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In the fall of 2006, my infantry platoon gathered in a dusty patrol base in Baghdad to watch our own being killed in fuzzy, pixilated video clips. An insurgent sniper named Juba was terrorizing Baghdad with precise and methodical shots at allied troops, and it was all captured on film. A soldier in a turret falls in a puff of smoke. Another soldier standing along a road is shot in the head.
“Don’t let this be you,” our platoon sergeant said, and we headed out for another patrol.
No one knew if Juba was real or a myth. He was a European mercenary or a Syrian jihadist, depending on whom you asked. For American troops, Juba was a terror, but for the insurgents, he must have been a comforting legend.
Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL who was killed Saturday along with another man at a gun range in Texas, was our Juba. Mr. Kyle, 38, wasn’t just a legend. He was The Legend, with four tours in Iraq, two Purple Hearts and a hand in every major battle during the conflict.
Mr. Kyle earned the title of America’s deadliest sniper, something not lost on the Iraqi insurgency. They put a bounty on his head and called him Al Shaitan Ramadi: the Devil of Ramadi. Mr. Kyle’s book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” was published last year.
Snipers have enjoyed a disproportionate amount of influence on the battlefield since colonial sharpshooters began targeting British officers in the Revolutionary War — an act regarded as ungentlemanly at the time. They have bogged down invading forces and shredded morale into ribbons. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland during the Winter War of 1939-40, the Finnish sniper Simo Hayha took on entire units by himself, racking up more than 500 confirmed kills in less than 100 days. The Soviets called him White Death. It seems that only snipers and generals earn nicknames and respect from their enemies.
A vital job of Mr. Kyle’s was to provide overwatch for American soldiers and Marines as they maneuvered during patrols and raids — an angel of sorts for coalition troops. Mr. Kyle took that idea to form Fitco Cares Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. Mr. Kyle often took veterans struggling with PTSD to gun ranges for a therapy of sorts, and in a tragic twist, the former Marine accused of killing Mr. Kyle was a veteran who may have been struggling with the disorder.
RIP CHRIS KYLE. You were a great sniper, honorable navy seal, and great human being.
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) February 3, 2013
Mr. Kyle’s impact on troops and veterans was apparent when news of his death spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter. “In Memory of Chris Kyle, American Hero,” said one image posted to a page for war veterans on Facebook. A tribute page for him was set up within hours of his death, which posted a picture of Mr. Kyle against a black background. “Chris Kyle, 1974-2013, U.S. Navy SEAL, 160 confirmed kills. Gone,” the accompanying text says, “but not forgotten.”
To the man that stared down evil in the crosshairs.. we salute you Chris Kyle.The Devil of Ramadi NAVY SEAL 1974-2013 twitter.com/SEALofHonor/st…
— SEALofHonor (@SEALofHonor) February 3, 2013
@mattgallagher83 All the things he did and lived through and he got murdered at a gun range in America?That’s Ira Hayes tragic.
— rarey4 (@rarey4) February 3, 2013
Troops and veterans understand that snipers are not simply precise killers, but watchers of men, on both sides. They spot for artillery and scan for enemy movement. They disrupt enemy snipers, harass enemy troops and haunt the dreams of their generals. For that, they are pursued relentlessly.
But Mr. Kyle’s grim talent of killing the enemy was not a source of guilt for him. What did seem to bother him were the things that he couldn’t do.
“It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don’t regret it,” he told Texas Monthly last year. “My regrets are for the people I couldn’t save: Marines, soldiers, buddies.”
A profound dedication to the safety of fellow troops will always mark snipers generally, and Mr. Kyle in particular, both in and out of war. And for the battle to return home that can last decades, veterans everywhere lost a good man watching over them.
I’m willing to bet Iraqi insurgents had the same debates and fears about the Devil of Ramadi that we did about Juba. Was he even real? Could he ever be killed? For both sides, only one thing was certain: he was more than a man and a rifle.
Thanks for looking out, Chris.
Alex Horton is a public affairs specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he writes for the department’s blog, Vantage Point. He served for 15 months as an infantryman in Iraq with the Third Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry Division. Follow him on Twitter.
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CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.
The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.
The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.
In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.
That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.
In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.
"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."
The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.
But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.
In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.
The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.
Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.
Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.
"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.
Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.
"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.
___
Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
Family and friends had only praise for a Cal State Fullerton coach and her fiance Monday, a day after the recently engaged college sweethearts were found fatally shot in the parking structure of their condominium near UC Irvine.
The bodies of Monica Quan, an assistant women's basketball coach, and Keith Lawrence, who worked as a campus officer at USC, were discovered Sunday night in their parked car on the top floor of the parking structure at the upscale, high-security condominium complex.
They were each shot multiple times, and authorities said they have
tentatively ruled out the possibility of the crime being a murder-suicide or
motivated by robbery.
Those that knew the couple said they were shaken by the news.
Marcia Foster, the head basketball
coach at Cal State Fullerton, described her assistant as a special
person: "bright, passionate and empowering."
"I'm sorry we're gathered here today for news like this," Foster said at a campus news
conference Monday. "There just aren't words."
Friends said Quan shared a love of basketball with Lawrence, whom she met at Concordia University in Irvine, where the two played basketball. A tweet from Concordia on Monday described the two as "incredible alum."
Lawrence was a standout player, both at Concordia, where he helped lead his team to the 2007 NAIA national championship game, and at Moorpark High, where he was a starter.
Tim Bednar,
who coached Lawrence at Moorpark, said the point guard and shooting guard came from a family of athletes, was
talented, yet quiet and humble. After Lawrence graduated in 2003, he
continued to participate in summer youth camps.
When he returned for the camps, Bednar said, he was known as the "best basketball player that ever came through" the school.
"He was awesome with the kids," Bednar said. "They all wanted to be around Keith Lawrence."
Lawrence's friends and family put up a Facebook page. "RIP Keith
Lawrence, you will be missed," it said. Within hours, 840 people had
left comments or indicated they "liked" it. Concordia put up a link to
Lawrence's game-winning shot that carried the school into a post-season
tournament.
Michelle Thibeault, 27, said in a Facebook message that she had known
Quan for more than a decade. The two were on the same athletic teams
and went to junior high and high school together. "Monica was loved by
everyone," she said.
During a somber gathering at the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium Monday, Foster read a brief statement from Quan's brother, Ryan.
"We just shared a moment of incredible joy on her recent engagement,"
he wrote, and then added: "A bright light was just put out."
About 40 people later gathered at Walnut High School to remember Quan, whose aunt described her as "vivacious and energetic."
“Monica is like the daughter we never had,” Nicki Lew said.
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2 women slain in rural Riverside County
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-- Nicole Santa Cruz, Lauren Williams and Kate Mather
Last Updated, 12:09 p.m. Speaking on camera for the first time since she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban last year, the young activist Malala Yousafzai began with the words, “Today you can see that I’m alive.” The 15-year-old, who was shot in the head as she left school in the Pakistan’s Swat Valley four months ago, promised that she would continue to be an outspoken advocate of the right for “every girl, every child, to be educated.”
In the brief statement, the young advocate attributed her survival to the prayers of her supporters and urged them to contribute to a fund established in her name to further the cause of education for girls. “Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life,” Ms. Yousafzai said. “And this is a second life; this is a new life. And I want to serve, I want to serve the people.”
A video statement from Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants.
According BBC News, the English-language statement was recorded before Ms. Yousafzai underwent surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, over the weekend to repair damage to her skull caused by the bullet fired into her head at point-blank range in October.
On Monday, the hospital released more video of the young patient, speaking to one of her doctors after the five-hour operation to reconstruct her skull and implant a device to restore hearing to her left ear.
Video of Malala Yousafzai speaking to a doctor in Birmingham, England after an operation on Saturday.
“I’m feeling alright and I’m happy that the operations, both the operations, were successful,” she told Dr. Mav Manji, a critical care specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Asked about the future, she said, “My mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that.” She also expressed her gratitude to the doctors in Pakistan and Britain who cared for her. “God gave me a new life,” she said, “because of the prayers of people and because of the talent of doctors.”
As Fatima Manji of Britain’s Channel 4 News reports, the activist also recorded statements in Urdu and Pashto, languages spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The video statement was produced for the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington “that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders,” which will administer the new “Malala Fund,” in cooperation with the young activist and her family.
Early sales figures from abroad suggest high demand for one of BlackBerry‘s two big comeback phones… in the struggling Canadian company’s strongest market. As the U.S. market remains on standby for sales and even ads, reports from both analysts and suppliers suggest sold-out new models in the United Kingdom, the first and only place the BlackBerry Z10 is available yet. “We believe Carphone Warehouse is seeing widespread sell-outs, while O2, Vodafone, Orange and EE are seeing robust demand,” Jefferies analyst Peter Misek writes. “We estimate sell-in to be at least several hundred thousand units,” he added. It’s not that these sales aren’t deserved — the gadget reviewers loved the touchscreen Z10, for the most part, and the full-keyboard Q10 model that also works with the new BlackBerry 10 OS isn’t on sale anywhere yet. But if any place would like a touchscreen BlackBerry, it would be the UK. Because the British may not have abandoned the smartphone keyboard, but they fell out of love it with a lot more slowly than Americans did — BlackBerry held on to 12 percent of its market share there last year, compared to the 2 percent in the U.S. Unfortunately for the company formerly known as Research in Motion, the earliest signs suggest the Z10 may not change that lack of enthusiasm in the states.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About BlackBerry 10
The lack of stateside BlackBerry enthusiasm starts with American wireless carriers. U.S. customers can’t even buy the Z10 until sometime in March — we’ll be the last country to get it in this initial wave. The delay stems from a Federal Communications Commission approval process that will take weeks. While that might sound like a regulatory technicality, it may also reflect a lack of excitement to get the phone out there. None of the cellphone companies have started taking pre-sale orders, and all but one failed to provide an executive quote playing up the new BlackBerry, as PC Mag’s Sascha Segan pointed out. Sprint won’t even sell the Z10, opting to push out the more traditional Q10 and its signature keyboard when that phone starts to hit carriers in April.
RELATED: Blackberry’s New OS Met With Resounding ‘Meh’
The Z10 sales delay could work in BlackBerry’s favor in one peculiar way — it should give consumers enough time to forget about the very weird, very desperate product unveiling. Still, two months is also enough time for initial hype to wear off, as other, newer phones get more and more attention — the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy SIV will supposedly come out around March as well. To keep Americans excited, BlackBerry has spent hundreds of millions on an ad campaign in the U.S., reports The Wall Street Journal. But the company’s new Super Bowl ad, which focused on all the things the new BlackBerry can’t do, has techies baffled:
RELATED: Look How Desperate the BlackBerry 10 Unveiling Event Actually Was
RELATED: RIM Says Sorry to Customers with Free Apps
“It’s just hard to see how you can introduce a new product without covering a single feature,” wrote The Verge’s T.C. Sotteck of the new spot. Lucky for BlackBerry, the ad was a one-time Super Sunday move. Its “Keep Moving” campaign, which focuses on what the phone can do, will debut today. The 60-second preview sampled over at The Verge sounds like it does a better job selling Z10′s features. “[The ad] featured a side-scrolling view of people moving through different variations on work and play: a nod to the company’s enterprise-focused heritage,” Sottech writes.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
In a stunning archaeological discovery, British scientists announced Monday that DNA results confirm "beyond reasonable doubt" that the human remains found under a parking lot in Leicester, central England, are those of the nation's King Richard III – who was killed two years into his reign, at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. He was 33.
"We're certain now, as certain as you can be of anything in life," said Richard Taylor, the University of Leicester registrar who coordinated the team of archaeologists, historians, genealogists and geneticists who, since the bones were discovered five months ago, set out to identify the remains, reports The New York Times.
Archaeologists say Richard – one of the most reviled monarchs in history, scheming, murderous, and physically deformed, as Shakespeare's play reminds audiences to this day – met his own violent death. As shown in his remains, he received two severe blows to the head, and that's not all, reports CNN.
The lead archeologist on the project, Richard Buckley, said it looks like Richard, who suffered curvature of the spine, was buried with his hands tied.
"The skull was in good condition, although fragile, and was able to give us detailed information," added Jo Appleby, a university lecturer in human bioarchaeology involved in the project.
The DNA tests were conducted with matches from the skeleton – found when archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar – and from Michael Ibsen, a Canadian who is a direct descendent of Richard's sister Anne of York.
Ibsen, a cabinetmaker, told CNN he reacted with "stunned silence" when told the top-secret results on Sunday. "I never thought I'd be a match, and certainly not that it would be so close, but the results look like a carbon copy," he said.
Next up for Richard, once his remains are more closely examined: a reburial, this time in Leicester Cathedral, in a memorial service likely to take place early next year.
CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.
The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.
The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.
In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.
That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.
In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.
"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."
The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.
But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.
In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.
The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.
Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.
Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.
"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.
Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.
"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.
___
Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
More disturbing stories of priests' molestations of children -- and questionable actions by church leaders -- emerged in 12,000 pages of once-confidential
personnel files.
The
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles posted the documents on its website Thursday night, an hour
after a Los Angeles judge ended 5-1/2 years of legal wrangling
over the release of the files with an order compelling the church to
make the documents public within three weeks.
Victims, their lawyers, reporters and other members of the public spent
hours Friday poring through records that stretched back to the 1940s and
provided details about the scope of abuse in church ranks never before
seen.
The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of
its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that
he was left bleeding and "in a state of shock." The priest said he was
too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further
action.
But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the
sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action:
It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and
discussed the harshest of all church penalties — not for the abuse but for
the violation of church law.
"Given the seriousness of this abuse of the sacrament of penance … it
is your responsibility to formally declare the existence of the
excommunication and then refer the matter to Rome," one cleric told
Mahony in a memo.
Full coverage: Priest Abuse Scandal
The case of Father Jose Ugarte is one of several instances detailed
in newly released records in which archdiocese officials displayed
outrage over a priest's ecclesiastical missteps while doing little for
the victims of his sexual abuse.
The files also suggested that the attempts to protect abusers from
law enforcement extended beyond the L.A. archdiocese to a Catholic order
tasked with rehabilitating abusers.
"Once more, we ask you to PLEASE DESTROY THESE PAGES AND ANY OTHER
MATERIAL YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM US," the acting director of the order's
treatment program wrote to Mahony in 1988 in a letter detailing
therapists' reports about a prolific molester. "This is stated for your
own and our legal protection."
The order, the Servants of the Paraclete, closed the New Mexico
facility where many Los Angeles priests were sent amid a flood of
lawsuits in the mid-1990s. A lawyer for the order declined to comment,
but indicated in a 2011 civil court filing that all treatment records
were destroyed.
Mahony disregarded the order's advice, and therapy memos are among the most detailed records in the files.
One evaluation recounts how Father Joseph Pina, an East L.A. parish
priest, said he was attracted to a victim, an eighth-grade girl, when he
saw her in a costume.
"She dressed as Snow White … I had a crush on Snow White, so I
started to open myself up to her," he told the psychologist. In a report
sent to a top Mahony aide, the psychologist expressed concern the abuse
was never reported to authorities.
"All so very sad," Mahony wrote years later after Pina was placed on leave. He was defrocked in 2006.
The limitations of the treatment at the Servants' center are evident
in the file. After months of therapy in 1994, Father John Dawson was
allowed to leave the facility for a weekend. Among the first things
Dawson, who had been accused of plying altar boy victims with pot and
beer, did was apply for a job at the Arizona Boys School in Phoenix.
Treatment center staff found out only after the school phoned Dawson to
arrange an interview. "Had they not called the Villa, it is doubtful
that Fr. Dawson would have informed us of that job application and
interview," according to a 1994 letter to Mahony's vicar for clergy,
Msgr. Timothy Dyer.
Responding to a public rebuke by his successor, Mahony
insisted Friday that he tried his best to deal with the priest molestation
scandal but fell short because not enough was known about the problem
early in his career.
In an extraordinary open letter to Archbishop Jose Gomez, Mahony
insisted Friday that he ultimately instituted state-of-the-art
protections against child sexual abuse
within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He seemed to
suggest that Gomez had acted unfairly by publicly announcing that he was
stripping the cardinal of any public role in the local church.
"Not once over these past years
did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices or
procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct
involving minors," he wrote.
PHOTOS: Cardinal Roger Mahony over the years
"Unfortunately, I cannot return now to the 1980s and reverse actions and
decisions made then," he added. "But when I retired as the active
archbishop, I handed over to you an archdiocese that was second to none
in protecting children and youth."
Mahony posted the letter on his blog Friday afternoon, hours after he said he had sent it to Gomez.
In a letter Thursday to parishioners, Gomez announced that "effective
immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have
any administrative or public duties." The move came a week after the
release of church records showing Mahony worked to conceal abusers from
police in the 1980s.
-- Harriet Ryan, Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers, Mitchell Landsberg and Teresa Watanabe
Photo: At a news conference Friday at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Esther Miller, 54, holding photos
of other victims, breaks down while talking about being abused by a
Catholic priest when she was a young girl.
Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
LONDON — Doctors in England will soon be prescribing books as well as pills to patients suffering from anxiety and depression.
In a government-endorsed initiative supported by medical associations and librarians, physicians will be sending patients to their local libraries for a range of approved self-help titles targeted at those suffering from mild to moderate mental health problems.
Patients are also being encouraged to turn to what The Bookseller magazine described as “uplifting novels and poetry.”
Extolling the potentially curative powers of literature, the Reading Agency charity quoted research that showed reading reduced stress levels by 67 percent.
The charity, which is a partner in the new Books on Prescription program announced this week, quoted the New England Journal of Medicine as saying reading also cut the risk of dementia by more than a third.
The list of 30 approved self-help titles available on prescription from May includes page-turners like “The Feeling Good Handbook,” “How to Stop Worrying” and “Overcoming Anger and Irritability.”
“There’s growing evidence that shows that self-help reading can help people with certain mental health issues get better,” Miranda McKearney, the Reading Agency’s director said.
The sick often rely on the Internet to search for advice on symptoms and cures that can turn out to be unreliable. Doctors will now be able to write a prescription that gives patients immediate membership to their local library and access to recommended titles.
It is the first so-called bibliotherapy initiative to have received such high-level official backing from health authorities and librarians.
Campaigners for public libraries have applauded the program but worry that not enough is being done to protect the libraries themselves. Last year, 200 libraries were closed and another 300 are reportedly facing closure or being handed over to volunteers this year.
The Reading Agency meanwhile has come up with a core list of Mood-boosting Books designed to promote feeling good.
It includes proven classics such as “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but also upbeat titles from the likes of Bill Bryson, the best-selling U.S. humorist.
Development of the book prescription idea was paid for by the Arts Council England, which distributes public money to arts projects.
The Reading Agency has applied for funding from the government, which it says spends £14 billion, or $22 billion, a year treating mental health.
So, should sufferers of depression or panic attacks be advised to curl up with a good book? Or is this just a new health fad to find an alternative to costly medication and therapy.
The Reading Project is soliciting suggestions for stress-relieving books at the Twitter hashtag #moodboosting.
If you think there might be something in it, send us your own suggestions for therapeutic reading. And, while you’re at it, let us know any titles that are best avoided when we’re feeling low.
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