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ASSOCIATION
FOUND BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AND FREQUENCY OF FAMILY PARTICIPATION
(April 2002) The Complete Practitioner, April 2002 reports a study
of the family practices of 259 adolescents and young adults ages 14
to 23 living at home in an urban area of Spain. Patients at mental
health outpatient clinics were compared to nonpatients, with patients
reporting few shared meals and less participation in family celebrations
and family activities, e.g. conversations, trips, showing, homework
help and religious activities. Also, patients reported higher frequencies
of dissatisfaction with support received from family, time spent with
family, their agreement process, and experienced low perceptions of
being loved and accepted by family. The authors suggest that “gathering
information on ritual and family activities could be included in interviews
to identify the possible presence of social/family factors that influence
the patient’s condition.” (Compan, Moreno, Ruiz & Pacual, “Doing
things together" Adolescent health and family rituals, Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health, 56:89-94, 2002)
NATURE VS. NURTURE DEBATE
(September 22, 2002) The Guardian
Unlimited, a United Kingdom online newspaper, in an article titled "Raging
Boffins," outlines a current fierce debate between partisans of
the nurture vs. nature debate on which is most influential on children
growing up. In the context of the source of violent and aggressive
behavior, one side claims "Only their genes, and a person's interaction
with peers and friends, matter in the shaping of violent personalities.
Road rage and murder are in our DNA." The other side claims "children's
aggressive behavior is picked up from violent parents. The family is
the root of all troubles. Genes have only a limited role in the birth
of criminal, violent behavior. Learning from parents is key." An
entertaining article on how extreme the emotions get in this debate.
Evidently the question is whether the source of these partisans’ violent
accusations against each other is their parents or their DNA?
CHEERLEADING RISK INCREASES
(October 23, 2002) The Chicago
Sun-Times, reports “Cheerleading is getting more athletic, more
competitive—and less safe….” “Emergency room visits for cheerleading
injuries rose fivefold from 1980 to 2001… Last year, there were about
25,000 such visits.”
TEAM APPROACH TO TRUANCY
REDUCTION REDUCES ABSENTEEISM
(October 28, 2002) An alternative to traditional truancy intervention,
a new and innovative truancy court, succeeded in reducing absenteeism
by an average of 13% for the 21 students participating, as well as
improving the attendance rate for the entire school. Following this
success, eight St. Louis County school districts joined with the Family
Court to form the St. Louis County Truancy Court. It has also been
successfully tried in North Carolina. Also, U.
Conn. Humanities Institute Fellow, Anita Garey, Associate Professor
of Family Studies and Sociology, examined a team approach to truancy
courts in Rhode Island. Similar to courtrooms, with a magistrate in
a traditional black robe, the youngsters, their parents, a truant officer,
a guidance counselor, and sometimes social workers or family counselors,
meet to discover and address the underlying causes of truancy in each
individual case. Garey explains previous attempts to deal with truancy
in a punitive manner have not proven effective in increasing school
attendance. "Truancy is associated with other delinquent or criminal
behavior, is a predictor of drug abuse, criminal activity, and other
social problems. Truancy can be caused by school failure, staying up
very late using the Internet, a disorganized home life with multiple
moves, or bullying. Having more people looking at the whole picture
can help." DEMONSTRATING
INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
FATHER SHACKLED DAUGHTER
AFTER JUDGE ORDERS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
(November 6, 2002) According to a Lubbock,
Texas online newspaper, after a Santa Fe, New Mexico father was told
by a judge to make sure his daughter attended school regularly or face
criminal charges, he "began chaining the girl's ankles and taking
her to school." The father faces "two to 10 years in prison
if convicted of child injury and endangerment."
EDUCATION REFORM CANDIDATES
DOMINATE
(December 2002) The Center for Education Reform, headquartered in Washington
D.C. reported that in the recent election, "fully 52 percent of
choice supporters and 51 percent of charter supporters won gubernatorial
races."
SCHOOL VIOLENCE HITS
LOWER GRADES
(January 12, 2003) USA
Today reports, "Elementary school principals and safety experts
say they're seeing more violence and aggression than ever among their
youngest students, pointing to what they see as an alarming rise in
assaults and threats to classmates and teachers." One elementary
school principal in rural Wisconsin says, "Some of my most violent
kids have been in kindergarten, first and second grade. They simply
lose control, and it comes out in extremely violent manners."
SUSPENDED RAIDERS’ PLAYER
HAS HISTORY OF BIPOLAR DISORDER
(January 28, 2003) The
New York Times (archive registration required) reports that Barret
Robbins, the Oakland Raiders' Pro Bowl center who was suspended from
Super Bowl XXXVII by Coach Bill Callahan after missing several team
meetings, had, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, battled a
chemical imbalance early in his career and had taken medication for
depression. It quoted Dr. Lori Altshuler, director of the mood disorders
research program in the department of psychiatry at U.C.L.A., about
the link between bipolar disorder and drug or alcohol abuse. She states, "Of
all the psychiatric disorders, bipolar illness has the highest rate
of lifetime likelihood of a person developing an alcohol or substance-abuse
problem. When people get into a low or a high and they know something
is wrong, sometimes they try to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs.
With most people there is a range of medication they can take. It is
very treatable with medicine. If people stop taking their medication
abruptly, that is one of the surest ways to cause a relapse."
PRESIDENT BUSH HIGHLIGHTS
TREATMENT AND ADDICTION DURING STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
(January 29, 2003) Communnity Anti-Drug
Coalition of America, CADCA@lb.bcentral.com,
reports that President Bush, in his State of the Union Address, said
he plans for a new $600 million initiative to enable an additional
300,000 drug addicts to receive treatment over the next three years.
This “marks the first time a President has addressed drug treatment
and recovery before a joint session of Congress.” Henry C. Lozano,
President and CEO Californians for Drug-Free Youth and a member of
CADCA’s Board of Directors, was an invited guest of First Lady Laura
Bush during the State of the Union. [Click
here for more]
PATAKI'S PROPOSED BUDGET
OVERHAULS MENTAL CARE
(January 30, 2003) The
New York Times, reports Gov. George E. Pataki’s “landmark plan
to spend at least $80 million on housing and services for residents
of adult homes for the mentally ill. The plan would overhaul and eventually
do away with a neglect-ridden system that arose more than a generation
ago when New York, like other states, began closing many of its psychiatric
hospitals, and would put New York at the forefront of efforts to address
a longstanding crisis in housing for the mentally ill across the nation.”
In a separate initiative, Mr. Pataki proposed continuing to reduce
the size of the state psychiatric system, using the money from hospital
closings to improve local mental-health services. [archives]
FORBES LISTS BEST
FRATERNITIES FOR FUTURE CEOS
(January 31, 2003) Forbes reports: “about a quarter of all chief executives
on the Forbes Super 500 list of America's largest corporations were
members of college fraternities. Despite what movies such as Animal
House suggest, fraternities and sororities are more than just freshman
rush and beer busts. The social skills that help students gain admittance
into the Greek system are the same aptitudes that can later give them
a leg-up in corporate climbing.... A mere 8.5% of full-time university
undergraduates are members of either a fraternity or a sorority. Not
only have fraternities been the breeding ground of those 120 Forbes
500s chief executive officers, they also have spawned 48% of all U.S.
presidents, 42% of U.S. senators, 30% of U.S. congressmen, and 40%
of U.S. Supreme Court justices, according to data from The North-American
Interfraternity Conference.” [more...]
FOR 53% RELIABLE INFORMATION,
CLICK HERE
(January 31, 2003) According
to a new survey issued by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy
and reported by Forbes, “52.8% of Internet users believe that most
or all of the information online is "reliable and accurate…about
61% find the Net "very" or "extremely" important
as an information source, and Internet use is cutting into television
time with Internet users watching about 4.8 fewer hours of television
each week than nonusers.” The percentage of Americans who use the Internet
actually fell, the survey says, from 72.3% to 71.1%, but the average
time spent online was up substantially, to 11.1 hours per week. However,
“although more people are using the Internet, they are believing it
less, with 58% of Internet users believing that most of what they read
online was "reliable and accurate. Among nonusers responding to
the survey of the Internet, just 33.3% thought that "most" or "all" of
the information on the Internet was reliable and accurate. But if they
really are nonusers, how would they know?” The survey reports 88% of
users use the Internet for e-mail and instant messaging, and 52% use
it for reading news. [more...]
GIRLS & BOYS HAVE
DIFFERENT REASONS FOR CIGARETTE, ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE
(February 5, 2003) Audrey Peavey,
of New Horizons Wilderness Program, Orrington, Main, 207-992-2424,
informed us that The National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University
Columbia University just released a 231 page report: “The Formative
Years: Pathways to Substance Abuse among Girls and Young Women Ages
8-22.” This culmination of over three years of research and analysis,
underwritten by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, shows girls and
young women who use cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs are more vulnerable
to substance abuse and addiction and its consequences, and are using
substances at earlier ages, nearly as early as boys. Also, girls suffer
consequences beyond those of boys. “The findings from this study cry
out for a fundamental overhaul of public health prevention programs,”
says Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA president and former U.S. Secretary
of Health, Education and Welfare. He also points out that girls are
more likely than boys to be depressed, have eating disorders or be
sexually or physically abused--all of which increase the risk for substance
abuse. According to this study, girls and young women can sink into
abuse and addiction more quickly than boys and young men, even when
using the same amount or less of a particular substance. Girls using
alcohol and drugs are likelier to attempt suicide, and to experience
more adverse health consequences, such as greater smoking-related lung
damage, alcohol-induced brain damage, cardiac problems and liver disease.
This can occur more quickly and with lower levels of consumption than
with males. CASA's survey showed that most girls (61.6 percent) who
had conversations with their parents about substance use said that
the conversation made them less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs,
and that religion is more protective for girls than for boys.
TEENS MORE LIKELY TO SEE
ALCOHOL COMMERICIALS, STUDY FINDS
(February 7, 2003) The Community
Anti Drug Coalition, announced “a new study finds the wrong type
of ads from the alcohol industry are reaching America’s youth… youth
were 60 times more likely to see alcoholic beverage commercials than
the responsibility ads created by the alcohol industry.” Researchers
say “for every drinking and driving prevention ad, alcohol companies
aired 172 product promotion ads, and for every legal drinking ad in
2001, 179 product ads aired.” The
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University conducted
the study.
NEW EDITION OF “CRISIS
RESPONSE IN OUT SCHOOLS RELEASED”
The Fifth Edition of A Practical Guide For Crisis Response In Our Schools,
by Drs. Lerner, Volpe & Lindell has recently been released, that
includes A Comprehensive School Crisis Response Plan. The guide can
be ordered online through a secure server.
PET SCANS SHOW CEREBRALLY
GENERATED FEELINGS OF ANXIETY CAN BE WILLFULLY CHANGED
(February 2003) Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., author with Sharon Begley,
of The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and Power of Mental Force
summarize their neuroscience findings regarding neuroplacity and OCD
in the January/February 2003 edition of Science & Spirit.
Schwartz states: “When an obsessive thought or compulsive urge comes
into a patient’s mind, the feelings of fear and anxiety it generates
are biologically determined. But as clinical data and PET scans show,
patients can willfully change the amount and quality of attention that
they focus on those cerebrally generated feelings of anxiety and stress,
changing in turn how the brain works…Mindfulness - how you focus attention
– has the power to change your underlying neurochemistry.” He goes
on to say, “The brain may determine the content of our experience,
but mind chooses which aspect of that experience to focus on.”
RESEARCH SHOWS MEDITATION
CAN CAUSE ENDURING CHANGES IN BRAIN ACTIVITY
(Spring 2003) Dr. Daniel Goleman, the best-selling author of Emotional
Intelligence, in an interview in Tricycle magazine, sites Dr. Richard
Davidson, director of the W.M.Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain
imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the
field of “affective neuroscience”. Davidson is using state-of-the-art
methods that show the ratio of prefrontal activity on the right and
left side of the prefrontal cortex will predict the typical range of
moods, with more right prefrontal activity being more prone to bad
moods, and more left prefrontal activity more prone to very good moods.
Further, the “’the brain is extremely plastic if we undergo systematic,
repeated experiences” and “meditation practice seems to one of those
systematic trainings of the brain that yields quite beneficial effects,
even from the beginning…Long-term meditation, science is now discovering,
moves us toward enduring changes in brain activity.”
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