Archive for Everything else
Religion in alcoholic treatment sparks complaint
Posted by: | CommentsA Winnipeg man who has struggled with alcoholism for decades says he has filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission over the lack of a treatment program that’s free of religious or spiritual elements.
Rob Johnstone said he has battled alcoholism for 40 years and can’t find a treatment program that doesn’t rely on religion or spirituality as part of the recovery process.
“I should not be forced to participate in someone else’s religious beliefs. I shouldn’t have to add to mine,” said Johnstone, who added he has been an alcoholic for 40 years.
“We get involved in mood-altering substances and mind-altering substances,” Johnstone said. “That means the person is very vulnerable when they come in and that person should not be subjected to someone else’s religion.”
He’s hoping his human rights complaint pushes the province to create a treatment program that’s free of spiritual or religious elements. The commission wouldn’t comment on the status of his complaint.
“Spirituality … is part and parcel of everyone’s life. For some people, their spirituality is more important than others, but it’s a dimension of all of our lives as human beings,” Goossen said.
“When they’re in … programming, we do want them to go look for a grain of something that will be helpful for them and disregard the rest,” Goossen added.
Other people who work with addicts agree.
“If you talk to the concept of spirituality, most social recovery models have a level of spirituality,” Hoeft said. “Really, spirituality is getting in touch with who you are.”
“Some degree of a spiritual component is common as these types of programs are believed to be more effective,” the spokeswoman said.
“It is important to recognize that spirituality is not the same as religion. People in recovery tend to benefit from self-reflection, examining their lives, where they’ve come from, who they are and where they’re going.”
What is your biggest complaint being a left handed person in a right handed world?
Posted by: | CommentsMy biggest complaint is the left-brainers think differently.They think everything is done a certain way,at a certain time,blah ! No creativity Writing left to right and not being able to see what I just wrote causes a problem.Also the reels on fishing poles wind backwards when I hold them upside down,to make it lefty friendly .Right-handed silverware makes me crazy,when the handles curve left poking my hand.Righties just don’t understand.We would have good penmanship if the situation were reversed,say writing from right to left,or if a freaking door nob actually opened on the correct side for once,or a light switch actually was there when you reached around a wall to flip it on.If this isn’t discrimination what is ? One day we will rise up,just to make things right-,er …LEFT, so you can see what it’s like to live in a bizzaro world where everything in everyday life is just a little out of kilter,just enough to drive drive you CRAZY !!!
I’m the only left handed one in my whole family and they all act like I’m weird when I write with my paper sideways and all of that other left handed stuff. I’ve told them time and again that being left handed is hard and that we lefties should qualify as disabled or something. I mean, they dont’ make anything for us, so why can’t we have the good parking spots?! lol
I’d say that my biggest complaints are three ring binders, notebooks, doors, the weird looks we get for using our left hands, and even the fact that the old can openers (the ones you have to twist yourself) are made for right handed people.
Earthquakes have a way of crumbling complaints
Posted by: | CommentsSuddenly, I have no complaints. Or perhaps I should put it another way — I have complaints, but I’m tamping them down and putting them aside.
Not only am I keeping my mouth shut, I’m silencing the inward voice that whines its wishes inside my brain.
Complaints come so easily to me. For example, if I think back to yesterday, I recall complaining about being cold and tired. I actually voiced those complaints to other people. But because I was cold and tired, I stayed inside for the day and hardly spoke to anyone. I reserved my whining for myself and wished for things I didn’t have — a tidier house, Chinese take-away for supper.
But my complaints fell silent on Wednesday as I watched news reports of Haiti, where people no longer have houses to tidy, or restaurants to order food from, or beds to sleep in, or blankets to keep them warm.
When they complain that they are cold, tired, hungry and thirsty, they are voicing reality. Their voices call out in need, not complaint.
I cannot fathom the destruction of Haiti from this week’s earthquake.
I look at the photos of smashed buildings and dead bodies covered in sheets, but I cannot comprehend just how horrific it must be on the small Caribbean island that shares the Atlantic Ocean with us and is part of what we call The Americas.
And yet this disaster seems closer to home than others that have rocked our world in the last decade. There is good reason for this, not only because we are trans-Atlantic neighbours, but because Haiti is only a friendship or family member away for so many Canadians.
It makes me give away my need to complain. I simply can’t complain when I think about Haiti.
If I’m thirsty, I have a half a dozen options to quench my thirst, including clean tap water. If I’m cold, I simply turn up the thermostat or, if I’m worried about the heating bill, add another blanket to my bed. If I’m tired, I can sit myself down in a chair, or lie down in a bed. If I’m hungry, I take food out of the freezer, or pick up the phone and order a Chinese combination plate, pick up.
Today, millions of Haitians have none of the options I’ve just listed. Thousands no longer even have life. I cannot comprehend the magnitude of this. But I can respond. I can stop complaining. And I can give money.
At least 2,000 bodies lay in the street. Most of them were in a makeshift outdoor graveyard, where bodies were stacked on top of one other. An additional 1,000 bodies lay stacked inside the hospital’s morgue. Some of the bodies had been brought there by relatives, and others had died at the hospital.
Haiti was always there calling for help
Posted by: | CommentsThe timelines that show the slew of natural disasters to have befallen Haiti in two centuries.
“The poverty I encountered during a visit to Haiti in May 2008 was the worst I have seen in 18 years working in international relief. It is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with the highest rate of infant mortality.
The Cite Soleil slum in the capital Port au Prince is not fit for human habitation. It is a collection of makeshift shelters inhabited mostly by people from the countryside who migrated to the city looking for work
The huddle of shacks, most of them made out of rusty corrugated iron sheets, are dotted over a rubbish dump by the old port. There are piles of rubbish everywhere you look. Pigs root about in the filth and there are open sewers between homes. The stench is overwhelming.
As soon as you get out of a vehicle to start walking around, you are mobbed by a crowd of children, most of whom are very obviously malnourished, with pot bellies, red hair and skin that is discoloured and sometimes covered in sores. Many of the children are begging, but they don’t demand money, they just point to their mouths and ask for food.
The ground isn’t just mud, there are broken cans and bottles everywhere. It is one thing to gingerly pick your way through the debris, not making much progress, and another to realise that the children around you are not even wearing shoes. I saw one little boy struggling with a fresh, deep cut, and watched a little girl kneel beside him to try to stem the bleeding with the corner of her filthy dress.
Years of conflict and deprivation have caused immense tension in Cite Soleil. You can see it in the schools, where the blackboards have bullet holes in them and the benches are made of concrete so that they won’t be stolen.
Our visit was during the last food crisis, when people in Haiti were particularly affected by rising prices of staple foodstuffs, which in some cases had tripled. We visited a school compound where an emergency food distribution had been arranged – I will never forget the anxiety in the faces of the mothers, waiting and worrying that the food was going to run out before they got their ration.
While we were inside the compound, word had got out that a food distribution was taking place and as we left, our minibus drove through a crowd of desperate people gathered at the gates.
I was told recently about a priest in Cite Soleil who makes a visit to the morgue every Thursday. He goes there to collect the bodies of children who have died of malnutrition; sometimes there are 60, 70 or even more. Although he doesn’t know their names, this priest ensures the children receive a proper burial. If he did not do this, he believes that the bodies would just be thrown away.
This poverty directly affects the landscape the environment. Unlike the neighbouring Dominican Republican, less than 2 percent of Haiti forest remain; most has been cut for export or for the charcoal industry without any control not government issue.
that’s why Haiti was always there calling for help, but they need more than earquate to call.
Insomnia Symptoms Linked With Medical Complaints in Young School-Aged Children
Posted by: | Comments15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine indicates that significant associations exist between parent-reported insomnia symptoms and medical complaints of gastrointestinal regurgitation and headaches in young school-aged children.
Results of multivariate regression analysis show that parent-reported insomnia was 3.3 times more likely in children with gastrointestinal regurgitation and 2.3 times more likely in children with headaches. Nineteen percent of children met the criteria for insomnia, which was defined as often having trouble falling asleep and/or waking up often in the night. Gastrointestinal regurgitation was reported in 7.5 percent of children with insomnia and two percent of children who did not have sleep disturbances. Headaches were reported in 24.4 percent of children with insomnia and 13.2 percent of children without disturbed sleep.
“The first and most important step in children with medical complaints and sleep disturbances would be an evaluation for underlying medical disorders and providing treatment,” said Singareddy. “If the associated sleep disturbances do not improve despite improvement in medical complaints the disturbances should be further assessed and treated.”
Data from 700 children between the ages of five and 12 years (mean 8.8 years) were collected from the Penn State Children’s Cohort for this cross-sectional study. All children underwent a medical and psychiatric history, physical examination, overnight polysomnography and neuropsychological testing. Comprehensive sleep and development questionnaires were completed by a parent. To assess gastrointestinal regurgitation the parent was asked, “Does food or liquid come back up into your child’s mouth or does your child complain of tasting food or liquid back up in his mouth?”
Children with sleep disturbances had significantly more parent-reported complaints of gastrointestinal symptoms (heartburn, pain/colic and regurgitation), headaches and bedwetting. After controlling for demographic variables; apnea-hypopnea index; learning, psychiatric and behavioral disorders; and socioeconomic and minority status, only gastrointestinal regurgitation and headaches remained significantly associated with insomnia symptoms.
The AASM published “Practice parameters for behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children” in the journal SLEEP in 2006. About 94 percent of the studies that were reviewed reported that behavioral interventions as a whole produced clinically significant improvements in bedtime resistance and night waking.
Documents on Church Sex Abuse to Be Released Today
Posted by: | CommentsBy the end of the day, more than 12,000 pages of documents containing information about sexual abuse complaints against several priests Diocese of Bridgeport and how the church handled those complaints could be released.
The legal fight started eight years ago and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, it could end with a judge-ordered deadline to release the documents, the Hartford Courant reports. The judge set the deadline for today to give the diocese time to review the documents and flag ones those it considers privileged.
Bridgeport diocese spokesman Joseph McAleer told the Courant on Monday that the church would comply with the judge’s order.
“Contrary to the naysayers, this is very old news. Between 1993 and 2002, more than 200 media reports were published about these and other cases, including extensive Hartford Courant coverage in 2002 in an article that published, without permission, many of the sealed documents,” McAleer said.
The diocese settled the lawsuits in March 2001, paying an undisclosed amount to 23 plaintiffs who alleged that they had been sexually abused by seven different priests
Halloween Complaint
Posted by: | CommentsCash for Candy
The buckets of candy that trick-or-treaters bring home every year isn’t so sweet if it lands your child in his or her dentist’s chair.
So the Carpathian Dental Associates in Johnson City came up with a sweet deal to encourage kids to keep the cavities away.
Sunday, they offered a dollar per pound of candy turned in at their offices.
The candy that was collected will be sent to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan along with thank you notes from the children.
“We’re always hearing complaints from the parents ‘we pay all the money to have the kids’ teeth fixed and now they’re going to eat all this candy for Halloween.’ So it’s kind of a win-win situation: they keep some of the candy, they give some of it to the troops, and they’re getting some dollars,” said Dr. Hayes Aronson.
Along with the cash, each child took home a glowing toothbrush and some healthy snacks.
Complaint in before baby hurt
Posted by: | CommentsA COMPLAINT was made to the NT Health Department and Child Protection a week before a baby suffered brain damage while in the custody of her carer.
The Northern Territory News has learned a relative raised concerns about the welfare of the baby and his two older brothers, who were placed in the care of their uncle after their mother died of swine flu.
The family member made the complaint after witnessing the uncle’s treatment of the three children placed in his care.
A week later the baby was injured. The child remains in an Adelaide hospital with suspected permanent brain damage.
NT Child Protection Minister Malarndirri McCarthy ordered the inquiry on Wednesday.
Dr Bath will look specifically at how soon injuries started after reports of child abuse.
“The welfare of Territory children is a matter of grave concern and all Members of Parliament have a responsibility to ensure that the system protects children,” she said.
Eviction, Noise Complaints But No Motive Revealed
Posted by: | CommentsA court appearance by the suspect revealed new details in the stabbing death of a Rancho Bernardo woman whose attack was overheard during a cell phone call with her mother.
The next-door neighbor of Jennifer Lee Jones, 28, waited for her to get home to her unit at the Overlook Apartments on Avenida Venusto, then followed her through the front door and killed her quickly, according to prosecutors.
The attack happened about 4:45 p.m. Thursday while Jones was on the phone with her mother who lives in Ohio. The mother heard a man’s voice, sounds of a struggle and her daughter screaming before the line went dead, police said
Richard Saldivar, 40, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Oct. 27 but prosecutors say Saldivar, who lived right across from Jones, saw her coming home and ran inside to get his knife.
He lived with his wife and children and had been given an eviction notice the day of the attack. Some neighbors who didn’t want to be identified said Saldivar was a very noisy neighbor, who often played loud music with his front door wide open.
Prosecutors wouldn’t reveal a motive at the arraignment but said the victim’s mother gave information to police that eventually led to Saldivar.
“They contacted him later that evening, he had fresh cuts and scratches on his arms consistent with the atta”Just a delightful young lady that always has a smile on her face,” said Ken Chernish.
Accoriding to prosecutors, the victim was an engineer who worked for a San Diego company called Solar Turbines. Saldivar is unemployed, the said.
Saldivar pleaded not guilty and his bail has been set at $2 million
I Have Got a Complaint about H1N1
Posted by: | CommentsYeah, I’ve got a complaint. The only thing worse than having a complaint is having no one to listen to the complaint. Boy, am I glad we have this blog now because at least I know you are listening.
I don’t complain much. In general, I’m a roll-with-the-flow, easy going kind of person. (Dr. Carrie knows me well and I’m 100% positive she would agree with that self-assessment.)
But, I am going to complain now and here’s my complaint:
People who don’t know about H1N1 should stop talking about it! In other words, stop spreading myth & misinformation!
The misinformation about H1N1 seems to spread faster than the actual virus. I’m going to give you some specific examples that have led to my complaint, but first, let’s give a round of applause to the CDC, other public health organizations and the vaccine manufacturers.
They have done an absolutely top notch job with the whole H1N1 issue. If you recall, the virus first appeared on the US scene last April. In a mere 6 months, they’ve done all the epidemiology, all the virology, all the public health planning, and they’ve got a vaccine out to the public. Within only 6 months! Impressive and well done.
In addition, the CDC’s website and www.flu.gov is full of factual information about everything you ever wanted to know about H1N1. Now, there’s a legitimate source of information, unlike the 10 minutes of TV that I heard on Wednesday night.
Here’s an example. One guest said, “I know many people who have gone to the doctor and they say ‘I really don’t know what you have’ so they’re not sure of what it is. And until they can figure that out, I wouldn’t put my child’s life at risk like that” by giving them the vaccine. Now, in a different context, that sentence may be valid. But, applied to the H1N1 situation, sentences like this only increase the public’s apprehension.
Let’s examine that sentence. There’s actually nothing unusual about a doctor saying “I really don’t know what you have.” First of all, the context in which it was said isn’t clear, but let’s assume the doctor is referring to whether or not the patient has H1N1 or the seasonal flu. It actually doesn’t matter which one it is. They are both influenza viruses and they are both treated the same. If you get a flat tire from a screw (I know it’s usually a nail, but then my analogy wouldn’t work), does it matter if it’s a standard head or a Phillips head? It’s still a screw and your tire still needs to be patched. Same concept.
Another comment that really got me fired up was that “children also get shots and die.” I can tell you right now, without even having to look up the numbers, that more children have died this year from H1N1 than from vaccinations. Can you see how a comment like this can cause problems? This isn’t a responsible way to discuss the H1N1 vaccine.