November 19, 2009
To get us in the mood for the Thanksgiving Holiday!
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/11/19/12-ways-to-be-thankful/
 
Creating a Peaceful Holiday for your Family
Before getting together with family this holiday season, think about the triggers that cause these family problems. Maybe Uncle Bobby is the one who starts problems by drinking too much. Possibly it is Aunt Mildred who starts on a rant because Uncle Bobby is drinking too much, which then sends him into a defensive rant. Maybe there are past resentments that have not been dealt with since the previous year(s) and they are now resurfacing while everyone sits down to the table. I think you get the point…there can be a multitude of problems that can cause a family to dinner to become a scene of dysfunction.
What can you do different this year? Identify those triggers that have caused anger and/or arguments in the family and approach things differently this year. Is there a need to hold family gatherings at a different location? Would having an alcohol-free family get together likely make the day more pleasant?
- *A Primer on Coping (and some Holiday applications) – A Mental …
- *Anger Management Relaxation Techniques
- *Self-Help For The Holidays – A Mental Health Reader
- *Do Disrespectful People Make You Angry? – Buck Black, LCSW
- *Is the economy ruining your holiday season? 5 steps to a better holiday
Thanksgiving is a day brimming over with delectable food choices and dear family moments to cherish forever. A disability isn’t a barrier to that, nor should it be thought of as an extra stressor to anyone else’s fun. Planning and patience in advance is the secret to it all.
No matter what the challenges are, set in your mind that it won’t overshadow the festivities. Whether you want to help out in the kitchen preparing the day’s meal or simply share time with family you haven’t seen in a forever, there are several places where careful thought can alleviate bad feelings.
Children’s Thanksgiving Art & Craft SitesÂ
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/thanksgiving/Â
http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanksgiving/index.html
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/thanksgiving.htm
“Thanksgiving Activities for Kids & Teachers”
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Thanksgiving/
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/index.htmlÂ
http://www.thekidzpage.com/thanksgiving_games/index.html
http://crafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/thanksgiving_crafts_for_kids
Click here to read a Thanksgiving social story from Slater Software.
History of Thanksgiving
http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving
Thanksgiving RecipesÂ
Â
http://www.oph-good-housekeeping.com/thanksgiving-recipes.html
 http://www.momswhothink.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-recipes.html
http://kidscooking.about.com/od/thanksgivingrecipes/ig/Thanksgiving-Recipes/
http://thanksgiving.betterrecipes.com/
 http://www.recipe.com/recipes/thanksgiving/
Additional Articles
Thoughtful Words Help Couples Stay Fighting Fit
Article Date: 16 Nov 2009 – 0:00 PST
Couples who bring thoughtful words to a fight release lower amounts of stress-related proteins, suggesting that rational communication between partners can ease the impact of marital conflict on the immune system.
“Previous research has shown that couples who are hostile to each other show health impairments and are at greater risk of disease,” said Jennifer Graham, assistant professor of biobehavioral health, Penn State. “We wanted to know if couples who use thoughtfulness and reasoning in the midst of a fight incur potential health benefits.”
Individuals in a stressful situation — as in a troubled relationship — typically have elevated levels of chemicals known as cytokines. These proteins are produced by cells in the immune system and help the body mount an immune response during infection. However, abnormally high levels of these proteins are linked to illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, arthritis and some cancers.
“Typically, if you bring people to a lab and put them under stress, either by engaging them in a conflict or giving them a public speaking task, you can see an increase in proinflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (Il-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha),” explained Graham.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/171018.php
Not So Brady: 4 Rules for Staying Together When You Remarry with Kids
There’s a story … of a lovely lady … who meets her prince charming and the two of them with their six combined children live happily ever after.
NOT!
Having been Cindy Brady myself — if you changed my stepsister into a boy and fused my twin sister and I into one girl, then you have it: the perfect Brady family — I know that there are bigger problems in the house than Jan’s inferiority complex to Marsha, Peter’s near death experience with a tarantula in Hawaii, and Greg getting a tad chilled in the meat freezer at Sam’s Butcher Shop when he gets locked in there. (Yes, I watched a lot of TV as a kid.)
The real issues? Peter hates Carol. He totally resents her because ever since she and her big hair came to stay, his dad isn’t around to throw the football or to check over his homework. And Cindy hates Mike. Despises him. Why should he tell her what to do? He’s not her dad. Plus he’s just a dweeb.
It’s worth investigating what makes a real Brady family tick because approximately half of all marriages in the US each year are remarriages for one or both partners and 65 percent of them involve children from a previous relationships. The divorce rate for remarriages with children are 50 percent higher than the marriages with no kids.
How do you make it work?
Here are four tips from Wednesday Martin, Ph.D., author of Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do.
1. Form an airtight, solid relationship and show it to your kids.
Martin suggests doing this in small, simple ways like holding hands or telling them about one of your couple rituals, like where you go for breakfast on Saturday mornings. Having an airtight marriage means acting like a team, especially when it comes to conflicts about discipline and manners.
2. Have some childless time with each other.
Acting as a team and conveying a solid relationship to your kids is easier if you take time to nurture it, says Martin. She urges full-time stepmothers to take a childless vacation each year, to carve out a few days in the year where you can just be a couple. Date nights work, as does making your bedroom a childfree zone.
3. Learn how to fight.
Fighting doesn’t doom a relationship, says Martin. Fighting the wrong way does. She writes, “According to marital experts, it’s not fighting itself or even the frequency of fighting that leads to marital instability. It’s the way people fight. Some fighting styles can destroy a marriage, while others can actually strengthen it.”
Some pointers:
- *Cushion a hard request between two loving acknowledgements (â€I know it’s difficult to deal with the tension between your kids and me. But I would just really like them to say hello to me when I walk in a room; Thank you for being so considerate of my feelings.â€);
- *Put off an argument until a better time;
- *Know when to walk away from a fight;
- *Avoid the “four horsemen†of fights: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling;
- *Break the tension with humor whenever possible.
4. Open up.
Ultimately, what binds a couple together more than anything, argues Martin, is opening up and being honest with each other, to risk rejection and fess up to your partner about why your feelings are hurt and what is so difficult in the union of families. She writes: “For women with stepchildren, that may mean swallowing your pride and making yourself vulnerable just when you feel most misunderstood and betrayed. But it is also likely to open the door to greater emotional closeness and a partnership that beats the odds.”
Men Leave: Separation And Divorce Far More Common When The Wife Is The Patient
By putting this energy into communication, you will make a statement to your partner about your commitment and responsibility. It will demonstrate that the relationship is important to you and that you are willing to involve yourself fully in this act of communication.
Intimate communication may not be worth the effort without love. Love is critical to the relationship. Yet alone it is not enough.
If there is love, however, and if the relationship is important to you then you must focus on communication. Only through good, true communication can you realize the joy of love. Good communication makes love possible, certainly makes it better, and ultimately may be love itself.
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/good-communication-in-marriage-starts-with-respect/
Can Thinking Of A Loved One Reduce Your Pain?
Article Date: 16 Nov 2009 – 0:00 PST
“The very thought of you … the mere idea of you” – from the song “The Very Thought of You” by Ray Noble.
Can the mere thought of your loved one reduce your pain?
Yes, according to a new study by UCLA psychologists that underscores the importance of social relationships and staying socially connected.
The study, which asked whether simply looking at a photograph of your significant other can reduce pain, involved 25 women, mostly UCLA students, who had boyfriends with whom they had been in a good relationship for more than six months.
The women received moderately painful heat stimuli to their forearms while they went through a number of different conditions. In one set of conditions, they viewed photographs of their boyfriend, a stranger and a chair.
“When the women were just looking at pictures of their partner, they actually reported less pain to the heat stimuli than when they were looking at pictures of an object or pictures of a stranger,” said study co-author Naomi Eisenberger, assistant professor of psychology and director of UCLA’s Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. “Thus, the mere reminder of one’s partner through a simple photograph was capable of reducing pain.”
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/171022.php
New Therapy Technique Reduces Divorce Rates
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 17, 2009
According to a new clinical trial, a therapy technique known as client-directed feedback can greatly increase the odds of a couple remaining together.
Researchers say therapy sessions use four simple questions to generate directed feedback to each party.
The research effort — the largest clinical trial with couples to date — was co-authored by University of Rhode Island Human Development and Family Studies Professor Jacqueline Sparks.
Sparks found couples that had systematic client feedback incorporated into their sessions were 46.2 percent less likely to wind up divorced or separated.
Sparks co-authored the two-year study – conducted at the Vestfold Family Counseling Center in Norway – with Barry Duncan of Heart and Soul of Change Project and Morten Anker of the Family Counseling Office in Vestfold.
The team of U.S. and Norwegian researchers studied 205 randomly selected couples from southern Norway for two years from October 2005 through December 2007.
The couples showed problems typical of struggling relationships, from communication problems to infidelity and physical or psychological issues. Half of the couples in the study used the client feedback system, while the other half did not.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/11/17/new-therapy-technique-reduces-divorce-rates/9616.html
You again! The role of significant others in our social interactions
November 17, 2009, Reducing Divorce RatesRelationships
The ghosts of past relationships haunt new ones.
Some patterns in our lives tend to repeat. You may meet a new person, and suddenly find that you talk as though you were back in college with them. Or, you may meet a new romantic interest, and you speak to them as if they were an old significant other. Or you my have a boss and you find yourself talking to him as if he was your father.
What is going on?
It is hard to have to treat each new person in your life fresh. After all, there must be some value to all of the experience you have had with other people you have met.
Research by Susan Andersen, Serena Chen, and their colleagues suggests that we do use our experience with important people in our lives to help us figure out how to act with new people that we meet.
The basic idea is simple. If you meet a new person, and he has some of the characteristics of your father, then you will engage in behaviors with that person that are similar to the kinds of interactions you have had with your father. You will also assume (unconsciously) that this person will have other characteristics that your father has. So, your interactions with this new person are being shaped unwittingly by your own relationship with your father.
Read in Full:Â https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/200911/you-again-the-role-significant-others-in-our-social-interactions
Men Often Treat Their Friends Better Than Women Do
Posted on: November 17, 2009 5:28 PM, by Dave Munger
Who’s more “sociable,” men or women? Common sense says it’s women, right? And many research studies back this impression up: Women are more interpersonal, more connected, more interdependent than men. Women are more likely to share intimate information with each other than men. But is that really the whole story?
There is also research suggesting that men have larger social networks than women do, and that male-male friendships last longer than female-female ones.
A team led by Joyce Benenson conducted a set of three studies that may shed some light on the question. In their first study, they identified 30 male and 30 female undergraduates at a small, Northeastern U.S. college. Half of each group was specifically recruited because they said they had some kind of conflict with their roommate. The other half said they were planning on living with their roommate for the rest of the school year. Each student was asked to rate their satisfaction with their roommate on a scale of 1 to 5. A score of 4 or 5 was defined by the researchers as “satisfied.” So were there gender differences? Here are the results:
The male students were significantly more likely to be satisfied with their roommates than female students, whether or not they had a conflict with their roommate. The students also rated their roommates on social interaction, interests, values, and hygiene, and male students gave significantly higher ratings for their roommates than females for every category except hygiene.
In a second study, the researchers surveyed three separate institutions to see how frequently male and female students requested to change roommates. Here are those results:
Whether the students were at a small, medium, or large college or university, females asked for significantly more roommate changes than males.
 
Forestdale mom appeals for bullying law
BOSTON — A Cape Cod mother made a tearful plea to state legislators yesterday to pass one of a dozen bills addressing school bullying, saying the state must step in to assure schools do their job in protecting students from mental and physical anguish.
“I felt my son needed to be protected. The bullying completely disrupted his ability to feel safe in a learning environment,” said Theresa Jackson, a Forestdale resident and mother of a 13-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder.
Jackson told the Joint Committee on Education about an incident in which her son, then 12, was videotaped at a Forestdale Elementary School dance without his knowledge. The classmate shared that cell phone video, including the full name of Jackson’s son, on YouTube, where viewers posted pages and pages of unkind comments, Jackson told the committee.
“To this day, when that song that he was dancing to comes on the radio, we turn it off immediately because we can still see that look on his face, from when he first saw that video on YouTube,” Jackson said in an interview before the hearing.
Jackson spoke in support of a bill that would require the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to design a model policy to address bullying and provide that model and other educational materials to school districts. The school districts could then modify their own anti-bullying policies.
The bill would require school districts to involve a variety of community members, including students, parents and law enforcement officials when drafting their anti-bullying policies. Copies of those policies would be posted in public areas in the schools, including cafeterias.
While no one testified in opposition of the bill, Paul Andrews, director of professional development and government services at the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said that the organization supports the legislation but pointed out many schools are already addressing bullying in schools.
“We don’t want it to become a clerical issue where it’s going to take more time to fill out paperwork than it is to follow the statute,” Andrews said in a phone interview.
But State Rep. Matthew C. Patrick, D-Falmouth, who is co-sponsoring the bill, denied that the bill would create more bureaucracy for school administrators.
“Once it (the policy) is established, I don’t think its any more work for an administrator,” he said in an interview after he testified on behalf of the bill.
Jackson said the case involving her son was evidence that state supervision is necessary. She said the school would not foster mediation between her son and the accused bully, or release the alleged bully’s identity to her. She had to find the student’s parents on her own before the YouTube video was removed.
Sandwich school Supt. Mary Ellen Johnson, who took over the role in the district after the incident, would not speak about Jackson’s specific case. However, she said she would support legislation that would help address bullying and says that the Sandwich schools take a “proactive” approach to address inappropriate behavior.
The Anti-Defamation League helped draft the bill. Thirty-seven other states have passed some sort of anti-bullying legislation.
The bill, introduced by State Rep. John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, would also address cyberbullying, the use of antagonistic e-mail and social networking media on the Internet that would create a disruptive or hostile school environment.
The bill would also require schools to appoint an employee to handle all bullying complaints and to establish a procedure for reporting incidents to law enforcement.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091118/NEWS/911180313/-1/NEWSMAP
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Mustafa Al-Rahman, 20, of Montgomery, who is autistic, has had his artwork selected for a custom-made U.S. postage stamp.Times Herald-Record/JEFF GOULDING
Art by man with autism to be featured on stamp
MONTGOMERY — A painting by an autistic student from Orange County AHRC in Campbell Hall is now being featured on postage stamps that may be ordered online.
“The Road” was painted by 20-year-old Mustafa Al-Rahman of Montgomery. He attends classes at AHRC, an organization that serves people with developmental disabilities.
“Mustafa is very talented,” said Elizabeth Brown, Al-Rahman’s art teacher. Al-Rahman completed his painting of a simple road cutting through the woods during two of his weekly classes. Brown submitted the acrylic painting in a regional contest. The winning painting was to be used on a custom-made, 44-cent stamp commemorating the 60th anniversaries of the New York state and Westchester ARC.
Artwork was submitted from five regional ARCs: Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess. The selection committee from Gallery 265, an art gallery in Westchester, chose “The Road” as the winner.
“I like painting, martial arts and video games,” said Al-Rahman, who lives with his parents and older siblings. He said he has been drawing since age 5.
“He really cannot explain why he paints what he does,” said his mother, Catherine. “He creates whatever is in his head.”
Al-Rahman’s older brother, Yusuf, said he believes Mustafa’s artistic talents compensate for his developmental delays. And his father, Muhammad, said his son draws with a great amount of detail.
“He drew a skeleton once and hardly left out a bone,” he said.
Since winning the contest, Al-Rahman’s social sphere has broadened. Last week, he attended an AHRC 60th-anniversary event in Albany, where he met Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings and state Sen. Ron Canestrari. He also was interviewed by a cable TV news station. And his painting is hanging prominently in Gallery 265.
Â
The Winning Stamp
Title: “The Roadâ€
Submitted by: Orange County AHRC
To buy “The Road” stamps or other paraphernalia with Mustafa Al-Rahman’s paintings on them, go to the Westchester ARC’s Web site at http://www.westchesterarc.org/. Scroll down and click on Al-Rahman’s postage stamp. Follow the prompts given at the bottom of the page.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091118/NEWS/911180329/-1/SITEMAP
 
Article Date: 17 Nov 2009 – 19:00 PST
On the day that the consultation period for the Government’s Green Paper on adult social care closes, mental health charity Mind has expressed its concerns that the Paper does not address the needs of adults with mental health problems, instead skewing the debate towards older people. Chief Executive Paul Farmer said:
“Social care services are used by people of all ages with a wide range of needs, and we are concerned that the social care Green Paper is an Older People’s paper, which is largely silent on how to meet the needs of people with mental health problems. Quality care services can help people with mental distress manage their day to day lives, keep people well and prevent crises, but too often these needs are denied. Just like the National Health Service, any new ‘national care service’ must reflect the needs of all of its clients. Providing good care makes economic sense, as well as being a moral imperative.
“The Government is proposing that social care will be partly funded from the patient’s pocket. We need to hear from the Minister that the government is prepared to create a funding system that works for younger people with care needs, who haven’t had their whole working lives to save for their care.
“We know that the lack of clarity in this Green Paper has caused uncertainty for people with mental health problems who want to think about their future. It’s vital that the Government’s response is clear on what people can expect from a new National Care Service.”
Source
MINDÂ charity Mind has expressed its concerns that the Paper does not address the needs of adults with mental health problems, instead skewing the debate towards older people. Chief Executive Paul Farmer said:
We’ll be gathering at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street, 154 West 57th Street
in New York City from 6 PM to 8 PM to hold up signs and hand out flyers to
Autism Speaks sponsors going in to their New York City concert with Bruce
Springsteen and Jerry Seinfeld. Come join us! Please RSVP to
aneeman@autisticadvocacy.org or go to the facebook event page here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=205191180125
Please distribute to your friends, contacts and listservs!
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
1. Autism Speaks talks about us without us. Not a single Autistic person is
on Autism Speaks’ Board of Directors or in their leadership. Autism Speaks
is one of an increasingly few number of major disability advocacy
organizations that refuse to include any individual with the disability they
purport to serve on their board of directors or at any point in their
leadership and decision-making processes. In large part due to Autism
Speaks’ public relations strategy of presenting Autistic people as silent
burdens on society rather than human beings with thoughts, feelings and
opinions.
2. They use fear and stigma to try and raise money off the backs of our
people. Autism Speaks uses damaging and offensive fundraising tactics which
rely on fear, stereotypes and devaluing the lives of people on the autism
spectrum. Autism Speaks’ advertising claims that Autistic people are stolen
from our own bodies. Its television Public Service Announcements compare
having a child on the autism spectrum to having a child caught in a fatal
car accident or struck by lightning. In fact, the idea of autism as a fate
worse than death is a frequent theme in their fundraising and awareness
efforts, going back to their “Autism Every Day†film in 2005. Indeed,
throughout Autism Speaks’ fundraising is a consistent and unfortunate theme
of fear, pity and prejudice, presenting Autistic adults and children not as
full human beings but as burdens on society that must be eliminated as soon
as possible.
3. Very little money donated to Autism Speaks goes toward helping Autistic
people and families: According to their 2008 annual report, only 4% of
Autism Speaks’ budget goes towards the “Family Service†grants that are the
organization’s means of funding services. Given the huge sums of money
Autism Speaks raises from local communities as compared to the miniscule
sums it gives back, it is not an exaggeration to say that Autism Speaks is a
tremendous drain on the ability of communities to fund autism
service-provision and education initiatives Furthermore, while the bulk of
Autism Speaks’ budget (65%) goes toward genetic and biomedical research,
only a small minority of Autism Speaks’ research budget goes towards
research oriented around improving services, supports, treatments and
educational methodologies, with most funding going towards basic research
oriented around causation and genetic research, including the prospect of
prenatal testing. Although Autism Speaks has not prioritized services with a
practical impact for families and individuals in its budget, its rates of
executive pay are the highest in the autism world, with annual salaries as
high as $600,000 a year.
Link to our Joint Letter Against Autism Speaks, signed by over 60 Disability
Rights Groups:
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=61
—
Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org
(202) 596-1056
————————————————
Take a look at our innovative new Public Service Announcement produced with
the Dan Marino Foundation at http://www.nomyths.org
If you like what we do, help support the Autistic Self Advocacy Network by
making a donation at:
https://www.change.org/donation/create?charity_id=211198
In a previous blog, I wrote about some aspects of substance abuse and its relationship to Personality Disorders. A common problem for people with Borderline Personality Disorder is a tendency to get very overwhelmed by intense emotions. Sometimes, this leads to self-destructive behaviors, such as cutting, bingeing and purging, shopping, spending, or gambling.
My colleague Dr. Karen Frieder, who specializes in treating people with substance abuse issues and also with problems related to a dual diagnosis of substance use and Personality Disorders, explained to me that in the past, substance use was seen as a different set of problems: “There was so much stigma attached to substance abuse issues, even more than other difficulties, but thankfully that has changed more recently. Nowadays, in people with Borderline Personality Disorder, we tend to see substance abuse as part of the issues with emotion regulation, similar to cutting, spending, or bingeing and purging. Therefore, one way of conceptualizing substance use in people with Borderline Personality Disorder is that substance use can be added to this list of self-destructive, impulsive behaviors.”
Frequently, people with Borderline Personality Disorder feel overwhelmed with intense emotions and use substances in order to avoid or cope with these painful or tense internal states. Sometimes, the opposite is the case: Some people with Borderline Personality Disorder are very detached from their feelings and feel empty inside. Using a substance, for instance, using alcohol, can serve as a means to feel things more intensely. “We call this the self-medication hypothesisâ€, says Dr. Frieder, “If you’re feeling up, you use the substance to come down, and if you’re down, you use the substance to come back up. The idea is that there is an underlying cause for the substance use. The person engages in these behaviors in an attempt to find short-term solutions, but they are not very effective.”
Read in Full:
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=33784&cn=8
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 11, 2009
For some children, going to school is a terrifying event as they are victimized and bullied during the course of a school day. New research shows that virtual reality games could help these children escape this demeaning environment.
In the study, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Maria Sapouna and Professor Dieter Wolke from Warwick Medical School and the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick led a team of researchers to examine the effects of an anti-bullying virtual learning intervention called FearNot!
Children who took part in a three-week anti-bullying virtual learning intervention in schools in the UK and Germany showed a 26 percent decrease in victimization.
The team recruited 1,129 children aged between eight and nine from 27 primary schools across the UK and Germany. They split the children into intervention and control groups. The intervention group took part in three sessions, interacting individually with the FearNot! software.
Each session lasted around 30 minutes over a three-week period. The children were assessed on self-report measures of victimization before and after the intervention.
The software was a virtual school with 3D pupils who assumed the roles that children take when bullying occurs, either as the bully, victim or bystander. These characters were then used to improvise real-life bullying incidents and pupils could interact with the characters and suggest ways to cope with or resolve the situation.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/11/11/virtual-game-therapy-helps-child-victims/9474.html
Jan
22
November 11, 2009
The mistake we’re repeating today is not doing enough to recognize and take care of veterans’ mental health needs. This isn’t some feel good mantra. This is a very real need that the military continues to have problems meeting. A professional, nonprofit that represents 1,600 behavioral healthcare organizations released a press release yesterday detailing some of the continuing issues.
“For instance, while the Veterans Mental Health Act was signed into law more than a year ago, a new survey released today by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (National Council) finds that veterans still face significant barriers to accessing mental health and substance use treatment. The Act requires the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to partner with community behavioral health centers to increase capacity and expand mental health services to include marriage and family counseling.
“The survey of National Council members nationwide shows some of the most
serious roadblocks that prevent veterans from getting treatment include:
- *Access to Care: Almost two-thirds of respondents said veterans and their families experience long delays to get initial appointments for people in crisis and excessive waits in between appointments.
- *Long Distances: Veterans often must travel long distances to the VA or a military base. Travel times can be as long as five hours in rural areas. Others do not have access to a vehicle or public transportation, or may be unable to drive or take public transportation because of physical and
mental limitations. - *Stigma: Many veterans are concerned that seeking treatment from the VA or military will be noted in their personnel records, negatively impact their careers, and label them as “weak†or “crazy.â€
- *Lack of Family Involvement: Though the Act specifically includes marriage and family counseling, few family members are involved in treatment. Respondents suggested these services are either not being provided or have not been widely promoted.”
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 11, 2009
According to the study from the University of the Rockies, more than half (54.4 percent) of U.S. Army Special Forces Operators exposed to combat would not seek treatment while serving in the Army, even if they were experiencing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms or psychological distress.
The 18-month study, which included 68 U.S. Army Special Forces Operators who had been deployed to combat since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, was conducted by Jessica M. Espinoza, PsyD., who earned her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from the university. University of the Rockies is a graduate university specializing in master’s and doctorate degrees in psychology.
Even though 100 percent of respondents were aware that therapy was available to them through the U.S. Army, most said they would not seek treatment due to fear of negative consequences.
Of those negative consequences, the stigma attached to soldiers with PTSD was the biggest deterrent to seeking treatment, followed by the fear of being thought of as weak, the fear of being removed from an A-team, the fear of being removed from Special Forces, the fear of being ostracized, the fear of being thought of as a coward, the fear of being discharged from the U.S. Army, the fear of personal distress and the loss of security clearances and job opportunities.
PTSD is a debilitating disorder that follows from experiencing or witnessing an extremely traumatic, tragic, or terrifying event. People with PTSD usually have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/11/11/most-returning-veterans-wont-seek-treatment/9493.html
 
The mother of Gary McKinnon, the internet hacker fighting extradition to the United States, broke down in tears yesterday after Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, allegedly refused to talk to her.
By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
Published: 6:50PM GMT 10 Nov 2009
During a break in a hearing before a House of Commons committee, Janis Sharp attempted to discuss her son’s case with Mr Johnson, who shook her hand but walked on in silence.
Earlier, Mrs Sharp had given moving evidence in which she told MPs that the 43-year-old autism sufferer would rather die than be extradited to the United States.
This summer, Mr McKinnon, who admits hacking into Pentagon computer systems but says that he should be tried in this country, lost a High Court appeal against the extradition request.
Mr Johnson has “stopped the clock†on the process while he considers new evidence that Mr McKinnon’s mental health is deteriorating as a result of the stress caused by the prospect of being extradited.
It was alleged that Mr Johnson “snubbed” Mrs Sharp during the hearing on Tuesday, but a Home Office spokesman has denied the claim.
“It is not true that the Home Secretary walked pass Mrs Sharpe in silence.
“As the Home Secretary walked back into the committee room, Mrs Sharpe shook the Home Secretary’s hand and thanked him for halting proceedings while he considered the additional medical evidence.
“The Home Secretary acknowledged Mrs Sharp before going back into committee,†he said.
During her evidence, Mrs Sharp urged Mr Johnson to intervene to protect her son, saying: “He would rather be dead than extradited, that’s the reality.â€
She went on: “It has ruined Gary’s life, it has ruined our lives. It has destroyed Gary.
“The fear of being taken from your family, from your support, from everything you know.
Read in Full:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6488508/Gary-McKinnons-mother-in-tears-after-snub-from-Alan-Johnson.html
Johnson unmoving in McKinnon grilling
Yesterday, 06:18 pm
Home secretary Alan Johnson rejected claims that Britain’s extradition reputation was “going to hell in a hand cart”, as he was grilled by MPs over the potential extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon.
Mr Johnson restated his claims he was utterly powerless to stop the extradition of Mr McKinnon, a UFO enthusiast and computer hacker, who is facing a court case in the US for hacking into Pentagon computers.
His mother, Janis Sharp, who was giving evidence to the home affairs committee prior to Mr Johnson, managed to shake the home secretary’s hand but minders then intervened to prevent any further interaction.
Conservative committee member David T. C. Davies lamented the decline in Britain’s ability to exert control over its extradition situation.
“Your point seems to be we’re going to hell in a hand cart,” he told Mr Davies.
“That’s exactly my point,” Mr Davies replied.
Mr Johnson responded: “This is a ludicrous accusation.”
He was forced on to the defensive throughout the brief session as MPs questioned his handling of the McKinnon case.
The home secretary had previously stated: “If I were to oppose his extradition I would be breaking the law,” Mr Johnson wrote in the Times earlier this year.
That position remained the same during a recent Commons debate on the subject.
But eyebrows were raised when Mr Johnson then offered Mr McKinnon an 11th-hour reprieve, saying he would examine new medical evidence “very carefully” before giving the extradition the go ahead.
The decision gave Mr McKinnon’s lawyers time to consider medical reports on his Asperger’s syndrome and make legal representations.
He has “stopped the clock” on a 14-day period granted to consider whether an appeal to the European court of human rights should be made by Mr McKinnon’s lawyers.
Read in Full:Â http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14/20091110/tpl-johnson-unmoving-in-mckinnon-grillin-81c5b50.html
You CAN save Gary McKinnon: MPs’ bombshell letter explodes Home Secretary’s claim that law makes him powerless to halt extradition
By James Slack and Michael Seamark
Last updated at 1:15 PM on 13th November 2009
Alan Johnson was last night told by a powerful group of MPs that he can and must halt the extradition of Gary McKinnon.
In a devastating letter, the Home Affairs Select Committee flatly rejected Mr Johnson’s claim that he is powerless to intervene.
Gary, who has Asperger’s syndrome and is said to be suicidal, is due to be handed over to the U.S. under the controversial Extradition Act.
There he faces up to 60 years in jail for hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers while searching for proof of alien life.
But the Labour chairman of the committee, Keith Vaz, said the ‘precarious state’ of Gary’s mental health meant his removal should be stopped.
The letter also calls for a ‘comprehensive review’ of the entire Extradition Act – which is widely considered imbalanced against British citizens.
It is a stunning vindication for Gary’s supporters, and will pile enormous pressure on Mr Johnson to change his stance.
Earlier this year, the Mail presented the Home Secretary with evidence from two leading extradition lawyers stating that he could stop the removal on health grounds.
But Mr Johnson – while refusing to publish his own legal advice – stubbornly insisted that this was not the case.
Now – after studying the legal opinion obtained by the Mail, and holding a public evidence session with Mr Johnson and Gary’s mother Janis this week – the Home Affairs committee has sided with Gary, 43, and this newspaper.
MP calls for Scot who hacked Pentagon to be given job
Home Secretary Boots Out Hacker’s Appeal
2 hours 27 mins ago
Fri Nov 27Â 2009Â
The Home Secretary has rejected a last-ditch appeal for him to block the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US on computer hacking charges.
Alan Johnson said he had considered demands for him to intervene in the case but had decided the extradition would not breach Mr McKinnon’s human rights.
The 43-year-old, from Wood Green in north London, is accused of breaking into the Pentagon’s computer system but says he was just seeking UFO evidence.
Mr McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was given hope last month when the Home Secretary agreed to study new medical evidence before deciding on his extradition to the US.
Mr Johnson’s deliberations came after the High Court refused Mr McKinnon permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against his removal to America.
Mr McKinnon’s family say that his health has deteriorated significantly under the pressure of the pending extradition and fears about how he will be treated by the US authorities.
Now in a statement, Mr Johnson said: “I have carefully considered the representations in the case of Gary McKinnon.
“The information is not materially different from that placed before the High Court earlier this year and does not demonstrate that sending Mr McKinnon to the US would breach his human rights.”
He added: “As the courts have affirmed, I have no general discretion. If Mr McKinnon’s human rights would be breached, I must stop the extradition. If they would not be breached, the extradition must go ahead.”
Mr McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp, said Mr Johnson and the Government “should hang their heads in shame”.
“To force a peaceful, vulnerable, misguided UFO fanatic like Gary thousands of miles away from his much-needed support network is barbaric,” she said.
“This is a cruel and miserable decision. If the severity of Gary’s medical condition isn’t sufficient to prevent his extradition, I can’t imagine what is.
“God help others facing a similar fate. I’m so upset and angry.”
Ms Sharp said her legal team would now apply for a judicial review, but if that was not granted then her son could be extradited before Christmas. “What a heartless and cowardly decision this is,” she added.
Source:Â http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091126/twl-home-secretary-boots-out-hacker-s-ap-3fd0ae9.html
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Gary McKinnon extradition: suicide ‘almost inevitable’ psychiatrist warns
Gary McKinnon, the Pentagon computer hacker, is highly likely to commit suicide if he is extradited to the US, a psychiatrist has warned.
By Christopher Hope and Andrew Porter
Published: 9:30AM GMT 27 Nov 2009
The medical report said Mr McKinnon, who is known to suffer Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, also has a “fixed-psychological conviction he will kill himself in preference to being extraditedâ€.
The emergency study by consultant psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Turk of St George’s Hospital, London, said that suicide was now an “almost certain inevitabilityâ€.
Details of the report emerged following a decision by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, not to block the extradition on medical grounds, as disclosed by The Daily Telegraph on Thursday.
Mr McKinnon’s distraught mother said the Government, and Mr Johnson, “should hang their heads in shame” over the extradition to face hacking charges.
Extracts of Prof Turk’s report, disclosed in the Daily Mail, show that he recorded in September that Mr McKinnon, 43, suffered from a “‘very serious Major Depressive Disorder…. aggravated and complicated by anxiety and panic attacks with multiple psychosomatic symptoms on a background of his having Asperger’s syndrome”.
But following the failure of Mr McKinnon’s bid to have his case heard at the Supreme Court, he concluded that he was now “at an even higher risk of self harm and suicide”, something he said was a “real probability”.
Mr Johnson, who was shown the report, said that he felt the information he had seen was “not materially different from that placed before the High Court earlier this year†when Mr McKinnon lost his earlier legal challenge.
He added: “It is clear from the proceedings to date that Mr McKinnon will not, if convicted, serve any of his sentence in a supermax prison.
“Should Mr McKinnon be extradited, charged and convicted in the US and seek repatriation to the UK to serve a custodial sentence, the Government will of course progress his application at the very earliest opportunity.â€
The family, who were informed of Mr Johnson’s decision on Thursday, are now set to apply for a judicial review in a bid to stop his extradition.
Read in Full:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6668291/Gary-McKinnon-extradition-suicide-almost-inevitable-psychiatrist-warns.html
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AFP/Getty Images
Gary McKinnon faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted in the US
Janis Sharp: ‘I wont rest. I don’t want to lose my son’
As another legal door shuts in the face of computer hacker Gary McKinnon, his mother fears for his life if he is extradited to the US. Jonathan Owen met her
Sunday, 29 November 2009
On an ordinary street in Hertfordshire, Janis Sharp is talking animatedly of an extraordinary fight: one which pitches her against the might of the greatest superpower on earth. In the background, two computer screens constantly flicker, bringing messages of support from around the world.
Her battle? A mother’s fight for her son, Gary McKinnon, a 43-year-old computer hacker with Asperger’s syndrome. He is facing extradition to the US under a draconian treaty designed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to deal with the most dedicated terror suspects.
And last week, Home Secretary Alan Johnson decided not to try to block the move – bringing Janis’s son one step closer to being extradited. If convicted, he could face an astonishing 70 years in a US jail.
His crime? A plot on the American way of life? Hardly. What this alien-obsessed computer fanatic did, in 2001 and 2002, was to explore restricted and classified military sites at the Pentagon and Nasa. It appears to have been all too easy, with little in the way to stop him. No one denies his actions were stupid, least of all him, or his mother. And he compounded the insult by posting daunting messages to the US authorities. One said: “I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.”
Not, then, the sharpest tack in the box, but Solo, as he was known online, was no master hacker, let alone major criminal. He was caught in 2002. His biggest mistake may have been to admit his guilt freely, in the belief that he would escape with a six-month community sentence.
Instead he has been plunged into a drawn-out legal battle which has made him famous for all the wrong reasons. US authorities accuse him of having pulled off the biggest military hack of all time, and claim he caused hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of damage. Mr McKinnon has denied this, maintaining he was looking for proof that aliens exist. Supporters of the Free Gary campaign do not want him to escape justice; they simply want him to be tried and convicted in Britain and serve his time. To his mother, it is very simple. “If he’s admitted it, why can’t he be tried here?” said the 60-year-old, originally from Glasgow.
Her fight began more than seven years ago, when she was woken in the middle of the night by a phone call telling her her son had been arrested for computer hacking. When the US applied for extradition in 2005, under the terms of a new treaty with Britain, the family was faced with the real prospect that he could be sent abroad and sentenced up to 70 years in prison. The treaty, which doesn’t require America to provide evidence of guilt, is “the biggest betrayal that any British government has done to its own people”, said Janis.
Mr McKinnon is not able to give interviews because of his state of mind. His mother says medical experts have warned there is a 99 per cent chance he could commit suicide if he is extradited and imprisoned abroad. “It is unbelievable that Alan Johnson can claim extradition is not against Gary’s human rights,” she said. “To be in intense mental torture and fear for almost eight years is against anyone’s human rights. We would not do this to an animal.”
Janis’s eyes glint with fury as she talks about the injustice of her son facing the prospect of a lifetime behind bars in a US jail for a crime that British police didn’t bother to prosecute. She says she will do “whatever it takes” to prevent her son from being given what she says will be a death sentence. Her hopes were raised when Mr Johnson agreed to delay proceedings last month to look at medical evidence of her son’s state of mind. Earlier this month, the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee backed calls for the extradition to be halted because of his “precarious state of mental health”.
Read in Full:Â http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/janis-sharp-i-wont-rest-i-dont-want-to-lose-my-son-1830401.html
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