Looking forward to the May 11 meeting of the Healthy Outcomes Partnership, at which we will finalize our plans and program for the upcoming panel discussion-town hall forum on the affect of the recession on our “communal psyche” — as you recall, Michael Aron of NJN will be meeting with us to both tell us how he envisions his role in the event, but most important, to learn from us exactly what are our objectives for June 11. It should be a great meeting, and, as always, lunch will be served!

Regarding general mental health issues, I wanted to forward to you two articles from this week’s USA Today. The first, from today’s paper, concerns the increased risk of mental disorders among children who have experienced racism/racist remarks, especially relevant to us in HOP when considering the growing Hispanic population in our community.

The link between perceived racism and mental disorders is strong, he adds. For example, Hispanics who report racism are more than three times as likely as other children to have symptoms of depression; blacks are more than twice as likely; and those of “other” minority races have almost quadruple the odds.

Hispanics had the worst mental health effects, the study shows; perceptions of bias significantly increased their symptoms of all four disorders. About four out of five Hispanic children who felt prejudice had foreign-born parents. Black parents may buffer their children better, perhaps preparing them to expect some racism, Schuster speculates.