Mental Health Month At Health Island, Virtual Ability (Event Thursday May 15)

 

May is Mental Health Month. While mental illness is often feared, persistent fear and anxiety count as mental health issues. And these days they seem quite common among friends or ourselves. Gemma Cleanslate checked out the exhibit on Mental Health at Health island, and learned there's an all day event at Virtual Ability, their Mental Health Symposium, on Thursday May 15.

 

Read Gemma's article in Events. 

 

Announcement: Virtual Ability's 12th Annual Mental Health Symposium

 

Virtual Ability Presents
the 12th Annual Mental Health Symposium
“Self-Identity and Mental Health”
Friday, May 12, 2023
Sojourner Auditorium,
Virtual Ability Island
In Second Life

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/53/172/23

The 12th annual Mental Health Symposium will take place in Virtual Ability’s Sojourner Auditorium, on Virtual Ability island on Friday, May 12, 2023. There is no charge to attend.

The theme of this year’s Conference is “Self-Identity and Mental Health.” We believe that personal identification can have a major impact on mental health, and we want to stress the importance of a healthy sense of personal identity to good mental health.

The Symposium will take place in the virtual world of Second Life, at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island. The SLURL for the auditorium is: Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island. (You can create a free Second Life account through Virtual Ability’s Sign-Up Portal, entering at the beginning of our New Resident Orientation Course. You can then post the auditorium’s SLURL into Nearby Chat, click the green underlined link, and teleport to the auditorium.)

Virtual Ability hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within our cross-disability community we have members who deal with a variety of mental health issues. Not only is this an opportunity for our community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have a chance to meet otherwise, it allows the general public to attend a professional conference at no cost.

 For a full schedule of the conference, Click Here: https://virtualability.org/mental-health-symposia/mental-health-symposium-2023/

 

Reminder: IDRAC Conference Tomorrow

 

Just a reminder that the International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference is tomorrow, Saturday October 10, at the Sojourner Auditorium at Virtual Ability.

Click Here for the schedule.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

Press Release: International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference, Oct 10

International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference
Saturday October 10
Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disability Act, our theme this year is “Where have we been? Where are we headed? How should we get there?”

7:30am SLT- "Ludic Design for Accessibility" - Manohar Swaminathan, Microsoft Research India

8:30am SLT- "Exploring Ethical and Social Implications of Embodied AI" - Amelia Fiske, Technical University of Munich

9:15am SLT- "Memories of July 26, 1990" - Margaret Nosek, Baylor College of Medicine

10am SLT- "Who are the Heroes? A History of the Disability Rights Movement" - Barry Whaley, Southeast ADA Center

11:30am SLT- David Larson, Hamline School of Law, Dispute Resolution Institute

1pm SLT- "Employment and the ADA" - Krista Watson, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

2:30pm SLT- "Women with Disabilities: Experiences of Microaggressions" - Rhoda Olkin, Alliant International University

You can read more about the speakers and their session topics at the conference website: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2020/

Press Release: 2019 IDRAC Schedule

This year’s annual IDRAC conference will be held on Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2. It has the theme “We help each other, we help ourselves.”
Read about the conference here: https://virtualability.org/idrac-2019/

The conference is held in the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island.
The SLURL is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

Here is the schedule.

NOTE All times are given as SLT or Second Life Time, which is the same as Pacific time in California. You should use a converter such as https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html to confirm your local time.

FRIDAY
7 am SLT Mari Kimura (PCORI)
“The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI): Mission and Successes”
8:30 am SLT Arleen Ionescu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and Anne-Marie Callus (University of Malta)
"Reading the Personal and the Social in Disability Studies and Trauma Studies"
10 am SLT Catalin Brylla (University of West London)
“Disability and Media Representation”
11:30 am SLT Frederic Fovet (Royal Roads University)
“UDL in Higher Ed: Shifting access from the remedial to the proactive”
1 pm SLT Nohemi Lugo, Maria Elena Melon, Maria Concepcion Castillo (Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico)
“The representation of autism in the narratives of fanfiction.net: Affinity spaces as an opportunity for the negotiation of meaning”

SATURDAY
6:30 am SLT panel “Hearing Our Voices” with Alyssa Hillary (blogger and advocate), Rob Castellanos (Syndio Health) and Kirk Munsch (Rare Patient Voice)
8 am SLT showing and discussion of the video “The Bench”
9 am SLT Fleur Heleen Boot (Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands)
"Which factors influence access to assistive products for people with intellectual disabilities?"
10:30 am SLT Sunil Deepak (AIFO, Italy)
"Challenges and Opportunities in Community-based Rehabilitation and Emancipatory Disability Research"
Noon SLT Katherine Breward (University of Winnipeg)
"Disability Accommodation and Intersectional Identities: Evidence for Differential Requesting and Accommodation Rates"
1:30 pm SLT Lydia X. Z. Brown (advocate)
"The Autistic People of Color Fund: Building Networks of Mutual Aid by/for Negatively Racialized Autistic People"

Press Release: Virtual Ability's Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference, October 5 and 6

This year Virtual Ability will hold its annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 5 and 6. The theme of this year's conference is "Taking Care of Us."

We are very excited about the presenters we will have this year.

One is from the United Nations (he will speak at 8:30am SLT on Friday). Another is an Emmy award winning filmmaker (he presents Friday at 11:30am SLT). And on Saturday at 11am SLT, we will interview a Section Editor for the New York Times.

Our presenters are from Hong Kong, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the UK, Ghana and Mauritius as well as the US, so it's a truly international group of presenters. You can see the full schedule here: http://virtualability.org/idrac-2018/

Questions? You can email me (gentle@virtualability.org) or IM Gentle Heron.

Thank you kindly.

Announcement: Discussion at Virtual Ability This Saturday

Saturday April 21
Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability island
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

6am SLT Divya Padmanabhan "Dancing Crazy? Unpacking the category of possession-form dissociative identity disorder"

7am SLT TBA

8:15am SLT Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi "People with depression use language differently"

9:30am SLT Philip Yanos "How do people diagnosed with mental illness become written off? How can they overcome it?"

10:45am SLT Meg Peters "Challenging the Conception that Social Media Causes Bad Mental Health"

Noon SLT performance by DRUM

1:15pm SLT Alita Nandi "Ethnic and racial harassment and mental health: Identifying sources of resilience"

2:30pm SLT Joe DeLuca "Forensic Psychiatric Experiences, Stigma, and Self-Concept"

3:45pm SLT Isabelle Martin "Visions of Infinity: Singularity, Proliferation, and Transcendence in Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms"

5pm SLT Carolyn Weisz "Stigmatized Identities, Psychological Distress, and Physical Health among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness"

The 2017 Mental Health Symposium at Sojourner Auditorium

Last Saturday May 27, Virtual Ability's Sojourner Auditorium hosted it's 2017 Mental Health Symposium. It's topics were about “ways to promote mental health for themselves and their families, how diet affects mental health, and how first responders and medical clinicians can improve their own mental health.” There were also tours for a few places where people can find out more about how Second Life can offer help and support to those with mental health issues or those helping, as well as providing information about such issues. Gemma Cleanslate was there, and wrote about the event. 

Read Gemma's story in Events.

Press Release: Sixth Annual Mental Health Symposium

The Virtual Ability community in Second Life invites you to join us for our sixth annual Mental Health Symposium. It will be held on Saturday, May 27, beginning at 6am Pacific (9am Eastern), and continuing through 5:30pm Pacific (8:30pm Eastern). There is no charge to attend.

The theme of this year’s Symposium is “I can relate to that.” Our international group of presenters offers a wide interpretation of the theme, based on their interests and academic backgrounds. Attendees will learn ways to promote mental health for themselves and their families, how diet affects mental health, and how first responders and medical clinicians can improve their own mental health.

The Symposium takes place in Virtual Ability’s Sojourner Auditorium, on Virtual Ability island. The SLURL for the auditorium is: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

The Virtual Ability community hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within our cross-disability community we have members who deal with a variety of mental health issues. Not only is this an opportunity for our community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have a chance to meet otherwise, it is allows the general public to attend a professional conference for free.

The 2017 Mental Health Symposium schedule is as follows:

6am SLT         Tracy Burrows “Diet, Nutrition and Food Addiction”
7:30am SLT        Sarah Henderson and Kristin Klimley “First Responder Mental Health: The Importance of Training and Intervention”
9am SLT        Joel Edman “Nutritional and Holistic Approaches to Stomach and Intestinal Disorders: Practical guidelines that can also be helpful for chronic and/or complex health issues”
10:30am SLT        selection of tours of SL sites related to mental health in Second Life
noon SLT        Ian Colman “Mental health promotion - What can you do for you and your loved ones?”
1:30pm SLT        Karen Davison “Bridging the Divide: Exploring research in nutrition, mental health and food security”
3pm SLT        Diana Anderson “Virtual Windows: Design solutions to improve the mental health of clinical staff”
4:30pm SLT        Namaara MacMoragh "Mental Health Following Brain Injury"

Please contact info@virtualability.org for additional information.

Review of "Brain Mechanism Linking Stress and Illness" at Virtual Ability

Gentle Heron started the Virtual Ability's 2016 Mental Health Symposium with a warm welcome and an introduction to nine presentations.  She then turned the podium over to the first introducer, PedroLevy Indigo.  PedroLevy Indigo introduced himself and explained that he was diagnosed in 1999 as a carrier of Bipolar Disorder.  PedroLevy also explained that he is trying to cope with the new drugs as the old ones do not have effect on his brain. 

PedroLevy then introduced us to Dr. Vanja Duric.  Dr. Duric is an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Des Moines University in Iowa, USA.  Dr. Duric started the session wtih explaining what stress is.  He explained that there are several different types of stress.  Dr. Duric went into details about the neurological and psychiatric disorders.  He talked about depression and people in chornic pain.  He did add something positive.  "On a positive note, there is some hope in treatment of depression." said Dr. Duric.  He talked about Ketamine, the new antidepressant. 

When the session was over, Dr. Duric did his best in answering some questions.  He did leave the contact information.  That way, if any one of us want further information, he can be contacted.

Deaflegacy

Press Release: "Down But Not Out" Discussion at The Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island

We invite you to attend the symposium and tell your friends about it. In fact, bring them along, especially if they are skeptical about the value of virtual worlds.

See below for details about the presenters and their topics, and join us on the 18th of June as we explore latest approaches in the improvement of quality of life for people with mental illness.

SATURDAY June 18, 2016
Times listed are US Pacific Daylight Time/Second Life Time.

8:30am - Brain Mechanism Linking Stress and Illness, Dr. Vanja Duric


10:00am - Understanding the Emotional Aspects of Multiple Sclerosis, Andrea Arzt

11:30am - Hippocrates Wept: Psychologically Surviving Modern Medicine During A Health Crisis, Colleen Crary, M.A. (SL: Anya Ibor)

1:00pm - The ABCs of DBT, Rienna Rieko
(DBT stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

2:30pm - Faith and Health: Research, Clinical Applications, and Resources, Dr. Harold Koenig

4:00pm - Mental Health Outreach in Second Life: Past, Present, and Future, Dr. Tammy Fletcher (SL: Avalon Birke)

5:00pm - Poetic Reflections

6:00pm - Lifestyle Medicine and Supplementation for Mental Health and Psychiatric Disorders, Dr. Jerome Sarris

7:30pm - The National Disability Insurance Scheme - Supporting Australians Living With Mental Health Issues, Louse Dibbs and Lyn Ainsworth

Read the full press release in Extra, with more in-depth descriptions of the events and presenters.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

Virtual Ability Conference This Friday and Saturday

This year, Virtual Ability's International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC 2015) will be held Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14. Sessions both days will take place between 9am and 4pm Pacific time (SLT).
The conference will be held at Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

You can see the full conference schedule, including synopses of presentations and presenter biographies, here:

http://blog.virtualability.org/

The theme for this year's conference is "It's All About the People."

We invite you to attend the conference and tell your friends about it. You might consider bringing them along, especially if they are skeptical about the value of virtual worlds.

This year's presenters come from the United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the US. Please join us on the 13th and 14th of November as we celebrate successes, identify issues and re-affirm the rights of people with disabilities across the world.

Alice Krueger (SL: Gentle Heron)
President, Virtual Ability, Inc.
gentle@virtualability.org

Press Release: International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference on Oct 3-4

You're invited to the Oct. 3-4, 2014 International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), sponsored by Virtual Ability®,Inc. This international conference will be held in Second Life®.

The theme for 2014 is "Technically, we're accessible... right?" Exploring True Inclusion in the Digital World.

Join colleagues, friends, and community members for presentations on web accessibility, advances in assistive technology, creating an accessible user experience, accessible gaming, emerging standards for technology, and more! Presenters from Spain, U.K., U.S., and Australia will join us at The Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island within Second Life.

Why don’t you join us, too?

Questions?
Contact sister@virtualability.org or Sister Abeyante
Keep your eyes on Virtual Ability's blog for more information as we get closer to this exciting event!

http://blog.virtualability.org/

Press Release: Disability and Virtual Worlds - New Frontiers of Appropriation

 PRESENTERS: Tom Boellstorff, Donna Davis, Gentle Heron (panel at AoIR)
SATURDAY October 26, 9:30-11:10 am SLT
Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island

Virtual Ability (54/170/23)

Three SL researchers will present a panel at the Association of Internet Research (AoIR) conference titled "Disability and Virtual Worlds: New Frontiers of Appropriation." The panel will occur in both real life and SL simultaneously.

After the 3 panelists present, there will be an opportunity for the "live" and SL audiences to interact. You won't want to miss this opportunity to chat and answer questions from Internet researchers.

PRESENTER BIOS:
Tom Boellstorff is the author of Coming of Age in Second Life, and co-author of Ethnography and Virtual Worlds:
A Handbook of Method.
Donna Davis is doing research with the Creations group, for people with Parkinsons.
Gentle Heron is the head of the Virtual Ability community in Second Life. She is a former educational researcher,

Voice + text transcription.

Press Release: Mental Health Symposium at Virtual Ability

Last year, the Virtual Ability Mental Health Symposium talked about overcoming the stigma of mental illness. This year we ask this question, "Do You See ME?"  Our focus is on mental health care - remembering the person in our interactions rather than the illness - and we'll explore different aspects of mental health care treatment. Please join us Saturday, April 27, between 7am and 5pm for a wide variety of speakers and topics.

You can check out speaker bios and extended information about the individual sessions on our blog:
http://blog.virtualability.org/2013/04/virtual-ability-mental-health-symposium_21.html
Notecards for individual sessions are embedded at the bottom of this card.

Saturday April 27
**7am SLT- Jayme Nelson, RN, MS (SL- Jayme Xaris)- "Will you Treat ME?  Funding mental health care treatment - now and under the Affordable Health Care Act"- Sojourner Auditorium
**8:30am SLT- renda Bryan (SL- Brena Benoir)- "Meet Your Counselor: An Avatar"- Sojourner Auditorium
**10am SLT- Deborah Houston-Schrenzel (SL- Brede McDonnell)- "Sudden Violent Loss: Its Impact on Every Member of the Community"- Sojourner Auditorium
**11:30am SLT- "Poetry and Mental Health"- selections read by Eliza Madrigal, Zen Arado, Szavannah Resident- Healthinfo Island
**1pm SLT- Lissena Resident introduces the "Whole Brain Health Fair"- Sojourner Auditorium
**2:30pm SLT- Kara Bennett, Ph. D. (SL- Dancers Yao)- "Exploring New Ways of Evaluating Mental Capacity of Seniors"- Sojourner Auditorium
**4pm SLT- Richard Roth (SL- Farm Gartenberg)- "Herbal Medicine and Mental Health"- Healthinfo Island

The Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

Image from Virtual Ability's Facebook page. 

Press Release: The SL Buddy Walk

PRESENTER: JL Zinner
WEDNESDAY March 13, 6pm SLT
The Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/54/170/23

The Buddy Walk® was established in 1995 by the National Down Syndrome Society to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness and to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome. Last year there were 295 RL Buddy Walks. There’s also an SL Buddy Walk!

There is an Expo, March 17-30, to raise awareness. And on World Down Syndrome Day, March 21, a live music festival. This presentation will give additional information about this year’s event.

PRESENTER BIO:
JL Zinner has been involved in the SL Buddy Walk since it started in 2008. She is also involved in the real life Chicagoland Buddy Walk for the past 10 years and serves on the Buddy Walk advisory board. Her main inspiration comes from her son who is 11 and has Down syndrome.

Presented in text and voice simultaneously.

(Dis)Ability in Second Life Research

This week on Virtual Ability Island, Ambrosia108 Azalee discusses her ongoing research study about Second Life and its disabled residents. Her second discussion is tomorrow at 8AM SL time. For her first, DrFran Babcock was there in the audience, and wrote about the event.

Read about the discussion in Events. 

Press Release: "(Dis)Ability in Second Life" at Virtual Ability

(Dis)Ability in Second Life: Ongoing research.
PRESENTER:  Ambrosia108 Azalee
WEDNESDAY January 30, 11am SLT
or
SATURDAY February 2, 8am SLT
The Sojourner Auditorium

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/53/172/23

Find out about an ongoing qualitative study on (dis)ability and Second Life...  and why it's important.

PRESENTER BIO:
Ambrosia108 Azalee is an MA student in Educational Technology at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her primary academic interests relate to (dis)Ability, human experiences in virtual environments, virtual identities and communities, and implications of technology and its design.

Presentation in text and voice simultaneously.

International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference at Virtual Ability on

Gentle Heron called me to say that this weekend, Friday and Saturday, August 3 and 4, there will be a Conference at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island. It is the Virtual Ability’s International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference. There will be numerous presentations by international experts on subjects of interest regarding The idea of “community.” You are all invited to attend. You can find information on the subjects and presenters at http://blog.virtualability.org. and the full schedule is found at http://www.virtualability.org/idrac2012 .

One personalilty who will be there and do an interview with Alice Krueger, President of Virtual Ability, Inc is Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden), founder of Linden Lab. He will be discussing how the virtual world infrastructure facilitates community development. Of the Conference, Alice Krueger stated, “I am looking forward to learning more about the various communities people with disabilities are involved in. Being included in community affairs is a basic human right, too often denied to those of us with disabling conditions or chronic illnesses. Following up on last year’s IDRAC conference which focused on legal protections for these populations, this conference will highlight some of the ways people have used those protections to attain full community membership.”

There are many that I have met within Second Life that have disabilities, challenges, and chronic health problems that have a place to live and develop skills that would not be possible in real life. We have formed many communities with them. Learn about the concepts behind “community” and its importance.

The Auditorium can be accessed here http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/53/172/23 .

Gemma Cleanslate

Discussion on Hiring Autistics at Virtual Ability

Earlier in the week, there was a lecture at the Virtual ability sim. The subject: it was about the benefits of hiring people with autism. Following his talk, the host Gentle Heron invited people to share their stories.


Read more in Events.