This is the first blog in our newest series as we count down to the darkest day of the year: the winter solstice. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring some of the brightest lights of hope in our community — the true shooting stars in our field. As we welcome the season…
We have a crisis on our hands — and it’s not the crisis that you’d expect. The WHO and American Medical Association have recently released data showing that the U.S. is facing a profound shortage of behavioral health care workers, particularly a shortage of psychiatrists. In the country, there are 3,968 whole or partial counties…
Last week, Flawless had the pleasure of attending NAMI-NYC’s annual Seeds of Hope Gala, one of our favorite benefits held every year honoring important work in mental health advocacy. Among the many awe-inspiring honorees were NYC’s First Lady, mental health advocate Chirlane McCray, and New York Jets wide-receiver Brandon Marshall. These two leaders are the…
#IamNotJust comfortable sharing my story! Over the past few days, two of my heroes have inspired me to go one step further in sharing my history with mental illness. I wrote about Patrick Kennedy’s raw courage in his new book a few weeks ago, but his recent interview in this article was riveting and left…
Tonight, in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday, ABC will re-air a Modern Family episode, called “AwesomeLand.” This episode, which was shown for the first time last year, is anything but awesome — as the cast takes part in the creation of an “insane asylum”–themed haunted house filled with horribly offensive depictions of individuals with…
This week we head to the Emotion Revolution Summit at Yale where the Flawless Foundation is proud to be one of the sponsors of an important collaboration between the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. The Emotion Revolution is a groundbreaking movement that aims to change the climate in…
Last week, Mental Health Awareness Week celebrated its 25th anniversary ending with a global celebration on World Mental Health Day. This important week of awareness coincided with the release of Patrick Kennedy’s memoir, A Common Struggle, which details his personal journey as well as his family’s history of mental illness and addiction. The reveal has…
What this world needs is a new kind of army – an army of the kind! -Cleveland Amory It is October 2015. And, as of last Thursday, October 1, there have been a total of 45 school shootings in the U.S. this year. We see this news, but we no longer feel it; we mourn…
Last week I wrote a blog about suicide prevention month that included the story of Tara Dixon, an artist who just lost a dear friend to suicide. As I was writing and immersed in all things about suicide prevention, I was struck by the many innovative arts initiatives that were running through my social media…
Tara and Jim just lost their dear friend Ellie to suicide. They didn’t know each other but were connected at the funeral through their friendship with Ellie and also through a shared diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In their grief, they have courageously brought light and healing to an unthinkable tragedy and they are mental health…