Blog - Page 5 of 5 - KARTAR DIAMOND

What Is Dual Diagnosis? by Kartar Diamond

In the mental health care industry, it has become the standard to refer to a person with both mental illness and a substance abuse disorder as having a Dual Diagnosis. If not explained, one might otherwise come to the conclusion the phrase refers to a person with two co-occurring mental illnesses. An example of co-occurring mental illnesses might be schizophrenia combined with a (major depressive) mood disorder, usually called schizoaffective disorder. Dual Diagnosis is an important term because substance abuse will complicate and [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-09-08T02:09:12+00:00September 8, 2020|Advocacy, Mental Illness|0 Comments

What Is An IMD? by Kartar Diamond

The acronym IMD stands for Institute of Mental Disease. This is a fairly recent re-naming of what used to be called a mental hospital, a mental institution, psychiatric hospital, or in the last century: Insane Asylum. Once attached to the word “insane”, there are now certainly plenty of negative connotations with the word “asylum.” Its original meaning and usage was more akin to a refuge, providing safe haven, shelter and protection, such as “refugees seeking asylum” in another country. Over the last sixty [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-09-05T18:45:46+00:00September 5, 2020|Mental Illness, Policy|0 Comments

Recognizing Emerging Mental Illness

Recognizing mental illness when it first emerges can be extremely difficult, even for family members who are so familiar with the personality and character of their suffering loved one. This can be an agonizing and fear-inducing predicament for obvious reasons. What makes the recognition of mental illness so challenging can be blamed on several factors. Firstly, the average person is not expected to be educated about mental illness, unless they already have someone in their life with a well-established mental illness. Some cultures [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-08-31T22:16:08+00:00August 31, 2020|Articles by Others, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

In Memory of Mental Illness Advocate DJ Jaffe

With both shock and sadness, I heard yesterday about DJ Jaffe’s passing the day before. It couldn’t have been more than a few weeks ago when I responded to one of his Facebook posts. He hid his illness well and worked tirelessly until the very end. Others who knew him well have already written beautiful commentaries and his Facebook page has an outpouring of condolences which I hope his whole family will read. I didn’t know him well, but my son and I [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-08-25T17:20:35+00:00August 25, 2020|Advocacy, Policy|0 Comments

An Odd Time to Thank Law Enforcement

Without the need to elaborate, Mental Health Awareness Month included a day which will be seared into history as a pivotal moment in Black Lives Matter. May 25th, 2020 was a day when nearly the entire planet witnessed virtually a sickening and unnecessary death of a human being at the hands of excessive police force. So why would I want to send a virtual letter of gratitude to law enforcement, aside from the fact that U.S. police officers are mostly good people, trying [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-08-21T16:56:19+00:00August 21, 2020|Advocacy, Policy|0 Comments

An Introduction to Noah’s Schizophrenia by Kartar Diamond

Welcome to my world. It’s also the world of millions of other family members who are frustrated that they cannot expediently cure the suffering of their loved one with serious mental illness. Blame can be placed in more than one area, to include the under-funded and understaffed mental health care industry. We can blame the disease itself, lack of research or lack of insight and cooperation from the very person with the disease. And in our darkest hours and private thoughts, parents often [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-08-20T20:39:47+00:00August 20, 2020|The Memoir|0 Comments