Sixth National Clinical Cannabis Conference in Warwick RI
I am attending this conference as a way to educate myself as a mental health practitioner, looking to understand more of the science behind the uses of cannabis. The conference agenda is as follows: Agenda – Sixth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics Thursday April 15, 2010 7 PM – Reception & Exhibits Friday, April [...]
National Survivors of Suicide Day
It’s worth mentioning that today is National Survivors of Suicide Day: National Survivors of Suicide Day is a day of healing for those who have lost someone to suicide. It was created by U.S. Senate resolution in 1999 through the efforts of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who lost his father to suicide. Every year, [...]
Ehrenreich Argues for Better Thinking, Not Positive Thinking
I will definitely need to read Barbara Ehrenreich’s newest book. Not only is she one of my favorite political writers, but now she is delving into cultural criticism related to the mental health field’s relentless pursuit of “positive thinking.” Newsweek’s Julia Baird provides a short review: [...] In her new book, Bright-Sided: How Relentless Promotion [...]
Being a Victim of Domestic Violence Can Get You Denied for Health Insurance
A history of being abused in a domestic violence relationship can get you labeled with a “pre-existing condition” and denied for health insurance in 8 states and the District of Columbia. As the debate for better health care in America rages on, the SEIU is calling attention to this way in which health insurance draws [...]
Fiction is Good for the Brain
Here’s some news I feel like I’ve always known intuitively: writing fiction fine-tunes the brain. For more than two thousand years people have insisted that reading fiction is good for you. Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a [...]
Please Don’t Feed the Doctors
We all know when a free lunch shows up at our workplace (see Confessions of a Drug Lunch Slut) it’s hard to resist the allure of those seafood salad finger sandwiches and bakery cookies. But the fact is, these little perks are influencing the practice of medicine big time. The New York Times today details [...]
Legislative Efforts to Curb Problem Gambling
Geoff Schoos of the Cranston Herald writes about some new legislation that would create a “self-exclusion” list at gambling establishments to keep pathological gamblers from relapsing and victimizing themselves and their families repeatedly with debt. From The Cranston Herald: One of the perks of my job is I get the opportunity to meet people who [...]
Preschoolers Store Info and Use As Needed
Here is an enlightening piece of research for those of us raising the strange little creatures known as preschoolers, and those of us providing treatment to families raising the little barbarians as well. Research by Colorado Professor Yuko Munakata suggests that three-year-olds are often listening when you give them directions — they simply choose to [...]
New Morning
This is a song I’m hoping to sing at my church, Church of the Ascension, once we get past Lent and into Easter season. The song “New Morning” was written by Bob Dylan and is performed below by Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb. It has a beautiful simplicity to it — a sense of coming [...]
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