10:16 AM MDT on Friday, August 26, 2005

Associated Press

COEUR d'ALENE — The actress who won an Oscar for her portrayal of blind and deaf girl Helen Keller now wants to help people with mental illnesses.

KTVB

Actress Patty Duke

Patty Duke has launched an online center for mental wellness, pattyduke.blogspot.com.

The Coeur d'Alene resident says the so-called blog is intended to be a clearing house of information.

Duke says she herself has bipolar disorder.

It took her three years after her diagnosis for the disorder that causes severe mood swings to tell people what she was suffering from.

With the so-called Web log, she says she wants to help others so they don't have to go through that pain.

Duke won the Oscar for 1962's The Miracle Worker.