Mental health and addictions services have made significant advances recently, yet this is not enough. Mental health conditions and addictions, often comorbid, are more widely known than ever, if not altogether more prevalent.
Journalist Marilee Strong's "A Bright Red Scream" is the first general-interest text on self-harm. Armando Favazza, himself a psychiatrist and author of "Bodies Under Siege: Self-Mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry", endorses and penned the foreword to Strong's book.
We opine that healthcare and education teams should be encouraged or even mandated to peruse Strong's work for the sake both of America's youth and of America herself: addressing mental health will assist in addressing poverty, crime, and stigma.