Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walks

The COPA/OPA Team at a past walk

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is holding their annual suicide prevention walks across the nation! 50% of all the proceeds raised in each walk stay locally for suicide prevention programs, and the other 50% go to support suicide prevention research. Please consider starting a team or getting involved! Here is a list of the Ohio walks.

08/20/2011	3rd Annual Suicide Prevention Poker Run, Quaker Steak & Lube - Milford, Ohio
09/17/2011	Toledo OOTD Community Walk, Centennial Quarry & Terrace - Sylvania, Ohio
10/08/2011	Youngstown Walk, Mill Creek Park Wick Recreation Area - Youngstown, Ohio
10/16/2011	Cincinnati Walk, University of Cincinnati’s McMicken Com, - Cincinnati, Ohio
10/22/2011	Cleveland Walk, Wendy Park - Cleveland, Ohio
10/23/2011	Columbus Walk, Fred Beekman Park , 2200 Carmack Rd - Columbus, Ohio
10/29/2011	Fremont, OH Community Walk, Birchard Park - Fremont, Ohio

If you are in Central Ohio, please consider joining the COPA/OPA team or providing financial support for a good cause!

Back to School Blues?

August marks the start of the school season and can be stressful for both kids and parents. Changes in routine, new sleep schedules, and coping with new people can be a challenge for kids and parents alike. Consider some of the following tips from the American Psychological Association:
1. Practice the first day of school routine: Getting into a sleep routine before the first week of school and organize lunches and bookbags the night before. Visit the school in advance to ease anxiety of the unknown.
2. Get to know your neighbors: If your child is starting a new school, walk around your block and get to know the neighborhood children
3. Talk to your child: Asking your children about their fears or worries about going back to school and also what they liked about their previous school or grade.
4. Empathize with your children: Nerves are normal, but highlight that not everything that is different is necessarily bad. Encourage your children to face their fears instead of falling in to the trap of encouraging avoidance.
Get involved and ask for help: Knowledge of the school and the community will better equip you to understand your child’s surroundings and the transition he or she is undergoing and seek expert advice from a mental health professional, such as a psychologist, if you are having trouble coping.

Links: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/school-rush.aspx

August is National Immunization Awareness Month

August is National Immunization Awareness Month. This observance provides the opportunity to remind the community of the importance of immunization. Make sure that your family and friends are up-to-date on their immunizations.


In August, parents are enrolling children in school, older students are entering college and adults and the health care community are preparing for the upcoming flu season. This makes August a particularly good time to focus community attention on the value of immunization. 


Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were once common in this country. Vaccines have reduced and, in some cases, eliminated many diseases that once routinely killed or harmed tens of thousands of infants, children and adults.The viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable diseases and death still exist and can infect people who are not protected by vaccines.


Source: National Partnership for Immunization (www.partnersforimmunization.org)


A 2006 Study by Chapman & Coups found that worry and regret were stronger predictors for receiving vaccinations than perceived risk in preventative health decisions. Psychologists can help work through emotions that may be preventing you from making the best health decisions!

For more information about immunizations, please visit the CDC's Immunization Information Page

The Debt Crisis—How to control your own stress when the government stresses out!

Kathleen Ashton, Ph.D.

The Debt Crisis—How to control your own stress when the government stresses out!

Five Tips for Debt Crisis Stress Relief.

1. Focus on what is in your control. Write, e-mail, or tweet your senator, congressperson, or the President. Let them know what your priorities are for spending and your opinion on tax breaks.
2. Avoid information overload. Constant watching of 24 hour news channels, listening to pundits argue, reviewing internet articles can be overwhelming. Gather information in a small chunk from a reputable source. 
3. Don’t look too far ahead. Some people tend to think about all the worst case scenarios. Take one step at a time and don’t predict the future—unless you have psychic abilities!
4. Maintain your usual coping strategies. Get outside, exercise, eat right, and socialize with your friends. 
5. Make one small step to balance your own budget. Taking action helps people to feel positive. Make a meal instead of going out tonight, skip the designer coffee, have a small amount taken out of your paycheck each week and automatically deposited into a savings account. You’ll be doing your own small part to be financially responsible.

New technology brings new obsessions

#stress tip of the day: Use technology wisely not obsessively: Smartphone dependency: a growing obsession http://t.co/yf9sziY #psych

Delay those cravings when stressed!

Feel cravings for food when stressed? Delay just 10 min and watch craving fade! Make sure to keep busy with another activity that helps with your stress like breathing and exercise. http://t.co/cniRwrB #obesity #health

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Did You Know? July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental illness affects one in four American families and people in diverse communities are no exception. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that minorities:

• Are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for their mental illness
• Have less access to and availability of mental health services
• Often receive a poorer quality of mental health care
• Are underrepresented in mental health research

Call for Volunteer Psychologists

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has contacted the AAAS "On-call" Scientists project in search of mental health professionals who are available to document evidence of torture and other abuse for asylum seekers in the US. Volunteers may be asked to review one case, or multiple cases in one year, depending on the demand at any given time and location. Each case is estimated to take about 6 hours of the volunteer's time, including the evaluation of the individual and preparation of documentation in support of their asylum application. You are always free to decline a case. Further information about the PHR Asylum Network, including resources available to volunteers, is available below.

All volunteers must be board certified and/or hold a current state license. PHR will request copies of relevant documentation once you are in direct contact.

Anyone interested in volunteering for this work is invited to sign up to become a volunteer here:
http://oncallscientists.aaas.org/default.aspx. If they have any questions, they can contact me directly at oncall@aaas.org.

Thank you for your help and please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.
_____________________________

Jessica Wyndham
Associate Director, Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005 USA
Ph  +1 202 326 6604
Fax +1 202 289 4950
http://srhrl.aaas.org/

15 Fascinating Studies on College Students

15 Fascinating #psych studies on #college students: http://t.co/c8TeQ7K
Learn about ways college students have contributed to psychology as well as current psychological issues among college student populations in the attached article!

Guest Blogger: Managing Chronic Pain

by Guest Blogger, David Schwartz, Ph.D. 

One of the few advantages of getting older is the ability to say “”I remember when…”

In 1982 when I did my first clinical placement in pain management, the “state of the art” was that focusing on the patient’s self-report of pain was worthless. Research showed that 0-10 pain scales varied widely between individuals, had little relationship to pathophysiology, and were highly dependent on psychosocial factors.  The emphasis in the field was on the measurement and change of pain behavior  i.e. measures of function such as uptime, days off work, walking tolerance, etc. A parallel theme was that the use of opiates and aggressive medical interventions such as nerve destruction surgery and nerve blocks for chronic pain management were ineffective and counterproductive.  Use of opiates led to decreased function, and withdrawing patients from opiates in the context of a psychological/physical re-activation model (A pain rehabilitation program) consistently increased function. These pain programs remain today as the most effective documented intervention to improve overall life functioning for individuals who had become disabled due to pain.

Fast forward to 2011. These structured pain rehab programs are essentially extinct, starved to death by insurers who saw them as too costly. A patient coming to a pain clinic will almost always be placed on opiates, and receive multiple interventional treatments.  The cost of pain treatment has skyrocketed, yet outcomes are worse.  Prescription opiates are now the most commonly abused drugs, and many states (including Ohio) are launching expensive initiatives to get the ”drug problem” under control.  Worst of all, when the patient returns for a follow-up visit, the only question they are asked is “how is your pain”?

I recently attempted to survey the literature as to whether there was any new evidence that opiates improved function in chronic pain.  What I found was- NOTHING!  It was exceedingly rare to find a study that even measured function whatsoever! (Keep in mind that many studies have shown that patient self-report of function is both reliable and valid, and there are many brief instruments that assess function with documented validity). The studies employed NONE of them. The few studies I did find showed that opiates produced decreases in self-reported PAIN, but no change in FUNCTION.

“The emperor has no clothes”- remember the fable?  Is it possible that the multi-billion dollar pain management industry is a sham? That we are doing worse than we were 30 years ago?

What can we do today?  To me, the crucial thing is to go back to function as the core measure when we deal with pain. Always ask- what are doing that you weren’t doing last session? Are you on your feet, talking to people, cleaning the house more, etc? If opiates are used, are increases in function observed? 

I tell a joke in talks about pain- the punchline is that the patient had pain that was 10 of 10 and lays on the couch in misery all day. His doctor puts him on OxyContin- he comes back and says “it’s a miracle! My pain is 1-2 out of 10! My life is so much better!”  When asked what he now does, he says, “Well, I’m so stoned on the medication I lay on the couch all day…” 

Online Pain Resources:

http://www.ampainsoc.org/resources/clinician1.htm
http://www.nationalpainfoundation.org/articles/469/psychology-of-pain

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Bio: Dr. David Schwartz earned his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1982, specializing in behavioral medicine, and was an intern and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Virginia Medical Center. He has had medical school appointments at the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Cincinnati. He has published and presented extensively in pain management and behavioral medicine. He has been in private practice since 1995 and is currently a partner in Hamilton Health Associates, a multi-specialty practice focused on industrial injury.   He is a consultant to the Freiberg Spine Institute and a member of the Disability Evaluation Panel for the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation (BWC). He presently serves as the Ohio Psychological Association (OPA) representative on the BWC’s Health Care Quality Assurance Advisory Committee and chairs the OPA Task Force on Workers Compensation Reform.