Letting a Thousand Flowers Bloom

We launched MindSite News to elevate the conversation around mental health issues and to focus attention on the need to fundamentally transform the way mental health and mental unwellness are viewed and treated in this country. We will do this with investigative and solutions-focused reporting and articles, but we will also do it by creating a platform for the sharing of ideas and by providing space for the voices of many people, including those with lived experience with mental illness and the mental health system.

The MindSite News Guest Essays page is a place for discussion, debate and the exchange of ideas, visions, policy proposals and life learnings – discussion and debate that can be frank and honest but always respectful. For now, we will be publishing written essays, but we also envision creating space for audio and video essays in the near future.

We invite you to submit your thoughts and ideas. To see our submission guidelines, please go here.


For Transgender Youth, Conversion Therapy Brings Greater Suicide Risk Than Hormone Treatment, Researchers Say

A research team finds that supportive family environments and hormone replacement therapy that affirm a transgender child’s gender identity decrease their risk of suicide or running away from home. Unsupportive family environments and conversion therapy that denies their gender identity increase these risks.

Shame of a City, and a Nation

Two ugly strains of American life came together this week on a New York subway: the fear and hatred of people with mental illness and the belief that vigilante action is justified against people who make others frightened or uncomfortable. Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man and street performer, fit all of these categories, and…

Good Grief: How to Mourn in a Healthy Way

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over one million American lives, casting a blanket of grief over the country. Despite its challenges, the pandemic has given us an opportunity to address the topic of grief and how best to cope with this unavoidable part of being human.

Can the Right Kind of Tech Help Address the Mental Health Crisis Among LGBTQ+ Youth?

Increased visibility of LGBTQ+ people and progress in policy change has allowed young people to define themselves and feel more confident expressing their identity. But here’s the downside: Most LGBTQ+ adolescents still come out to a hostile and rejecting world. Today, kids who don’t get support at home can connect with online supports and resources…

The Hole Ruined Me

In 2019, more than 55,000 incarcerated Americans had spent the past 15 days in solitary confinement. Jeffrey McKee was one, and he writes about the impact it had on his psyche.