 
Dealing With An Epidemic Of Loneliness
Article Date: 16 Dec 2010 – 2:00 PST
As the festive period approaches, The Lancet is publishing its winning Wakley Prize Essay together with an Editorial on the epidemic of loneliness, which is never more evident than at this time of year when many other families are spending time with their loved ones. The Essay is by Dr Ishani Kar-Purkayastha, UK Health Protection Agency, London, UK, who based her essay on a collage of encounters she had as a junior doctor with an elderly patient desperate to spend Christmas in hospital with fictitious injuries rather than return home to spend it alone.
The elderly patient (who is given the false name Mrs Doris Rafferty for the story) explains in the story that her husband died more than 20 years earlier, while both her children live abroad. She complains of injuries that a battery of tests cannot confirm in order to extend her stay in hospital, before briefly breaking down. “It’s just that I’m all alone and there are so many hours in the day,” she says, before letting out a forlorn noise that is neither laugh nor cry. “Doctor”, she asks, “can you give me a cure for loneliness?”
Dr Kar-Purkayastha says: “There are probably thousands like her. Men and women who have lived a lot and loved a lot. Men and women who are not yet done with being ferocious and bright but for whom time now stands empty as they wait in homes full of silence; their only misunderstanding to have lived to an age when they are no longer coveted by a society addicted to youth.”
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211604.php
 
Eating To Manage Your Holiday Stress? You Are Not Alone
Article Date: 15 Dec 2010 – 5:00 PST
During the holiday season it can be difficult to keep to a healthy diet, even for those most dedicated to healthy foods and activity. In addition to the ongoing temptation of cookies and candies, many Americans experience heightened stress during the holidays, which can result in unhealthy management strategies, such as overeating. The American Psychological Association’s 2010 Stress in America survey found that 40 percent of adults surveyed reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress in the past month.
The survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive in August 2010, also showed that Americans appear to be caught in a vicious cycle where they don’t think they have the time or willpower to make the lifestyle or behavior changes necessary to manage their stress in healthier ways. Unhealthy eating is one reaction to stress that can affect both parents and children. According to the survey, 27 percent of overweight children reported eating to make themselves feel better when they are stressed. Children also report awareness of their parents’ stress. Ninety-one percent of children report that they know their parent is stressed, however 69 percent of parents report that they think their stress has a slight impact or no impact on their children. And children who say their parents are always stressed are more likely to report having a great deal of stress themselves than those who say their parents are never stressed (17 percent vs. 2 percent).
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211517.php
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 17, 2010Â
Researchers have found scientific backing that sleep helps people look their best.
Swedish investigator John Axelsson and his team studied the relationship between sleep and perceptions of attractiveness and health.
The authors believe this research is important in today’s 24-hour society with the number of people suffering from sleep disorders and disturbed sleep on the rise.
Study findings are published in the Christmas issue on the British Medical Journal website.
Twenty-three participants between the ages of 18 to 31 took part in the study. They were photographed between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on two occasions, once after normal sleep and once after being deprived of sleep. Smokers were excluded from the research and no alcohol was allowed for two days prior to the experiment.
The photographs were taken in a well-lit room and the distance to the camera was fixed. During both photography sessions participants wore no make-up, had their hair loose (combed back if they had long hair) and underwent similar cleaning or shaving procedures. They were asked to have a relaxed, neutral facial expression for both photos.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/12/17/sleep-well-look-healthy-and-attractive/21920.html
 
We’re delighted to announce that comedian, actor and musician Tim Minchin has chosen to donate the profits of his Christmas Single ‘Drinking White Wine In The Sun’ to The National Autistic Society again this year.
The song is available to download from iTunes and Amazon.
For more information, visit www.timminchin.com
 
On 17 December 2010, the Government published statutory guidance for local councils and local NHS bodies setting out what they had to do to ensure they could meet the needs of adults with autism in England. All thanks to the Autism Act 2009.
Read our Q&A on the Autism Act and how it fits with the guidance here.
As the guidance is statutory, local councils and local health bodies have a legal duty to implement it.
Where the guidance says that a local area should do something, this means that they will have to do it by law, unless they have a strong reason not to. Lack of money will not necessarily be a strong reason.
The guidance sends a clear message that local councils and local NHS bodies in England must improve:
- training for their staff
- identification and diagnosis of autism in adults
- planning of services for people with autism, including the transition from child services to adult services
- local leadership.
This guidance is a significant improvement from the draft guidance that the Government consulted on over the summer. The first draft of the guidance was criticised by many, including the NAS, because of the weak language used. Indeed, at a number of regional events with people with autism, parents and local authorities, it was clear that the draft did not make it clear what local authorities and health bodies were expected to do and what individuals could expect from them.
Due to the weakness of the draft guidance, over 2,200 campaigners emailed their MP and hundreds responded to the Government’s consultation. Debates where also held in Parliament. All of this helped make sure that changes were made to meet the expectations of the Act.
What has changed?
The final statutory guidance is much clearer. Stating categorically that local authorities and the NHS:
- should provide autism awareness training for all staff
- must provide specialist autism training for key staff, such as GPs and community care assessors
- cannot refuse a community care assessment for adults with autism based solely on IQ
- must appoint an autism lead in their area
- have to develop a clear pathway to diagnosis and assessment for adults with autism
- need to commission services based on adequate population data.
What are we doing and how you can help
Now that the guidance has been published, there can be no excuses not to change the way services are delivered locally.
To help local authorities and the NHS to deliver this change, the NAS has been commissioned by the Department of Health to develop a central online resource for information regarding the autism strategy. This resource has been developed to support health and social care professionals in the implementation of the strategy and can be found at www.autism.org.uk/autismstrategy
Secondly, because we need to make sure all local authorities are implementing the statutory guidance, the NAS is continuing the campaign at a local level.
We have launched a survey that we are asking adult social care leads to fill in. Please take action now to ask your local authority what progress they are making in implementing the adult autism strategy and how they will meet their new legal duties.
Find out more
Jan
22
 
Over 2 million people struggle from sleep disorders. We can have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep or both. A barrage of thoughts often haunts us through the night, “I can’t believe I can’t fall asleep, tomorrow’s going to be horrible, please, please, please fall asleep.†The anxiousness grows as we fall further and further from a restful state of mind. So what can we do when it seems like sleep is an impossibility?
Perhaps we can take a lesson from poet Wendell Berry in his The Peace of Wild Things:
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s life may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.Â
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
One practice that we can develop when have difficulty sleeping is to intentionally and nonjudgmentally bring awareness to where the wild things are. In other words, bringing attention directly to the anxious thoughts and feelings themselves. One of the reasons anxious thoughts continue to spin is because we’re caught up in them relating to the problem of sleep from the anxious thoughts instead of stepping out of the whirlwind of the mind and relating to the anxious thoughts.
Read in Full:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41423&cn=100
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 16, 2010Â
If goofing off at the office makes people happy, it may result in more innovative thinking. That is one of the implications of a new study that suggests upbeat work environments can improve creativity.
The work settings can put people in a good mood so they can then think more creatively.
“Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem-solving and flexible yet careful thinking,†said Ruby Nadler, a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario. She and colleagues Rahel Rabi, also a grad student, and Dr. John Paul Minda carried out the study published in the journal Psychological Science.
For this study, Nadler and her colleagues looked at a particular kind of learning that is improved by creative thinking.
Students who took part in the study were nudged into different moods and then given a category learning task to do (learning to classify sets of pictures with visually complex patterns). The researchers manipulated mood with help from music clips and video clips; first, they tried several out to find out what made people happiest and saddest.
The happiest music was a peppy Mozart piece, and the happiest video was of a laughing baby.
The researchers then used these in the experiment, along with sad music and video (a piece of music from the movie “Schindler’s List†and a news report about an earthquake) and a piece of music and a video that didn’t affect mood. After listening to the music and watching the video, people had to try to learn to recognize a pattern.
Happy volunteers were better at learning a rule to classify the patterns than sad or neutral volunteers.
“If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that,†Nadler said.
And music is an easy way to get into a good mood. Everyone has a different type of music that works for them—don’t feel like you have to switch to Mozart, she said.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/12/16/positive-mood-improves-creativity/21879.html
 
I loved these bits of advice from Beliefnet’s Renita Williams.
We all have experienced hurt and pain in our lives. Sometimes we are exposed to experiences so painful that they leave marks that are difficult to heal-especially if we feel somone has wronged us or harmed us.
1. Acknowledge the problem
Figure out what it is that’s causing you to hold a grudge. You have to know what the problem is in order to solve it. When you allow yourself to see the real issue you can then make a choice to move forward from there.
2. Share your feelings.
A grudge can form when an issue isn’t fully confronted. Without being judgmental about yourself or another, clarify your feelings on the situation. Then, decide if this is something you will work on in your own heart or by contacting the other person involved. Only when you are ready, communicate with the other person about the issue. Whether you work it out on your own or involved the other person, you may feel more relieved by releasing that built up tension and all involved can have a better understanding of the situation and able to resolve the issue.
3. Switch places.
To get a better understanding of the other person, try putting yourself in their shoes. This will give you a better understanding of their point of view and behavior. Maybe the person in question was in a lot of pain. This doesn’t justify their negativity, but it will help you understand it. The more you understand the other person and their behavior, the easier it is not to let go of a grudge.
A natural response may be to develop a grudge, or even a hatred of the person who has caused us pain. But the person who holds the grudge always suffers more!
The longer we hold a grudge the more difficult it is to forgive and move on. You can begin to free yourself when you begin to forgive. Here are eight ways to get a grip on the pain and find the strength to let it go.
4. Accept what is.
Choose to create your own healing, with or without an apology. Don’t wait for the person you are upset with to come around. For all you know they are already past the issue and not putting as much thought into it. Even if they don’t offer an apology, it doesn’t mean they are not remorseful. Some people are unable to apologize or may not fully understand that the person they hurt may need to hear one.
5. Don’t dwell on it.
Once you have decided to move on, keep on moving. Don’t put too much thought into the situation or continuously discuss it. It will only make things worse and harder to get over. If ever the issue is brought up in conversation, change the subject or just look at it as the past and leave it there.
6. Take the positive.
For every negative situation there is a positive. If you take this as a learning experience, you will benefit from knowing more about yourself and the other person. Choose to learn a valuable lesson or walk away with a better understanding that can help you let go of the issue and not resent the other person.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/11/8-tips-to-stop-holding-a-grudge/
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 15, 2010
Apparently, it is not solely an American phenomenon: A new European research effort suggests cyber bullying is becoming increasingly common among teenagers.
Research by the University of Valencia (UV) in Spain, based on a study carried out in the region, shows that between 25 percent and 29 percent of all teenagers have been bullied via their mobile phone or the Internet over the past year.
“The data from our study shows that technological bullying affects 24.6 percent of teenagers in the case of mobile telephony, and 29 percent with regard to the internet. In the large majority of cases, this abuse lasts for a month or less,†said SofÃa Buelga, Ph.D., co-author of the study.
The research, published in the latest issue of the journal Psicothema, was based on a survey in 11 secondary schools in 2009, with 2,101 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 17 responding, 1,098 of whom were boys and 1,003 were girls.
The cyber bullying lasted for less than a month for most teenagers. Out of the total surveyed, 17.4 percent were bullied via their mobile phones and 22.5 percent on the Internet.
Although cyber bullying is a short-lived problem for most adolescents, there is a “relatively small, but significant†percentage of teenagers who have been subject to bullying of moderate (less than one attack per week) and severe intensity (more than one attack per week) over the course of more than three months, 4 percent between 3 and 6 months and 3 percent for more than a year.
In cases where bullying is moderate and lasts for more than three months, the most commonly used means for it is the mobile phone.
“This could be explained by the availability and central importance that mobile phones have in life. Previous studies have shown that teenagers aged between 12 and 14 have had an average of three mobile phones, and 63 percent of them never switch them off,†Buelga said.
“More cyber bullying tends to take place in the first years at school than in the last ones, both by mobile and Internet,†she said. The study showed that girls suffer more bullying than boys in most cases, particularly verbal bullying, invasions of privacy, spreading of rumors and social exclusion.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/12/15/cyber-bullying-of-teens-not-just-a-u-s-issue/21826.html
 
Autistic boy kicked out of kindergarten gets $350,000 settlement
By BRIAN HAMACHERÂ Updated 9:16 AM EST, Thu, Dec 2, 2010
Alex Barton, the autistic South Florida kindergartener who was cruelly voted out of class by his schoolmates a few years ago, is about to have more money than any of them.
Melissa Barton, Alex’s mother, reached a settlement with St. Lucie County education officials to pay her son $350,000 for his ordeal, according to tcpalm.com.
The settlement was reached on Nov. 24 in Miami, and is awaiting a final approval. If approved, the family will get $200,000 immediately, followed by yearly payments when Alex turns 18 in 2020.
It’s a decent payday for Alex, who was kicked out of class “Survivor”-style in May 2008. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, put Barton’s fate in the hands of his 16 classmates after he was repeatedly disruptive in class. The students were allegedly allowed to go before Barton and tell him why they didn’t like him.
Melissa Barton said Alex was “forced to stand in front of his peers and be told why ‘they hated him,’ with such comments as [Alex] is ‘disgusting’ and ‘annoying,’ ‘He eats crayons,’ ‘Lies on the floor,’ ‘He eats paper’ and ‘He eats his boogers.”‘
The class voted 14-2 to give him the boot.
Barton didn’t return to the class and finished the year in homeschooling, and has since been diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome, which may have caused his behavior.
Two years later, Barton made the honor roll.
Portillo was suspended for a year, but has returned to teaching in St. Lucie County and had her tenure reinstated.
Source:Â http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Big-Payday-for-Kid-Voted-Out-of-Class-111184954.html
Â
By Joe Callahan
Staff writer
Published: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 7:36 p.m.
A teacher’s aide allegedly caught verbally abusing a special-needs child at Maplewood Elementary School was fired Tuesday night by the Marion County School Board.
Deborah J. Adams did not challenge Superintendent of Schools Jim Yancey’s recommendation to terminate her contract. Adams was accused of making derogatory comments about a first-grader who has autism and cannot speak.
Philip Leppert, the district’s executive director of human resources, said since Adams did not ask for a hearing within 15 days, the board’s vote on Tuesday ended her employment.
The board also placed Maplewood teacher Rhoda Richardson on unpaid leave. The School Board did not comment on the vote, which was passed as part of the consent agenda.
Richardson, who works with Adams, is also accused of making derogatory statements about the child, documents state. She is being represented by Ocala attorney Robert Bradshaw, who filed a response to the allegation, asking for a board hearing.
At that hearing, the School Board can choose to uphold Yancey’s recommendation to fire Richardson or reinstate the 24-year veteran back into the classroom.
In October, a mother of a child in Richardson’s class thought something was wrong with her child, who reportedly has the mentality of a 2-year-old.
Since her child is non-verbal, the mother placed a digital recorder in her child’s backpack. When her child returned home, the mother listened to the comments.
The recording, made without the teacher and aide’s knowledge, revealed the child was called “a hippo,†“a beached whale sleeping†and a “hippo in a ballerina suit,†according to School District documents.
The women were also heard chastising the incontinent child for wetting herself. And they forced the child to wear soiled clothes and clean her own urine, a School District report states.
The mother shared the recording with School District administrators and the women were placed on paid leave. It took seven weeks for the district to verify who was speaking on the tape, officials said.
Bradshaw said in a written response that the evidence being used against Richardson was obtained illegally. Florida law forbids the recording of any private conversations unless all parties agree. Bradshaw said Richardson “had a reasonable expectation of privacy.â€
Bradshaw acknowledged the statements were improper. He also said teachers — just like other workers in high-stress jobs, firefighters and law enforcement officers, for example — say outlandish things in private. They do it to cope with stress.
Bradshaw also said his client should be presumed innocent and that he has the right to examine the evidence. He said he has not been allowed to hear the tape. Bradshaw also said it is not clear what statements his client may have made, if any, and whether the statements were even made in earshot of students.
Though Maplewood is a public school and the classroom could be deemed public, Bradshaw said that no one — with the exception of a few select administrators — can just walk into a classroom.
Most everyone must register at the front office and state a purpose for being there. If the person has been approved to go inside a classroom, the person then provides a driver’s license at the front office to get a badge. The teacher is then notified of the visitor. Therefore, the conversation between Adams and Richardson should be considered private.
Read in Full:Â http://www.gainesville.com/article/20101214/ARTICLES/101219754/1105/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg