Category Archives: General

What You Can Do to Support World Suicide Prevention Day

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From the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)

Become a Facebook Fan of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) www.facebook.com/IASPinfo

World Suicide Prevention DayWORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY is an opportunity for all sectors of the community – the public, charitable organizations, communities, researchers, clinicians, practitioners, politicians and policy makers, volunteers, those bereaved by suicide, other interested groups and individuals – to join with the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the WHO to focus public attention on the unacceptable burden and costs of suicidal behaviours with diverse activities to promote understanding about suicide and highlight effective prevention activities.

Those activities may call attention to the global burden of suicidal behaviour, and discuss local, regional and national strategies for suicide prevention, highlighting cultural initiatives and emphasizing how specific prevention initiatives are shaped to address local cultural conditions.

Initiatives which actively educate and involve people are likely to be most effective in helping people learn new information about suicide and suicide prevention. Examples of activities which can support World Suicide Prevention Day include:

  • Launching new initiatives, policies and strategies on World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th.
  • Learning about connectedness, mental health and suicide prevention from materials found in IASP’s Web resource directory http://goo.gl/0ovDtp
  • Using the WSPD Press Preparation Package that offers media guides in the planning of an event or activity.
  • Downloading the World Suicide Prevention Day Toolkit that contains links to World Suicide Prevention Day resources and related Web pages http://goo.gl/TEvYHD
  • Holding conferences, open days, educational seminars or public lectures and panels
  • Writing articles for national, regional and community newspapers, blogs and magazines
  • Holding press conferences
  • Placing information on your website and using the IASP World Suicide Prevention Day Web banner, promoting suicide prevention in one’s native tongue. http://goo.gl/rOijcr
  • Securing interviews and speaking spots on radio and television
  • Organizing memorial services, events, candlelight ceremonies or walks to remember those who have died by suicide
  • Asking national politicians with responsibility for health, public health, mental health or suicide prevention to make relevant announcements, release policies or make supportive statements or press releases on WSPD
  • Holding depression awareness events in public places and offering screening for depression
  • Organizing cultural or spiritual events, fairs or exhibitions
  • Organizing walks to political or public places to highlight suicide prevention
  • Holding book launches, or launches for new booklets, guides or pamphlets
  • Distributing leaflets, posters and other written information
  • Organizing concerts, BBQs, breakfasts, luncheons, contests, fairs in public places
  • Writing editorials for scientific, medical, education, nursing, law and other relevant journals
  • Disseminating research findings
  • Producing press releases for new research papers
  • Holding training courses in suicide and depression awareness
  • Joining us on the official World Suicide Prevention Day Facebook Event Page http://goo.gl/b2Z0rt
  • Supporting suicide prevention 365 days a year by becoming a Facebook Fan of the IASP http://goo.gl/S7zalS
  • Following the IASP on Twitter (www.twitter.com/IASPinfo), tweeting #WSPD or #suicide or #suicideprevention
  • Creating a video about suicide prevention
  • Lighting a candle, near a window at 8 PM in support of: World Suicide Prevention Day, suicide prevention and awareness, survivors of suicide and for the memory of loved lost ones. Find “Light a Candle Near a Window at 8 PM” postcards in various languages at: http://goo.gl/9Ic1en
  • Participating in the World Suicide Prevention Day – Cycle Around the Globe ttp://goo.gl/csdyvG

 

Source: http://www.iasp.info/wspd/

Happy April Fool’s Day!

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By: Andrea Thompson

april-fools-dayThough pranksters and joke-lovers in many countries now gleefully prepare to dupe friends and loved ones on April Fool’s Day, no one knows exactly when or why, or even where, this tradition began.

A giddy spurt of practical joking seems to have coincided with the coming of spring since the time of the Ancient Romans and Celts, who celebrated a festival of mischief-making. The first mentions of an All Fool’s Day (as it was formerly called) came in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Some trace April Fool’s Day back to Roman mythology, particularly the story of Ceres, Goddess of the harvest, and her daughter, Proserpina.

Pluto, God of the Dead, abducted Proserpina and took her to live with him in the underworld. The girl called out to her mother, but Ceres could only hear the echo of her daughter’s voice and searched for her in vain.

Such “fool’s errands,” or wild goose chases, became a popular practical joke in Europe in later centuries.

The most widespread theory of the origin of April Fool’s Day is the switch from the old Julian to the Gregorian calendar (now in use) in the late 16th century. Under the Julian calendar, the New Year was celebrated during the week between March 25 and April 1, but under the Gregorian calendar, it was moved to Jan. 1. Those who were not notified of the change, or stubbornly kept to the old tradition, were often mocked and had jokes played on them on or around the old New Year.

In France, this took the form of pranksters sticking fish on the backs of those who celebrated the old custom, earning the victims of the prank the name Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish.

But the theory can’t explain why the pranking tradition spread to other countries in Europe that did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until later.

In Scotland, the butts of April Fool’s jokes were known as April “Gowks,” another name for a cuckoo bird. The origins of the “Kick Me” sign can supposedly be traced back to the Scottish observance of the day.

In more recent times, radio stations, TV programs and Web sites have set up gullible readers and listeners. One of the most notorious jokes was a 1957 hoax BBC documentary of the annual spaghetti harvest in Switzerland, featuring a family plucking strands of the pasta from “spaghetti trees.” The Italian favorite was still considered an exotic delicacy in Britain at the time, and many listeners were so fooled they wanted to find out how to get a spaghetti bush of their own.

On April 1, 2007 Internet search engine Google announced their new Gmail Paper service, where users of the free email service could save emails to a paper archive which Google would print out and mail for free. Last year, Google invited people to sign up for a Mars exploration project.

So while you’re surfing the web or watching TV today, be wary of what you see and read, or you could end up an April Fool!

Source: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/334-when-did-april-fools-day-begin.html?cmpid=520542

Florida’s New Child Abuse Reporting Law Among Nation’s Toughest

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By Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel

Florida’s new child-abuse-reporting law, passed in the wake of the Penn State scandal, is being called the nation’s toughest, and its penalties could have wide-ranging consequences for both universities and ordinary citizens.

Colleges and universities that “knowingly and willfully” fail to report suspected child abuse, abandonment or neglect — or prevent another person from doing so — now face fines of up to $1 million for each incident. And individuals who fail to report abuse and neglect face felony prosecution and fines up to $5,000.

While previous laws have required reporting only when the suspected abuser was a parent or caretaker, the new statute — which took effect Oct. 1 — applies to any abuser, even those who are children themselves.

“It was just very important that we had a consistent law that made Florida the only true mandatory-reporting state in the nation — one where everyone is required to report,” said activist Lauren Book, a 27-year-old survivor of long-term childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her nanny. Founder of an advocacy and education organization called Lauren’s Kids, Book was a lead architect of the legislation, signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year.

At the time, it was dubbed “the Penn State law,” coming as it did on the heels of charges against that university’s former longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was eventually found guilty on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. Because of testimony that other school officials knew about the ongoing abuse and either ignored it or covered it up, the university’s president was forced to resign, legendary football coach Joe Paterno was fired and the university was hit with tens of millions of dollars in fines.

Before the passage of Florida’s law — officially called the Protection of Vulnerable Persons Act — there was no legal requirement to report suspected abuse if the abuser wasn’t a parent or caretaker, said Press Secretary Erin Gillespie of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Her department is now charged with fielding all calls through its abuse hotline (1-800-962-2873). But allegations that don’t involve parents, legal guardians or other caretakers will be transferred to local law-enforcement agencies.

The law further directs DCF to develop a more user-friendly way to report online and possibly via email or text.

“People keep asking if calls will go up because now it’s a felony [not to report],” Gillespie said. “Well, if that scares people enough to call us, then, please, let them call. Most people realize that children are vulnerable, and any decent person who suspects abuse would report it anyway.”

The Legislature also budgeted more than $2.1 million in recurring funds for DCF to hire an additional 47 workers to handle the expected increase in workload.

“Overall, I want to applaud the legislators for doing a great thing,” said Attorney Howard Talenfeld, founding president of Florida’s Children First! and lead counsel in several landmark cases against the state’s child-welfare system. “This law is precedential.”

But Talenfeld said he is worried about the law’s unequal treatment of juvenile offenders.

The new law makes reporting of child-on-child abuse mandatory for the first time. Children 12 and under who are deemed perpetrators will be referred for treatment and therapy, but those 13 and up will be referred to law enforcement.

Domestic Violence: Child Abuse and Intimate Partner ViolenceThe Florida Department of Health requires that healthcare professionals obtain two (2) hours of continuing education credit on domestic violence every third biennial licensure renewal period. Professional Development Resources provides courses on domestic violence to meet this requirement, and has updated their current offering to include the new child abuse reporting laws. The course is intended to help health professionals maintain a high state of vigilance and to be well prepared with immediate and appropriate responses when abuse is disclosed. There is a special section on the complexity of an abuse victim’s decision about if and when to leave an abuser. This course will teach clinicians to detect abuse when they see it, screen for the particulars, and respond with definitive assistance in safety planning, community referrals, and individualized treatment plans. For more info, please visit: https://www.pdresources.org/course/index/6/1111/Domestic-Violence-Child-Abuse-and-Intimate-Partner-Violence

Prescription Drug Abuse – New Online CE Course

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Prescription Drug Abuse

By: Stephanie Sarkis, PhD, NCC, LMHC

CE Credit: 3 Hours

Target Audience: Psychology | Counseling | Social Work | Occupational Therapy | Marriage & Family Therapy

Learning Level: Intermediate

Course Type : Online

Prescription Drug AbuseCourse Abstract: Prescription drug abuse is on the rise. Pharmaceuticals like OxyContin®, Adderall®, and Xanax® are some of the most commonly abused prescription drugs. For some prescription drug addicts, medication was originally taken as prescribed – until they started developing a tolerance for it. For others, members of their peer group began to abuse prescription drugs because they are easily accessible and relatively inexpensive on the street. Prescription drug abuse also affects those who don’t use – through increased costs and the inconveniences of increased security at pharmacies. Treatment is comprised of a series of steps, including detoxification, inpatient/outpatient treatment, and maintenance. In some cases, patients must be closely monitored because of the potential for withdrawal effects. Once treatment is completed, there are various options for maintaining sobriety. Laws are being tightened, and some medications have become difficult to find due to the increased rate of prescription drug abuse. Course #30-61 | 2012 | 30 pages | 20 posttest questions
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Would You Do It All Over Again?

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by

Would You Do It All Over Again?It’s a rather abstract question isn’t it? But give it a fair chance.

A few weeks ago I got into an interesting conversation with a fine gentleman about career paths and life in general. He was a retired pilot who seemed to have enjoyed every moment of his flying career. As I was telling him about what I did in my professional life he simply looked me in the eye and asked “Would you do it all over again?”

For a moment his question completely startled me. Would I, I wondered. And then there was a silent pause in my ever rushing mind. I didn’t know. Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn’t.

Being the right brain dominant person that I am, I noticed my mind contemplate endless possibilities as it tried to come to a conclusion for this gentleman. But alas, all decision making algorithms and techniques failed miserably in my moment of distress.

This made me wonder if this decision was for the mind in the first place. The answer to his question had to be out of pure instincts, either an instantaneous screaming “Yes, in a heartbeat” or an unappetizing uncertainty where a lot is revealed in the silence itself.

As I pondered over this in more detail I realised that this question could be applied to every single aspect of our lives and even beyond. Would we do the things we are currently doing if we were given a second chance? Most of our responses will vary from an absolute yes to a maybe and even abrupt no’s depending on the situation itself.

But think about it, if we wouldn’t want to do something again, what is our excuse to continue doing it in the first place?

As you ask yourself this, I’m certain that a never ending list of excuses will pop into your mind. Only if things were different or if you had less responsibilities, only if someone else didn’t treat you this way, only if something hadn’t happened…. The list is endless and the more you let yourself indulge in it the stronger and more encapsulating the web becomes.

Just like the quote says:

“You can either have a good excuse or a good result.”

Which one do you have?

Could we possibly dare to consider a new day as a second chance? A chance to start all over again and do things how you’d always wished you did. Another chance to have the courage to turn around? A chance to be true to yourself before you satisfy others expectations?

Sometimes we continue to do things simply because we feel obligated to the decisions we made or the paths we choose. We associate ourselves to our successes and our failures and subconsciously hold them tight.

For example, consider how we introduce ourselves to a new acquaintance. “Hi I’m Adam, Marketing director of ABC Corp and a Harvard graduate.” Now what if Adam feels unfulfilled in his marketing profession? Letting go of his job would almost mean letting go of his identity. We continue to work in unfulfilling careers because we feel obligated to our investment in the education we obtained.

From careers to relationships and materialistic possessions, somehow instead of things adding to our identity they become our identity.

Why should a failure prevent you from an upcoming success and why should a success that adds no meaning to your life anymore hold you from venturing out and trying something different?

Though we might blame external sources for our current state, in reality it is nothing else but our own self imposed restrictions that hinder our ability to create change. The key here is to accept responsibilities of your choices and allow yourself to alter the ones that don’t make you smile anymore.

So…..would you do it all over again?

Source: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/would-you-do-it-all-over-again.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LifeHack+%28lifehack.org%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Psychological Abuse: Common & Harmful

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Psychological abuse — including demeaning, bullying and humiliating — may be the most prevalent form of child maltreatment. Yet it’s among the hardest to identify or to treat.

Psychological Abuse: More Common, as Harmful as Other Child Maltreatment It may be the most common kind of child abuse — and the most challenging to deal with. But psychological abuse, or emotional abuse, rarely gets the kind of attention that sexual or physical abuse receives.

That’s the message of a trio of pediatricians, who write this week in the journal Pediatrics with a clarion call to other family doctors and child specialists: stay alert to the signs of psychological maltreatment. Its effects can be every bit as devastating as those of other abuse.

Psychological maltreatment can include terrorizing, belittling or neglecting a child, the pediatrician authors say.

“We are talking about extremes and the likelihood of harm, or risk of harm, resulting from the kinds of behavior that make a child feel worthless, unloved or unwanted,” Harriet MacMillan, one of the three pediatrician authors, told reporters.

What makes this kind maltreatment so challenging for pediatricians and for social services staff, however, is that it’s not defined by any one specific event, but rather by the nature of the relationship between caregiver and child. That makes it unusually hard to identify.

Keeping a child in a constant state of fear is abuse, for example. But even the most loving parent will occasionally lose their cool and yell. Likewise, depriving a child of ordinary social interaction is also abuse, but there’s nothing wrong with sending a school-aged boy to stew alone in his room for an hour after he hits a younger sibling. All of this means that, for an outsider who observes even some dubious parenting practice, it can be hard to tell whether a relationship is actually abusive, or whether you’ve simply caught a family on a bad day.

Psychological abuse can also include what you might call “corrupting a child” — encouraging children to use illicit drugs, for example, or to engage in other illegal activities.

In their Pediatrics paper, MacMillan and co-authors say that 8% to 9% of women and 4% of men reported severe psychological abuse in childhood when the question was posed in general-population surveys of the U.S. and Britain. A number of U.S. surveys have also found that more adults claim they faced psychological maltreatment as kids than claim they experienced any other form of abuse. This suggests that psychological maltreatment may be the most common form of abuse inflicted on kids.

Because of that, pediatricians must be as sensitive to signs of emotional maltreatment as they are to signals of sexual or physical abuse, the authors say. And while it may be possible in the event of psychological abuse to intervene to improve the child’s home life — especially where the root cause is a parent’s own mental-health issue — the authors stress:

Consideration of out-of-home care interventions should not be restricted to cases of physical or sexual abuse; children exposed to psychological maltreatment may also require a level of protection that necessitates removal from the parental home.

Light at Night may Contribute to Depression

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By Nika Soon-Shiong Los Angeles Times

Exposure to light at night may contribute to depression, study saysTV sets, laptops, iPads and iPhones are modern society’s instruments for increased productivity, social connectedness and entertainment after a long day’s work. Ironically, a new study published in Molecular Psychiatry shows that these devices also contribute to an increase of major depressive disorder.

The 24-hour society made possible by the advent of the electric light bulb has come at a significant biological cost. Light at night disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythms and has been linked to breast cancer, heart disease and obesity.

The new experiment, led by Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University, analyzed the relationship between exposure to artificial light at night and mood disorder. The subjects of the study were adult female hamsters, since females — both rodent and human — are twice as likely as males to develop major depressive disorder. One group of hamsters was kept on a cycle of 16 hours of normal light and eight hours of dim light, which was five times brighter than the maximum light power of a full moon and comparable to light pollution in urban centers. The control group of hamsters was on a schedule of 16 hours of daylight and eight hours of darkness.

The researchers tested the hamsters in the nighttime light group for signs of depression. After four weeks of sleeping with light at night, the hamsters lost some of their appetite for sugar. In addition, when forced to swim, the animals spent more time immobile in the water and less time trying to reach safety.

According to the research team, the results show that there was some physiological change in the hamsters’ brains when they were exposed to light at night.

For instance, they produced more of a protein called TNF, or tumor necrosis factor. This is one of a family of proteins called cytokines — chemical messengers in the body that are released in response to injury or inflammation. If they are released constantly — such as during exposure to light at night — damage occurs that could result in depression. In the brain, the hippocampus is extremely vulnerable because it has many receptors for these cytokines. The hippocampus plays a critical role in major depressive disorder.

Furthermore, the amount of nighttime light used in the study is enough to suppress the release of melatonin, which is linked to depressive effects. Melatonin is a hormone secreted during the dark, and when that doesn’t happen, the body’s time-of-day information is distorted. In rodents, melatonin prevents stress-induced, depression-like behaviors.

The study authors noted that 99% of people in the United States and Europe deal with light pollution on a nightly basis. This could account for some of the increase in the incidence of major depression over the last few decades, they wrote, adding that further research is necessary to explore the extent of the link.

There was some good news: The negative effects of exposure to light at night are reversible if that exposure is decreased. Within two weeks of returning the hamsters to a standard light/dark cycle, the hamsters regained their taste for sugar and were more willing to swim, the researchers reported. Also, hamsters that were forced to endure the nighttime light but allowed to take a drug that inhibited their production of TNF swam just as much as the control hamsters on the normal light/dark schedule.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-light-at-night-depression-20120725,0,7482402.story

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Technology-crazy: Are we setting our kids up for future addiction?

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See on Scoop.it – Healthcare Continuing Education

Is the internet making us crazy? New research finds 61 percent of those surveyed feel addicted to the internet, and 68 percent say they suffer from internet “disconnect anxiety.” Another study found people check their smartphones 34 times a day.

See on www.kens5.com

Academics Say ‘No Truth’ to Lying Eyes Theory

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Academics say 'no truth' to lying eyes theoryResearch by academics at two universities have concluded that the common belief of lying eyes is a myth.

Many psychologists think when a person looks up to their right they are likely to be telling a lie and glancing up to the left is said to indicate honesty.

However, the experts from Edinburgh University and Hertfordshire University carried out tests and found the theory to be wrong.

The research appeared in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

The claimed link between eye movements and truth telling is a key element of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a method of enhancing people’s lives using psychological techniques.

One aspect of NLP involves teaching people about the relationship between eye movements and thought.

According to the theory, when right-handed people look up to their right they are likely to be visualising a “constructed” or imagined event.

In contrast when they look to their left they are likely to be visualising a “remembered” memory.

For this reason, when liars are constructing their own version of the truth, they tend to look to the right.

The idea was tested by filming volunteers and recording their eye movements as they told the truth or lied.

A second group of volunteers was then asked to watch the films and try to detect the lies by watching the eye movements.

Co-author Dr Caroline Watt, from Edinburgh University, said: “A large percentage of the public believes that certain eye movements are a sign of lying, and this idea is even taught in organisational training courses.

“Our research provides no support for the idea and so suggests that it is time to abandon this approach to detecting deceit.”

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, from Hertfordshire University, said: “The results of the first study revealed no relationship between lying and eye movements, and the second showed that telling people about the claims made by NLP practitioners did not improve their lie detection skills.”

A follow-up study involved analysing videos of high-profile press conferences in which people appealed for help in finding missing relatives, or claimed to have been victims of crime.

While some were telling the truth, others turned out to be lying.

Again, there was no evidence of a correlation between lying and eye movements.

Five Ways to Detect a Liar

Prof Richard Wiseman outlined other ways to spot a liar:

  1. Me, myself I: Liars make up stories that never actually happened, and so tend to reduce the number of times they refer to themselves. Look out for any sudden drop in words like me, mine and I
  2. Shifty: Lying is difficult and people tend not to move around when they are concentrating on something. Be wary if a person suddenly becomes very still
  3. Umm … err: Liars are far more hesitant than truth tellers and tend to stumble over their words. Listen out for tell-tale umms and errs.
  4. Timing: Liars often have to think about what they are going to say before they speak. Be suspicious if someone suddenly pauses before starting to answer a question.
  5. Token gesture: Liars tend to move their hands around more than truth tellers. Be wary if someone suddenly starts covering up their mouth or touching their hair as they chat.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18812072