Tag: United States

Reading of the Week: On Spade, Suicide, and the New CDC Report

From the Editor

“I didn’t know Kate Spade, who hanged herself with a red scarf in her bedroom on Tuesday at the age of 55, other than through the prism of her insistently cheerful and whimsical accessories. But everything about Ms. Spade and her designs suggested a sunny temperament, from her candy-colored aesthetic to the perky image she projected. We have a hard time squaring a seemingly successful woman — one with a highflying career, a family and heaps of money — with a despondency so insinuating that it led her to end it all. All this helps explain why Fern Mallis, the former director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and a friend of Ms. Spade’s, called her death ‘so out of character.’ In fact, it turned out that the bubbly girl from Kansas City ‘suffered from depression and anxiety for many years,’ as her husband, Andy, said.”

So writes novelist Daphne Merkin The New York Times. In the essay, Merkin writes about her depression and her own suicidal thoughts.

Kate Spade. Then Anthony Bourdain.

It’s been a remarkable few days.

bourdain-obama-429e2fd0-b412-4a22-804a-acb7a25d8d43Anthony Bourdain with President Barack Obama

In this Reading, we look at the new CDC report on suicide in the United States. Suicide rates south of the 49thparallel have risen nearly 30% since 1999. We consider the paper and its implications.

DG

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Reading of the Week: ECT in America – Uncommon, Uneven, and Underappreciated? The New Wilkinson Paper; Also, Cope’s Challenge to Corporate Canada

From the Editor

It’s difficult not to be excited about Bell Let’s Talk. Last week’s event set a fundraising record. Pause for a moment and appreciate how far we have traveled: a major Canadian corporation is promoting mental health awareness, raising millions of dollars in the process, and gathering praise from many, including the Prime Minister. The decline of stigma is seen across the west, with talk of tackling the opioid epidemic in New Hampshire, US, and of bettering psychological interventions in Hampshire, UK.

But how accessible is evidence-based care?

In the first selection, we consider a paper just published on ECT in the United States. Drawing on a massive database, the authors of this Psychiatric Services paper find ECT is used rarely and unevenly. In this Reading, we compare the American data to Canada’s – and draw a similar conclusion.

flag_map_of_the_contiguous_united_states_1912-1959A large country with many people – but not much ECT

And speaking of Bell Canada, in our second selection, we consider a Globe article on CEO George Cope’s recent Canada Club speech. In it, Cope challenges other businesses to implement a mental health strategy. “For business leaders… here’s the call-out: The numbers are self-funding. There’s no reason not to adopt a program in your company.”

DG

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