Mental Health

More people have felt anxious and isolated during the pandemic. At the same time, mental health services have been harder to access.

Aimee Burns, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Blair County, talked with WPSU's Min Xian about COVID-19’s impacts on the mental health care system and shared her personal story of living with mental illness.

Here’s their interview:

Min Xian: Welcome to Take Note on WPSU. I’m Min Xian.

On this episode of Take Note, we talk with Ben Locke, the director of Penn State's Counseling and Psycological Services and the director of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State. He founded the Center in 2005 and began leading the process of conducting an annual reporter of mental health services for colleges across the U.S. in 2008.

Here is the interview:

Members of the State College community gathered Friday to commemorate the two year anniversary of Osaze Osagie’s death. Osagie — a black man with mental health issues — was killed by State College Police. Protestors want the police officers involved to be charged for killing Osagie. Investigations found his shooting to be justified.

A task force spent a year looking at mental health crisis services in State College and Centre County. Members of the task force Patricia Best and Leslie Laing talked with WPSU about the current state of those services, the challenges service providers face and the recommended changes for reform. Here's their conversation.

Min Xian: Welcome to Take Note on WPSU. I’m Min Xian.

Kelly Holder is the Director of the Office of Professional Mental Health at the Penn State College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center. She talked about mental health challenges and what people can do to to keep their minds active and positive during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Sandra Charles is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Health Services for the Library of Congress, a position that combines her medical expertise with her passion for educating others. She talks with WPSU's Cheraine Stanford about her life and why she thinks we need to talk about mental health as openly as we do about cancer or diabetes.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought sharp awareness to physical wellbeing, shelter-in-place orders and social distancing practices aim to keep our bodies safe and healthy.

But what about our minds? What effects might longterm shelter orders and social distancing have on our mental health?

We talked about this with Erika Saunders, the chair of psychiatry and behavioral health at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andy Grant:

TRANSCRIPT:  

You’re listening to WPSU’s Health Minute, a collaboration with Penn State’s College of Nursing.

May is Mental Health Month. According to the World Health Organization, mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual can recognize their own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their community.

Mental and physical health influence each other and are essential to overall wellness. Here are some steps you can take to promote a mentally healthy lifestyle:

TRANSCRIPT:

You’re listening to WPSU’s Health Minute, a collaboration with Penn State’s College of Nursing.

It’s important to take care of your mental health and manage stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Symptoms of stress include fear, worry, changes in appetite or sleep, worsening of chronic health conditions, or increased use of alcohol or other substances. 

The police shooting of Osaze Osagie in State College a year ago began a community-wide discussion about mental health services, race relations and police policies. 

The Borough of State College and Centre County teamed up to create a Task Force on Mental Health Crisis Services, with a goal to assess the current system and recommend changes.

WPSU’s Min Xian talked with Patricia Best, chair of the task force, about that plan.

TRANSCRIPT:

Min Xian: Patricia Best, thanks for joining us.

Bill Doan is a professor of theatre at Penn State. The university selected Doan to be the 2019-20 Penn State Laureate, a role that spotlights the arts and humanities. For Doan, that means performances, drawings and talks focused on anxiety and depression and how art, science and health can work together. WPSU's Anne Danahy spoke with Doan about his work and his own struggles with anxiety, depression and loss.

The annual mental health report released by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State found depression and anxiety beginning to decrease while trauma increased among the concerns of college students. The center’s Executive Director Ben Locke said that’s because more attention is being paid to traumas like sexual assault. 

“As a country, we are becoming more aware of being trauma informed," Locke said, "understanding that when people experience trauma it is life impacting.”

Talking about mental health issues is daunting. Often just starting the conversation is the hardest part. With his latest book, “Max’s Box,” Brian Wray offers children and grown-ups a way to begin these important discussions. Through simple story-telling and cartoonish illustrations, Wray gives his readers a glimpse into what can happen when emotions are suppressed. He also demonstrates how with the help of people who care, we can learn to express, and then let go of the things that hold us back.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by work, school, or just life in general, a new storefront in the Nittany Mall has just the solution for you.

The sound of a washing machine being hit with a baseball bat fills a room that is sectioned off by spray-painted drywall and filled with objects ranging from old appliances to empty bottles of wine. For a fee that ranges from $20 for a 10-minute session to $65 for what the company calls an “All Out Rager,” participants don what looks like hazmat gear, grab a baseball bat or crowbar, and start smashing.

The State College Police Department released an internal review on Monday regarding the police shooting of Osaze Osagie. 

The police department’s Internal Review Board said the three officers who responded to a mental health check on Osagie “acted within policy.” 

On a recent school day at Mount Nittany Elementary School in State College, Tiffany Myers read a children's book out loud to a class of about 20 fifth graders.

“The story we’re going to read today is called, ‘Red: A Crayon’s Story.’ Just right off the bat, what are you noticing about this crayon that make it different than what you might expect?” Myers, a school counselor, asked.

After losing her sister to suicide in 2011, Marisa Vicere founded the Jana Marie Foundation in her sister’s honor.

The State College-based non-profit aims to educate and empower young people in the Centre County region and to build awareness about mental well-being and suicide prevention.

Vicere talked with WPSU during National Suicide Prevention Month about the foundation and her sister. 

College students are at the prime age for the onset of schizophrenia. At Penn State University Park, senior Cecilia McGough is starting the world’s first nonprofit specifically supporting college students suffering from schizophrenia.

Early on in her college career, Cecilia McGough was working a job in downtown State College. But her schizophrenia was causing her to miss shifts at work. Up until this point, she had been giving her boss excuses like food poisoning or a faulty alarm.