Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

The Samaritans & AA

Excerpt from: Virgin (click for full article)

 

There should be an equivalent to the Nobel Prize for the remarkable individuals who set up two organisations that have transformed so many people's lives.

Chad Varah set up The Samaritans to help people who are on the verge of giving up on their lives. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith set up AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) who transform so many desperate lives. More than two million people count themselves as members and they have helped millions more over the years.

All three of these people are no longer with us but their work lives on and I keep on bumping into people whose lives have been saved.

Is School to Blame When Football Player Dies After a Fall?

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

Michael Anthony Mason was 17 when he and his friends sneaked into a Bloomfield, N.J., middle school in 2010. Mason then climbed out a window and onto the roof of the building, where he drank alcohol, eventually falling off and suffering severe head injuries. But sources say a drug overdose may be to blame for his ultimate demise.

His mother, Lisa Marie Mason-Costa, has filed suit against the school district, the doctors that treated his earlier concussions, and the pharmacy and hospital that treated him.

Mason-Costa’s theory appears to be that the school district is at fault because its doctors and coaches allowed her son to keep playing football, resulting in psychological and behavioral problems, which then contributed his taking drugs, as well as to his being on the roof and drinking and getting hurt again.

State laws vary, but in general, a plaintiff who sues everyone in sight in a complicated fact situation like Michael’s faces an uphill battle, according to a New Jersey personal injury lawyer who did not want to be named.

Promoting long-term recovery

Excerpt from: HHS.gov (click for full article)

 

A 10-year study indicates that Alcoholics Anonymous participants who help others in AA are more likely to stay sober long term.  Researchers compared AA meeting attendance, stepwork – or working through the 12-step program, and AA-related helping, to drinking behaviors and consideration of others.  Sharing experiences with other alcoholics was associated with greater recovery outcomes.

Dr. Maria Pagano is at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

“AA-related helping helps the helper stay sober over the long haul and facilitates participation in other core activities like meeting attendance and stepwork.”

The study in the journal Substance Abuse was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Predicting violence remains difficult, despite years of study by mental health experts

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

After every act of incomprehensible violence, the world asks whether the killer could have been identified ahead of time. It’s as automatic as the call for more gun control and better mental health services.

Psychologists and psychiatrists have been working for decades to try to figure out whether there’s a link between mental illness and violence, and if so, which people are likely to act. Using an ever-changing tool kit of theories and questionnaires, they’ve made some progress.

It’s now fairly clear, for example, that people with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and some personality disorders, are more likely to commit violent acts than others. But the risk is small. The vast majority of mentally ill people won’t commit assault, rape, arson or homicide, although the risk rises sharply among those who abuse drugs and alcohol.