After the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado that left twelve people dead and over fifty wounded, mental illness and access to mental health treatment has become a hot topic.

We’re very excited to be a participating in Boston University’s 2012 First-Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP)!

Boston University’s FYSOP program offers incoming Boston University students the opportunity to get settled in their new community by performing a week of service before classes begin. The students participate in a program orientation, a full day of education, and spend three full days volunteering for local nonprofits.

When celebrities come forward to talk about their experiences with mental illness, they are often applauded and admired for their bravery. More and more often, stars are taking to news shows and magazine covers to share their stories. But, as Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. discovered last week, elected officialswith mental illnesses often do not receive the same response.

After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to uphold Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the political and public reaction overwhelmed newsrooms, but did little to explain how the act hurts or helps Americans. New York Times journalist and MD, Richard Friedman, took a closer look at what the Affordable Care Act actually means for Americans with mental illness, and had some surprising conclusions.

Secret Life of the American Teenager. Degrassi. Glee. Pretty Little Liars. Aside from being television shows with a heavy focus on teen issues, one big common denominator is that all of these programs paint a picture of teenage life that matches the stressful, dramatic, and angst-filled images of teens that has come to be the normal expectation of kids everywhere. But there’s a line between “normal” teen angst and diagnosable mental illness. A new study by the Harvard Medical School finds that many teens are on the “mental illness” side of that line.

Everyone has “bad days”—days when it’s hard to get out of bed, when we feel gloomy and miserable, when we don’t want to do anything but hide under the covers. But for people with depression, a “bad day” can mean physical and emotional exhaustion, negative thoughts, and feelings of absolute depletion. On bad depression days, doing anything at all might seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, according to an article on Psych Central, there are some small ways to immediately improve depression symptoms.

Acting as a partner, friend, or caregiver for someone with depression or another mental health disorder is hard work. But advocating for individuals with mental illness is being hailed as a “labor of love”—one that shouldn’t go unrecognized.

Many studies have shown that high-stress lives can contribute to depression or make existing depression symptoms worse. But a new study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, revealed that some of the most important members of the workforce, nurses, suffer depression at twice the rate of the national population.

It’s not uncommon for new mothers to get what doctors call the “Baby Blues”—strong emotions and occasional mood swings that occur when the endorphins from delivery have left the system. But when those symptoms linger, it could be a sign of Post-Partum Depression (PPD), a condition that affects anywhere from 11% to 18% of new mothers, according to a 2010 survey by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). While this statistic might seem daunting, it could be good news to some mothers with symptoms of Post-Partum Depression; you are not alone.

While there are several different opinions on the effects of diet and exercise on depression symptoms, many experts suggest that staying physically healthy can help us stay mentally healthy as well. A new report from Opposing Views details how vitamins and minerals (or a lack thereof!) can have a big effect for those suffering from depression.