Two Independent Film Festivals to Attend in Florida

With experience ranging from psychiatry to charitable medical service in foreign countries, Patricia Lynn Hough now serves St. Francis Animal Rescue as its staff supervisor. In her leisure time, Patricia Lynn Hough enjoys attending independent film festivals.

Independent film festivals have sprung up all over the country and continue to offer a unique opportunity for visitors to experience a diverse range of creative films. The state of Florida is home to at least two of these, the Miami Independent Film Festival and the Melbourne Independent Film Festival.

The Miami Independent Film Festival just completed its second year. Founded in 2015, the first annual festival took place in 2016. The following year, the event received more than 900 film submissions from 64 nations. For more information about this festival and how to attend next year's event or to make a film submission, visit www.miamindiefest.com.

The Melbourne Independent Film Festival will take place from October 20th through 21st at Premiere Theaters Oaks Stadium 10. This year's event includes the Tie Up Loose Ends script competition in which competitors take an existing script and finish it themselves. Filmmakers then film the winning script ending and present it at the festival. For more information, visit www.melbournefilmfest.com.

JAMA Studies Suicide Rates in Discharged Psychiatric Patients

Holding an MD, a PhD, and an MSW, Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough has served in a variety of roles that have allowed her to help patients in a wide range of settings. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough served with the Sarasota County Department of Health, providing psychiatric care to patients who had no insurance coverage.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry, patients discharged from psychiatric facilities have a much higher suicide rate. Researchers pooled data across five decades for the study, which found that recently discharged patients were 100 times more likely to commit suicide within 3 months of being discharged.

Further, the study suggests that patients who reported having suicidal thoughts upon being admitted to the facility had an even higher suicide rate, which was nearly 200 times the normal population rate. Over the 50 years that researchers studied, this rate did not decrease. Based on this data, the study authors say that strong efforts should be focused on addressing this increased suicide risk.