Local leaders are working with Jason Upthegrove of the Upthegrove Family Enrichment Center to bring the Circles Campaign to Lima and Allen County.

The Circles Campaign is a new initiative that will engage communities in joining with 1,000 families of low income to find paths out of poverty and to document the challenges and victories of this process. The stories and research from this initiative will be used to inspire and equip national, state, and community leaders to expand their local and national intention and capacity for reducing and eventually eliminating poverty. Based on the results, leaders from across the nation can design a new, coherent and powerful social contract between hard-working, play-by-the-rules families, local communities and government.

The three objectives for The Circles Campaign are:                                            

1. Assist 1000 families (nationally) completely out of poverty, 
2. Carefully document the steps taken to help them out of poverty and any barriers they encountered(their own internal barriers as well as community and government policy barriers), 
3. Help leaders develop a new social contract draft that outlines what a community, state and nation can and should do to assure hard-working families can thrive. 

For more information, check out www.movethemountain.org

"In an honest assessment of threats to this new generation of veterans, PTSD and emotional or mental problems are at the top of the list," said Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq War vet and founder of veterans advocacy group Operation Truth. "PTSD is a real threat that can lead to multiple issues--unemployment, homelessness, suicide. It's important because history repeats itself, and we still haven't learned our lesson."

Throughout history's patterns, only the names have changed. After the Civil War, they called it soldier's heart or nostalgia--the emotional and psychological symptoms experienced by war veterans. In WWI it was shellshock, and in WWII and Korea it was battle fatigue. Today we know it by the name it was given after Vietnam--PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder was officially designated by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980. The most common symptoms are emotional numbing, hyperarousal (irritability, vigilance) and re-experiencing traumatic situations through flashbacks and emotions. Symptoms may take months or even years to surface. People with acute PTSD generally recover in three to six months, but chronic PTSD can go on for decades.

Combat situations in Afghanistan and Iraq are already producing a host of psychological casualties, including PTSD. A study by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research conducted in 2003 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2004 found that 15% to 17% of returning Iraq veterans showed symptoms of PTSD, anxiety or depression. Some 11% of Afghanistan vets showed the same symptoms.

Click here for the full text of this article:  Stress and Veterans
For more information on mental health and the military, including information for families visit:

Network of Care ---> For Service Members and Veterans

 This article provided by The Military Connection.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior.

This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual’s sense of self-identity. While less is known about BPD than about schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, BPD is more common, affecting 2% of adults, mostly young women.

For more about Borderline Personality Disorder, visit the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Reprinted from the NEABPD web site.

When mental illnesses are used as labels-depressed, schizophrenic, manic, or hyperactive-these labels hurt.

Labels lead to stigma -- a word that means branding and shame. And stigma leads to discrimination. Everyone knows why it is wrong to discriminate against people because of their race, religion, culture, or appearance. They are less aware of how people with mental illnesses are discriminated against. Although such discrimination may not always be obvious, it exists-and it hurts.

Words Can Be Poison

The stigma of mental illness is real, painful, and damaging to the lives of people with mental illness. Stigma prevents them from getting the treatment and support they need to lead healthy, normal lives.

Stigma discourages people from getting help. At any given time, one in four adults and one in five children experience a mental health problem. Early and appropriate services can be the best way to prevent an illness from getting worse. Many people don't seek such services because they don't want to be labeled as "mentally ill" or "crazy."

Stigma keeps people from getting good jobs and advancing in the workplace. Some employers are reluctant to hire people who have mental illnesses. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), such discrimination is illegal. But it still happens!

Stigma results in prejudice and discrimination. Many individuals try to prevent people who have mental illnesses from living in their neighborhoods.

Stigma results in inadequate insurance coverage. Many insurance plans do not cover mental health services to the same degree as other illnesses. When mental illnesses are covered, coverage may be limited, inappropriate, or inadequate.

Words Can Heal

At the beginning of the study, 53.6 percent of participants reported no symptoms of depression, 23.9 percent reported one symptom, 9.7 percent reported two, 6.1 percent reported three and 6.8 percent reported four or more.

During follow-up, 190 individuals developed Alzheimer's disease. Those with more symptoms of depression at the beginning of the study were more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

However, "those who developed Alzheimer's disease showed no increase in depressive symptoms before the diagnosis was made, and this finding was not modified by age, sex, education, memory complaints, vascular burden or personality," the authors write.

"Among those without cognitive impairment at baseline, depressive symptoms did not increase in those who subsequently developed mild cognitive impairment."

Symptoms of depression may be associated with changes in the brain that reduce its resistance to dementia, the authors write.

"Understanding the mechanisms linking depressive symptoms with dementia could suggest novel approaches to delaying dementia onset because animal research suggests diverse means by which the adverse effects of chronic stress may be modified."

Reported by Tucker Sutherland, Editor

SeniorJournal.com

Click here to read the entire article.