Month: February 2018

APD seeks missing man suffering from schizophrenia

February 26, 2018 / STS Admin

http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/apd-seeks-missing-man-suffering-from-schizophrenia/4804695/

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque Police are asking for the public’s help in locating a man who they say needs to be constantly supervised.

Police say Hasewood Dennison went with members of his group home on a supervised group outing to Legacy Church on Sunday.

While at Legacy, officers say the 54-year-old walked away from the group and did not return to the group home later that day.

Police say Dennison suffers from schizophrenia and has constant visual and auditory hallucinations. Officials are worried for his health because he needs to take prescribed medications.

Anyone with information on Mr. Dennison’s whereabouts is asked to call Detective Lorenzo Apodaca of APD’s Missing Person’s Unit at 505-659-7258.

Hypokalemia: Potassium and Mental Health

February 11, 2018 / STS Admin

After one of our chapter members was hospitalized for extreme psychosis with symptoms resistant to psychotropic medications, it was realized by providers that low potassium level was the causal factor for these symptoms. This condition is called hypokalemia and produced psychotic symptoms completely separate from their bipolar diagnosis.

Dr. Ellen Hong has a definitive article concerning the link between hypokalemia and mental health.

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2016.111103

Treatment in Psychiatry

Hypokalemia and Psychosis: A Forgotten Association

Ella Hong, M.D.

View Author and Article Information

Published online: March 16, 2017 | https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2016.111103

A 41-year-old African American woman with a past diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and medical history of hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was brought to the emergency department for auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions. Upon initial evaluation, she was irritable and agitated and reported active suicidal ideation associated with voices accusing her of being a murderer. She had recently moved into her brother’s apartment due to financial hardship and was unemployed. Family history was notable for a brother with schizophrenia. The patient denied a history of illicit substance use. Medications included hydrochlorothiazide for hypertension and albuterol as needed for COPD. The patient had been maintained on clonazapam and paroxetine for depression for the last several years without recent medication adjustment but had run out of medications a week prior to admission. Routine laboratory tests on admission revealed a potassium level of 2.3 mEq/L and negative urine toxicology.

DBSA Albuquerque Board – Vice president position

February 11, 2018 / STS Admin

In a conversation with our president Sarah Salway, I’ve agreed to remain on as DBSA Albuquerque vice president for the year of 2018. There’s much work to be done during transitioning our chapter, and much of this work will require I be on the executive board to complete for our chapter.

Best of mental health to you

Steve Bringe

New Support Groups Coming Soon!

February 7, 2018 / STS Admin

DBSA Albuquerque is working on doubling the amount of support groups we offer! Coming this March we will be adding a group in the Northeast Heights area of Albuquerque. We are also working on adding another group near central Albuquerque. Check back soon for info on when and where!

DBSA Albuquerque Friday Support Group

February 7, 2018 / STS Admin

As part of our mission to provide quality support groups for those living with a mental health diagnosis in the Albuquerque area, we host a group on Friday evenings at the Don Newton Taylor Ranch Community Center near Montaño and Golf Course. Doors open at 6:30 pm, group starts at 7 and ends at 8:30. Come enjoy our safe and welcoming peer-run group. We’ll see you there!

DBSA Albuquerque Monday Support Group

February 7, 2018 / STS Admin

It is DBSA Albuquerque’s mission to provide quality support groups for those living with a mental health diagnosis and their families. We are peer run and peer focused. Come enjoy a safe, welcoming group on Mondays from 2 to 4pm at the Kumba Coffee shop at Downtown @ 700 on the corner of Lomas and 2nd. We’ll see you there!

Want to be on the DBSA Albuquerque board and help guide our chapter?

February 6, 2018 / STS Admin

Dear DBSA Albuquerque members,

After many years guiding our chapter, I’ve made the decision to move on from our board and into a strictly advisory role for our chapter.

It’s simply time for new ideas.

I did agree to temporarily hold the position of Vice President the beginning of this year with the intent of helping with chapter reaffiliation. This interim period was planned until January 31. It’s time for our new Vice President to step up.

Because last year our board decided that my advocacy had gone well beyond the core purpose of the DBSA, which is to have SAFE, CONFIDENTIAL peer support groups, much of what I am involved with can jeopardize this safety for members. Not intentional, only potential.

So, being Vice President will entail ensuring support groups happen and that membership is increased and happy. Expanding into many areas of the city is important to this, and it is one aspect of the chapter I hope to continue to help develop.

If you are interested, please email info@dbsaalbuquerque.org for more details. It’s rewarding and lots of fun!

My tenure as President lasted three years longer than planned, and to reiterate, I have taken my advocacy passions well beyond the scope of our chapter core, peer support groups. /u

My true passion is education. It is education to expand knowledge and understanding, with the goal of breaking through stigmas that limit peer involvement and threaten peer safety. We are not our diagnosis, we are human beings who manage the symptoms of a malfunctioning organ, our brain.

For the past six months, a small group of peers have been transitioning a smooth division of my education programs and DBSA Albuquerque’s peer support groups. Over the last month, we have moved forward with gathering all processes and forms necessary to operate as a business within New Mexico and beyond (including England and Australia).

The name of our business is STAND UP TO STIGMA and our motto is “Stigma Is Temporary.” We’ve successfully completed a number of gigs with indefinite contracts like at the DOH’s Turquoise Lodge Hospital. We are training and will continue to train peer presenters across many organizations and communities. If you are interested in knowing more about our programs and becoming a peer presenter, please email info@standuptostigma.org.

I cherish my time as president of our chapter, and I am eternally grateful for the support and love I’ve received from our friends at DBSA Albuquerque. And really, peer groups are more family than only friends.

We need a new Vice President, and I am certain that taking on this position for our chapter will be just as rewarding and empowering as it was for me.

Best of mental health to you,
Steve Bringe

An observation of APD CIT training: “Because we didn’t know how to reach out to you without making it worse.”

February 2, 2018 / STS Admin

Far too often lately (over the last year and a half), with the multitude of hardships I’ve faced, I’ve not garnered the sorts of sympathies one would expect from friends or even colleagues.

The leading excuse for saying nothing at all has been . . .

We didn’t know how to approach you and thought we’d make things “worse.”

I must assume this is because I’ve been a peer in crisis. I extrapolate this from “thought we’d make it worse.”

Er . . . So because I’m a peer in crisis, naturally I should be treated differently. Almost as if stereotyping and stigmatization are the best choices for handling a colleague on an advisement board like MHRAC.

What the heck have I been training you guys to do when it comes to deescalation of peers in crisis?

This is a topic I’ll be exploring, considering I won’t be resigning from any of these committees I’ve worked so hard to develop.

Think of it in these terms:

How can I feel confident officers in the field are usung the skills I’ve trained them for if they can’t employ these skills with a peer they know and work with intimately? And how can I tell peers who trust me that APD CIT training is working without being hypocritical?

It’s a crisis of faith, with a parting nod that I did not include persona non grata in the CIT training.

Think it over. This is a topic worth exploring.