Category: Health

Health of people related to Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) & psychology

Aptos Psychologist: More how parents can help kids with ADHD & Autistic Spectrum problems …

ADHD & ASD
ADHD & ASD

The overall goal is to get everyone on the same page: you as parent, MD, therapist, regular ed and special education teacher(s), school nurse, school psychologist, and any government agencies that are involved (e.g., County Mental Health, Child Protective Service for children in foster care).

Unfortunately, what often happens is that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. You as parent need to get in the driver’s seat and see that all the “horses” – school, professionals, hospitals, government agencies — move ahead in the right direction.

And that should include that everyone knows what the others have learned. So, make sure that Releases to share information are signed so everybody can communicate, receive records and communicate.


Here’s an example. An elementary school child is in foster care and receives services through Child Protective Service and County Mental Health. To clarify diagnosis the County wants the child to go to nearby Stanford Hospital (LPCH). So what needs to happen? Hopefully, CPS and County Mental Health will see that their mental health records together with the the child’s pediatric MD records and appropriate school records accompany the referral.

Another example: You as parent have concerns and go to your pediatrician. The pediatrician thinks that your child needs additional assessment and your doctor refers to a large, near by hospital complex (UC-SF, Stanford Hospital, Kaisier Permanente). Be sure that you as parent take along with you all relevant school assessments, school grades, and medical records. Get all the players on the same page. And be sure that all the players can talk to each other and exchange information.

Here’s some general ‘how to’ directions for parents of a child with ADHD or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD):

Start with a physical exam by your pediatrician to make sure there are no physical reasons for child’s problems with concentration, attention, focus and organizational problems.

Next, get appropriate assessment of your child for symptoms of ADHD and Executive Functioning abilities. Some pediatricians and psychologists are trained to do appropriate assessment.

Have your MD or psychiatrist write a brief letter to child’s school.
The letter needs to state that the child is under the care of ____ doctor (MD) or psychologist (Ph.D.) and that it is the professional opinion of _____ that the child’s educational performance is significantly impacted by ____ and ____.

Take several copies of the letter from your doctor to your child’s school. Be sure that copies go to: school nurse, teacher, school psychologist & principal.

Make sure that the letter from MD or psychologist including diagnosis of ADHD or Autistic Spectrum is part of your child’s regular education CUM file. That way the school nurse can monitor as needed.

In a separate letter addressed to Special Education at your child’s school (include child’s date of birth, complete name of child, address, telephone number, email address,) ask that your child be identified as Other Health Impaired student. Ask for appropriate assessment by the school. Also ask for a 504 Plan available under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Be sure to date that letter and keep original in your file.

If you do not hear back in two weeks send another copy (with a Second Copy in red) to the school principal and child’s teacher. Typically the second letter gets a quick response.

Of course, be polite and understanding and remember that in these times of substantial change in the economy every school dollar is stretched more than it was.

Your child with ADHD and Autistic Spectrum issues needs your guidance to successfully learn at school.
Questions?

Contact Dr. Cameron Jackson DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Share

Aptos Psychologist: What to do & how parents can help when children are delayed in their development

What parents can do

When parents of young children have a concern about their child’s development they often go first to their pediatrician.

Parent concerns might include: “Our child does not turn his head when I call him.” or “ Our child does not make much eye contact or smile.” “He does not play with toys like other children.”

If the pediatrician thinks that more assessment is needed, when MD’s refer out they often refer to to other physicians at large hospitals — such as Stanford Hospital (LPCH), Children’s Health Council and U.C. San Francisco. Physicians know other physicians and often do not know local resources, e.g., licensed psychologists trained in psychological assessment.

When parents are referred to large hospital complexes such as Stanford Hospital, Kaiser Permanente and U.C. San Francisco, parents can help get the best possible assessment by finding out ahead of time:

Will their child’s pediatrician MD automatically send along the child’s medical records as part of the referral process? If not, then the parent needs to request a complete set of medical records and bring the medical records to the appointment.

Who knows the child best besides the parent? Does the child go to a nursery school or day care? Is the child taken care of by a grandparent or neighbor?

Write down the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address for all persons who know your child best. Let those people know that the child will be assessed and that someone from that institution may call to gather information. Bring the list of people who know your child best to the appointment.

Can the parent take a video of the behaviors that concern them? For example, does the child insist on lining up all his toys? Does the child have a melt-down whenever the normal routine changes? If possible, get out your ‘smart phone’ or camera and take a video of those behaviors. Bring the video with you to show whoever does the assessment.

Call ahead of time to the institution where the assessment will be done and find out (and write it down) exactly who will do the assessment? Will it be a team assessment of various areas of functioning or will the assessment be done by only one specialist?

Know that it is Best Practice in the assessment of young children to examine several areas of functioning (e.g., speech, non-verbal communication, gross and fine motor) and that the assessment be done by appropriate specialists.

Depending on the concerns, some times one person doing the assessment is sufficient and sometimes not.

Know that it is Best Practice that records and information be obtained from various sources (MD, school, day care provider, parent, grandparent) over a period of time.

It is often the case that young children do not perform as they typically do when driven several hours to an appointment and then required to do certain activities with persons they do not know.

Summary: Parents can greatly assist in the accurate assessment of young children with possible developmental delays by 1) gathering all medical records and bringing them to the appointment; 2)making a list of all persons who know your child best including email and telephone numbers; 3)inquiring ahead as to exactly who will do the assessment and what areas will be assessed.

And do not be afraid to press the professionals for understandable answers. If they cannot say it so you can understand,they are useless to you and your child.

Any questions or comments? Contact Dr. Cameron Jackson DrCameronJackson@gmail.com 831-216-6002

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Share

Aptos Psychologist: Many CA children are wrongly diagnosed by Stanford Hospital (LPCH) with Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation

Stanford hospital (LPCH) routinely mis-diagnoses children with Intellectual Disability because of faulty assessment proceedures. Mental Health wants to cut cases and one way is to refer out of County to Stanford who then mis-diagnoses. The loser? The child who needs appropriate therapy and support – no an inaccurate diagnosis.

Share

Stanford Hospital (LPCH) frequently mis-diagnoses children with Intellectual Disability
Stanford Hospital (LPCH) frequently mis-diagnoses children with Intellectual Disability

Many CA children are wrongly diagnosed by reputable institutions such as Stanford Hsoital (LPCH) with Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation.

Read the story of Maria below. To make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health actions — and lack of actions — harm children who deserve better.

Maria’s story is not unusual. The story describes how many children are routinely mis-diagnosed by Stanford hospital (LPCH). Information concerning Maria and the actual parties involved have been changed or not specified to maintain privacy.

Maria, not the child’s real name, was for real exposed in utero to multiple illegal drugs. And as is true for many children exposed in utero to drugs, Maria, now age eight, has substantial difficulties that affect her overall development. Front and center, she has substantial difficulties with with executive functioning, attention and concentration.

Maria was removed at birth from her biological parents. She lives with a foster mother who only speaks Spanish and a handful of other children. In the home, she has no daily chores and prefers to play by herself. For the last several years, Maria has received County mental health services (medications and therapy) to assist with her dificulties related to inutero drug exposure.

In the home, Spanish is the principal language spoken by the foster mother. At school, Maria’s special education classes (SDC) are in English. Maria speaks a mixture of Spaish and English. For example she know shapes (circle, rectangle) and colors in English but not Spanish; on the other hand, she knows animals and and common home items better in Spanish.

Through her public school, Maria’s cognitive abilities have been assessed in Spanish, English and also with non-verbal tests. At school, she performs best on non-verbal, visual tests of intelligence that have less cultural bias. Assessed on multiple occasions, Maria performs variously. On I.Q. tests that do not rely on lanugae she performs in the Average to Low Average range.

County mental health gave Maria a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PPP-NOS). Saying that they sought more ‘diagnostic clarity’, the County recently referred Maria to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) located in Stanford, CA.

Though County Menal Health initiated the referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH) they did not send along their own mental health records. The Mental Health therapist or psychiatrist could have put relevant mental health summary records in an envelope and given it to the family to take with them. That did not happen.

Nor did County Mental Health assist so that relevant school psychological assessments accompanied their referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH). With a Release signed by the mother the County Mental Health therapist could have ensured that school assessments accompanied the County’s referral to Stanford hospital. That did not happen.

As a result, there was no collaboration between County Mental Health, the local schools and local physicians. As a result Stanford hospital (LPCH) lacked up-to-date relevant records available for review. Very importantly, and one wonders about arrogance by Stanford hospital, LPCH routinely does not seek out additional information other than what it gets from their own assessment.

The family had to travel two to two and a half hours each way to go to Stanford hospital (LPCH). Although there are numerous licensed psychologists trained in assessment and diagnosis the County routinely chooses to refer outside the County to LCPH. If they wanted to, County Mental Health could reaadily refer to the local Psychological Association. Every County in CA has a psychological association.

Maria was recently assessed by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH). Of importance, the LPCH assessment did not request nor review Maria’s multiple prior school assessments. And LPCH did not review Maria’s medical records nor her mental health records.

LPCH limited the assessment of Maria’s current functional abilities to the ratings that they obtained that day from Maria’s foster mother. No ratings were obtained from Maria’s teachers. Based on a one day assessment, done in English using a Wechsler IQ test known to have strong cultural biases, LPCH gave Maria diagnosis of Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation.

Yes this 9 year old child suffers from dificulties related to in utero drug exposure. And she has not yet stabilized her language abilities because she hears only Spanish at home and English at school. And yes on certain tests of executive functioning, attention and concentration she scores quite low.

Maria and other children referred by County mental halth deserve an accurate diagnosis based on a thorough review of relevant school, medical and mental health records. County mental health should collaborate with local psychological associations and use locally trained psychologists who can visit schools and observe children in their home enviornment. When referring outside the County, County Mental Healh should see that relevant school, medical and mental health records accompany their referral.

As I wrote above, to make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health’s actions and lack of actions harm children who disserve better.

With an erroneous diagnosis in hand, County Mental Health will close Maria’s case saying that her supposed diagnosis of intellectual disability makes it impossible for her to profit from therapy. And with this diagnosis the schools probably will refer the family to social security.

What Maria truly needs is: 1) time to develop and stabilize her language abilities; 2) training in how to use schedules and other techniques that assist persons with problems with attention and concentration. Just because this eight year old tends to skip from step 1 to 4 does not mean she cannot learn to do tasks correctly. With correct interventions, Maria will be happier and society will not have to support her as an adult.

Commnets welcome. Send to: DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Share

Firenze Sage: Support your local psychic … [new model for sustainable foods for the poor]

Jay Moriarty film helps poor and undernourished says local psychic
Jay Moriarty film helps poor and undernourished says local psychic

Elizabeth Good, a psychic in Aptos, said she sees an unexpected surge in tourism, partly the result of the surfing film about Jay Moriarty, which will bring in revenues.

“Health also will be in the spotlight here”, she said. “A Santa Cruz County resident will institute a new model of creating healthy, sustainable foods to the poor and underprivileged,” she said. “This model will rapidly be adopted worldwide, catalyzing a huge positive change for thousands of people.”
_______________

And here I thought Michelle Obama was the new model.

jaj48@aol.com

Share

Aptos Psychologist: The Ten Commandments compared with Obama-Care rules

Ten Commandments guide behavior versus 1500+ Rules for Obama-Care
Ten Commandments guide behavior versus 1500+ Rules for Obama-Care

In the Ten Commandments there are 10 or so Thou SHALT NOT ….[steal, murder, bear false witness, covet].

In Obama-Care — alias the Affordable Care Act — there are 1,563 “the Secretary SHALL”.

Think of that — 10 Rules for civilized behavior versus 1,500+ Rules to control medical decisions.

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University evaluated all major Obama-Care rules that cost over $100 million a year. All of the Obama-Care rules scored F’s — some lower but all F’s.

Messrs. Conover and Ellig conclude that regulators working on deadlines usually resort to “analytical shortcuts, leading to lower-quality decisions.” The Bush Admin. post 9-11 regulatory overload was no great shakes. But at lest there in the White house was working to protect national security rather than usher in a new social and economic order through the Federal Register.

Mr. Obama has made clear that the rules will keep coming, but at least his team could try to write good bad rules Probably too much to ask.

The above is based on information from The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 Badly Written Bad Rules.

(Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” the Ten Commandments:

Share

Firenze Sage: Hire an Occupier to Occupy…

The delicate Indianapolis occupiers, of whom there are fewer and fewer, are melting as the weather gets cooler, the winds pick up and the rain falls.
But in order to pretend they’re a dynamic group, representative of an overblown percentage of humanity, one Indianapolis occupier is recruiting homeless people to prance around with occupier signs according to a Fox News report.

The organizers of the ‘Occupy’ movement in Indianapolis have turned to the homeless for help, recruiting them to help maintain the ‘Occupy’ presence in the city.

In an audio recording of a web seminar conducted November 9 between Occupy Indianapolis organizers and the demonstrators, one unidentified organizer can be heard saying, “I feel bad, man. I personally feel bad that we have you guys out here. And there’s … there seems to be really no purpose of it, other than … other than to show that Indianapolis has a physical occupation. You know, cause you are pretty much our billboard for Occupy Indianapolis.”
__________

Do you suppose they are paying the prevailing wage with benefits? Or is that just for others?

FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

Share

Firenze Sage: In case of a [bioterrorist] emergency…[$255+ a pop for untested vaccine enriches Obama donor]

$250+ per shot of for an anti-terrorist vacine enriches Obama donor

The Department of Health and Human Services has signed a no-bid  contract  with Siga Technologies for as much as much as 2.8 billion  dollars’ worth of a high priced drug,  for a terrorism threat that may not exist. 

 The drug’s effectiveness is unknown because it cannot be tested on humans.  The threat it is intended to counter is an attack based on Smallpox (which has been eradicated and  “is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government.”)

A large stockpile of effective and inexpensive smallpox vaccine already exists. The new drug is intended to be used after exposure to smallpox in the event of a bioterrorism attack.
Even if the threat were real, and the drug actually effective, the expensive (estimated $255 per dose, a price that bears no relationship at all to production cost) stockpile only has a shelf life of 38 months.

By coincidence, Siga is controlled by Billionaire Democrat mega-donor Ronald Perelman.
————————————————————————————————————————————-

So to summarize:  An untested, possibly fatal drug will be bought for billions of dollars from an Obama supporter to fight an unproven threat which will have to happen within 38 months so the drug’s effect,whatever it is, doesn’t expire.

FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

Share

Do you trust your government [when SF tap water stinks]? asks Firenze Sage

Instead of smelly tap water in San Francisco, pass the...
Instead of smelly tap water

Just because your tap water stinks and tastes bad doesn’t mean it is dangerous to drink, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission says after dozens of people complained about a musty aroma and odd flavor.

There is blue-green algae in the water, but not enough to cause any health problems, according to Andrew DeGrace, the water quality division director for the commission.
————————————————————————
Thanks Andrew, but pass the Perrier says FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

Share

Firenze Sage: the demise of Starbucks [as chocolate & coffee disappear]

When coffee & chocolate disappear due to climate change...
When coffee and chocolate disapear due to climate change...

Coffee and chocolate disappear due to global warming.

That’s the message from Starubuck’s “Director of Sustainability.” CBS News:

“Coffee likes a pretty narrow range of temperatures, and one of the hallmarks, really, of climate change will be increased extremes in temperatures,” Todd Sanford, a climate scientist from the Union of Concerned Scientists, said.
“Those of us who enjoy our morning cup of coffee, we may not always realize that future climate change due to extreme temperatures, increased precipitation, really could in some ways put that at risk,” Sanford added.
So for coffee lovers, the idea of waking up without their morning brew could be a wake-up call to lead a more eco-friendly life.
This is the second time in less than a month that scientists have warned that climate change threatens a favorite food item. A few weeks ago, we were told it will be too hot by the year 2050 to grow cocoa beans in much of the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s main cocoa-producing countries.
———————————————————-
Well vodka distills well in cold weather so it’s a fair trade.

FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

Share

Firenze Sage: Can’t get the [global warming] predictors right…

Prediction of colder weather this winter
Prediction of colder weather this winter...

Weather forecasters don’t know much about this winter yet, but they are sure about one thing: It’ll be colder than usual.

What is still unclear is whether it will be a wet one — like last year — or closer to normal.

Forecasters won’t have a good idea until wind and ocean currents settle in over the next few weeks.
———————————————————————

Brought to you by the folks who want to control cars, bulbs, coal, oil and just about everything.

Global warmers are on the loose.

But for now, signs point to a wet November and December, said Mike Pechner, forecaster with Golden West Meteorology. Blame sunspots, which dim certain parts of the sun, leaving parts of the Earth’s atmosphere cooler than others.

FirenzeSage48@gmail.com

Share