Healthcare Press Releases

The Tail Wags The Dog

Author Releases A Facebook Fan Page for The Tail Wags the Dog

GETZVILLE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Dr. AmyBeth Taublieb's book THE TAIL WAGS THE DOG – A PSYCHOLOGIST REVEALS TWO HUNDRED LIFE LESSONS LEARNED FROM HER PATIENTS is a unique self-help book that provides an insightful read regarding various psychological issues. Depression, anxiety, anger, grief, obsessions, insecurities and addictions are only some of the topics spoken about in an easy to understand presentation of two hundred truisms.

The author (a doctoral-level clinician with three decades of experience) is thrilled to announce another milestone of this book as it is now available on social media. Readers now have the opportunity to be exposed to this insightful work through its exclusive Facebook Fan Page account where queries can be easily addressed.

Everyone is invited to visit the sites for The Tail Wags the Dog: A Psychologist Reveals Two Hundred Life Lessons Learned from Her Patients:

https://www.facebook.com/Amy-Beth-Taublieb-475711342782047/

http://www.drtaublieb.com/

https://twitter.com/authorTaublieb/

About the Author:
Dr. Amy Beth Taublieb is a licensed psychologist who has been performing therapy and assessment in outpatient and inpatient settings for almost three decades. In addition to her therapeutic expertise, she is frequently called upon as a consultant to businesses for interpersonal mediation, to intervene with organizational employees when a psychologically traumatic event occurs, by the media to discuss issues of psychological relevance, and, to perform various assessments and to serve as an expert witness for the courts. Dr. Taublieb is also well known for her entertaining, yet informative workshops and in-services for professionals as well as the lay public. Finally, Dr. Taublieb is a regular contributor to various publications writing about a wide variety of psychological issues.

Product details
Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: AuthorCentrix, Inc. (July 22, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1947352911
ISBN-13: 978-1947352919
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches

Book Availability:
Amazon – http://goo.gl/hfZ7a4
Barnes & Noble – http://goo.gl/CYbmWZ

Dr. Amy Beth Taublieb
AuthorCentrix, Inc.
+1 888 504 0951
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Source: EIN Presswire

Dr. Patricia Griffin

Amanda Craten

Stop Foodborne Illness

Dr. Patricia Griffin and Amanda Craten Join the Board of Stop Foodborne Illness

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Stop Foodborne Illness, the national, nonprofit, public health organization representing individuals and families directly affected by serious foodborne illness and dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens, has announced that two influential leaders in the food safety movement, Amanda Craten and Dr. Patricia Griffin, have joined the organization’s board.

Amanda Craten is a mother, an educator, and a food safety advocate from Arizona. She has experienced the impact of foodborne illness directly—her youngest of three children, Noah, was a victim of the Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak in 2013. Her family has been fighting to make change in the food industry ever since. They were the first to take a poultry producer through civil trial and win.

“I am thrilled to help guide this increasingly visible and influential organization,” said Craten. “Food safety has made huge strides in recent years but there is still much work to be done. I want to encourage families who have survived foodborne illness to become architects of change. Stop Foodborne Illness is committed to that principle and hopefully, through our work, more and more families will join the fight to make food safe for everyone.”

Craten is currently a Special Education Assistant for Resource at Desert Palms Elementary School and is working towards her bachelor’s degree in Special Education and Elementary Education at Northern Arizona University. Craten’s daughter, Anna, likes to evoke the words of author Heidi Wills: “You can choose to be affected by the world, or you can choose to affect the world."

“Amanda brings the critical knowledge that only comes from personal experience as well as such enthusiasm for our mission to educate, influence policy, and collaborate with key stakeholders to make food safer,” said Lauren Bush, board co-chair of Stop Foodborne Illness. “We are so pleased to have her with us. She is a strong advocate for all families and her voice will be invaluable as we encourage everyone to become more engaged in this work with us.”

Dr. Patricia M. Griffin is Chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The branch conducts surveillance for cases of illness and for outbreaks, does studies of human illness due to bacterial agents such as Salmonella and E. coli O157, tracks trends in these illnesses, and analyzes data on the relationship of illnesses to particular foods. Dr. Griffin has supervised epidemiologic investigations throughout the United States and overseas. She has authored or co-authored over 235 journal articles, book chapters, and other publications.

“Dr. Griffin is one of our nation’s most outstanding and credible food safety leaders,” said Michael Taylor, Stop Foodborne Illness board co-chair and former FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine. “Her foodborne illness expertise will help guide our organization as we work to build our partnerships with all those in the public and private sectors who share our commitment to preventing foodborne illness.”

“Helping all parties understand the major sources of and trends in foodborne illness is one way that Stop Foodborne Illness can help foster informed decisions by industry and government on policies and strategies that result in safer food,” said Dr. Griffin.

Dr. Griffin holds an adjunct appointment in the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She received an MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, trained in gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in mucosal immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, and in epidemiology with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS). She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and a member of the American Epidemiological Society.

Stop Foodborne Illness Is Here to Help You
Stop Foodborne Illness is a national, nonprofit, public health organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens by promoting sound food safety policy and best practices, building public awareness and assisting those impacted by foodborne illness. For more food safety tips please visit www.stopfoodborneillness.org/awareness/. If you think you have been sickened from food, check this out and contact your local health professional.

For questions and personal assistance, please contact Stop Foodborne Illness’ Community Coordinator, Stanley Rutledge, at srutledge@stopfoodborneillness.org or 773-269-6555 x7. To donate to Stop, visit here.

Social Media:
• Facebook.com/stopfoodborneillness
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Newsroom:
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Cindy Kurman
Kurman Communications for Stop Foodborne Illness
+1 312-651-9000
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Source: EIN Presswire

CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections.

Restoring Human Rights and Dignity in the Field of Mental Health

FDA accused of delaying ban on the electrical device that uses pain to modify behavior.

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it will ban a device that delivers painful electrical shocks to the skin to “modify” behavior in disabled students at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Massachusetts. In a publication of its upcoming priorities, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the FDA was planning to issue a final ban of the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) in the fall. [1] But Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health watchdog, says media reports say the FDA may take another year to ban it, leaving children, adolescents and adults at risk from the device. CCHR says that all electrical devices use to alter behavior should be banned, including the electroconvulsive therapy devices, also known as electroshock or ECT machines. These deliver up to 460 volts to the brain causing a grand mal seizure throughout the body. Click here to sign CCHR’s Petition to Ban ECT.

A petition started by Gregory Miller to the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts calling for a ban on the skin shocks garnered nearly 270,000 signatures before closing about six years ago. It stated, “Not only does the JRC need to immediately stop this practice but Massachusetts legislators need to make these shock procedures illegal.” It pointed out that students have “no voice of their own to describe their pain. They need your help.” [2] Yet CCHR says the FDA has failed to speedily provide that help which requires the device to be banned immediately. “The FDA continues to procrastinate, as it has done with the ECT, electroshock device, putting individuals at risk of devastating harm,” stated Jan Eastgate, international president of CCHR.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also just issued a formal notice known as “precautionary measures” that called for immediate cessation of the electric shocks at JRC. In a seven-page resolution, the Washington-based panel said that the practice poses a “serious impact on the rights” of the vulnerable children at the school, “particularly on their right to personal integrity which may be subjected to a form of torture.” [3]

Both the GED and ECT procedures are equated with torture, added Diane Stein, president of CCHR Florida, and commenting that Florida residents have been treated at JRC. [4] ECT uses anesthesia and muscle relaxants largely in the treatment of “depression,” while the GED is an external skin shock to control behavior in those with severe emotional, behavioral, psychiatric problems, and autism-like disorders. ECT can cause severe memory loss and permanent brain damage—a fact that one of its manufacturers recently admitted.

The skin shock works by “hooking the students up to electrodes worn on different parts of the body.” When the student engages in “forbidden behavior, a staff member administers a shock. Some students wear the electrodes as much as 24-hours a day, seven days a week. And sometimes for years,” according to the ABC News. [5]

Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrote to the U.S. government in May 2010, appealing to them to investigate. [6] In 2012, another Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, also formally approached the U.S. government concerned about the procedure and how it “inflicts pain and suffering tantamount to torture in violation of international law.” His remarks followed a video being shown online of then 18-year-old Andre McCollins being given 31 shocks over a seven-hour period in 2002. In the video Andre can be heard screaming and shouting, “Help me. Help me.” He was restrained with belts, face down on a board as the electricity was discharged into his body. [7] About 90 percent of the center’s students are people of color. [8]

In 2013, the UN again cited the GED in a report on torture, which stated that the FDA had “sent a warning letter to the JRC on 6 December 2012” and that “the use of aversive therapy by JRC has been challenged through a variety of state and federal legislative and judicial actions,” including the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into possible violations of civil rights laws….’ [9] The DOJ condemned the practice. [10]

In a 2007 interview with ABC, the developer of the JRC skin shock system, a doctor, said the procedure “has no detrimental effects whatsoever.” Further, “And if it didn’t hurt it wouldn’t be effective. It has to hurt enough so that the student wants to avoid showing that behavior again.” The price tag per student is $200,000 a year, and is financed by tax dollars. [11] Similarly, psychiatrists dismiss any damage from ECT, while a course of treatments can cost up to $35,000 a year, not including hospitalization costs, in a lucrative $5 billion a year industry.

People are encouraged to write to Laurie Lenkel, Director, FDA Office of the Ombudsman, ombuds@oc.fda.gov and demand the Graduated Electronic Decelerator be banned immediately—not in another year’s time.

You can also write to Taunton’s Bristol County Probate and Family Court, which approves the use of GED shock device on JRC students, to protest the court’s approval of a procedure criticized for its torturous affects. [12] Write to the Register’s Office, Taunton Family and Probate Court, 40 Broadway, Suite 240, Taunton, MA 02780.

Disability rights group ADAPT, the American Civil Liberties Union, IACHR and many others have opposed GED shock. [13] Independently, CCHR has campaigned for a ban on all electric shock devices in the treatment of mental disorders, autism or emotional or aggressive behavior, as a violation of fundamental human rights.

About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,’” he wrote in March 1969. For more information visit www.cchrflorida.org.

Click Here for References.

Diane Stein
Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida
+17274428820
email us here
Visit us on social media:
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Constitutional Attorney Jonathan Emord—Electroshock Treatment Must Be Banned

Source: EIN Presswire

Recent international guests have come from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Costa Rica

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, USA, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Leaders from around the world routinely visit Intermountain Healthcare facilities to learn about the Intermountain Operating Model and how frontline caregivers are using it to improve quality, safety, and patient experience. A remarkable 436 guests, including government, business, and industry leaders, visited Intermountain in 2018.

Recent international guests have come from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Costa Rica. They are interested in Intermountain’s idea system, huddle boards, tiered escalations, and caregiver-led improvements.

Visitors from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have come to Intermountain twice this year, touring Intermountain Utah Valley Hospital in Provo and the Intermountain Memorial Clinic in Salt Lake City. The group included top leaders from Saudi Arabia’s ministry of health, which guides healthcare decisions for the country.

“These leaders are interested in how we listen to frontline caregivers and empower them to make changes,” said Dannon Denison, a Continuous Improvement business partner at Intermountain Utah Valley Hospital. She said the groups visit a variety of different departments to learn from frontline caregivers, their managers, and Intermountain leaders.

At the Intermountain Memorial Clinic, the Saudis met with Devin Reid, a practice administrator, and Brandy Siniscal, practice director of pediatrics and internal medicine. “They were interested in how we’ve worked to reduce entry-level turnover and improve the patient experience,” said Devin. “They wanted to know how to break down barriers and empower people outside of traditional top-down leadership. We were able to show them how we do this with our huddle boards and specifically how Brandy engages her team to improve on our fundamentals of extraordinary care.”

“As an organization, we’re modeling how to lead and grow a team,” said Dannon. “We’ve empowered frontline caregivers to have a voice and run their own shop. It’s not just our CEO who’s running things, it’s all of us together. And now that we’ve moved to a One Intermountain structure, the Intermountain Operating Model can help our work improve even more as teams own this culture across the system.”

Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based not-for-profit system of 23 hospitals, 170 clinics, a Medical Group with about 2,300 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health plans group called SelectHealth, and other medical services. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare through high quality and sustainable costs. For more information about Intermountain, visit www.intermountainhealthcare.org.

Daron Cowley
Intermountain Healthcare
801-442-2834
email us here

Source: EIN Presswire

Dr. Greg Vigna

Over 100,000 women who have suffered from complications of the transvaginal mesh device have filed personal injury claims against the device manufacturers.

SANTA BARBARA, CA, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Over 100,000 women who have suffered from complications of the transvaginal mesh device used for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) have filed personal injury claims against the manufacturers of their device and these cases have been consolidated in West Virginia in the largest Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) in history. Despite the MDL being closed to new case there will be large numbers of women filing lawsuits in State Courts across the country for catastrophic injuries caused by transobturator slings that continue to be implanted by the thousands across the country. Injuries from the transobturator sling pudendal neuralgia, obturator neuralgia, and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) produce life-time disability and requires ongoing medical treatment.

What is clear from the ‘Transvaginal Mesh Debacle’ is that thousands of women have claimed disability for their injuries, many of which have been denied. It is essential for women to understand the requirements for disability which include the following: 1) The condition must be severe in that they impair a person’s ability to provide for their normal activities of daily living, 2) The condition must last at least 12 months, and 3) Functional impairment is such that there is no ‘other work’ that the claimant can perform.

Social Security must not ignore reported pain in any disability determination. Pain, however, must be supported by ‘substantial evidence’ that it somehow ‘limits functional capacity physically and/or mentally’. As many women who have failed in their application for disability, pain is just pain, if it is not accompanied by a diagnosis.
Social Security must consider certain documented diagnoses in the medical record including ‘neuralgia’ and ‘complex regional pain syndrome’. The definitions of ‘neuralgia’ supports a claim for disability in that it is ‘chronic pain’ when an ‘individual feels sensation of pain without any actual stimulation of pain receptors’. The diagnoses of CRPS Type 1 and Type 2 in the medical record should support a claim for disability in that these are well described entities that produce catastrophic disabling pain that is often progressive.

TVM injured women with documented obturator neuralgia and/or pudendal neuralgia should support an application for disability benefits. Ongoing medically necessary treatments may include opioids, anticonvulsants such as Neurontin or Lyrica, antidepressants such as Elavil or Cymbalta, and implantable devices such as nerve stimulators will support these diagnoses and a claim for disability.

TVM injured women with documented CRPS Type 1 (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) which results from injury to soft tissues or CRPS Type 2 (Causalgia) which results from injury to the obturator or pudendal nerve, or CRPS (unspecified) should support a claim for disability.

Greg Vigna, MD, JD, a practicing physician and national pharmaceutical injury attorney, states that he has ‘discussed disability issues with a large number’ of women inside the restraints of the MDL and now those who have suffered catastrophic injuries from the transobturator sling device used for stress urinary incontinence and that he has ‘never’ had a woman lose an appeal for earned disability benefits if they have documented pudendal neuralgia, obturator neuralgia, or CRPS diagnosis’ in their medical records. Unfortunately, Dr. Vigna adds that ‘many women with symptoms consistent with these diagnoses and disability from these symptoms have not been diagnosed and have failed to obtain the disability benefits they require’.

For more information, and to contact Dr. Greg Vigna, visit: http://pudendalportal.lifecare123.com/ or http://hibner.phaktory.net/video/65674772.

Data Source: SSDRC.com

Greg Vigna
Greg Vigna, M.D., J.D.
+1 800-761-9206
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Source: EIN Presswire

A public poll on ALZGerm.org shows overwhelming support for more NIH funding to grants that explore the role infectious diseases play in Alzheimer's disease.

NAPLES, FL, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — The public wants to see more research grant money allocated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to clarifying whether or not germs play a role in triggering Alzheimer’s disease, judging by early results of a national campaign launched three weeks ago, says Leslie Norins, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Alzheimer’s Germ Quest, Inc.
He says hundreds of encouraging messages have been received, but not a single negative comment.

“The big surprise so far is that many people thought NIH already had funded investigations of every possible infectious agent in searching for the unknown trigger of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Norins.

But when they find out only a few grants have been made specifically for this purpose they want more funds allocated to it, he says, “especially when they learn the NIH is getting a record $2.3 billion from Congress to dole out for Alzheimer’s research.”

Dr. Norins says, “Our campaign urges the NIH to allocate to Alzheimer’s microbe research $230 million in grants, which is just ten percent of its appropriation. That will still leave them with 90 percent – a comfortable $2 billion – to fund traditional Alzheimer’s research topics, which as yet haven’t yielded a cure or even the root cause.”

In a video on the website Dr. Norins conveys the analysis which motivated the campaign.

He adds that grant applications to investigate Alzheimer’s microbes are presently given low scores by the NIH evaluation panels because they contain few judges with extensive experience in infectious diseases. “But top officials at NIH could remedy this,” he says.

Dr. Norins emphasizes he is not claiming germs definitely are the trigger for Alzheimer’s disease, but he says there are many clues suggesting this might be the case. “At least, this possibility must be thoroughly investigated to find out one way or the other,” he says.

Alzheimer’s Germ quest, Inc is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Naples, Florida. It sponsors the “$1 Million Challenge Award” for the scientist who provides persuasive evidence that a particular infectious agent is the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The group is self-funded, and neither solicits nor accepts outside donations or grants.

Mollie Page
Alzheimer's Germ Quest, Inc.
+1 239-777-7243
email us here
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Source: EIN Presswire

The top challenge for healthcare providers is staff shortages with over 82% agreeing that they are consistently struggling with a shortage of staff

MAIDENHEAD, UNITED KINGDOM, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — A new survey has revealed that the top challenge for healthcare providers is staff shortages with over 82% agreeing that they are consistently struggling with a shortage of staff available to fill rosters. This was followed by absenteeism and last-minute roster changes (76%).

The survey undertaken by Softworks was carried out during the month of October 2018. National Health Executive’s 94,000 subscribers were invited by email to take part in the survey on Healthcare Resourcing & Rostering Challenges and how Technology could assist. Among the other notable results, were challenges around balancing leave requests with care needs (75%) and dealing with peaks in care levels and finding cover (74%).

Over two thirds of respondents found determining availability for additional shifts (69%), employee satisfaction with shifts and rosters (67%) and finding people to cover shifts from bank or agency staff at the right cost (67%) very challenging.

Other challenges highlighted were too much time spent building & generating staff rosters (65%), documenting skill levels & skill matching (65%), ensuring legislative compliance (64%), fair and equal shift distribution (62%) and the flexibility to change rosters according to patient care needs (60%). According to Andrew Ferguson, Softworks CEO,
“What is exciting about this feedback is that there are challenges here that workforce management technology could definitely assist with. While technology cannot provide extra resources, it can assist with more efficiently managing the resources that you already have”

The survey also investigated how current and future technologies could be designed and developed in order to improve operational processes. Respondents were asked if they currently had an automated rostering/eRostering System, what they liked and disliked about their system and if they had a magic wand what they would add to their system. 39% of survey respondents currently have a rostering system in place while 61% had no system.

There were definitely mixed results in this section with some respondents happier than others with their current systems. Approximately one third of all respondents who had a system (34%) agreed with the statement that their rostering system is very easy to use and just under a quarter (24%) felt that their system was meeting all of their requirements, so there is definitely room for improvement. Andrew Ferguson had this to say
“This is a great opportunity for technology providers to align themselves more closely with healthcare organisations to develop features and functions that meet all of their workforce management requirements. At Softworks we continually partner with our customers to develop solutions that are very easy to use and 100% relevant to their specific needs.”

The full survey findings and analysis paper (pdf) may be downloaded via this link.

Ends
About Softworks
Softworks assists Healthcare organisations to deliver high-quality, cost effective care within budget. Softworks solutions that include; eRostering & Optimisation, Patient Acuity & Bank Staff Management, Time & Attendance and Absence Management have been designed to address the unique challenges of healthcare organisations. Softworks provides organisations with a completely automated workforce management environment. We can assist organisations to manage complex rostering, drive efficiencies, cut costs, reduce absenteeism and ensure regulatory compliance, while simultaneously delivering exceptional patient care

For further information contact:
Mairéad Walsh
Head of Marketing & Communications, Softworks
Phone: +353 (1) 286 6126 / +353 (086) 8511003 Email: mwalsh@softworks.com

Mairead Walsh
Softworks
+353 12866126
email us here

Source: EIN Presswire

Most people think ECT is no longer used, but an estimated 100,000 Americans and a million people worldwide are subjected to it, including the elderly, pregnant women and children, even younger than five years old.

Ban Electroshock (ECT) Device Being Used on Children, the Elderly and Vulnerable Patients

CCHR has helped to enact more than 180 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive mental health practices since it was formed over 49 years ago, including a ban on electroshock use on children in four U.S. states and in Western Australia.

CCHR’s public awareness blog provides facts and warnings about electroconvulsive therapy and the need to ban it.

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — The mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) International has launched an information blog on the dangers of electroconvulsive therapy (also known as electroshock treatment or ECT)—the practice of sending up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain, damaging it in a brutal effort to alleviate depression. The www.TruthAboutECT.org blog site was created to bring about public awareness of the serious risks associated with ECT and allow survivors of the “treatment” or their family members, friends or doctors to share their stories warning about how damaging the practice is.

CCHR International president, Ms. Jan Eastgate, said: “ECT should be banned. The device used to administer it has never undergone clinical trials to prove it is safe and effective. Most people think ECT is no longer used, but an estimated 100,000 Americans and a million people worldwide are subjected to it, including the elderly, pregnant women and children, even younger than five years old. The fact that within a short period, more than 57,000 people signed our petition in support of a ban on ECT is an indication of the public outrage that it even exists.” Click here to sign the petition.

Eastgate said the blog offers people a forum to submit articles, stories and video testimony about how ECT harms lives, especially evidence of severe memory loss and brain damage. “In this way, they can join the movement to ban this abhorrent and torturous practice,” she added.

She said equating ECT with torture is supported by decades of evidence, including several United Nations reports from the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that have supported a ban on all forced medical interventions against persons with disabilities, including the administration of electroshock, psychosurgery, and mind-altering drugs. [1] HRC put it more strongly earlier this year. According to its “Mental health and human rights” report, countries “should reframe and recognize these practices as constituting torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment….” [2]

Speak Out: Electroshock Causes Brain Damage

Eastgate said the blog can be used to speak out against ECT. She charged the FDA with covering up the brain damage ECT causes in order to protect a $5 billion a year electroshock industry in the U.S. alone. In December 2015, the FDA proposed that the ECT device risk classification be reduced to make it more available, which the American Psychiatric Association (APA) supported. In fact, in a letter to the FDA, the APA wanted more children to receive electroshock, stating that having access to it is “especially meaningful in children and adolescents,” despite potential harm to their developing brains and bodies. In 2001, an APA Task Force report on ECT even recommended that “brain damage should not be included in the ECT consent form as a potential risk of treatment.” As such, the term has almost disappeared from psychiatric literature or nomenclature regarding ECT. Nowhere in the FDA’s 2015 proposal to reduce the risk classification of ECT devices does it mention brain damage, CCHR informs. [3] [4]

ECT Device Maker Admits “Permanent Brain Damage”

Yet, recently faced with a legal challenge to ECT causing such damage, one U.S. ECT device manufacturer issued a warning in its new ECT risk disclosures that there is a risk of “permanent brain damage.” Click here to read more about legal cases involving ECT. [5] [6]

But ECT “works,” according to psychiatrists by causing seizures. Most neurologists regard it as self-evident that epileptic seizures cause brain damage and that all injury to an intact brain is harmful. And while psychiatrists might claim that the newer ECT procedures and devices lessen the risk of damage, Dr. Kenneth Castleman, a biomedical engineer who has served on the faculty at Caltech and The University of Texas and on the research staff at USC and UCLA, has provided evidence that the newer models of the ECT device “actually elevate the risk of brain damage.” [7] [8]

CCHR encourages as many ECT survivors and their family or friends to write in support of a ban and share their experiences on TruthAboutECT.org. It also encourages medical professionals, including psychiatrists opposed to ECT, to submit articles and blogs.
About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,’” he wrote in March 1969. For more information visit www.cchrflorida.org.

References:
[1] A/HRC/22/53, "Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez," United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Twenty-second Session, Agenda Item 3, 1 Feb. 2013.
[2] “Mental Health and Human Rights,” United Nations Human Rights Council, 39th session; 10–28 Sept. 2018, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/MentalHealth/A_HRC_39_36_EN.pdf.
[3] Letter to Robert M. Califf, M.D., Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, from the American Psychiatric Association, March 10, 2016,
https://psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Advocacy/Federal/APA-FDA-ECT-reclassification-comments-03102016.pdf.
[4] American Psychiatric Association Committee on Electroconvulsive Therapy. (2001). The practice of electroconvulsive therapy: Recommendations for treatment, training, and privileging: A task force report of the American Psychiatric Association (2nd ed.). Arlington, VA, US: American Psychiatric Association, p. 102.
[5] Jose Riera and Deborah Chase, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situation, v. MECTA Corporation; Somatics, LLC, Case No.: 2:17-cv-06686 RGK(PJWx), United States District Court
Central District of California, Sept. 11, 2017.
[6] http://www.thymatron.com/downloads/System_IV_Regulatory_Update.pdf.
[7] Thomas Szasz, M.D., Coercion as Cure: A Critical History of Psychiatry,(Transaction Publications, 2010) p. 135.
[8] Jonathon Emord, Rick Moxon, Citizens Petition on ECT presented to the FDA Commissioner, 2016, http://emord.com/blawg/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1-ECT-Citizen-Petition.pdf, p. 40.

Diane Stein
Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida
+17274428820
email us here
Visit us on social media:
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Constitutional Attorney Jonathan Emord—Electroshock Treatment Must Be Banned

Source: EIN Presswire

Today, grit42 announced the partnership with MBRose, the leading provider of systems for the study of food and water intake of group housed rodents.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today, grit42 announced the partnership with MBRose, the leading provider of systems for the study of food and water intake of group housed rodents. While MBRose offers real-time data collection, the partnership with grit42 enables elaborate on-the-fly analyses and visualisations. In turn, this allows researchers and technicians to efficiently monitor and evaluate their studies without any delays.

Co-founder and CEO of MBRose, Søren Ellegaard, states, “Our core expertise lies in the development and deployment of our food, water, and liquid intake monitoring systems in home cage solutions for socially-housed mice and rats. Partnering with grit42, enables our customers to further analyse and visualise their data, during and after the experiment, as well as share the data across other systems for more elaborate analyses, if relevant.”

CEO at grit42, Claus Stie Kallesøe, adds, “In addition to all the straightforward data integration benefits, all those grit42 customers who use our Animal Handling app get one extra benefit: All the data captured from an experiment, will automatically be linked to the animals in question, complete with full trace- and searchability.”

In addition to making all the data collected on MBRose’s systems available on grit42’s platform, joint customers now also have the ability to integrate all their experiment data into an enterprise data setting. For example, via the grit42 platform the data can be integrated in to Oracle-based data warehouse type systems or fed in to environments for more advanced analytics, such as artificial intelligence.

About MBRose
MBRose focuses on complete systems for mice, rats and minipigs, looking to meet new ethical standards allowing multiple animals per cage while individually monitoring their feed intake. The necessary electronic identification of animals combined with an event based data acquisition system, offers new perspectives in improved efficiency solutions as well as eliminating manual registration leading to reduced human errors in the research.

About grit42
Copenhagen-based grit42 focuses on integrating digital laboratory infrastructure with user-friendly day-to-day lab workflows, as well as handling compound and sample logistics, in order to ensure structured quality data across all the different pre-clinical drug discovery phases.

Lasse Goerlitz
grit42
+45 2758 2601
email us here

Source: EIN Presswire

(L-R) H.E. REBECCA NAA OKAIKOR AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana; H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central Africa Republic; H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana; H.E. AISSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger; H.E. HINDA

H.E. REBECCA NAA OKAIKOR AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana; H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central Africa Republic; H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana; H.E. AISSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, H.E. HINDA DEBY ITNO, The First Lady of Ch

Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation during the Merck Africa Asia Luminary

NAIROBI, KENYA, December 18, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany conducted the 5th Edition of “Merck Africa Asia Luminary” presided over by The President of The Republic of Senegal, H.E. MACKY SALL and in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Senegal in Dakar.

During the Luminary, Dr. Rasha Kelej , CEO of Merck Foundation emphasized, “I am very proud that many First Ladies have partnered with Merck Foundation and accepted to be the Ambassadors of our unique and historic campaign “Merck more than a Mother” to empower infertile women and eliminate the stigma around infertility in their countries”.

The First Ladies took the pledge during the opening ceremony of the Merck Africa Asia Luminary 2018.

The pledge was taken by:

H.E. MARIEME FAYE SALL, The First Lady of Senegal along with
H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana;
H.E. DENISE NKURUNZIZA, The First Lady of the Republic of Burundi;
H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central Africa Republic;
H.E. HINDA DEBY ITNO, The First Lady of Chad;
H.E. REBECCA NAA OKAIKOR AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana;
H.E. AISSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger;
H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO, The First Lady of Sierra Leone and
H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, The First Lady of Zambia

The First Ladies also discussed the strategy to build healthcare capacity in the fields of cancer, infertility, diabetes and hypertension in their respective countries in partnership with Merck Foundation.
The First Lady of Botswana, H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, emphasized, “This campaign is very critical for my country and for Africa at large. I am fully supporting this initiative as the First Lady of Botswana. I firmly believe in the importance to empower infertile women, who are mistreated and discriminated against in many cultures for not being able to have children and start a family”.
Link to her full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3u_unKGQM&t=392s

The First Lady of the Republic of Burundi, H.E. DENISE NKURUNZIZA emphasized, “Thanks to Merck Foundation for this unique campaign. It is the first time we have an initiative that empowers infertile women and takes care of them”.
Link to her full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Wy4mXd5Ak

H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central Africa Republic said, “I happily accepted to be the ambassador of Merck More than a Mother in 2016. This is a historic campaign that I launched with them in my country”.
Link to her full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYrUq09CifU&t=396s

The First Lady of Chad, H.E. HINDA DEBY ITNO said, “Through this platform, together with all other ambassadors we can create a culture shift across Africa to empower childless women by creating awareness and a cultural shift”.
Link to her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoHnGN3_ca8&t=179s

The First Lady of Ghana, H.E.REBECCA NAA OKAIKOR AKUFO-ADDO said, “I along with Rebecca Foundation will work closely with Merck Foundation to empower women and adolescents; we will tell women to value themselves, as they are more than just mothers, they are productive members of the society.”
Link to her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJGWlcJiAPk&t=199s

The First Lady of Niger, H.E. AISSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU emphasized, “I have also accepted to be “Merck more than a mother” ambassador in Niger to help raising awareness about infertility prevention, management, male infertility and to break the stigma around infertile women to empower them, as they are not just child bearers.”
Link to her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01kuMu8dGAk&t=318s

The First Lady of Sierra Leone, H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO said, “I have heard and witness the stories of infertile women in my country, the attitude of the people towards these women is not progressive or informed. I am honored to be the Ambassador of Merck More than a Mother, through this campaign I intend to help the women of my country”.
Link to her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VYBY62qt1Q
The First Lady of Zambia, H.E. ESTHER LUNGU said, “Zambia will launch Merck More than a Mother campaign in the country and I am happy to be their Ambassador. There is a serious need for a cultural shift about infertility and its prevention, we will make this happen”
Link to her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

About ‘Merck More Than a Mother’ campaign;

In many cultures, childless women suffer discrimination, stigma, and ostracism. Their inability to have children results in great isolation, disinheritance, and assaults. “Merck More Than a Mother” empowers such women through the access to information, health, change of mindsets and economic empowerment.

As part of this Campaign, we started “Empowering Berna” project in Africa to help childless and infertile women starting their own business and thus achieve financial independence and become stronger and happier. The project has benefited more than 1,000 women across the continent.

Also, part of the campaign is our Merck Embryology & Fertility Training Program, a three-month hands-on practical course to establish the platform of fertility specialists across Africa and Asia.

Merck Foundation provided for more than 84 candidates, three months to six months clinical and practical training for fertility specialists and embryologists in more than 29 countries across Africa and Asia such as: Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire , Ghana, Ethiopia , Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania , Zambia , Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Burkina Fuso, Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameron, Rwanda, Botswana, DR Congo , Congo Brazzaville, Gambia , Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Merck Foundation is making history in many African countries where they never had fertility specialists or specialized fertility clinics before ‘Merck More Than a Mother’ intervention, to train the first fertility specialists such as; in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Niger, Chad, and Guinea.

Merck Foundation plan supported the establishment of the first public IVF centers in Ethiopia and Uganda through providing the clinical and practical training necessary for their staff. Merck Foundation also plans to support the establishment of the first public IVF in Tanzania soon.

“Merck more than a Mother” launched in 2015, is a program of the Merck Foundation, the foundation drives many of our initiatives and programs in the area of build health care and research capacity and improves access to equitable healthcare solutions.

Diana Mbaluka
Digisphere Consulting
+254736466513
email us here

Merck Foundation’s Annual ‘Merck Africa Asia Luminary’ conference 2018

Source: EIN Presswire