing her car. He drives off and discovers the woman's cherished infant still in the back seat. Drawn to this beloved vulnerable baby from whom he cannot be parted, Tsotsi begins a
transformational journey into his own past that reawakens his humanity. As if the healthy baby provides him with reassurance about his own infancy, Tsotsi revisits his traumatic childhood and becomes witness to the damaging impact of his early experience. Violence
gives way to compassion as he reconnects with his capacity to love. The movie won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (1977)

Not Rated -- France
Director: Francois Truffaut
Discussant: Leon Levin, M.D.
Friday, March, 16, 7:30 p.m.
TRAILER

The age-old dances of seduction and being seduced are sharply observed with wit and humor in Truffaut's classic New Wave film. Bertrand, a bachelor in his early forties, writes his memoir evoking the many variations of the dance which he has lived out with the various women in his life. What fuels this pattern of flitting like a butterfly from one woman to the next? Is this a dance of joy, or something else? Bertrand is a complex self-reflective person whom we can recognize as very human and yet, at the same time, driven.

MEN OF HONOR (2000)

Rated R -- USA
Director: George Tillman, Jr.
Discussant: Marilyn Martin, M.D.
Friday, March 23, 7:30 p.m.
TRAILER

Racism and a promise made to his father propel Carl Brashear to battle forward in this true story about the Navy's first black Master Diver. Billy Sunday, the racist alcoholic diving instructor, who is determined to destroy Brashear, discovers that his own salvation is linked to that of his nemesis. Internalized rage, so often the downfall of recipients of injustice, is successfully channeled by both men. Viewers may ask themselves, isn't there a point where the price for a dream is too much?

THE RETURN (2003)

Not Rated -- Russia
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Discussant: Noreen Honeycutt, Ph.D.
Friday, March 30, 7:30 p.m.
TRAILER

In this gripping Russian drama, two teenage brothers face the return of the father who had abandoned the family twelve years before. The boys' internal management of the loss of their father and their accompanying fantasies about him emerge as they relate to the real
man. During a week of father/son "vacation," the boys are challenged to deal with powerful conflicts provoked by the father's abusive behavior. Their adolescent struggle to choose between boyhood and manhood and between identification and self-preservation come to a head in a harsh and violent confrontation. The film has won numerous awards, including five at the Venice Film Festival.

Posted by admin at 02:21 PM

October 25, 2006

Honorary Director Riva L. Novey, M.D., Aged 90, Obituary

This obituary was somehow misplaced in transit. The Foundation sincerely regrets not being able to place this online in a timely manner.

The Board of Directors of the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry regrets to announce the death of Riva L. Novey, M.D., an honorary member of the Board. Dr. Novey died Friday, May 27, 2005 at the Wesley Home in Mount Washington in Baltimore. She was in active practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis for 39 years prior to her retirement in 1996. In addition to her work with patients, she was active in teaching psychiatric residents at the Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland, and the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospitals where her skill led her to be a sought after supervisor and mentor.

Riva Novey, M.D. a prominent member of the psychiatric community in Baltimore died on May 27, 2005, age 90, at the Wesley Home in Mount Washington. Dr. Novey’s career in the mental health field spanned a period of 58 years from her graduation from the School of Social Work at Smith College in 1938 until her retirement from the practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in 1996. During her career she was active in the teaching of psychiatric residents at the Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospitals. Additionally, she was a supervising and training analyst in the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. She was a member of the Maryland Psychiatric Society beginning in 1958 and was chosen a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 1966. She was given Distinguished Life Fellowship in 1985.

She was born Riva London in Selma, Alabama, January 15, 1915 and moved with her parents to Baltimore as an infant. After graduation from Forrest Park High School in 1932 she attended Goucher College in Baltimore earning an A.B. degree in 1936. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society while there. She earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Smith College in1938 and did social case work in family and children’s agencies and the University of Maryland Psychiatric Clinic 1938-1948, and was the chief psychiatric social worker for the University of Maryland Psychiatric Clinic 1946-1948. Because she wanted to become a psychiatrist, she entered the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in 1949 and graduated with her M.D. degree in 1954. She interned at the Union Memorial Hospital 1954-55. Her residency in psychiatry was at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital 1955-57, and she served as staff psychiatrist at the Springfield State Hospital 1957-1959. She began her psychoanalytic studies at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute in 1957 and graduated in 1962. She was a Diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry, certified in Psychiatry in 1965.

Dr. Novey held many teaching positions in the mental health field. She was a supervisor of social work students from the University of Maryland, Catholic University, and Smith College during her years as a social worker. She instructed medical and nursing students at the University of Maryland. She had been a supervisor of psychiatric residents at the University of Maryland, Sheppard Pratt, and Johns Hopkins Hospitals in their experience of learning psychotherapy. In this capacity she was respected and was sought out because of her experience and expertise. The Washington Psychoanalytic Institute recognized her skill and dedication by making her a supervising and training analyst in 1968.

Dr. Novey was married in the late 1930’s to Samuel Novey, M.D. a prominent Baltimore psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. After his death in 1967, several years later she married a local artist, Jacob Glushakow who died in 2000.

All who knew her admired her cheerful outlook on life, her understanding of people, their conflicts, and their strengths, her interests in the cultural life of the community and society, and her willingness to share her ideas and expertise. She was an excellent cook, a harpsichordist, and shared with her late husband a lively interest in art. Her wisdom and guidance will be missed by everyone who benefited from knowing her.

She is survived by a sister, Ms. Debbie London-Hoffman of Owning Mills, Maryland, a brother, Coleman London, of Southbury, Connecticut, a step daughter, Ms. Jane Glushakow of Baltimore, and nephews, Michael Novey of Baltimore and Larry Novey of Washington.

Posted by admin at 04:15 PM

September 07, 2006

Bipolar Disorder Takes Heavy Toll on Workplace

Seen at HealthDay News:

Bipolar disorder costs U.S. businesses twice as much in lost productivity than major depression, a new study finds. Each U.S. worker with bipolar disorder averaged 65.5 lost workdays a year, compared to 27.2 annual lost work days for those with major depression.

About one percent of U.S. workers experience bipolar disorder in a year, compared to 6.4 percent who battle major depression. However, the researchers estimated that bipolar disorder accounts for 96.2 million lost workdays a year and $14.1 billion in lost salary/lost production, compared to 225 million lost workdays and $36.6 billon in lost salary/lost production for major depression.

More on this can be read in the original article linked below.

Related Links:

"Bipolar Disorder Takes Heavy Toll on Workplace,", HealthDay News, September 1, 2006

Posted by admin at 12:15 PM

They Don't Know They Are Ill!

A recent survey by the American Psychiatric Association found that many people know little or almost nothing about the warning signs, causes and effective treatments for mental illnesses-even though in any given year, one in five Americans suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder.

Each year, more people suffer from a mental illness than from cancer and diabetes combined.

Mental illnesses are real and treatable. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the rate of successful treatment for depression (70 to 80 percent) is much higher than the rate for other chronic illnesses such as heart disease (45 to 50 percent).

Some of the signals or symptoms of mental illness include change in personality, inability to cope with problems and daily activities, marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns and extreme highs and lows.

Related Links:

"Mental illness - separating the facts from fiction", Moorpark Acorn, August 25, 2006

Posted by admin at 12:06 PM

April 07, 2006

Edgar Wiggins Wins MFP Outstanding Merit Award

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry announces that Mr. Edgar K. Wiggins was chosen to receive its 2006 Outstanding Merit Award. Mr. Wiggins is Executive Director of Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc., a comprehensive, psychiatric crisis service that provides mobile crisis services, community-based crisis residential alternatives, community-based addictions treatment services and a hotline counseling and referral service.

There were several nominees of high quality, making this a very difficult decision. The board was particularly impressed with Mr. Wiggins's work creating videotaped programs that have aired on Baltimore Cable Access and Comcast’s Education Channel; participating in live radio talk shows including Two Way Talk, Fresh Focus and The Mark Steiner Show; and giving public presentations to a variety of audiences from university to police, clergy and families. His efforts actively promote mental illness awareness and de-stigmatize mental illness. The board also valued his outreach to the minority community.

The award will be presented to Mr. Wiggins at the Maryland Psychiatric Society annual meeting on April 27, 2006.

The annual Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry Outstanding Merit Award recognizes a worthy endeavor in Maryland that accomplishes one or more of the following:

• Increases public awareness and understanding of mental illness
• Enhances the quality of care for psychiatric illness
• Reduces the stigma of mental illness

The award carries a $500 prize.

Posted by admin at 11:30 AM

March 25, 2006

About Bullying

Bullying has been around for a long time and around in many places. The earliest reference to it in the English language goes back over three hundred years and involves grown men who are compared to a woman killing her man. Like their English predecessors, girls today as well as boys are involved in bullying. Bullying is a world wide phenomenon as will be seen by reports from Norway, England, South Korea and the United States.

Bullying for too long had been viewed as just a phase of growing up that would pass. Professor Dan Olweus in Norway was the first to seriously study bullying, starting in 1970. In 1983, after three Norwegian boys committed suicide, he was commissioned to conduct a research and intervention project on bully/victim problems. He developed a Bullying Prevention Program which is in use now in many countries including the United States.

The program requires school intervention on three levels: schoolwide intervention, including development of schoolwide rules against bullying; classroom level intervention, including classroom meetings about bullying and peer relations; and individual-level interventions, including individual meetings with bullies and victims and their parents. The Olweus program has been adopted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a model program that has resulted in a 30-70% reduction in student reports of bullying.

There has been an increasing psychiatric interest in bullying and a recognition of how widespread and serious it is. In 1993 The Anna Freud Centre in London held a one-day conference on bullying and published the results. In 2001 the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article on bullying behaviors among U.S. youth and its association with difficulties in psychosocial adjustment.

In October, 2005 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry there was a three hour panel on bullying. The panelists discussed bullying from the developmental, social and psychiatric/medical symptoms points of view. It is important to identify and help students who are at high risk for bullying not only for the sake of the present but also because they may transfer their interactional style to other relationships across the lifespan. Nine percent of adult workers in Europe reported being bullied by other adults.

A significant number of girls bully and/or are bullied, usually by other girls, in physical as well as verbal and isolative fashion. Bullies, victims and bullies who have formerly been victims reported physical and emotional symptoms such as headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, nervousness and sleeping difficulties. Suicide continues to be a possible outcome of bullying. Psychiatric treatment, including psychotherpy, is sometimes necessary for both perpetrator and victim.

Related Links:

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program at Clemson University -- US website for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Posted by admin at 09:25 AM

October 14, 2005

New Radio Advertisement Available

Our third radio advertisement has begun airing. You can listen to it by clicking the play button on the controller at the top of the home page. If you don't see a controller, all of our ads are available as MP3 files for downloading.

Posted by admin at 11:22 AM

August 03, 2005

Don't Forget Our Survey!

We continue to collect information through our Site Usage Survey. We've added a comments field to it, as well, for any general comments you might have. You can take the survey here (also linked to the right in our Features sidebar).

If you have already taken the survey but would like to add some comments or suggestions about the site, feel free to use the form on our Contact page.

Thank you!

Posted by admin at 04:56 PM

Ask The Doctor Feature Added

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry has added a new "Ask The Doctor" feature to the website. Now you can ask questions and professionals in the field will provide answers or suggestions about how to approach the situation. The service is intended solely for informational purposes and not as a substitute for routine or urgent medical evaluation, treatment or consultation.

A form for entering questions you might have, as well as a listing of previous questions we've answered can be found here. A link is also provided to the left in our "Features" sidebar.

Posted by admin at 04:50 PM

June 29, 2005

HealthyMinds.Org Puts Let's Talk Facts Brochures Online

HealthyMinds.Org, a division of the America Psychiatric Association, has placed its series of Let's Talk Facts brochures online for free access by the public. The series is designed to improve mental health by promoting informed factual discussion of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. They were developed for educational purposes for the general public and provide answers to commonly asked questions on mental health issues and disorders.

The brochures are available in Adobe PDF format. They cover a wide range of topics:

• Anxiety Disorders
• Bipolar Disorder
• Choosing a Psychiatrist
• Common Childhood Disorders
• Depression
• Domestic Violence
• Eating Disorders
• Phobias
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Teen Suicide
• What is Mental Illness?

Related link:

Let's Talk Facts brochures HealthyMinds.Org website

Posted by admin at 08:54 PM

APA Responds to Tom Cruise's Today Show Interview

Recently actor Tom Cruise made some anti-psychiatry remarks, mainly based on his experience in the Church of Scientology, and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has responded. In a press release delivered June 27, 2005, the APA says:

While the APA respects the right of individuals to express their own points of view, science has proven that mental illnesses are real medical conditions that affect millions of Americans.

“It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need,” said APA President Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein.

Over the past five years, the nation has more than doubled its investment in the study of the human brain and behavior, leading to a vastly expanded understanding of postpartum depression, bipolar disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Much of this research has been conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the nation’s leading academic institutions.

The full text of the APA's response is available from their website. We have placed a link to it on our Links page, ass well as among the informative links below. Note the release is in Adobe Acrobat format, which requires the free Adobe Reader to view.

Related links:

APA Responds to Tom Cruise's Today Show Interview American Psychiatric Association, June 27, 2005
Transcript of Tom Cruise Interview, The Today Show, June 25, 2005
Tom Cruise: Man on a Mission, Access Hollywood, May 27, 2005

Posted by admin at 08:25 PM

June 06, 2005

Web Site Survey

In order to better serve visitors, we have a web site survey in place. By answering four quick questions, we can know a bit more about what to put here! Thanks for helping!

Take our survey

Posted by admin at 11:49 AM

May 19, 2005

Second Radio Ad Available

Our second radio ad has begun playing. You can listen to it by clicking the play button on the controller at the top of the home page. If you don't see a controller or wish to listen to the first ad also, MP3 files of both are available for downloading.

Posted by admin at 11:53 AM

Honorary Director Jerome D Frank M.D. 95 dies

Jerome D. Frank M.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins University Medical School died on Monday March 14th, 2005. Dr. Frank was recognized worldwide for his extensive research on psychotherapy and group therapy. He was also known for his criticism of nuclear weapons. He was an honorary member of the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry's board since its inception and was always available for advice and guidance.

Jerome Frank, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, was a major figure in American psychology and psychiatry. Profoundly influenced by the ideas of the social psychologist Kurt Lewin, with whom he studied both in Germany and at Cornell, Dr. Frank was deeply committed to applying the principles of rigorous academic research to meaningful human problems, including the treatment of the mentally ill, the understanding and resolution of political and international conflict, and the promotion of a just society.

After earning a PHD in psychology at Harvard, Dr. Frank pursued medical training at Harvard Medical School and psychiatric residency at the Henry Phipps Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, initially under Dr. Adolf Meyer. As a military psychiatrist in the Asian Theater during World War Two, he first noted the effects of demoralization upon the health and well-being of American troops overseas. In collaboration with Florence Powdermaker of the Veterans Administration, he pioneered the use of group psychotherapy for psychiatric conditions, particularly conditions in which demoralization plays a role.

After joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in 1949, Dr. Frank, with the encouragement of Dr. John C. Whitehorn, began applying the methods of psychology research to the study of psychotherapy. In the course of this research, funded by the NIMH and continuing over several decades, Dr. Frank developed his understanding that all psychotherapies make effective use of certain common principles, including a healing rationale, hope, mastery, and a caring therapeutic relationship. His best known work, Persuasion and Healing: A Comparative Study of Psychotherapy, first published in 1961, developed this insight and related effective psychotherapy to other types of healing influence, including faith healing and participation in cohesive social groups such as religious cults. The three editions of this work, continuously in print in many languages, have been a important bridge among many professional and lay groups that aim to relieve suffering through the application of counseling, healing ritual and helping relationships. The understanding that these are all forms of psychotherapy  based common principles of psychology fostered the development of psychotherapy within the disciplines of psychiatry, clinical psychology, social work, pastoral counseling, medicine and nursing. Current psychotherapeutic practices, including cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, time-limited psychotherapy, and group psychotherapy (including self-help groups) all rely heavily on the intellectual foundations of Dr. Frank's work.

Dr. Frank's was committed to understanding real problems in society. He had been studying in Germany during the rise of Nazism, and he was in the Pacific when the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.  His feelings as a parent in the post war era led him to study the psychology of the nuclear arms race and to work for nuclear disarmament. His book, Sanity and Survival in the Nuclear Age: Psychological Aspects of  War and Peace, impressed Senator William Fulbright, the former head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Fulbright shared Dr. Frank's grasp of the nuclear threat and the need to change people's understanding of war to meet it. Dr. Frank testified by invitation before the Senate Foreign Relations committee in 1966. He was a founding member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and for years participated actively in the deliberations of the Council for a Livable World, among many political/social commitments.

In his final years, Dr. Frank returned to the study of psychotherapy. He came to believe that demoralization is a dimension of mental and medical illnesses of many kinds, and that psychotherapy uniquely combats this state. This insight remains important , contributing to the many forms of mental health care provided to soldiers involved in current conflicts. Dr. Frank also returned to the world of post-modern academia, developing the provocative and still controversial idea that psychotherapy is a form of healing rhetoric rather than an applied science.

Dr. Frank mentored many students, residents and colleagues during his years at Johns Hopkins. They repaid him with respect, affection, and a willingness to develop and disseminate his ideas, something he knew and treasured. His own reflection provides perhaps the most fitting capstone for the career of this lifelong teacher and researcher  "*more territory remains to be explored. So my intellectual journey ends, not with conclusions, but with questions, as all such journeys should."

Posted by admin at 11:50 AM