Bethesda Beatniks Dinner Club

Reportage and thoughts on mental health issues, from the founder/manager of N. America's largest dinner club for mental health consumers, family & friends; + friends' and supporters' comments.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Download MP3 file Roundtable Discussion at SSDIC on Oct 5 2007 CD Tracks, by 10 People Album

Dear Friends of the "Bethesda Beatniks Dinner Club," "Silver Spring Drop-in Center," "DC Mental Health Consumers' League," "Consumer Leadership Forum," plus anyone sincerely concerned about the most pressing issues of the day for mental health consumers and their families and friends:

It's National Mental Illness Awareness Week...time to pause & reflect on how we can help all of our brothers & sisters with mental health issues, and help ourselves too boot.

We held our second public affairs Roundtable Discussion at SSDIC on Friday afternoon and early evening, Oct. 5th, 2007, which featured about one dozen consumer advocates and professionals pouring their hearts out for nearly two and a half hours about the mental health issues of greatest concern to them, timed in recognition of National Mental Illness Awareness Week, Oct. 7th-13th...THIS WEEK!! Much of this in-depth discussion, loosely led by Dr. Bob Litman from CBH Health, concerned bread-and-butter employment and financial survival issues. Much also concerned combatting stigma and discrimination, which of course go hand-in-hand with improving employment prospects for us. The professional audio recording rig we brought with us thankfully worked fine, with the result that we have over two hours of recorded discussion now available over the Web (see below).

Does your circle of friends & colleagues include people who say that they are sympathetic to mental health causes, but haven't a clue about which issues are of greatest concern to consumers; or doubt that stigma & discrimination are major problems, particularly vis a vis employment; or know where their charitable donation dollars could really make a difference? Tell them to take some time out and give a listen...our Web master has engineered things so that folks can fast-forward through this long discussion recorded online at their discretion.

If downloading the entire file onto your hard drive is too much for you, then simply go to the Web page http://www.ooomc.org ....toward the bottom of the page you will find the player to this Roundtable Discussion, and other talks and videos. The "Stigma song" will play automatically as the page is opened...you can listen to it, or stop that player and go down the page to the "10 people Album of Roundtable talks" Track 1 and 2 players.

This message has not been sent "blind carbon copy," so when you forward this, please delete the message headers with the email address that this message is has been sent to PLEASE and send it out as a clean message.

Thanks--and happy listening--from Pete, Phil, Miriam, Dr. Bob, and the dozen-odd other participants in last Friday's Roundtable. In particular, tell your "normal" friends & colleagues who scoff at the assertion that stigma & discrimination are still major problems for us, or that we're less concerned about bread-and-butter issues like earning a living and paying the bills (just like all other upstanding citizens), to listen and maybe learn a thing or two.

We'll keep you informed about future upcoming Roundtable Discussions, which are open to all and will--like this one--be tape recorded.

Download MP3 file Round Table Discussion at SSDIC Oct 5 2007 CD Track 1. To Download file Right click of the mouse on this text, then left click menu save target as.

Download MP3 file Round Table Discussion at SSDIC Oct 5 2007 CD Track 2.
To Download file Right click of the mouse on this text, then left click menu save target as.

Thank You Again,"10 People Album"

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Blog | Bob Geiger: Why Should Life Or Death Be Decided By Income? | The Huffington Post

The Blog Bob Geiger: Why Should Life Or Death Be Decided By Income? The Huffington Post

Monday, January 08, 2007

Do Psychiatric Drugs Dampen Artists' Creativity? -- Bender 42 (1): 9 -- Psychiatr News

Do Psychiatric Drugs Dampen Artists' Creativity? -- Bender 42 (1): 9 -- Psychiatr News

Friday, December 01, 2006

Consumer Health Group News Forum: SAMHSA and Ad Council Unveil National Mental Health Anti-Stigma Campaign

Consumer Health Group News Forum: SAMHSA and Ad Council Unveil National Mental Health Anti-Stigma Campaign

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Silver Spring arts groups take part in Bethesda Beatniks event

Silver Spring arts groups take part in Bethesda Beatniks event: "The Bethesda Beatniks Dinner Club held a special event earlier this month that featured dinner, a lecture by author and researcher on mental illness Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, an art show featuring Silver Spring organizations, and live music.
The club is an independent social organization for mental health consumers, family member and friends.
During the event, held at Alfio’s Trattoria in Friendship Heights, more than 80 people attended."

Friday, November 10, 2006

KAY JAMISON LECTURE, Q&A AVAILABLE ON WEB.

The full text of renowned psychologist Kay Redfield Jamsion's half-hour lecture and hour-long question-and-answer session--regarding manic depression and the artistic temperament--is now available on the "Bethesda Beatnik Dinner Club" Web site at www.bethesdabeatniks.org, and on the DC Mental Health Consumers' League Web site at www.dcmhcl.org. Dr. Jamsion delivered her highly informative lecture to an SRO crowd of over 80 people at the Beatniks' Wednesday night, Nov. 8th dinner at a restaurant in Friendship Heights, Maryland.

You can hear about how bipolar illness and artistic creativity are definitely linked, and how psychotropic medication, alcohol, and street drugs can impact the creative process. Dr. Jamison has written "Touched with Fire" and half a dozen other books, and has co-authored the definitive treatise on bipolar illness. She regularly lectures to audiences of 1,000 or more medical professionals at a time, on several continents.

The Beatniks host biweekly dinners with prominent after-dinner speakers, and occasional mental health consumer arts & music festivals. This most recent lecture was accompanied by a large art exhibit, and two consumer singer/songwriter/guitarists performing original songs.

DCMHCL is primarily a mental health advocacy organization, which also maintains a mental health information clearinghouse on the Web.

--Beatnik Pete, founder & manager of the dinner club. peterwarner2@mac.com. ###

This message was sent via membershiplist, a mailing list created through http://www.dcmhcl.org/

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Welcome to the blog...stay tuned...coming soon!!