News & Publications

Mental Health Program - Stories From the Field

28 January 2009
Profile: Jerome Lawrence and The Carter Center Mental Health Program Picturing a Future of Recovery
Every painting by Atlanta artist Jerome Lawrence is like a window into his heart and open door into his mind, and with good reason. For Lawrence, art is not just a profession he's spent a lifetime studying and now masters, it also is a vital therapeutic tool he harnesses to battle schizophrenia.

9 December 2008
Little Progress, Many Holes in Kids' Mental Health System
Published CNN.com, Dec. 9, 2008.
As mental health advocates, policy makers, practitioners, educators and researchers gathered at the Carter Center to discuss the progress in addressing American children's mental health needs, a drama of sorts was reaching its conclusion halfway across the country.

1 November 2008
Congo Women Confide Painful Reality to Fellow
In a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, journalist Jimmie Briggs listens via translator to a young woman describe being raped by soldiers. Briggs, an unlikely confidant as both a man and an American, is so devastated by her account he cannot continue taking notes. He begins to weep and offers to end the interview. The woman, "Madeline," refuses.

9 October 2007
In South Africa, a Journalist Finds Words for Unspeakable Tragedies
It was a recurring headline in South African newspapers: "Cop Murder-Suicide Claims Family." Dozens of sons, fathers, and husbands working in the South African Police Service had committed these crimes against their own families, but the stories of what motivated them were rarely told.

9 October 2007
Mental Health Fellow Breaks Down Stereotypes
Time and money to access voluminous public records are luxuries most reporters do not have to investigate negligence or malfeasance in the public sector.

 
9 October 2007
Journalism Fellowships Expand to Romania
Alex Ulmanu sometimes wonders if things could have been different.
"I had a colleague in university who was a brilliant, brilliant person and who committed suicide in her very early 20s. We learned afterward that she was suffering from schizophrenia," Ulmanu said.

1 May 2005
Dr. Thom Bornemann: Director Sees Need to Integrate Mental Health Into Health Care System
Although the words "reduce stigma" do not appear in the name of any initiatives of the Mental Health Program Thom Bornemann directs, the concept is embodied in virtually everything the program does.