U S Department Of Health And Human Services Archives

Psych Central Captures an Aesculapius Award of Excellence and 5 of the Top 10 Depression Influencers Online Sharecare, a website that launched just two months ago, released its “Top 10 Online Influencers in Depression” last week. Of the 10 people named, half of them are Psych Central contributors or bloggers. No other organization online came anywhere close. We’re very honored and proud to have so many amazing people working for us here, and we’re flattered their tireless work in the name of mental health and depression is recognized.

Here are the 5 amazing Psych Central contributors honored on the list:

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We’re also pleased to announce that we were a winner this year of an Award of Excellence for health-related websites in the Aesculapius Awards of Excellence. We’re in good company with the likes of Autism Speaks and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health as fellow award recipients.

What an amazing year 2011 has been for Psych Central. As a site we’ve built from the ground-up to service the needs of people from around the world who have questions about mental health, psychotherapy, treatment and psychology, we continue to reach more than 2 million people each month (making us, by far, the largest mental health network in the world today). We hope to get that up to 3 million/month in 2012, and with your help in spreading the word, I see no reason why we can’t attain that goal!

Feds Award $26.2 Million for Mental Health Care All too often, I find myself writing about how mental health care fails in the U.S. It’s an easy story to write — during hard economic times, health care (especially for the poor and indigent) often takes a big hit from the government.

So it’s always refreshing to write a different story. Especially one where the feds step up and fund not just a good idea, but a great one.

The hero in this instance is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the funding mechanism is the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. Forty-three agencies share in the $26.2 million booty (most receiving about $500,000). The goal of the funding? To help better integrate primary care into the mental health services they offer.

Yes, you heard me right — helping poor people who have a mental disorder get proper health care, sometimes in the same facility where they get their mental health treatment.