Tag: Ornstein

Reading of the Week: Three Essays on Mental Illness

April 5, 2018 /

From the Editor

As stigma fades, we are as a society talking more and more about mental illness. And we are also writing more on the topic.

This week, the Reading features three essays that ask three provocative questions. Does naloxone access save lives? What’s it like to be depressed and in medical school? How do involuntary commitment laws affect the families of those with mental illness?

These essays are very different in part because they reflect very different perspectives on our collective experience with mental illness: the perspectives of providers, patients, and families.

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Enjoy.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: A Father Mourns His Son, and More

December 10, 2015 /

Note from the Editor

In most Readings of the Week, a paper or essay is selected and then discussed in the commentary.

This week, we try something a bit different: a few pieces are selected and briefly discussed. We can cover more ground this way, and consider some pieces that may not have warranted a “full” Reading, but are still worthy of consideration.

DG

 

Selection 1: “How to Help Save the Mentally Ill From Themselves”

Norman J. Ornstein, The New York Times, 17 November 2015

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My older son, Matthew Ornstein, died at age 34 on Jan. 3 from carbon monoxide poisoning. It was accidental — he fell asleep in a tent with a propane lantern — but his death was shaped by a lack of judgment driven by a 10-year struggle with mental illness.

Continue reading