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Perfectly Broken Yet Stronger Together
It’s taken me a few weeks to write a post about attending this year’s HealtheVoices. This is the fourth time Janssen has hosted this event and I am blessed to have been invited to attend all four times. Usually I come home full of enthusiasm and joy at spending such an amazing weekend with so…
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DeVos and Her Purge of IDEA Guidance
I know, I’ve been quiet for a few months. Frankly, I’ve started and stopped writing posts at least a dozen times over the past three or four months, and every time I get disgusted by our current political climate and stop. I feel completely helpless. We have a President who wants to reduce the health…
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Overcoming and Self Care
In July of 1980 I was thirteen years old. I spend the previous school year being picked on for being chubby and having braces. The summer between seventh and eighth grade I got my braces off and went on a diet. I lost 15 pounds. My sophomore year of high school I was enrolled in…
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The MacArthur Amendment And Healthcare
On April 20, 2017, it was announced that an amendment to the American Health Care Act (AHCA) was being proposed. The amendment was authored by Congressman Tom MacArthur (R-NJ). On April 25, 2017, the full language of the amendment was released. You can read it here. It’s not great. It gives the states the ability…
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ME Versus Me
I went to the third annual HealthEVoices Online Advocacy conference this past weekend. I learned a lot that I want to share with you over the coming weeks. But probably the most important thing I learned is that I don’t have to be everything to everyone, all of the time. I love the advocacy work…
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How Do I Trump Fear?
I have been trying to explain to friends, family, and others why I, a middle-aged, middle-class white woman, am afraid of what the next four years holds now that Donald Trump is our President Elect. I keep reading comments like, “we will have to wait and see what happens,” or “we will all be okay.”…
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Victory! Cedar Fair closes FearVR Ride
After our calls and emails to Knott’s Berry Farm and Hollow Studios, the online petition, and posts, articles, and letters from the Orange County chapter of NAMI, Pete Earley, Ron Thomas, and Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez, Cedar Fair Entertainment, the parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm, California’s Great America, and Canada’s Wonderland Park have…
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Response from Knott’s Berry Farm
I received a response from both Knott’s Berry Farm and the maker of the virtual reality game they are showcasing this Halloween.
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Stigma is Alive and Well at Knott’s Scary Farm
Knott’s Berry Farm is an amusement park in Orange County, California. I’ve been there several times, as a child and as an adult with my kids, including Tim. Every October they turn the park into Knott’s Scary Farm, decked out in all the finest in Halloween regalia. This year, they announced a new virtual reality…
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Four Reasons Why Fighting Stigma Is Important
There is some sentiment among advocates for persons with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that movements like Mental Health Awareness Month and fighting stigma is a waste of resources because it doesn’t help get treatment and resources to the most severely mentally ill. I disagree. I think awareness and stigma fighting are…