KCBS Radio In Depth

As the national dialogue continues about the best way to deliver health care to every American, access to mental health care often takes a back seat in the discussion. Prominent U-C psychologist and author, Dr. Steve Hinshaw, says this is because of a continued lack of understanding of mental health issues, and the persistent and damaging stigmatizing of them. To change that, he has put his own family history of mental illness in a new book; 'Another Kind of Madness, A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness' and discusses it with KCBS Radio's Jane McMillan.

Advances in medical science and technology have brought the miracle of birth to women and families who may otherwise have gone without children.
And, while there is no denying the great benefits of this technology, there is little regulation over the private and lucrative global industry of invitro and surrogacy which allows for choosing specific traits in donor eggs and sperm.
There is also no framework for protecting the rights of the children of technology assisted reproduction.

That is the concern of Doctor Mary Ann Mason, U-C Graduate School professor specializing in child and family law, and the author of the new book, "BABIES OF TECHNOLOGY: Assisted Reproduction and Rights of the Child."

Dr. Mason is Jane McMillan's guest in this installment on KCBS Radio In Depth.

When one in four Americans will be affected by mental illness in their lifetime, why is it often an afterthought in discussions of health care access? The answer, says U-C Professor of Psychology Dr. Steve Hinshaw, is stigma; the same lack of knowledge and understanding society has been anchored with for centuries.
As Dr. Hinshaw tells KCBS Radio's Jane McMillan, what's needed to break the stigma of mental illness is the open sharing of personal stories of everyday people managing their illness and thriving in spite of it. He does just that, sharing his family's personal story in his new book, "Another Kind of Madness, A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness."

Despite the fact that women are now the fastest growing segment of incarcerated persons, their physical and medical needs aren’t always met, and there is no accurate count of how many are pregnant.

Jane McMillan’s guest on this topic is Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, OB-GYN at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Sufrin treated pregnant women in the San Francisco County Jail for several years. As a Medical Anthropologist with this experience she’s authored the new book JAILCARE, Finding the Safety Net For Women Behind Bars.

With congress back to work following the Fourth of July holiday break, the fate of the Senate's GOP health care bill is back in the spotlight. Such legislation, which will have a massive impact on the American people and the nation's economy, is a perfect case study to examine the influence of money in our current political system; both industry lobby money, as well as very wealthy individual donors who can, and do, buy their way into our public policy.

Jane McMillan discusses this with Daniel Newman, President and Co-Founder of Maplight.org, a non-partisan, non-profit tracking money's influence in politics.