Bereaved China elderly suffer under one-child norm
Channel News Asia Sunday 30th September, 2012
BEIJING: When Wu Rui's 12-year-old daughter died she lost not just the only child she would ever have but also her source of security and support in old age.Today the 55-year-old takes care of herself and her own elderly parents on a paltry pension in a ramshackle two-room home, living in fear of medical emergencies she has no way to pay for.China's one-child policy normally leaves four grandparents and two parents relying on a single caretaker f...
the same old boring design, OS, buttons. in simple words, nothing new
4.eggimageposted on6 hours ago12
it's supposed to be low-cost. if you're looking for all that, wait for the high end 9.7" model next year. most obvious thing
12.CanYouSeeTheLightposted on5 hours ago12
So if it is low-cost? It is the same interface as the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad isn't that a little overkill for a interface that has been mostly the same for some years now? iOS is dated IMO.
21.doejonposted on1 hour ago32
hahah low cost?? from apple??? hahahah
17.Peter98posted on2 hours ago01
I should also say iOS. Should be much more improve. But... Nothing Wong with th pyhsic button. Samsung also using the physic button. What's wrong. Design... Galaxy Note 2 is also almost like a enlarge version of Galaxy SIII. no problem.
23.MISTER.Hposted on1 hour ago00
Personally, i really enjoy the fun and challange of having a more flixible, open platform on which i can exert greater influence over what it does and how it operates....
2.Berzerk000posted on6 hours ago12
I've never liked the looks of the iPad... It's too square-ish. I don't like squares. Rectangles all the way.
3.JunkCreekposted on6 hours ago02
now, if miniPad (wow I should patenting this name!) really made, the "good artist borrow, the great artist steal" now just become a copy-cat.
5.JunkCreekposted on6 hours ago12
myniPad also works, myn-iPad... what ever.
I should patenting this name!
6.JunkCreekposted on6 hours ago01
myniPad also works, myn-iPad, miPad... what ever.
I should patenting this name!
15.nono_pirotposted on4 hours ago01
i think the ui of your tablet has been over-used, so it's somewhat boring now. try something new from MS with their new VersaTile UI, it's fresh, simple and straightforward. never cared to patent the name, doesn't care to sue someone.
7.StreetNerdposted on6 hours ago11
i thought steve jobs said that their current ipad size is perfect and that smaller sizes makes no sense... now they copy the succesfull 7 inch tabelts?!
9.XPERIA-KNIGHTposted on6 hours ago01
Cannot lie........it looks dope! sadly the same old ios is in there :(
Really liking Sony's tablet S and the nexus 7 tho :)
10.SwiftyMicveyposted on6 hours ago02
They will always copy and say we made it the first and patent it so they can sue some other companies .
11.daracposted on5 hours ago11
If they put an A6 processor and "retina" screen in this, it could very well become the first real touch gaming console - the size is just right. Anyway, a smashing hit is on the way for Apple, but it will take a lot of buyers off the big brother - hardly anyone on the market for a new tablet will buy both ipad versions
13.NokiaLumia920posted on5 hours ago01
Windows Phone/Windows > Apple > Android > WebOS > BlackBerry!
14.yajia1posted on4 hours ago01
I was one of those people who thought that taking a picture with a tablet was utterly stupid. But when you do it yourself, you get to see the advantages, one being that you can see the picture right away on a large high res screen the new ipad has. Especially that the new ipad's screen represents all colors faithfully and virtually perfectly. Editing the photo right away is a good thing as well. Hope the screen of this iPad mini would be as great as the one on the new iPad. I might consider selling mine for a smaller version and give my Nexus 7 to my small brother. Though I wouldnt really see the point because I also put my Nexus 7 on a small bag, the same bag I am placing my iPad. Playing games on the new iPad's screen is just a joy too.
Irish famine museum opening at Connecticut university
HAMDEN, Conn. ? Quinnipiac University in Connecticut is opening a museum dedicated to the Irish famine.
College officials say Ireland?s Great Hunger Museum has the world?s largest collection of visual art, artifacts and printed materials related to the famine. It?s set to open to the public on Oct. 11 on campus in Hamden.
The collection focuses on the famine years from 1845 to 1852, when blight destroyed virtually all of Ireland?s potato crops. More than 1 million died and about 2 million emigrated to the United States and other countries.
Quinnipiac President John Lahey, the former grand marshal of the New York City St. Patrick?s Day parade, predicts the museum will be a large draw for Irish-Americans and others.
? Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Check out the coolest new place to have a cocktail: underwater
DEAR ABBY: My husband and I just got some shocking news. His father -- age 81 -- is leaving his wife of 60 years! Mom is not entirely self-sufficient and seems dependent on him.Dad found himself a younger woman -- a "chick" of 70. He has announced that he still has sexual needs and wants to enjoy the rest of his life. My husband thinks it will be a short-term fling and he'll return to Mom, but she says she won't be taking him back. (Who knows how she'll feel later?)My problem is, no matter what happens between them, I'm having a hard time even considering forgiving him for his selfishness. ...
LONDON (AP) ? Markets stuttered Friday as investors continued to fret over the economy of Spain, which this week announced big spending cuts it hopes will convince potential bailout creditors and investors it has a rock-solid plan to heal its public finances.
The positive momentum generated by Thursday's Spanish budget has ground to a halt as investors await more news out of the country, including stress test results into 14 banks that are due after European markets close.
The Moody's rating agency is also expected to pronounce on its view on Spain's creditworthiness. There are concerns in the markets that Moody's will downgrade Spain's government debt to junk status.
Craig Erlam, markets analyst at Alpari, said a downgrade to junk status could "create some panic" among holders of Spanish debt that could prompt a sell off and force yields higher.
"The positive side to this is this could accelerate the bailout request," Erlam said. Eurozone countries and the European Central Bank are prepared to help Spain financially, should it need it, but Madrid has so far put off a request.
By midday in Europe, shares were mixed, with Madrid's IBEX index underperforming its peers.
The IBEX was trading 1.1 percent lower at 7,756. Germany's DAX was 0.2 percent lower at 7,275 while the CAC-40 in France fell 0.5 percent to 3,421. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was one of the stronger performing indexes, trading 0.1 percent higher at 5,785.
Wall Street was posed for a slightly lower open, too, with both Dow futures and the S&P 500 futures down 0.2 percent.
On Thursday, the Spanish government said it planned to cut overall spending by ?40 billion ($51 billion) in 2013, a move that won a generally-positive response in financial markets. Many investors think the cuts will lay the ground for Spain, the fourth largest economy in the eurozone, to seek financial help from fellow countries in the bloc and the European Central Bank.
Earlier this month, the ECB announced a new bond-buying plan largely designed to keep a lid on Spain's borrowing costs. However, Spain would first have to ask for financial aid from fellow eurozone countries.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has balked at doing so, partly because it could require new austerity cuts. The hope is that the new budget measures are enough to stem any further requirements in the event of a request for help.
"Yesterday's news was clearly a move to forestall the kind of punitive measures we saw imposed on Greece and others," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG.
Other financial markets were fairly subdued, with the euro up 0.2 percent at $1.2936 and a barrel of oil up 38 cents at $92.23.
Earlier in Asia, stocks had been buoyed by speculation that China's central bank will act soon to help the world's No. 2 economy.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.4 percent to 20,840.38. South Korea's Kospi added nearly 0.4 percent to 1,996.21. But Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9 percent to 8,870.16, sinking on a government report that showed industrial production fell a further 1.3 percent in August.
Mainland Chinese shares rose ahead of an extended holiday next week. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.5 percent to 2,086.17 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.9 percent to 853.83.
Benchmark oil for November delivery was up 41 cents to $92.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.87 to finish at $91.85 on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2934 from $1.2917 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.59 yen from 77.62 yen.
MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James looked at the assembled talent in the Miami Heat locker room, and one word came to mind.
"Scary," he said.
Translated, that means James thinks the Heat will be even better than they were a season ago. Oddly, James' teammates expect the same from him.
After a season where he won just about everything besides Powerball ? his third MVP award, his first NBA Finals MVP award and, of course, his first NBA championship ? James is going back to work. He and the Heat convened for their annual media day Friday, the prelude to Saturday morning's opening practice and the first step toward what the Heat hope is another championship push.
"We can be better than we were this past season," James said, on the day when he got sized for his first championship ring. "Are we better right now than we were just a couple months ago? Of course not. ... But we have the potential to be better.
"We have the potential to be a lot better. That is scary."
Chances are, the Heat will have to be better than they were last season to hoist another championship trophy next June. As if they weren't the team on radar screens across the NBA already once James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh decided to team up in Miami during the summer of 2010, winning a title will only make them more of a target.
And then adding a player like Ray Allen, whose last NBA game was Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami when he played for the Boston Celtics, only raises the ante that much more.
"We have one target," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Friday. "And that's Miami."
There was plenty going on around the Heat on Friday, some of it newsy, some of it more humorous, as typically is the case at a media day.
Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh talked about how they're healing after injuries struck in last season's playoffs. Allen and Rashard Lewis ? free-agent additions ? posed for photos in new Heat uniforms. Shane Battier talked about the NBA's pet-peeve issue, flopping, hilariously calling it "a silent killer." Udonis Haslem was followed by a camera crew to, as he said, document "The Little 12," what he calls everyone not in the "Big Three" club of Wade, Bosh and James.
Haslem's cameras might have been the only ones not on James, who hasn't spoken publicly much since the Olympics ended.
"He's not on cruise control, no," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about James. "He's as driven a professional as I've been around. He understands not only his legacy, but team legacy and the opportunity that this team and organization has. And he savors that. He's the ultimate competitor."
It took James nine years to win that long-coveted first title, after leading the Heat past the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games. His clinching performance was a classic ? a triple-double, 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. James came out with 3:01 remaining and the celebrating started, waving his arms and jumping on the sideline, then wrapping anyone and everyone he could reach in massive embraces.
So began his summer vacation. It lasted about a week.
His commitment to USA Basketball and the London Games started only a few days after the Heat championship parade. When that ended ? with a gold medal ? he jumped back to his personal business matters, including a trip to China and a decision to switch agents from Leon Rose to longtime friend Rich Paul.
There were more workouts with Thunder star Kevin Durant, just like last year, and a little bit of vacationing thrown into the mix.
Now, it's all about basketball business.
"I've thought that for a long time that I'm the best player," James said. "That's the way I approach the game. Anytime I step on the floor, I think I've told you guys that before, I want to be the best player on the floor. That's just the confidence I play with. That's not taking away from all these other great players that we have in this game today."
He averaged 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists in this past regular season, then upped the ante to 30.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists in the playoffs.
Monster numbers, and the Heat can't wait to see what he does for an encore.
"Do it again," Bosh said, when asked what to expect from James. "Just continue to be himself. He's a hard worker, naturally. He doesn't have to repeat what he did last year. This year's a new year. It's going to present different challenges and we're going to have to overcome them. He's going to have to overcome them. We're all going to have our team challenges and personal challenges that come our way."
James said he found time to work on some aspects of his game during the offseason, though he obviously didn't have anywhere near the same break he had after the 2010-11 season ? which was lengthened by a lockout, and didn't have an Olympics in there, either.
"He's on a hell of a run," Battier said. "It's almost like throwing a no-hitter. You don't want to talk about it. You just want to ride it out and see where it goes. But if there's one guy who could top what he's done in calendar 2012, it's No. 6. I wouldn't count him out or bet against him."
___
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CLEVELAND (AP) ? One month, one miserable month wiped out almost everything Manny Acta did for three years.
"That month just crushed our hopes," Acta said.
And cost him his second job as a major league manager.
Acta was fired Thursday by the Cleveland Indians, who collapsed from contention with a 5-24 record in August, the worst month in the franchise's 112-year history. Acta, hired in 2009 after two tough seasons in Washington, paid the steepest price for the Indians' stunning slide that dropped them to last place in the AL Central.
It certainly wasn't all Acta's fault, but he took the fall.
During the club's August meltdown, Acta tried everything he could to turn things around. He changed his starting lineup, called team meetings, altered routines ? all to no avail. Once the Indians began to slip in the standings, there was nothing the 43-year-old Acta could do to stop them.
And with six games left in this disappointing season, the Indians, who are just 21-50 in the second half, decided to begin moving forward without Acta.
"I had a great three years here," he said on a conference call. "I have no regrets and no bitterness. I gave my best and that's all I can do."
Acta went 214-266 in nearly three seasons with the Indians, who were within 3 1-2 games of first on July 26 following a shocking comeback win at home over Detroit ace Justin Verlander. However, they lost the following day and would eventually lose 11 straight games.
A season that began with so much hope turned to despair.
"My job was to make us better," Acta said. "We didn't get better."
General manager Chris Antonetti announced Acta's firing on an off day before the Indians opened their final homestand against Kansas City and the Chicago White Sox. If there is any solace to Acta it's that his final two games were road wins over the second-place White Sox, who are chasing Detroit for the division title.
Acta felt he never lost his clubhouse and praised his players for continuing to play hard when the season unraveled.
Bench coach Sandy Alomar, a six-time All-Star catcher for the Indians and fan favorite, will replace Acta on an interim basis for the last six games of 2012. Antonetti called Alomar a "primary candidate" to possibly replace Acta as Cleveland's next manager but wouldn't label him the front-runner.
The 46-year-old Alomar has been considered for previous openings in Toronto, Boston and with the Chicago Cubs. He would seem to fit perfectly with what the Indians are looking for.
"Sandy brings a lot to the table," Antonetti said. "He's obviously been a managerial candidate in other places and I'm confident he will be a primary candidate. Where he will fit among the alternatives, I don't think it's fair for me to speculate at this point."
Antonetti would not comment on the possibility former Red Sox manager Terry Francona is on the club's list of candidates.
Acta hired Alomar and feels he will be a solid major league manager.
"I know Sandy is a very good baseball man," Acta said. "He was very helpful to me over the last three years."
Acta laughed when he asked if Alomar should replace him.
"If I'm not good enough to be the manager," he said with a chuckle, "don't ask me to be the general manager."
Some key decisions by Antonetti that backfired contributed to the Indians' struggles this season, and the GM didn't duck his share of responsibility in Cleveland's collapse.
"Manny's not the only one to blame," Antonetti said. "We need to really look hard organizationally at how we can get better, especially at the major league level because our performance was not what we expected and not what we hoped. We have higher expectations and we need to do a better job of identifying some of those solutions."
Antonetti said following recent discussions with team president Mark Shapiro and owner Paul Dolan, the decision to dismiss Acta was made Wednesday night. Acta met Antonetti at Progressive Field at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
With upcoming player and coaches meetings, Antonetti felt it was unfair to keep Acta around as the team planned ahead.
"Those meetings will be forward looking," Antonetti said. "We thought it best, and out of respect for Manny, to allow him to move on."
Acta was caught off guard by the news.
"I was surprised," he said. "I wasn't expecting it, but when you play the way we played, anything can happen."
It didn't help Acta's cause that the Indians had several players underperform while others couldn't stay healthy this season.
Former All-Star center fielder Grady Sizemore, who was signed to a one-year, $5 million free-agent contract in November despite missing most of the past three seasons with injuries, never got healthy enough to play. Designated hitter Travis Hafner missed several months with a bad back.
And, Antonetti's major acquisition in 2011 of ace Ubaldo Jimenez failed to pay off as the right-hander went 9-17 with a 5.55 ERA. Also, despite the obvious need for a right-handed hitting outfielder, the Indians never signed one and Antonetti was unable to find any external help at the trading deadline.
As the losses in August and September mounted. Antonetti realized change was needed.
"We always remained hopeful that our play would improve and we would turn things around in the second half," he said. "Unfortunately as the days dwindled, it didn't happen."
Acta refused to use an insufficient roster as an excuse for losing.
"I'm not going to sit here and point fingers or second guess myself," he said. "I didn't go to the ballpark and wing it. It's a little disappointing when you can't win as often as you want. But that's the game, I guess."
Acta believes he has grown following stints with the Nationals and Indians. He's confident another team will give him a chance.
"I want to manage again, but right now I want to go home to Florida and be a father, a husband, a son and a brother," he said. "I'll keep my head up and move forward."
Cyborg surgeon: Hand and technology combine in new surgical tool that enables superhuman precision
ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) ? Even the most skilled and steady surgeons experience minute, almost imperceptible hand tremors when performing delicate tasks. Normally, these tiny motions are inconsequential, but for doctors specializing in fine-scale surgery, such as operating inside the human eye or repairing microscopic nerve fibers, freehand tremors can pose a serious risk for patients.
By harnessing a specialized optical fiber sensor, a new "smart" surgical tool can compensate for this unwanted movement by making hundreds of precise position corrections each second -- fast enough to keep the surgeon's hand on target. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., have combined the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) imaging technique as a distance sensor with computer-controlled piezoelectric motors to actively stabilize the tip of a surgical tool.
A paper describing their new device, named SMART (Smart Micromanipulation Aided Robotic-surgical Tool), was published September 27 in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
"Microsurgery relies on excellent motor control to perform critical tasks," said Cheol Song, a postdoctoral fellow in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Johns Hopkins. "But certain fine micro-manipulations remain beyond the motor control of even the most skilled surgeon." At its most steady, the human hand naturally trembles, moving on the order of 50-100 microns (about the thickness of a sheet of paper) several times each second.
Various optomechatronics techniques, including robotics, have been developed to help augment stability and minimize the impact of hand tremors. None so far has been able to seamlessly merge simple fiber-optic rapid and fine-grained sensing with handheld automated surgical tools. The major challenge for researchers has been finding a way to precisely measure and compensate for the relative motions of a surgical instrument in relation to the target.
The emerging imaging technique of OCT attracted the attention of the researchers because it has higher resolution (approximately 10 microns) than either MRI or ultrasound. It also uses eye-safe near infrared light to image tissues. To apply this imaging technique to their work, the research team first had to integrate an OCT-based high-speed high-precision distance sensor directly into a small, handheld surgical device. The device could then hold a variety of surgical instruments at the tip, such as a scalpel or forceps. The well-known fiber-optic based common path optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT) technique provided the essential capability. As its name suggests, the optical signal of this sensor uses the same path, or optical fiber, to both transmit and receive the near infrared light.
Because this single fiber-optic cable is so small and flexible, the researchers could easily integrate it into the front of a tool used for eye surgery. By continually sending and receiving the near infrared laser beams, the high-speed fiber-optic sensor precisely measures the motion of the probe. This information then feeds to a computer that sends signals to small piezoelectric motors integrated into the surgical device to control the position of the tool tip. This creates a series of "station keeping" maneuvers that compensate for the surgeon's hand tremors.
Combined, the sensor and motors can operate accurately at 500 hertz (500 times each second), which is much higher than the typical tremor frequency of 0-15 hertz.
The researchers compared the effectiveness of the system by testing its ability to compensate for hand tremors during 5- and 30-second intervals. According to the researchers, these time periods were sufficient to determine the different characteristic between short- and long-term hand tremors. "A 30-second time period is enough to evaluate a surgeon's basic physiological hand tremor characteristics," said Song. For complete characterization, however, a record of a full surgical procedure, which typically lasts more than 3 hours, will be needed.
For their study, the tests were performed on two targets. The first was a dry "phantom," a material that has sufficient properties to stand as a proxy for medical research. A more real-world test was also done on a viable chicken embryo, which better simulated a realistic surgical environment because of the unpredictable movements of the live embryo.
During the next few years, the researchers hope to take their instrument from the laboratory to the operating suite, and with additional refinements expand its use to other fine-scale surgeries.
"The main objective of our research has been to make an established surgical tool 'smarter' by incorporating fiber-optic sensors and motion control to allow surgeons to maneuver the tool tip precisely and safely," said Jin U. Kang, another researcher with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Johns Hopkins. "SMART, which is capable of fine motion control and sensing, could significantly enhance the surgical performance of doctors and minimize surgical accidents."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Optical Society of America.
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Journal Reference:
Cheol Song, Peter L. Gehlbach, and Jin U. Kang. Active tremor cancellation by a ?Smart? handheld vitreoretinal microsurgical tool using swept source optical coherence tomography. Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 21, pp. 23414-23421 DOI: 10.1364/OE.20.023414
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
How can I build trust in my boyfriend when I've ... - Marriage Right
By Gary Chapman
Q: ?I was previously in a very emotionally/mentally abusive relationship. My current boyfriend and I are very serious and are working on preparing for marriage. He loves the Lord and me very much, what more could I ask for ? but yet I still fear he?s going to abuse me like my previous boyfriend. He?s very patient with me and loving and kind through my trust issues, which I thank God for ? other than prayer, are there any exercises we can do to build trust??
A:?It?s rather normal that when you?ve been in an abusive relationship?you tend to carry that distrust into the next relationship. In a sense, it?s unfair to the other person because they are a different person. But it?s normal because when you?re hurt emotionally by someone, you anticipate when they are going to let loose and be abusive.?I think this is not so much something the two of you can do together, though, I think you can be open and talk about it together.
One of the things you can do is get up every morning and say, ?I am not dating so and so, I am now dating so and so.? Consciously remind yourself that the man you are dating is a different person and it?s that reminder that builds in your mind a pattern of anticipating different things from the new person.
You can also try telling yourself, ?I have these feelings and emotions that come sometimes but I?m not going to let those control me; I?m going to accept the kind and loving response I am receiving from the person I?m now dating.?
Gary Chapman
Gary Chapman, PhD, is the author of the bestselling The 5 Love Languages series, which has sold more than 7 million worldwide and has been translated into 40 languages. Dr. Chapman travels the world presenting seminars on marriage, family, and relationships, and his radio programs air on more than 300 stations. He lives in North Carolina with his wife, Karolyn. For more information visit 5lovelanguages.com.
Army restyles suicide prevention - Health & Fitness - The Olympian ...
ADAM ASHTON | Staff writer ? Published September 27, 2012 Modified September 26, 2012
When Vicki Duffy asks soldiers what comes to mind when they hear the words ?suicide prevention,? she gets an earful about stale command briefings and overplayed commercials on military television stations.
Duffy, who is Joint Base Lewis-McChord?s suicide prevention officer, said she doesn?t take it personally. She?s been in the trenches of the Army?s program to curb suicides for four years, and she knows those old briefings aren?t enough to do the job.
?They?re valuable,? she said, ?but they?re done in a way that is very old fashioned in the Army.?
Duffy and Lewis-McChord commanders this month updated their outreach down the ranks by ditching the old PowerPoint presentations in favor of one-on-one interactions between care providers and soldiers.
The effort peaked in the last two weeks with a leadership retreat for about 80 noncommissioned officers. At the same time, a suicide ?stand down? was held in which officers and enlisted leaders took a walking tour of the base?s social support services.
No one can say if those steps will save a life, but the idea is to empower more soldiers with resources they can use in a moment of crisis.
Better yet, the courses are intended to help noncommissioned officers monitor and improve the health of soldiers in their charge.
?This has been one of those nagging problems, and I hope we have found a way to positively affect it,? said Col. Jeffrey Galin, the top medical officer for Lewis-McChord?s I Corps.
The outreach marks a change from early in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars when commanders did not pay as much attention to emotional or psychological issues.
?It used to be ?suck it up and drive on,?? said Sgt. Thomas Hollis, 46, of Lakewood, a four-tour combat veteran from Lewis-McChord?s 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment.
??Suck it up and drive on? isn?t working anymore,? he said, citing alcohol abuse and suicides as signs of stress in the Army.
The effort follows Lewis-McChord?s worst year for soldier suicides since the war in Afghanistan began 11 years ago. Thirteen soldiers killed themselves at Lewis-McChord in 2011, up from nine in the previous two years.
This year, nine deaths at Lewis-McChord are under investigation as possible suicides.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press in June reported that active-duty suicides across the military were on pace to increase significantly this year after a couple years of leveling off. In the first half of this year, 154 service members killed themselves, up from 130 in the first six months of 2010.
Those numbers can generate feelings of futility among active-duty soldiers who have sat through countless sessions on suicide awareness over the past few years.
One grim but common joke among soldiers holds that an Army PowerPoint presentation on suicide awareness could bring someone to the brink of taking his own life.
?They teach the same classes over and over again. They?re not working,? said Sgt. Sid Garner, 26, of Lewis-McChord?s 14th Engineer Battalion.
Garner and Hollis were among the noncommissioned officers picked to attend the Soldier 360 retreat in Lacey this week. They had frank discussions about motivating soldiers, addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress and adjusting to life at home after a combat tour.
Soldiers also got to practice yoga as meditation and take a responsible wine tasting class so they can model healthy drinking habits to junior soldiers.
The course aims to get the noncommissioned officers working closest with younger soldiers to see the broad array of military resources they can provide to distressed troops, from alcohol counseling to chaplains to discreet counselors who don?t share notes with commanders.
?If you want to address the suicides, the alcohol abuse, the anger, you have to hit it at the front of the training,? said Mary Lopez, the retired Army colonel who developed Soldier 360.
Garner, Hollis and other sergeants were impressed with the course. They spoke up during the classes and tried to get their limbs to bend at new angles during a morning yoga class.
?I think every sergeant should take this,? Garner said, adding that it helps leaders address the causes of stress in the ranks instead of the symptoms.
Hollis took a sense of community from the classes.
?This program teaches you what you?re going through is not that different from what your soldier is going through,? he said, ?and you?re taking care of each other.?
Back at Lewis-McChord, commanders noted that more soldiers than they expected took part in walking tours of social service programs spread out across the sprawling base. They hope soldiers will take those lessons back to their units to connect troubled troops with the right resources.
?This is real on our installation,? Duffy said. ?There are soldiers suffering, and we need to treat them as human beings.?
JBLM SUICIDES
9 Number of soldier deaths under investigation as suicides so far in 2012.
Paper: Federal law needed to safeguard 'digital afterlives'
Paper: Federal law needed to safeguard 'digital afterlives'Public release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Ciciora pciciora@illinois.edu 217-333-2177 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Federal law ought to play a stronger role in regulating social networking sites by allowing users to determine what happens to their "digital afterlives," says a recently published paper by a University of Illinois expert in intellectual property law.
Allowing social networking sites to set their own policies regarding the content associated with the accounts of deceased users does not adequately protect individual and collective interests, especially with people spending an increasing part of their lives online using social networking sites, says Jason Mazzone, a professor of law.
"Virtually no law regulates what happens to a person's online existence after his or her death," he said. "This is true even though individuals have privacy and copyright interests in materials they post to social networking sites."
Mazzone (pronounced "Maht-ZONE-A") says in the absence of legal regulation, social networking sites are unlikely to adopt user-friendly policies for the disposition of copyright materials from the accounts of the deceased.
"The current situation is that there's very little law involved," said Mazzone, the Lynn H. Murray Faculty Scholar at Illinois. "Social networking sites determine on their own what, if anything, to do with a deceased user's account and the materials the user posted to the site. And their policies are not likely to reflect the collective interests that exist with respect to copyright law. It's a little bit like letting the bank decide what to do with your money after you die."
According to the paper, a federal statute could impose some requirements upon social networking sites to give users a degree of control over what happens to their accounts.
"You only want the federal government involved if there's some failure on the part of the states," Mazzone said. "But it would be very difficult for any particular state to set up a legal regime that would adequately regulate Facebook, which not only operates all across the U.S. but also all over the world. Some states have enacted legislation in an effort to protect their own citizens, but it's not at all clear how it would affect Facebook as a whole.
"In order for this type of law to be effective, we have to turn to the federal government."
There are also broader societal interests for preserving content for historical purposes, said Mazzone, the author of "Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law," published by Stanford University Press in 2011.
"It's becoming increasingly common for people to have digital assets, and some of them do actually have value," he said. "Not only are such sites repositories of intellectual property, they also are important to family members and friends. Historians of the future will likely depend upon digital archives to reconstruct the past, which creates a real problem, particularly in an age when we don't leave diaries, and, increasingly, people don't write books."
According to Mazzone, Facebook's current policy is to "memorialize" the account of the deceased, meaning all uploaded content status updates, photos, videos disappears but the wall remains intact for current friends to express condolences.
"The content is no longer visible but it's all still on Facebook's servers," he said. "It's just that no one can actually see it."
So why is Facebook hoarding all of this content?
"Well, I suspect that Facebook thinks that there's going to be some future value to having all of that content locked away," Mazzone said. "Either because it will have historical significance, or because Facebook thinks there will be something they are going to do with that content down the road. There are already pretty crude avatars being built based on their email exchanges and Facebook posts, so it's conceivable that there could be things like holograms that are developed 100 years from now thanks to the mining of all of this data. But Facebook doesn't know that for sure, and that's why they see the value in holding on to all of this."
But ultimately the content is not Facebook's to keep, Mazzone says.
"Whoever uploaded the content has a property right that is protected it's not extinguished by anything that Facebook does," he said. "The trouble, though, is how you or your heirs get your hands on that content. The person who has inherited the copyright, who has the ability to control the uses of the work, can't take advantage of it because it's locked away in Facebook's digital vault. That's why we need to get to a place where we can require an entity like Facebook to give individual users at least some possibility of deciding while they're still alive what's going to happen to their content after they die."
Mazzone says there are plenty of different ways to produce that result, with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act providing a good example of how to protect privacy interests while allowing users to "exercise affirmative control."
"HIPAA allows patients to specify who is going to get access to health records, and you have to affirmatively opt-in to that system," he said. "It's another area of federal law where you have information that's important and there are privacy interests involved. So I think that sort of model has some potential."
According to Mazzone, it's something of a sore spot for Facebook users.
"It's really pretty astonishing that there is no way for individual users to say, 'When I die, this is what happens to my account,' " he said. "Instead, it comes under the control of Facebook. I know many users have complained about the lack of just such an option. I also think it's the way Facebook users would think that things ought to work, and many users would be surprised to learn that there is no such option. I do think that it's pretty essential that that be available given the sorts of intellectual property and privacy interests that are at stake."
###
The paper, "Facebook's Afterlife," was published in the North Carolina Law Review.
Editor's note: To contact Jason Mazzone, call 217-300-0385; email mazzonej@illinois.edu.
The article is available online.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Paper: Federal law needed to safeguard 'digital afterlives'Public release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Ciciora pciciora@illinois.edu 217-333-2177 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Federal law ought to play a stronger role in regulating social networking sites by allowing users to determine what happens to their "digital afterlives," says a recently published paper by a University of Illinois expert in intellectual property law.
Allowing social networking sites to set their own policies regarding the content associated with the accounts of deceased users does not adequately protect individual and collective interests, especially with people spending an increasing part of their lives online using social networking sites, says Jason Mazzone, a professor of law.
"Virtually no law regulates what happens to a person's online existence after his or her death," he said. "This is true even though individuals have privacy and copyright interests in materials they post to social networking sites."
Mazzone (pronounced "Maht-ZONE-A") says in the absence of legal regulation, social networking sites are unlikely to adopt user-friendly policies for the disposition of copyright materials from the accounts of the deceased.
"The current situation is that there's very little law involved," said Mazzone, the Lynn H. Murray Faculty Scholar at Illinois. "Social networking sites determine on their own what, if anything, to do with a deceased user's account and the materials the user posted to the site. And their policies are not likely to reflect the collective interests that exist with respect to copyright law. It's a little bit like letting the bank decide what to do with your money after you die."
According to the paper, a federal statute could impose some requirements upon social networking sites to give users a degree of control over what happens to their accounts.
"You only want the federal government involved if there's some failure on the part of the states," Mazzone said. "But it would be very difficult for any particular state to set up a legal regime that would adequately regulate Facebook, which not only operates all across the U.S. but also all over the world. Some states have enacted legislation in an effort to protect their own citizens, but it's not at all clear how it would affect Facebook as a whole.
"In order for this type of law to be effective, we have to turn to the federal government."
There are also broader societal interests for preserving content for historical purposes, said Mazzone, the author of "Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law," published by Stanford University Press in 2011.
"It's becoming increasingly common for people to have digital assets, and some of them do actually have value," he said. "Not only are such sites repositories of intellectual property, they also are important to family members and friends. Historians of the future will likely depend upon digital archives to reconstruct the past, which creates a real problem, particularly in an age when we don't leave diaries, and, increasingly, people don't write books."
According to Mazzone, Facebook's current policy is to "memorialize" the account of the deceased, meaning all uploaded content status updates, photos, videos disappears but the wall remains intact for current friends to express condolences.
"The content is no longer visible but it's all still on Facebook's servers," he said. "It's just that no one can actually see it."
So why is Facebook hoarding all of this content?
"Well, I suspect that Facebook thinks that there's going to be some future value to having all of that content locked away," Mazzone said. "Either because it will have historical significance, or because Facebook thinks there will be something they are going to do with that content down the road. There are already pretty crude avatars being built based on their email exchanges and Facebook posts, so it's conceivable that there could be things like holograms that are developed 100 years from now thanks to the mining of all of this data. But Facebook doesn't know that for sure, and that's why they see the value in holding on to all of this."
But ultimately the content is not Facebook's to keep, Mazzone says.
"Whoever uploaded the content has a property right that is protected it's not extinguished by anything that Facebook does," he said. "The trouble, though, is how you or your heirs get your hands on that content. The person who has inherited the copyright, who has the ability to control the uses of the work, can't take advantage of it because it's locked away in Facebook's digital vault. That's why we need to get to a place where we can require an entity like Facebook to give individual users at least some possibility of deciding while they're still alive what's going to happen to their content after they die."
Mazzone says there are plenty of different ways to produce that result, with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act providing a good example of how to protect privacy interests while allowing users to "exercise affirmative control."
"HIPAA allows patients to specify who is going to get access to health records, and you have to affirmatively opt-in to that system," he said. "It's another area of federal law where you have information that's important and there are privacy interests involved. So I think that sort of model has some potential."
According to Mazzone, it's something of a sore spot for Facebook users.
"It's really pretty astonishing that there is no way for individual users to say, 'When I die, this is what happens to my account,' " he said. "Instead, it comes under the control of Facebook. I know many users have complained about the lack of just such an option. I also think it's the way Facebook users would think that things ought to work, and many users would be surprised to learn that there is no such option. I do think that it's pretty essential that that be available given the sorts of intellectual property and privacy interests that are at stake."
###
The paper, "Facebook's Afterlife," was published in the North Carolina Law Review.
Editor's note: To contact Jason Mazzone, call 217-300-0385; email mazzonej@illinois.edu.
The article is available online.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
My uncle was just diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. ?It?s treatable, but it?s still very rough news. ?He?s 50. ?My grandfather (my uncle?s father) was diagnosed with colon cancer at 48. ?He survived, minus several organs, some not so important (appendix), some very important (bladder). ?My aunt successfully beat colon cancer a couple years ago. ?She was 57 when she was diagnosed. ?Sensing a trend here? ?This is on my Mom?s side of the family. ?On my Dad?s side of the family, my grandmother died of colon cancer in her mid 60s. ?My Dad takes colon cancer very seriously as a result, and I?ve always kind of known about it. ?My Mom hates doctors and hospitals, but my Dad has made sure she gets the regular colonscopies as well. ?My brother, sister and I will all have to start getting colonoscopies at age 40, per my uncle?s doctor?s recommendation.
My Mom?s side of the family is basically just a minefield of health issues, from colon cancer and other cancers at relatively young ages to Type II diabetes ? my grandmother, uncle and aunt ? to heart disease and stroke. ?I grew up with her older relatives as a model of what old age looks like (since my dad?s family was in Ireland and we don?t see them very often), and it?s not pretty. ?Both sides of my Mom?s family have a tendency to be overweight or obese. ?My Mom has struggled with her weight as long as I can remember, despite eating way less than my Dad does. ?Unlike all her other family members, though, she does eat like a bird, and with my Dad?s encouragement, walks every day, and she?s the one out of her four siblings that has so far avoided cancer and diabetes.
My husband has been touched my colon cancer as well. ?His Dad died of it in his 60s. ?It was definitely the worst thing that has ever happened to my husband ? not just the trauma of losing a parent, but losing a parent in what was apparently a particularly horrible way. ?(This happened before we got together.) ?He?s been getting colonscopies since his early 30s, and has already had polyps removed, as has his brother.
The risk factors for colon cancer are:
Older age.?About 90 percent of people diagnosed with colon cancer are older than 50. Colon cancer can occur in younger people, but it occurs much less frequently.
African-American race.?African-Americans have a greater risk of colon cancer than do people of other races.
A personal history of colorectal cancer or polyps.?If you?ve already had colon cancer or adenomatous polyps, you have a greater risk of colon cancer in the future.
Inflammatory intestinal conditions.?Chronic inflammatory diseases of the colon, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn?s disease, can increase your risk of colon cancer.
Inherited syndromes that increase colon cancer risk.?Genetic syndromes passed through generations of your family can increase your risk of colon cancer. These syndromes include familial adenomatous polyposis and hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, which is also known as Lynch syndrome.
Family history of colon cancer and colon polyps.?You?re more likely to develop colon cancer if you have a parent, sibling or child with the disease. If more than one family member has colon cancer or rectal cancer, your risk is even greater. In some cases, this connection may not be hereditary or genetic. Instead, cancers within the same family may result from shared exposure to an environmental carcinogen or from diet or lifestyle factors.
Low-fiber, high-fat diet.?Colon cancer and rectal cancer may be associated with a diet low in fiber and high in fat and calories. Research in this area has had mixed results. Some studies have found an increased risk of colon cancer in people who eat diets high in red meat.
A sedentary lifestyle.?If you?re inactive, you?re more likely to develop colon cancer. Getting regular physical activity may reduce your risk of colon cancer.
Diabetes.?People with diabetes and insulin resistance may have an increased risk of colon cancer.
Obesity.?People who are obese have an increased risk of colon cancer and an increased risk of dying of colon cancer when compared with people considered normal weight.
Smoking.?People who smoke cigarettes may have an increased risk of colon cancer.
Alcohol.?Heavy use of alcohol may increase your risk of colon cancer.
Radiation therapy for cancer.?Radiation therapy directed at the abdomen to treat previous cancers may increase the risk of colon cancer.
It seems prudent to eliminate as many of these as possible.
The Mars Curiosity Rover has touched a Martian rock for the first time. And, in the process, it gave us the closest, most detailed view of the Red Planet yet, using her Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at ten, two and one inches from the rock. More »
For Veterans, a Surge of New Treatments for Trauma - NYTimes.com
Fixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.
Suicide is now the leading cause of death in the army. More soldiers die by suicide than in combat or vehicle accidents, and rates are rising: July, with 38 suicides among active duty and reserve soldiers, was the worst month since the Army began counting. General Lloyd Austin III, the army?s second in command, called suicide ?the worst enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the army.? This Thursday, the Army is calling a ?Suicide Stand-Down.? All units will devote the day to suicide prevention.
There are many reasons a soldier will take his own life, but one major factor is post-traumatic stress.
Anyone who undergoes trauma can experience post-traumatic stress disorder ? victims of rape and other crimes, family violence, a car accident. It is epidemic, however, among soldiers, especially those who see combat. People with PTSD re-experience their trauma over and over, with nightmares or flashbacks. They are hyperaroused: the slam of a car door at home can suddenly send their minds back to Iraq. And they limit their lives by avoiding things that can bring on the anxiety ? driving, for instance, or being in a crowd.
PTSD has affected soldiers since war began, but the Vietnam War was the first in which the American military started to see it as a brain injury rather than a sign of cowardice or shirking. A study of Vietnam vets 20 years after the conflict found that a quarter of vets who served in Vietnam still had full or partial PTSD.
America?s current wars may create even more suffering for those who fought them. In the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts soldiers have been returned to these wars again and again, and they face a deadly new weapon ? improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.?s ? which cause brain injuries that, terrible in themselves, also seem to intensify PTSD. ?We surmise PTSD will be worse,? said Dr. James Kelly, the director of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, which studies and treats the intersection of PTSD and traumatic brain injury. ?Some people are on their 10th deployment. Previously, people didn?t have those doses. And there are multiple blast exposures and other blunt blows to the head. This kind of thing is new to us.?
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When we think about treating PTSD, we usually picture a single patient and a psychotherapist. The two treatments in widest use are, in fact, just that: cognitive processing therapy, where patients learn to think about their experiences in a different way, and prolonged exposure, in which the therapist guides the patient through re-experiencing his trauma again and again, to teach the brain to process it differently.
These therapies help a lot of veterans ? about 40 percent of those who go through treatment are cured. But there are many, many more suffering veterans who are not helped. It?s not just that these treatments don?t work for everyone ? no therapy does. More important, they are not broad enough. PTSD is often accompanied by and entwined with other serious problems ? depression, sleep disorders, chronic pain and substance abuse. Sometimes these resolve if the PTSD does, but often they require specific attention ? which the standard PTSD therapies don?t provide.
There is another way these treatments need broadening ? they need to reach more people. The military and Veterans Affairs hospitals do not have enough psychotherapists to offer them on the necessary scale. And many soldiers are wary of psychotherapy and afraid of the stigma it carries.
Today, the military is fighting that stigma. The V.A. is trying to integrate mental health care into primary health care; soldiers are now routinely screened for issues like PTSD, depression or substance abuse. An ad campaign called AboutFace features dozens of vets talking about their PTSD and how they got better ? the point is: they are people just like you. A new program called Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness builds in resilience training for all soldiers at every phase ? pre-deployment, in theater, upon return. It seeks to make regular mental health exercises as routine for soldiers as physical training.
According to a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences? Institute of Medicine, since 2005, the Pentagon and the V.A. have greatly increased funding for PTSD research. The V.A. has added 7,500 full-time mental health staff members and trained 6,600 clinicians to do cognitive processing and prolonged exposure therapies. Starting in 2008, all large V.A. clinics were required to have mental health providers onsite. The V.A. also added more centers that offer free, confidential counseling. Mobile centers bring counselors (themselves combat vets) to rural areas where other counseling is scarce.
All this effort however, is falling short. Only about 10 percent of those getting mental health care in the V.A. system are veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan ? a vast majority of those treated are still Vietnam veterans. But some 2.4 million soldiers have been through Iraq and Afghanistan. The RAND Corporation?s Center for Military Health Policy Research did a telephone survey of vets from these conflicts and found that one-third were currently affected by PTSD or depression or report exposure to a traumatic brain injury ? and about 5 percent had all three. RAND also found that only half of those who reported symptoms of major depression or PTSD had sought any treatment in the past year.
~~~~
Individual therapy is not the only way to treat PTSD. In January, a young man with the nickname of Trin (he asked that his real name not be published) sat down in a small, drab, room at a Veterans Affairs clinic in New Orleans with nine other men. All were veterans ? of Iraq, Afghanistan, Operation Desert Storm or Vietnam; Trin had served in Iraq. All had PTSD. The men took chairs facing each other around tables pushed into a square, along with two women, who were running the group.
The facilitators asked everyone to do three drawings: of how they felt, where they were and where they wanted to be. Trin drew himself with no facial features. The next week, the facilitators put on some music and everyone stood up, faced a wall, and bounced to it. At other sessions they took large sheets of paper and colored in their family trees, with different colors for divorces, early deaths, conflicted relationships. And at almost every meeting over 10 weeks, they practiced conscious breathing and mindfulness.
?When they asked us to draw and color, people were rolling their eyes,? Trin said. ?We had older gentlemen, and some people might have thought this is kind of soft ? not my lane.?
Trin was anxious, cold and short-tempered. He was drinking a lot. Before starting this group, Trin had tried individual therapy, with no success. ?My psychiatrist would ask a question and I would answer it,? he said. ?It was like talking to a wall. He didn?t understand what I had gone through.? He gave Trin a prescription for an anti-anxiety drug, which helped a little.
When Trin heard about the group, he quickly volunteered. By session five ? the midpoint ? he was sure it was helping. His sleep improved. The breathing exercises were things he could use to calm down. And having the group itself helped ? men who had been through what he had gone through. On the last day, the group passed around stones ? one for each participant. When your stone was passed around, each group member had to say something nice about you. ?We put all that energy and kindness into each stone,? said Trin. He carries his in his pocket.
Trin?s program is a 10-week course designed by the Washington-based Center for Mind-Body Medicine. It is one of perhaps half a dozen different kinds of alternative therapies being tried for PTSD in military and V.A. hospitals.
You name it, and it?s being used somewhere in the veterans? health system: The National Intrepid Center in Washington is one of many places using acupuncture to treat stress-related anxiety and sleep disorders; it has been shown to be effective against PTSD. At the New Orleans V.A., the same clinicians who ran Trin?s group also did a small study using yoga. They found vets liked it and attendance was excellent. The yoga reduced the veterans? hyperarousal and helped them sleep. There is even a group in the Puget Sound V.A. Hospital in Seattle that treats PTSD ? including among Navy Seals ? using the Buddhist practice of ?loving kindness meditation.? (?We had a little bit of debate about changing the name,? said Dr. David Kearney, who led the group. ?But we decided to keep it, and it worked out just fine.?)
One of the most promising techniques is mindfulness, inspired by Buddhist teaching, which emphasizes awareness of the present moment in order to choose how to respond to thoughts, feelings and events. Dr. Amishi Jha at the University of Miami is working with the military to develop mindfulness-based training for soldiers before they deploy, and Dr. Kearney has done a very small study of the effect of mindfulness on PTSD.
The Center for Mind-Body Medicine?s program ? the one Trin did ? is the most comprehensive of all of them, giving participants a variety of different strategies to choose from: breathing, meditation, guided visual imagery, bio-feedback, self-awareness, dance, self-expression, drawing. And it is the one with the strongest evidence that it works to cure PTSD. In a trial in a Kosovo high school, students with PTSD who did the 10-week program had significantly greater reductions in PTSD than a control group of students assigned to wait for the course. Other before-and-after studies (with no control group) in Gaza have found an 80 to 90 percent reduction in PTSD with the technique, and those results still held months later. This is significantly better than any currently used individual therapy.
The Mind-Body program is in use at various V.A. hospitals, military bases, and at the National Intrepid Center. In some places it is studied, as well. At the Minneapolis V.A. Health Care System, for example, Beret Skroch and Margaret Gavian found that in a Mind-Body group of patients with numerous problems, about 80 percent showed improvement.
Trin?s group in New Orleans is part of the first randomized controlled trial measuring the program?s effect on PTSD among U.S. veterans. Researchers are still measuring whether the results lasted two months after the last session, but James Gordon, the founder of the Center, said that the patients? improvement at the last session was ?at least as good? as the individual therapies the V.A. uses, with significantly lower dropout rates.
If those results hold up, then mind-body medicine is a potentially valuable addition to the V.A.?s limited menu of widely used therapies. It is built for large scale, with no psychotherapists needed. The vast majority of groups are run by lay people who went through a ten-day training; in Kosovo, high school teachers ran the groups. In Gaza, Center staff have trained 420 group leaders and worked with 50,000 people. Gordon said the Center is currently capable of giving 10-day training and support for 1500 group leaders a year.
Another advantage is that the program is broad-spectrum, showing success not only with PTSD, but depression, pain, sleep disorders and substance abuse. Dr. Barbara Marin, chief of addiction treatment services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, uses it there for patients with substance abuse problems. She calls it a ?very effective? model.
Mind-body medicine and the other alternative therapies, moreover, may be more attractive to soldiers than the individual treatments, which have a 20 percent dropout rate. Both C.P.T. and prolonged exposure ask the patient to relive his trauma ? an upsetting prospect for many soldiers. Some veterans avoid psychotherapy because they do not want to be singled out, judged and labeled deficient.
The alternative medicine groups, by contrast, have a dropout rate of virtually zero. Members can talk about their past trauma if they wish, but there is no pressure to do so. Instead, the groups are centered on the present, helping members to learn practical skills they can employ immediately. The facilitator does not sit in judgment ? she?s a participant in the group, sharing skills she might use herself for better sleep or stress reduction. Everyone, after all, can use help dealing with the stress of re-entry to civilian life. Going to a skills group instead of psychotherapy could remove much of the stigma of treatment.
Despite the vast increase in research money, studies of these skills groups have been small and isolated. Only randomized controlled trials are persuasive enough to get Washington to adopt a therapy on a wider scale, but these are too few and too slow, and starting new ones now would take years. It is time to take the most promising ideas and try them with thousands of people, not just a few dozen ? and if they work, to expand them further. That is not cautious. But to continue with therapy as usual is to condemn hundreds of thousands of soldiers to a tour of duty without end.
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Tina Rosenberg won a Pulitzer Prize for her book ?The Haunted Land: Facing Europe?s Ghosts After Communism.? She is a former editorial writer for The Times and the author of, most recently, ?Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World? and the World War II spy story e-book ?D Is for Deception.?
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Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
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