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Published Online: 5 March 2010

APA Launches MH Blog Directed at Public

Abstract

APA's new mental health blog for the public is being well received. The Council on Communications, which launched it, would now like to see it grow in popularity.
APA has launched a mental health blog for the public.
It ca n be accessed through APA's public-oriented Web site, <www.healthyminds.org>, or directly at <http://apahealthyminds.blogspot.com>. There are also links to it on the social Web sites Facebook and Twitter.
“I would like to urge my colleagues to take a look at it and then recommend it to their patients,” Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., CEO and medical director of Holliswood Hospital in New York City and chair of the APA Council on Communications, told Psychiatric News. “I think it is a very useful resource for our patients and their families.”
“The council has a tremendous group of professionals, and the APA staff that works with the council is also outstanding,” Borenstein said. “And in conversations about how we could reach out to the public, the idea of using new technology as a form of outreach came up, leading to the creation of the blog. We had some conversations about it during the summer, and then this fall we gave it the green light. And it has been going very nicely.”
Subjects are selected in a number of ways, he explained. “If there is some issue going on in the news, we'll try to address it. If there's some issue that we feel is important and want to bring up, we'll address that. Also, the contributors have varied interests and may base their contributions on them.” Various council members have contributed blog entries so far.
Recently, for example, Felicia Wong, M.D., addressed ways in which people can manage seasonal affective disorder; Gabriela Cora, M.D., focused on cultural expressions of depression; and Gina Newsome Duncan, M.D., tackled the issue facing people who are too busy to relax. In addition, R. Scott Benson, M.D., zeroed in on helping children with transitions, and Roberto Blanco, M.D., discussed the prevention of mental health crises.
Comments have come from people in all regions of the country. “We respond as APA HealthyMinds—not as a specific blogger—to these comments,” Hillarie Turner, special projects and operations manager in APA's Office of Communication and Public Affairs, told Psychiatric News.
Borenstein is pleased with the response so far. “So now,” he said, “we want to make the blog grow—both in the number of people who are reading it and in the number of Internet sites linked to and from it.”

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Published online: 5 March 2010
Published in print: March 5, 2010

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