Budget Cuts on Mental Health?

We’ve seen many changes in the chemical dependency counseling scene over the past few years, but the budget cuts for advocating mental health seem to be getting worse. This is not in the best interest of anyone, especially those that want to end the ‘War on Drugs’. 

“As figures from the King County Mental Health Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division illustrate, funding for mental-health services throughout the state have taken a beating from Olympia in the aftermath of the Great Recession. As a briefing paper from the agency explains it, “Since 2009, there have been significant reductions in funding for community mental-health services, while involuntary commitments have increased substantially.”

How bad has it been? Starting four years ago, budget cuts in the state legislature have led to the elimination of 90 beds from Western State Hospital. Another 31 beds were lost at the Program for Adaptive Living Skills, a facility on the campus of Western State Hospital that was forced to close because of the cuts, but which used to houses people with histories of violence, sex offenses, and noncompliance with treatment plans—in other words, the last people you want roaming the streets at night.

Here’s a breakdown of the statewide cuts:

• The 2009 state biennial budget slashed Medicaid funding for mental-health services by 3.4 percent—or $12.2 million per year.

• The same budget took a 9 percent swipe at non-Medicaid funding, to the tune of $11.6 million per year.

• The 2011 budget cut another $13 million per year in Medicaid and non-Medicaid funding.

• A 2011 supplemental budget enacted a one-time mental-health funding cut of $12.6 million.”

 

Source: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/948896-129/mental-health-funding-services-seattle-cuts

Internet Addiction

Internet addiciton is a very real thing. Almost everyone has some sort of “disorder” or “addiction” and chemical dependency counseling fits in with each one. Addiction doesn’t just apply to drugs and alcohol:

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Some contend that excessive computer time leads to insufficient outdoor time, or “nature deficit disorder.” The worst sufferers, perhaps, could benefit from digital detox, a getaway from the gadgets that can hook us.

The American Psychiatric Association recently recommended further research into a condition it labeled Internet Gaming Disorder. In the latest version of the APA’s diagnostic manual released in May, the group pointed to warning signs in Asia, where too much gaming has landed kids in hospitals.

Can online, all the time, really make you ill?

Try Googling “cyberpsychology.” The verdict is split.

One speaker at the burnout breakfast — Brooke Beason, who specializes in social media for an ad agency — recalled the withdrawal symptoms she experienced when giving up Facebook for Lent.

For “40 days and 40 nights,” Beason said, she fought the impulse to reach for her phone and post at all hours. “There were a couple of occurrences where I could feel my blood pressure rise,” she told the crowd. But over time she felt a greater sense of self-control.”

 

Did you know there is an addiction to aquiring new information constantly? 

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/10/4402895/is-addiction-to-the-internet-and.html#storylink=cpy

 

Addicted to Technology

Drugs aren’t even close to being the only thing that people can be addicted to and those in the chemical dependency counseling field know this. South Korea, like the U.S, is addicted to smartphones and teens are not wanted to put them down. 

“The government said that it plans to provide nationwide counseling programs for teens by the end of this year, to help them deal with their addictions.

Programs to train teachers on how to deal with their students’ addictions will be put in place as well.

As South Korea is the home to the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Samsung, many Koreans were the first users of these new digital devices.

According to the Korea Communications Commission, the smartphone penetration rate among children ages 6 to 19 tripled last year.

According to the Pew Research Center, 37 percent of teens in the U.S. had smartphones in 2012.

In Korean schools, it’s already standard practice for teachers to collect phones at the beginning of class.

Seeing that a recent survey just showed that 55 percent of Americans use their smartphones while driving, and 9 percent use them during sex, there’s no question that we’re addicted to the devices.”

Source: 

Mandatory College Personality Tests?

Personality tests can not only help students find their strengths, but it can also help them realize what their special talents are that match their personality and brain type. This could be very useful for college students looking into the chemical dependency counseling and counseling certification fields to help them identify their strengths. 

“College admission criteria usually focus on a student’s performance on standardized tests (SAT and ACT), high school grade point average and class rank. But new research suggests a better way; long-term success in college may be better predicted with Advanced Placement (AP) exams and personality traits in combination with standard admission practices.

Researchers from Georgia Tech and Rice Universities found that, on average, males and females who changed their college major from a field in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) identified different reasons for doing so.

Women who changed from a STEM major tended to have lower “self-concepts” in math and science — they were less likely to view themselves in these fields. Men tended to have lower levels of orientation toward “mastery and organization.”

Do you think these brain tests and personality tests should be mandatory for college students at admissions? 

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/07/18/should-college-admissions-include-personality-testing-too/57330.html

War on Drugs: What do you think?

I want you to answer that question and think about what the Drug War is. It’s a war against the legal use and sale of certain narcotics. The idea of the War on Drugs has a good message, but doesn’t and hasn’t truly solved anything. Addiction physiology has shown over and over that addiction can start with childhood and brain chemistry, so this war needs to be fought differently. 

Lets compare it to a ban on guns. If people want to kill or use guns they will find a way to do so illegally. This is exactly what happens with the drug war. The only way we can really begin to fight against drugs is to work with the people who use them. Beat it at the source by informing and counseling those who have addictions. 

Centaur University stands by the counselors that fight daily to help those attached to drugs, break their dependence. 

Fixing Over-diagnosis and Mis-diagnosis with Physicians

Anyone who is a chemical dependency counselor already knows that over-diagnosis from physicians is a real problem in the U.S today. 

“While it’s partially true that many physicians don’t have the “expertise” to make the right diagnosis, they actually do a pretty good job of at least recognizing mental health concerns. Throw in easy-to-use and -score screening measures, and physicians have a pretty good set of tools already. Some use them, but most don’t.

The first problem isn’t making even more tools and resources available to primary care physicians. The problem is getting them touse them regularly, and incorporate them into their ordinary practice.

The second problem is one of followup. If, by and large, physicians already are making the appropriate referrals to mental health professionals when they see their patient may benefit from specialized mental health treatment, who’s doing the followup?

Unfortunately, it’s usually not the physician’s office. Patients often don’t followup with mental health treatment referrals.² Unless that changes — someone is there to help a patient understand the benefits of getting care and treatment for their mental health concern and makes sure that they do — all the access to additional “expertise” isn’t going to help much.

So most physicians already have access to a multitude of quick screening tools that they can provide their patients. They also usually have access to a select list of trusted mental health professionals they refer to and trust, too.”

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/18/project-echo-can-we-teach-physicians-to-better-diagnose-mental-disorders/

How to not drain yourself, while being a counselor

Too often I see people that get their counselor degree then over extend themselves into their work and end up getting burned out and emotionally drained. Here are some quick tips to help recognize if you’re starting to become drained and how to fix it. 

Symptoms: 

• low tolerance to stress or stressful situations;
• inattentiveness;
• lack of motivation; and
• physical fatigue

Tips: 

• relaxation
• meditation
• mindfulness
• staying in the moment
• taking things one step at a time, and
• asking for help

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/05/avoiding-emotional-exhaustion-filling-our-emotional-tank/

 

The Roots of Anxiety

Anxiety is extremely common and those in the chemical dependency counseling field with a CAADAC certification know that it can have many different roots. Here we will explore some of them.

“People with social anxiety fear embarrassment, especially when they’re being observed. Their anxiety might heighten during speaking events, work evaluations and social situations. They might worry about everything from their appearance to their performance. They’re also self-critical.

For our ancestors, however, social anxiety might’ve been beneficial. It might’ve kept them from challenging “a ruthless hierarchy,” Kahn writes. “Our ancestors wouldn’t want to find themselves beaten down, or thrown out of the tribe – another way they’d be on their own and exposed to all sorts of dangers.”

Kahn speculates that our ancestors had a biologically based social hierarchy. Today, our society has a clear-cut structure. (Work is a good example of a hierarchy, with managers, bosses and higher-ups.) But our ancestors did not. Having a biologically determined hierarchy kept our ancestors in line and tempered competition.

“Social Anxiety today may reflect the biology of low social rank. Indeed, people with Social Anxiety may think or act as if they have a lower ranking in the hierarchy, not to mention having more submissive behavior and less closeness among their peers, friends and romantic partners.”

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

In ancient societies OCD-like traits would’ve been helpful for survival and keeping a sanitary, safe home. As Kahn writes:

The evolutionary advantage of OCD is that you don’t forget some very necessary concerns and tasks. Our ancestors wouldn’t want to find themselves living in filth (though since they didn’t know about germs, they weren’t actually germaphobes), unable to find or protect their homes, left without food or tools in an emergency, or stealing each other’s food or spouses. The instincts behind OCD help to prevent those problems.

Long ago, they also might’ve helped mothers protect their young and ensure their survival. According to Kahn, today, many women who have postpartum OCD struggle with “cleanliness and arranging behaviors, and [with] controlling harmful thoughts about the newborn.”

This is similar to what happens with other mammals. “They clean up the newborns and the afterbirth and they keep the nest tidy.” Their instincts also are to protect their kin from predators and invaders.

For some species, these predators might even include family and other adults in the same group. “Having aggressive thoughts already in mind makes for a quicker defense,” Kahn writes.

Whatever the origins, one thing is clear: These disorders disrupt the daily lives of many individuals. Social anxiety affects about seven percent of the population, and OCD affects about one to two percent.

Both disorders are debilitating. Kahn notes that, on average, people with OCD spend almost six hours a day preoccupied with their obsessive thoughts and almost five hours with compulsive behaviors. People with social anxiety disorder have lower levels of career success and may have fewer friendships.

Fortunately, both disorders — along with the other illnesses Kahn writes about — are highly treatable with psychotherapy and medication. (This website is a valuable resource for postpartum illnesses.) In other words, if you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, you can get better. The key is to get help.”

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/22/the-origins-of-anxiety/

Becoming a Success in your Counseling Job

Having a CAADAC Certification isn’t the only thing that will help a counselor be successful in their job. Here are some steps from Psych Central to improve job success. 

“1. You need to know how you use your time.

For the most part, we tend to be unreliable reporters of our work hours. According to one study, people who estimated that they worked over 75 hours a week were actually off by about 25 hours. People who estimated they worked 55 to 64 hours were still off by 10 hours. Naturally, if you think you work more, you’ll use your time differently.

That’s why successful people know how many hours a week they work. In order to use your time more effectively, you have to know how you’re using it in the first place.

Vanderkam suggests thinking of yourself as an attorney who charges by the hour. Track your time for an entire week and consider how long you spend on email, projects, meetings, planning and other tasks. (Vanderkam created a simple spreadsheet to help track your hours.) Then take a close look at how you’re spending your time.

According to Vanderkam, the most important lesson in keeping a time log is learning how long it takes you to accomplish each task. This gives you insight for creating meaningful changes. For instance, Vanderkam tries not to schedule phone calls before 11 a.m. because the morning is when she’s better able “to turn an idea into words.”

2. Don’t underestimate the power of planning.

In addition to being a writer, Vanderkam also is a speaker. When she asks audiences what they’d like to spend more time on, they say planning. The problem? They also say they’re too busy to plan.

And that is a problem. Vanderkam thinks this is a backward approach.

As she writes, “You hope whoever built your house wasn’t so busy hammering and sawing that he couldn’t look at the blueprint.”

In other words, planning gives you a path. How can you arrive at your destination without directions? “Knowing where you’re going vastly increases the chances that you’ll get there,” she writes.

Successful people build planning into their days, according to Vanderkam, also author of the excellent books All The Money In The World: What The Happiest People Know About Getting and Spendingand 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.

For instance, her personal planning strategy consists of three levels: Every December, she comes up with questions she’d ask in her “performance review” at the end of the year.

Every Sunday she creates a list of what she’d like to accomplish that week, keeping in mind her annual goals. Her to-do list includes tasks toward these goals along with immediate assignments she needs to accomplish.

Come Monday night, she evaluates what she accomplished that day and what needs to be done, and then schedules Tuesday. She does the same on Tuesday night, and so on for the rest of the week. Friday, she might spend planning and wrapping up the week.

3. Many things masquerade as work and can stifle your productivity (and vice versa).

Some tasks may look like work. But “if they’re not advancing you or your organization toward your goals,” they’re not, Vanderkam writes. The key is to figure out what those things are. Vanderkam names email and meetings as two examples.

What successful people do is to calculate the opportunity cost of various tasks. For instance, Traci Bild, of Bild & Company, leaves work at 3 p.m. to take care of her kids. She tells Vanderkam that her number one strategy as a leader is “constantly trying to replace myself…If I give my duties away, it frees me up to go to the next level.”

Other activities that don’t look like work can actually contribute to your success. LeUyen Pham, a prolific illustrator with two small kids, gets up from her desk and stretches every hour. She also peruses bookstores and art blogs.

“Successful people know that astonishing productivity – particularly in creative fields – requires filling the pot,” Vanderkam notes. To fill your pot, she suggests everything from getting a library card and browsing the stacks to visiting art museums to reading journals in a related field.

In her last chapter, Vanderkam talks about the importance of pleasure. She writes, “Successful people constantly look at their days to evaluate what brings them pleasure and what does not, and they figure out how they can spend more hours pursuing pleasure and fewer hours doing what they don’t care about.”

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/20/3-lessons-on-being-successful-at-work/

Getting the right help in Virginia

These days many people aren’t getting the help they need or the right counseling certification. Here’s an article about what’s going on in Virginia.

“Mingo County has begun a program to encourage addicts to turn in illicitly used drugs. So far, residents turned in 20 pounds of abused prescription drugs, some of which are shown here. Picture from Mingo County STOP Coalition.

Mingo County has begun a program to encourage addicts to turn in illicitly used drugs. So far, residents turned in 20 pounds of abused prescription drugs, some of which are shown here. Picture from Mingo County STOP Coalition.

The recent slaying of Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum brought southern West Virginia’s drug problem into the national spotlight. Crum had vowed to eradicate the problem of prescription drug abuse in Mingo County and when he was killed in broad daylight, many wondered if his crackdown on pill mills in the region was somehow responsible for his death.

West Virginia, after all, has the highest rate of prescription drug overdoses in the nation, and many of those deaths come from the overuse of legally prescribed opiate painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin. Crum and other law enforcement officials worked to close a number of pain clinics in southern West Virginia, but former Wood County Sheriff Jeff Sandy says some doctors are still doling out painkillers to addicts who crush the pills to get high.

“It still goes on,” he says.

Recently appointed U.S. Attorney R. Booth Goodwin II says that prescription drug abuse in southern West Virginia is a massive problem, tearing families and communities alike asunder.

An aide to Goodwin says his office has successfully prosecuted more than 200 prescription drug dealers over the past two and a half years. But while Goodwin has made strides in fighting the problem, his aides acknowledge that preventing prescription drug abuse is the best way to put a lid on the problem.

While an estimated 22 per 100,000 West Virginia residents die from drug overdoses (compared to 18 per 100,000 nationwide), the Mountain State does not have enough treatment and rehabilitation services for addicts who want to stay clean, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The federal figures estimate that only 13,000 residents in West Virginia are currently getting addiction treatment.

There are only two rehabilitation centers in all of Mingo and Logan counties: Crossroads for Women in Mingo County and the Appalachian Rehab Center for men in Logan. Both have a limited number of beds and an endless waiting list.

The problem of drug abuse in the Mountain State ripples far beyond the addicts themselves. Circuit Court Judge Roger Perry of Logan County says that many cases on his docket illustrate the detrimental effect that drug abuse has on families and the community.

“Probably 90 percent of what I deal with in the abuse and neglect cases has to do with drugs, and most of that has to do with prescription medication,” Perry says. “Most of the problems that we have are prescription-drug related, including cases that involve violence and theft.”

Perry says that the West Virginia Board of Medicine is not as diligent in monitoring doctors who over-prescribe addictive painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin as it should be.

“There’s been a lot of criticism about the medical licensing board,” Perry says. “Are they being aggressive about policing the doctors?”

West Virginia law requires doctors and pharmacists who are prescribing or filling prescriptions for painkillers and other commonly abused drugs to check for duplicate prescriptions on the state’s digital database, but many don’t bother. And the West Virginia Board of Medicine is not diligently enforcing its own rules, according to Perry.

“Doctors have a permission slip to [over-prescribe drugs],” Perry says, “And they’ve been doing it for years and years.”

West Virginia Senators Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin have introduced many legislative initiatives to reduce the prevalence of drug abuse in West Virginia and across the nation. For example, Manchin recently introduced S. 1760, the “Pill Mill Crackdown Act,” with Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). The bill would increase penalties for pill mill operators, put some of the seized assets from pill mills toward the more effective electronic monitoring of prescription drugs and make drugs containing hydrocodone (like Vicodin) more difficult to obtain illegitimately.

“Our first take back in Gilbert was a success, taking back approximately 20lbs of medication, the majority of it controlled substances.”

The federal Office of National Drug Control Policy provides funds to local law enforcement agencies located in counties with high rates of drug trafficking. There are 11 counties in West Virginia currently designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas , and Manchin is working with regional authorities to get more areas accepted into the program.

A group of concerned citizens in southern West Virginia known as “Strong through our Plan” or S.T.O.P. is trying to increase the number of treatment services available for addicts. According to a study of 22 treatment facilities in West Virginia, nearly 60 percent said they had a waitlist. And of those clinics, 27 percent said they had 1-25 people on their waitlist, while 18 percent had 25-50 people on the wait list.

Gov. Earl Tomblin recently decided to expand Medicaid coverage to 91,500 working West Virginians. This move could also help cover the cost of treatment for the 33,677 people currently struggling with addiction. Tomblin has indicated to anti-drug activists in southern West Virginia that funds will be appropriated to expand treatment facilities in Mingo County and other hard-hit counties.

“I just hope [Tomblin] hurries,” says Lora Perry, an addict support counselor with Celebrate Recovery, a non-profit faith-based program for anyone seeking freedom from ‘hurts, habits, and hang-ups’. The Celebrate Recovery meetings are held in various churches throughout Mingo and Logan County.

by Karissa Blackburn, Kirk Auvil, and Rachel Simpkins, Mountaineer News Service, West Virginia University
2 days ago | 89811 views

Source: http://www.coalvalleynews.com/view/f…stance=popular