Mental Health Issues Hit New Yorkers, Including Latino Women

Mental Health and Latino Women

Mental health issues effect everyone, and that includes New Yorkers. For example: Latinos living in the US, women, 45+ers, and the unemployed are groups at a higher risk for developing clinical depression and anxiety disorders. But what can be done about this?

I worked in at Columbia Psychiatry/NYSPI as their patient librarian where I procured for our Spanish-speaking patients the best mental health information that was available in English and Spanish. I read a lot during my tenure at the patient library, and I wanted to share my knowledge, so I wrote nine books. The books I wrote, I wrote to combat the stigma of mental illness and to educate.

My titles deal with mental health issues and language acquisition. Two of my books received the honor of a recommendation by the APA President Jeffrey Lieberman and internationally known mental health advocate Elyn Saks J.D., PhD.

My blog

http://www.amazon.com/author/williamjiang

Bibliotherapy and Psychoeducation at NYSPI 2004-2011, Being The Patient Librarian at a Psychiatric Institution

By William Jiang, MLS

Happily, I step out of the quick-moving steel elevator in my gym clothes after working out for an hour in the basement of the modern architectural beauty that is the hospital in which I work. I always like passing the entrance at 1051 Riverside Drive. Known as the Atrium, this artistic masterwork looks like a web woven with intricate white girders that support the giant glass facade. I reach my floor and I take two quick rights. The hallway lights flicker a bright institutional white. It is early in the morning as I take out my keys to open the three sturdy steel doors behind which is my library. It is a rare kind of library in, arguably, America’s oldest and most competitive psychiatric research institution. I have reached The Patient and Family Library of New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), and I am its Chief Librarian. I open the last white steel door to my library and it closes behind me. I am excited because the online book catalog that I programmed from scratch is live and is searchable from anywhere in the world. This includes the three adult inpatient units in our hospital, and those are the most important people I want to reach. Those are the people I want to reach with our collection of psychoeducational bibliotherapeutic books, magazines, DVDs, and ready-reference materials in English and Spanish. In other words, my library offered educational materials about various mental disorders to help the sufferers cope better and develop insight to their challenges brought about by their illnesses.

This was a typical day for me at NYSPI. I was the Chief for seven years between July 2004 and July 2011. In that time I learned a lot about the major mental illnesses that NYSPI treats: eating disorders, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. These mental illnesses are significant and touch everybody in our society. Even if you don’t have a mental illness yourself, there is definitely somebody that you know or have passed by during your day who is personally affected.  According to the Surgeon General, one in four Americans suffer from one or more of the disorders I listed above. Mental illness does not discriminate, and it can strike anybody: the homeless man in the street or the wealthy “do-ers” of American society.

There was a delegation from Korea that came to study my library as a model for Korean psychoeducational libraries. There were also four other patient libraries in the United States that came to me to help them build successful patient libraries based on the concept of psychoeducation. My library helped over 1,000 per year. In terms of the physical collection, my library had the following resources: over 500 books that were specially selected by staff and myself geared towards laypeople but that gave education and insight to our patients. We had books that dealt with topics from theoretical to concrete psychology. One could find a book about Freud and Jung or 100 Questions & Answers About Schizophrenia or The Mindful Way Through Depression. Also the library had periodical subscriptions to 12 psychoeducational magazine and newsletter titles. We had everything from Scientific American: Mind to ADDitude. Also, the library had over 100 psychoeducational video titles from MTV’s True Life: I Have Schizophrenia to NOVA’s documentary about eating disorders: Dying to Be Thin. I also got the best available psychoeducational ready reference materials from the National Institute of Mental Health. These took the form of pamphlets that were attractive and easily given to people who needed a quick comprehensive introduction to a particular disorder. It could have as easily have been someone who wanted to learn about bipolar disorder in Spanish or maybe they wanted a mental health crisis and resource referral line in New York City in Chinese such as LIFENET.

I remember that my Patient Library had a movie event and panel discussion about brain stimulation techniques organized around the amazingly insightful movie “Shock” that featured the struggle with the dark depression of the wife of the presidential candidate Michael Dukakis: Kitty Dukakis. She came forward to fight the stigma associated with mental illness by letting the world know in this movie that she needed needed electroshock therapy otherwise known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to deal with her severe depression. The movie had people who were pro and con ECT, so it felt balanced. It is sobering to think that sometimes, the only thing standing between certain death and you is that man in a white coat with his hand on the healing power of electric current: the psychiatrist. that being said, I personally would undergo ECT based on what I know about its efficacy and possible adverse effects.

The result of much of the learning that I attained as Chief Librarian is published in two works of nonfiction. I shared some of my objective knowledge about psychiatry in The Medical Librarian's Guide to Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar, and Schizophrenia: Nutrition,and Complimentary Therapies, Createspace, 2012. The book covers a lot of ground, and is potentially useful for many. For example, omega-3 fish oils have the power to prevent fully- blown psychosis in those that are prone to it due to genetics and/or environmental factors. Amazing stuff! My second work of nonfiction is my autobiographical sketch: A Schizophrenic Will: A Story Of Madness, A Story Of Hope which I wrote to do my part to combat the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and to give people living with my same diagnosis hope. It also qualifies as a psychoeducational text.

I have mentioned psychoeducation, but what is it really?

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation refers to the education offered to people who live with a psychological disturbance. Frequently psychoeducational training involves patients with schizophrenia, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic illnesses, eating disorders, and personality disorders, as well as patient training courses in the context of the treatment of physical illnesses. Family members are also included. A goal is for the patient to understand and be better able to deal with the presented illness. Also, the patient's own strengths, resources and coping skills are reinforced, in order to avoid relapse and contribute to their own health and wellness on a long-term basis. The theory is, with better knowledge the patient has of their illness, the better the patient can live with their condition.

The concept of psychoeducation was first noted in the medical literature, in an article by John E. Donley "Psychotherapy and re-education" in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published in 1911. It wasn't until 30 years later that the first use of the word psychoeducation appeared in the medical literature in title of the book The Psychoeducational Clinic by Brian E. Tomlinson. New York, NY, US: MacMillan Co. This book was published in 1941. In French, the first instance of the term psychoéducation is in the thesis "La stabilité du comportement" published in 1962.

The popularization and development of the term psychoeducation into its current form is widely attributed to the American researcher C.M. Anderson in 1980 in the context of the treatment of schizophrenia. Her research concentrated on educating relatives concerning the symptoms and the process of the schizophrenia. Also, her research focused on the stabilization of social authority and on the improvement in handling of the family members among themselves. Finally, C.M. Anderson's research included more effective stress management techniques. Psychoeducation in behavior therapy has its origin in the patient's relearning of emotional and social skills. In the last few years increasingly systematic group programs have been developed, in order to make the knowledge more understandable to patients and their families.

Also, my library offered bibliotherapy. What exactly is that?

Bibliotherapy

My library offered a form of bibliotherapy which has its roots in the early 19th century and before: this form of therapy is an ancient concept when we talk about libraries. The ancient Greeks put great faith in the power of literature, and a sign above an ancient Greek library read: "healing place for the soul".

In America of 1802, although the term “bibliotherapy” had not been coined, Doctor Benjamin Rush recommended the establishment of a library in every hospital to amuse and instruct the patients. Rush recommended that books be used for treatment and exhorted the medical community to hire trained professionals to work with asylum patients. However, because novels, in the early 19th century, were thought to add to the development of mental illnesses such as dementia praecox, or schizophrenia, he suggested the use of nonfiction books for the insane.

In the US the first patient library opened at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1844. This library started by providing moral and religious reading materials to patients as they exited the hospital, back into the community. Of note, interlibrary loan from nearby public libraries existed to provide books and other materials such as business, technical, Braille, and other materials in foreign languages .

From 1906-1914 hospital-centered patient libraries were mostly seen in private hospitals, state run mental hospitals, and long-term care facilities. World War I created a huge push for more books. Books provided solace to many soldiers while they were recuperating in the US and France. The war built momentum speaking to the therapeutic power of books.  

More on my tenure at NYSPI

I led psychoeducational groups on all three of the adult inpatient units in English and Spanish, and in some groups I presented my patient library newsletter that was sent around the community to over 1000 Columbia University people. Many of the patients found the groups helpful. Many issues of the newsletter dealt with things that can help people who suffer from mental illness cope with their illnesses such as meditation, breathwork, avoiding cannabis to avoid increasing the risk of psychosis, and the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for multiple psychiatric issues. In one issue that I remember well, I included a book review of my own critically acclaimed autobiography which is available on the Kindle as well as Amazon.com in book form: A Schizophrenic Will: A Story of Madness, A Story of Hope. When I led groups anywhere in the hospital, on the English-speaking wards or Spanish-speaking units., it didn’t matter what the diagnoses of people on the units were, I had a lot of positive feedback from both patients and staff. People told me that my autobiography and my living example gave them hope to continue living. Those moments were some of my most gratifying times at NYSPI.

Now, due to budget cuts and my leaving the position of Patient Librarian, the library has closed. There is a huge demand for real estate in NYSPI because they try to maximize the amount of research that they’re able to do, and the Institute only has so many square feet of office and lab space on campus. I will always be grateful for the administration and staff of New York State psychiatric institution for permitting me the honor of making a difference in our patient’s lives during my tenure.

Livemocha.com vs Busuu.com for Free Language Learning and Other Resources

Founded in 1991, the heavyweight language learning software worldwide is Rosetta Stone. In 2010 Rosetta Stone made approximately $220 million in profit. Rosetta Stone is currently incorporating live tutors into their overpriced software. My question is, why is anybody spending money when Livemocha.com and Busuu.com are great free language learning communities?

The following graph shows the similarities and differences between Livemocha.com and Busuu.com.

With all of the great value you get from Busuu and Livemocha, you might be wondering “what is the catch?” The beautiful answer is that there is no catch! Busuu was a UNESCO partner during the “Year of Languages”, and it was started in Madrid, Spain. Livemocha is the world’s largest language learning website, and the popularity soared after was mentioned in the New York Times, period.

But, what if you really want to get a tutor in your designated language and you live in the United States? You can always post a “gig” on craigslist.org. Say, for example, you wanted to learn Spanish. You could put up an ad in the city in which you live and get a native speaker, pretty much wherever you are. The same works for most languages in most metropolitan areas. I., myself, learned Spanish via telephone this way with a very nice and professional woman from Honduras.

In the age of Skype, you can reach out across the globe for a tutor, and while Craigslist is king in the United States, it is not popular in other countries. I have included the popular free classified ads boards below for those who wish to reach out across the world.

For the Spanish speaking world mundoanuncio.com is king.
In France vivastreet.com is popular.
If you wanted to learn English from an American Craigslist.org is a great choice.
If you wanted to learn English from an Englishman thesun.co.uk is a great free place to post
if you want to learn German kleinanzeigen.ebay.de ist sher gut!
if you want to use the mainland Chinese version of craigslist it is 58.com

Or, maybe you want to learn Russian, so you can post on avito.ru

Between Google translate and the help of a friend, learning a language has never been easier or cheaper! Most countries accept PayPal as a payment option, and those that do not allow PayPal generally do allow Western Union. if you want to learn how to speak Spanish like a native of Barcelona, go ahead!

Onelook.com should be mentioned as the world’s best dictionary for the English-language as chosen by me because it is a dictionary meta-search engine that indexes hundreds of specialized dictionaries and general dictionaries that can be searched from one easy to use interface.

Wordreference.com is the best multilingual social media dictionary because there are forums where current word usage is discussed in addition to giving you the definitions. Very useful!

Last but not least, when talking about defining words, there is the Google chrome extension Google Dictionary that makes looking up words you are unfamiliar in most major languages a snap and a heckuva lot easier.

Now we know the definitions of all of our words. But how do we conjugate the verbs? Easy verbix.com ‘s free web-based conjugators for every language I’m familiar with. Don’t buy those books that teach you how to conjugate verb. Save a tree and some more green!

With this short overview of free and no cost resources, there is no use for you not to start learning a language today!

if you would like help researching a topic, contact me at kd3qc@yahoo.com

Loan e-books on Amazon.com By William Jiang, MLS

Great news! Amazon.com announced last year that the Kindle will allow purchasers of electronic books to lend their e-books to others. This technology opens up worlds of possibilities that libraries offer eBooks to their customers with the readers of e-books. If libraries play their cards right they will be able to increase readership, increase circulation, increase visits to the libraries of all customers in a giant step by rapidly adopting this new technology. Exciting indeed!

Read more here:
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=581

Southern California Libraries Avoided serious damage caused by torrential rains, by William Jiang, MLS

Rains that hit southern California during the week of Christmas 2010, later left a foot of snow in New York City, have done little damage to libraries in the South California. There are reports of tens of thousands of dollars in damage in Southern California, floods and landslides, however, when I spoke with a representative of the Library Cooperative of Southern California, she told me that she had not heard of a single library that was closed by the storm. This is great news for the Latino community of Southern California. According to the 2010 census Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in southern California Latinos are nearly 41% of the population followed by a little less than 40% of Caucasians and 10% from Asia and around 7 % African American. The fact that the Latino community depends on the libraries of Southern California is evident in studies of use among Latino communities in the United States. Happy New Year! This is good news in late 2010.

Latinos and public library use in New York by William Jiang, MLS

According to the 2000 census 27% of New York City are Hispanic or Latino. When you realize that there are about 8.2 million people in New York, according to the 2006 estimate, this means that more than 2.2 million people in New York Hispanic or Latino. The census of 2010 will be more accurate.

Latinos use the library as much as whites do. The only group that uses more than Latinos and Caucasians is the Asian group, which uses the library 10% more about than any other group. Library use among Latinos is about 54%, services are the main reason for people of Latino descent for library use. The privacy concerns in this community is serious. (Http: / / www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/publicservices/861938-276/study_of_latinos_and_libraries.html.csp)

Due to economic recession, the use of the collection in all groups is rising, as they depend on them to search for jobs, entertainment and educational programs, among other things. This shows that there is a correlation between unemployment and the use of the library collections by the unemployed. Latinos have been left, economically, the poorest group in New York by the current downturn.

The ethnic composition of New York City, Latinos are as
follows:
Mexican: 282 965
Puerto Rican: 784,065
Cuban: 42,209
Other Hispanic or Latino, including Dominican 1,178,666


According to the September 28, 2010 The New York Times in 2009 about 100,000 people were pushed into poverty in New York City alone. The highest unemployment ne New York according to the article is in the Bronx community where Latinos are 36% unemployed. The Bronx became the larger community of Latinos in the city with more than 650,000 Latinos, so this is a big problem for the Latino community. It is expected that due to this the use of the library of the Bronx is up. There have been no more current measurements using the published statistics of the public library, so all we can do is guess and know New York's libraries are very important to Spanish-speaking community ..

Homeless Clients and Libraries of New York, by William Jiang, MLS

Statistics are largely unknown, however, families are 78% of the homeless population in the city of New York (http://www.ysop . org / statistics.htm) Neither widely known to the public is that homeless people generally are loyal customers of NYPL. Often, due to the negative association in the mind of the public, most homeless people feel stigma when they use the libraries.

Ideally, libraries should be a haven for anyone who wants to read, a world away from the chaotic environment of the city. For the homeless who are not in shelters, NYPL can mean a safe haven from the city's shelters, many of which are dangerous.

In fact, the presence of homeless people in the libraries can sometimes create a problem. According http://www.crowbold.com/homepage/homeless.htm, "... there is actual conflict between the rights of the homeless and the rights of other users and library workers. Homeless can sleep with a snoring loudly enough to disturb the contemplation of other customers. For hygiene reasons, customers may feel uncomfortable handling of materials that the homeless have been handling. As a result Many librarians classify homeless people as "problem customers". "

Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately homeless in NYC, "Approximately 90% of homeless Yorkers are black or Latino, but only 53% percent of the population of the city are black or Latino." (Http://www.ysop.org / statistics.htm)

There is a disproportionate number of homeless Latinos compared with the general population of Latinos in New York. For this reason, the de facto use of libraries as temporary shelters should receive more attention from Latino leaders. There are a lot of inertia to help this marginalized population due to the common thought that this population is crazy, "... in the late 1970’s and early 1980's deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, along with a reduction in public housing, resulted in an increase in the population of homeless people .. "(http://www.crowbold.com/homepage/homeless.htm) Also, there is a single population increase of alcoholics and other drug abuse among the homeless as opposed to homeless families. (Http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/pages/basic-facts) Few want to deal directly with this population problem.

Homeless people in the Latino population, whether in a family who is homeless or a single person with no home care in New York need smarter and better government. I think first, we must create safe havens for homeless families who are not struggling with mental health or drug abuse. Then the rest should be divided into three groups: the mentally ill, substance abusers, and the group is called MICA, which is composed of drug users with mental illness because these three groups have different needs. All homeless people who are taken care of decrease the desire to increase the number of people in prisons in New York City. It is not only humane thing to do, is economic to do, and think about the children! Approximately 50% of homeless are children! (Http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/nyc-j07.shtml)