Health Programs

The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism 1998-1999

Susan Brink

Senior Writer
U.S. News & World Report
Washington, D.C.

TOPIC: The medical and cultural impact of managed care phasing out long-term psychotherapy

I'm So Fat, I Just Want to Die
Obesity rates in adolescents are going up, but when it comes to weight and suicide, the number on the scale may not matter as much as the teen's self-image.

State of Our Minds
What is the state of our mental health? That's the question that University of Michigan and Harvard researchers, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, attempted to answer in a $ 20 million survey of 9,282 Americans ages 18 and over.

America's Wounded Soldiers: The Mental Toll
As an Army Ranger, Steve battled al Qaeda operatives along the Afghan-Pakistani border, faced down Afghan warlords, and braved the extreme conditions of the western Iraqi desert.

The Secrets of Sleep
Health education teacher Pacy Erck remembers what it was like back when Edina High School students had to show up by 7:25 a.m.

The Price of Booze
Lynn Cooper knew it as she stood in the glow of the refrigerator light against the early evening darkness. She knew it as the warmth of her house penetrated her winter coat and hat, knew it as she reached for the wine bottle in her still-gloved, trembling hand. She knew--as she greedily poured the first of the evening's multiple glasses of wine--that she had a serious drinking problem.

Nora Volkow, Obsessed with Obsessions
Gamblers, new mothers, over-eaters, and substance abusers. One might say they're all obsessed, making them a lot like psychiatric researcher Nora Volkow. Her particular obsession is figuring out why people become obsessed. "It's a pleasure for me to try to understand things that are not obvious. It's a drive," says Volkow, now 44, and a year ago, the youngest person to be appointed associate laboratory director for life sciences at Long Island's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

For Severe Mental Illness, a Higher Profile and New Hope
It was 1970. The conspiracy trial of Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Seven was ending. Rock stars Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin had just died of drug overdoses. And Christy James's sister, for the first time, lost her grip on reality. "People were doing drugs. All kinds of strange things were going on," says James. So a little bizarre behavior by her 19-year-old sister--dropping out of a top-tier college, alienating devoted parents--went practically unnoticed.