Blog Posting

Hello,  I have recently started blogging with MDRC and Norm Delisle.  This is a first time post of my article.  I am a little lost.  Belis a copy of the post to be published.  Please email me if this is the wrong process and tell me the process to use your service.  Thanks.  Tim Grabowski

 

 

Michigan Recovery Blog

T.E.A.M.

Together Everyone Achieves More

By Tim Grabowski

                In togetherness there is comfort and achievability that one person cannot reach.  A team is stronger than an individual.  Sometimes an individual can reach levels unforeseen by the common man. But, put several people together and that strength multiplies.  Everyone has assets and deficits mentally and physically.  When several people get together and unify their strengths the achievements of the group far surpass the success of the individual.

               My life would have been a lot different if not for group efforts.  My life walk  would not be as successful or fun as it has been because people came together to support me.   More than the individual, the group  actually becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

                Everyone succeeds when one person exceeds.  Think of all the groups throughout history that have made our lives better because we work together at a task that was impossible for the individual.  In the old days we walked together to make things better for partners and groups.  We can look at every little thing and how it enriches our lives because of the effort of others.  When you open your eyes in the morning, think and be grateful for all the things that are better because of the efforts of teams of people.  Let me spend a little time talking about some of the events of daily life that become miracles because of the time and effort of teams of people.

                We could not eat breakfast without the work of hundreds of people who till the soil or build the refrigerator that keeps the food fresh.  The clothes I wear are many hours of work applied to keeping others dry and warm.  The bathroom is a manmade river of life.  We bathe and eliminate with the nature’s flow of water.  We live in houses that are modern caves that people design and build to give us shelter from the rain.  When awake we work to produce services and products that enrich our lives.  Together we achieve our basic needs, and so much more.  If life treats us well we can even get the things we want.  That is what a team has brought to us in the first few hours after  our eyes open.  Look around you and realize all the riches and gifts because of the efforts of people who selflessly work and think of ways to make each and every life better.

                My life took a hard turn with a mental break.  People gathered around me when I was not the most likable person around.  But thank God there are people who spend their time thinking and doing things to make life better for every one of us.  The walk of my life may have had mud and stones in the path.  But people took the ideas of a better life and smoothed  the ground I walked on.  In hard times I had people to talk to when my thinking was not that clear.  I had medications that people found would bring me back to a life track, that has sometimes wavered, but is now on course to a better place, a place that is far nicer than where I was because of individuals that give us a hand up, not just a hand out.  Thanks to all of you for being compassionate, and a part of the team that enriches my life and many other  lives.  Your efforts really change  human lives.  



“You better, you better, you bet” (The Who).

Finding Care for an Elderly Parent with Substance Abuse: What are my options?

http://goo.gl/QaGSVh

During the admissions process, a good clinician will note if your parent self-medicates, says Sandi Flores, also a member of the ALFA Quality Team. In her years as a clinical supervisor, she has overseen thousands of resident admissions into assisted living communities and she says that having parents with substance abuse issues is common, especially as “alcohol is a socially acceptable effective coping mechanism” She adds that adult children shouldn’t be ashamed of their parent’s behavior.

While you may be disclosing a family secret that you may have been or are still feeling ashamed of, it is important that you know the admissions clinician can be trusted with this family history, as most facilities are bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to safeguard the privacy of residents. If you don’t feel comfortable disclosing your parent’s substance abuse issue with the staff at the community, then search elsewhere. And if your parent’s substance abuse doesn’t come up during the admissions process, do not count this as fortunate but rather as a red flag to search for another community.

The problem with HR 3717

http://goo.gl/3W72KT

Murphy is seeking sponsors for this legislation and Democrats are lining up to sign on. Essentially, the bill expands coverage for mental health problems, which among other features, allows family members and physicians greater control over adults with mental health issues.


The IL perspective is that people with this disability should be included in any decision-making process. Of course, we need to also recognize that people with significant mental health issues may be unable to speak on their own behalf.

This problem brings to the forefront our need for consumer control of these programs. I don’t know about you, but I would like someone who really understands mental health issues to decide how to define “danger to self and others” and not some guy steeped in the medical model. Each state has a Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council. Maybe that is where we should start.

FDA approves new hand-held auto-injector to reverse opioid overdose

About time. This should have been available 20 years ago.....

http://goo.gl/Qv19FL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a prescription treatment that can be used by family members or caregivers to treat a person known or suspected to have had an opioid overdose. Evzio (naloxone hydrochloride injection) rapidly delivers a single dose of the drug naloxone via a hand-held auto-injector that can be carried in a pocket or stored in a medicine cabinet.

It is intended for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose, characterized by decreased breathing or heart rates, or loss of consciousness.

Penn Medicine points to new ways to prevent relapse in cocaine-addicted patients

http://goo.gl/e12dOK

Researchers at Penn Medicine's Center for Studies of Addiction have now found that the drug baclofen, commonly used to prevent spasms in patients with spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders, can help block the impact of the brain's response to "unconscious" drug triggers well before conscious craving occurs. They suggest that this mechanism has the potential to prevent cocaine relapse. The new findings are reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"The study was inspired by patients who had experienced moments of 'volcanic craving', being suddenly overcome by the extreme desire for cocaine, but without a trigger that they could put their finger on," says senior author Anna Rose Childress, PhD, research professor of Psychiatry, director of the Brain-Behavioral Vulnerabilities Division in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Childress and colleagues previously found that subliminal drug "reminder cues" (the sights, sounds, smells, and memories of the drug) could activate the brain's reward circuit. "Now, we wanted to understand whether a medication could inhibit these early brain responses," said Childress.

Excellence in Mental Health Act

http://goo.gl/KC97kH

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow's Excellence in Mental Health Act is one of the most significant steps forward in mental health funding in decades, expanding access to community mental health services and strengthening the quality of care provided for those living with mental illness.

The legislation establishes pilot programs in eight states to increase access to community mental health centers and improve the quality of care at those centers. Specifically, state agencies will work with community mental health centers, federally qualified health centers, VA clinics, and other mental health organizations to increase services such as:

Simple test may be predictive of addiction treatment success

One Day at a Time.....

http://goo.gl/sl8GVJ

"It was an incongruity in our data that caught my eye," said Warren Bickel, the lead author of the study and a professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, where he also directs the Addiction Recovery Research Center. "I realized that the people who discounted the future the most - the ones we least expected to be able to recover from addiction - also showed the best outcomes when they received an effective treatment. And the ones who discounted the future the least improved the least."

Bickel realized that a particular signature of behavioral change - called rate dependence - might apply to future discounting as well.

"Rate dependence generally refers to an inverse relationship between people's rates of responding to something at the outset and then again after an intervention," Bickel said. "This phenomenon is believed to be the reason stimulant medications work for kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Stimulants that would make most people bounce off the walls actually slow these kids down."

Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills linked to risk of death

http://goo.gl/nG9ryP

Professor Scott Weich, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick, explained “The key message here is that we really do have to use these drugs more carefully. This builds on a growing body of evidence suggesting that their side effects are significant and dangerous. We have to do everything possible to minimise over reliance on anxiolytics and sleeping pills.”

“That’s not to say that they cannot be effective. But particularly due to their addictive potential we need to make sure that we help patients to spend as little time on them as possible and that we consider other options, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, to help them to overcome anxiety or sleep problems.”

The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic

Thanks and a hat tip to Kathryn W.

http://goo.gl/9y2E0F

Why are we losing the fight against depression? In this groundbreaking work, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg explains that despite advances in pharmaceutical science, progress has been hampered by our fundamental misunderstanding of depression as a psychological or chemical defect. Instead, Rottenberg introduces a surprising alternative: that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion; it is a low mood gone haywire. Drawing on recent developments in the science of mood-and his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adult-Rottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival.