Ira and David Minot, Founders and Publishers of Mental Health News (now Behavioral Health News) and Autism Spectrum News, were recently featured in the “Who’s Who” section of AHA’s Fall 2010 magazine, On the Spectrum. “We were honored to be highlighted by AHA because of our shared personal connection with mental illness, and a strong desire to help others in the community. We both believe in the vital need to provide a trusted source of science-based education and resources to the community,” said Ira and David Minot. “The real praise, however, should be given to our readers, and the individuals and community organizations who support and contribute content to our publications. We are also blessed to have two wonderful Boards to work with: the MHNE Board of Directors and the Autism Spectrum News Editorial Board.” Below is Ira and David’s story that was published in On the Spectrum.
Ira and David Minot
Surviving an extreme hardship in a person’s life can often provide them with a unique perspective on the difficulties they have had to endure. It can also ultimately make them stronger and lead them down a path to helping others.
That is the story behind Ira and David Minot, the father and son team who publish Mental Health News and Autism Spectrum News.
Ira Minot, who founded Mental Health News in 1999, is a survivor of mental illness that began in his mid-30s. His 10-year life and death battle with depression left him homeless, destitute and having to begin his life all over again. His son David grew up in the shadow of his father’s illness and witnessed firsthand how an illness and the stigma attached to it can bring even the strongest person to their knees.
Following his ten-year ordeal, Ira finally received the treatment that broke the chains of his depression. Out of the ashes of his illness, and with the support of many dedicated leaders of the mental health community, he created a small local newsletter dedicated to providing hope through education for people with mental illness and their families. Today, Mental Health News is the nation’s leading provider of evidence-based community mental health education.
Inspired by his father’s vision and with his own understanding of the importance of providing community education, David joined his father in 2007 to help launch and is now the publisher of Autism Spectrum News.
With help from some of the nation’s leading minds in the field of autism and leaders of many of the Northeast’s leading autism organizations, including the Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Association (AHA), Autism Spectrum News premiered in the fall of 2008 and has quickly set a new standard for science and evidence-based community education. Autism Spectrum News provides readers with a trusted source of strictly science and evidence-based educational articles and has a firm policy of only accepting advertising from organizations that meet the publication’s strict science-based criteria. Autism Spectrum News has become a “must read” and vital resource for families with children on the spectrum as well as for the treatment professionals and service providers that care for them.
Both Mental Health News and Autism Spectrum News are hardcopy quarterly newspapers that reach over 160,000 consumers, families, treatment professionals, service providers, educators, and decision makers across the country.
The nonprofit organization Mental Health News Education, Inc. (MHNE) behind the award-winning publications provides thousands of free copies of each issue back into the community. In addition, the publications each have websites where current and back issues are posted for free reading: Mental Health News (now Behavioral Health News) and Autism Spectrum News.
