Dottie’s guest commentary, “Why Didn’t They Do Something to Prevent That Tragedy?” appears on the Treatment Advocacy Center website.

http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/our-blog/160-washington-dc/2305-qwhy-didnt-they-do-something-to-prevent-that-tragedyq-guest-commentary

Dottie’s interview with Dayna Harpster on “Baker Act Fixes” appeared in the Fort Myers News-Press, this past Sunday, 4/18/13.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20130428/NEWS0120/304280033/Baker-Act-fixes-Not-enough-not-soon-enough-

The News-Press published Dottie’s mailbag editorial on mental illness today.

Treat mental illnesses

I applaud the recent News-Press editorial on a call to action for mental health funding. We need more focus on early diagnosis and treatment of children with mental disorders. To accomplish this goal, we must first have the funding for these programs.

Mental illness is not going away. We must do a better job of detecting these disorders in children and providing them with the much-needed treatment they require to recover and manage their illness as they grow into adulthood.

Being proactive with early detection and treatment has, for the most part, been ignored in this country. Once our children reach adulthood at age 18, treatment for mental health disorders becomes far more difficult, if not impossible, and tragedies like Sandy Hook will continue.

I’m pleased that Congress is focusing on measures to control gun violence. Severe mentally ill people should not be allowed to purchase guns or have access to them. Untreated mental illness also kills. Combine the two and you have a tragedy waiting to happen.

I’m the mother of an adult bipolar son who took his life at age 40.
Dottie Pacharis, Fort Myers Beach

Dottie’s interview with Linda Hepler on “Fixing the Mental Health Care System” appears in the April issue of MAX Sports & Fitness magazine.

http://maxsportsandfitness.com/article/2013/3/fixing-the-mental-health-care-system.html

On March 21, Dottie will be the opening speaker at the 2013 Clinical Update and Psychopharmacology Review at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. She will present an overview of her book, Mind on the Run – A Bipolar Chronicle. Dottie will also chair a breakout session later that morning on “Living with Bipolar Disorder.” This conference is jointly sponsored by the Southern Regional Area Health Center, the Duke Department of Psychiatry, the UNC Department of Psychiatry, the North Carolina Psychological Association, and the North Carolina Psychiatric Association.

“The following editorial by Tom Poland appeared in today’s Lincoln Journal. Tom included Dottie’s editorial “Mental Illness is Treatable” that was recently published in Ground Report.”

http://www.lincolnjournalonline.com/news/2013-02-07/Opinions/Across_The_Savannah.html