Thursday, January 31, 2013
Commentary: Rx for Understanding: Free Online Tool to Teach Students
Medicine—whether over-the-counter or prescription—is an
important part of a modern health care system. Who would want a world
without penicillin or acetaminophen? But medicine is only effective when
it is used properly, and for young people moving to adulthood, learning
how to use medicine properly is a critical life skill.
Research shows that one in four teenagers report that they have taken
a prescription drug not prescribed to them by a doctor at least once in
their lives. Middle school is often when students start to make the
wrong choice.
Recognizing the scope of the problem, the NEA Health Information Network (NEA
HIN) set out to determine what we could do to help teachers and
families help students. After looking at what was available, NEA HIN
created Rx for Understanding
which includes 10 cross-curricular lessons for middle school students.
Aligned with the National Health Education Standards and Common Core State Standards,
the lessons aim to equip students with the understanding and
decision-making skills they need to recognize and avoid the dangers of
misusing and abusing prescription drugs.
By focusing on the three basic concepts of proper use, misuse and
abuse, the lessons help to build knowledge and skills that young people
need. These involve not only learning the facts about drugs, but include
activities that build skills such as information gathering, advocacy
for good health choices and making responsible health decisions.
Rx for Understanding was developed and pilot-tested with input from
educators around the country. Users report that the lessons are
“easy-to-use” and “accessible.” Because lessons are aligned to various
content areas, they can be included in various parts of the middle
school curriculum.
Nora L. Howley
Manager of Programs
NEA Health Information Network
Heroin Use Increasing in Minneapolis/St. Paul, While Opiate Painkiller Use Declines
Heroin use is growing in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area,
while abuse of opiate painkillers, such as methadone and oxycodone, may
be decreasing, according to a new report.
Treatment centers in the area reported a small decrease in the number
of people admitted for opiate abuse in the first half of 2012,
according to Minnesota Public Radio.
“Heroin and other opiates are second only to the number of people
coming into treatment for alcohol,” said Carol Falkowski, who wrote the
new report. “That is a relatively new phenomena in the Twin Cities and
something that we should all be concerned about.”
The report follows national trends in heroin and opiate painkiller use, the article notes. A study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine
found that as OxyContin abuse has decreased now that the painkiller has
been reformulated to make it more difficult to misuse, many people have
switched to heroin.
Dr. Gavin Bart, who directs the Division of Addiction Medicine at
Hennepin County Medical Center, said Minneapolis/St. Paul is seeing an
influx of the cheapest, purest heroin in the United States. “What is
probably happening is there’s a marketing battle between the dealers and
the people who peddle prescription opiates and the heroin traffickers,”
he said. “In order to get good customers you increase the quality and
decrease the price, which is what’s happened with heroin and it’s just
pulling market share from the prescription opiate addicts.”
Opiate painkillers are becoming more difficult to obtain, because the
state’s prescription monitoring program allows doctors to see if other
physicians have written opiate prescriptions for the same patient, Bart
noted. While doctors in the state are not required to use the database,
more health systems are incorporating it, he added.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
HELP RECOVERY CONNECTIONS REACH THE CHURCHES
Good Morning Recovery friends and Brother and sisters in CHRIST
Recovery Connections was birthed a year ago with one purpose in mind and that is to set the captives free in other words help those struggling with addiction find there way and empower them to maintain sanity and sobriety. A year or two ago the Council of Drug Alcohol of Pennsylvania put together a training designed just for Clergy and the response was overwhelming. Most families and individuals who struggle with addiction go to local churches for help and most churches have no idea on how they can help or where they can send these folks to get help .I have done some research and there are an estimated fourteen thousand churches in Pennsylvania. That is a lot of churches and it is my personal mission to equip and educate these churches and this is where I will need your help. I cannot afford fourteen thousand stamps fourteen thousand envelopes fourteen thousand sheets of paper and a couple dozen ink cartridges. I have been in contact with two great organizations who have sent me brochures with the info the churches are going to need. I could do one letter and make copies but I feel it needs to be more personal so I did more research and I have pastors names and addresses. My intro letter with the information will be made personal and hard to disregard or ignore.We have added a Donate button on the blog and we will send a receipt for your tax purposes. A church is only as good as the the tools it has in the LORDS tool box. PLEASE GIVE TO HELP SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF RECOVERY AND HOPE.
Address joseph-recoveryconnections.blogspot.com
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Communities Start to Organize Against Heroin
Communities across the country are beginning to organize
town hall meetings, support groups and campaigns to discourage the
growing use of heroin, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
Heroin, once mainly seen in poor urban areas, is now increasingly
used by young people in wealthy suburbs, small cities and rural towns,
according to the newspaper. “You would have to go pretty remote to find a
place that didn’t have this,” Kathleen Kane-Willis of Roosevelt
University in Chicago, who has tracked heroin use since 2004, told the
newspaper. “It’s just everywhere.”
A study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine
found that as OxyContin abuse has decreased now that the painkiller has
been reformulated to make it more difficult to misuse, many people have
switched to heroin.
Parents say they are having a difficult time finding treatment for
their children’s heroin addiction. They are forming support groups to
help one another. Some are turning to the Internet to find support from
other parents.
Advocacy groups are trying to address heroin overdoses by pushing for
state laws that give people limited immunity on drug possession charges
if they seek medical help for someone suffering from an overdose. Most
of these Good Samaritan laws
protect people from prosecution if they have small quantities of drugs
and seek medical aid after an overdose. These laws are designed to limit
immunity to drug possession, so that large supplies of narcotics would
remain illegal. Advocates are also supporting rules that allow doctors
to prescribe the overdose antidote naloxone to families of people
addicted to opioids.
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