Ken’neka Jenkins Death, No Proper burial, Hayden C Jackson suicide Do yo...

Four Chicago Police Officers Commit Suicide in 4 Months! What's Going On...

Update on my leg

I had a productive day at VGH. Dr Steiner reviewed my MRI with a dermatologist. He said that my fat necrosis the size of a grape has to be removed. He could not do it unless he has a sword he said. I think he tried to be funny.

Then Dr.Theodore Steiner head of Infectious control

Talked with 3 plastic surgeons who happened to come by the reception desk and they looked at my leg filled out forms and with one more approval from head Dr will get my surgery next Tuesday. 

God is so faithful. Nothing is by chance.

 I Had my last IV today, had the needle removed ( a little bruised)  and got oral horse size antibiotics from Steiner. This is it in a nutshell. This would not have been possible at Surrey Memorial. I have been knocking on doors for the last 5 months. Please pray that this will all go ahead for next Tuesday. I want to be well and serving God with Great Zeal and Energy for my remaining days.

I have a great number of French Readers and wish to alert them to this very disturbing news.

What we know about the mystery of babies born without arms in rural France

The Local

news.france@thelocal.com
@thelocalfrance

31 October 2018
10:45 CET+01:00

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Photo: AFP

France has launched a nationwide investigation into several cases of babies being born with missing or deformed arms in rural France after abnormal rates of deformations were detected in several regions of the country. Here's what we know about the situation so far.

What's the story?

 

On Tuesday, 11 new cases of babies being born with missing or deformed arms were identified through hospital records in the Ain area, near the Swiss border, between 2000 and 2014.  

 

This was the latest development in a situation that started coming to public attention back in early October when several reports of an unusually high number of similar cases were reported in the Ain department of eastern France, Brittany on the West coast and Loire-Atlantique, south of Brittany.  

 

Those reports revealed that seven babies had been born without arms or hands between 2009 and 2014 all within 17 km of the village of Druillat in the Ain department in eastern France (plot 1 on the map below).  

 

Meanwhile in the town of Mouzeil in the western Loire-Atlantique department (plot 2 on the map below) a total of three children were born with the same birth defects between the years of 2007 and 2008.

 

 

And in 2015, Guidel (see below), a town in Brittany (plot 3 on the map below) was identified as a new area of concern after a doctor, and mother of one of the three babies born between 2011 and 2013 with the same medical problems, alerted the authorities. 

 

After the new incidents came to light, Francois Bourdillon, head of the Public Health France agency, told RTL radio that the probe was "underway" and the results would be known "in about three months."

 

"We will look at all suspect cases," he said.

 

The national health agency had previously conducted an investigation the results of which were revealed at the beginning of October when it admitted for the first time that the situations in Loire-Atlantique and Brittany revealed an excessive number of these kinds of cases.

 

However at that point the agency said they did not believe the evidence suggested there has been an excessive level of cases in Ain and that there would be no further investigation. 

 

Even without the 11 new cases, some scientists, who first picked up on the worrying trend in 2011, had said that the number of cases in Ain was 58 times the normal amount. 

 

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Do we know why it's happening?

 

In short, no. The phenomenon, which some have labelled a "health scandal", remains unexplained. 

 

However Remera, a public body which looks into cases of malformation, conducted an investigation into the situation in the Ain department, interviewing the mothers to see if there were any factors linking them and their pregnancies. 

 

After speaking to the parents, doctors dismissed genetics, as well drugs and drink as possible causes for the deformations. 

 

"We interviewed all the mothers with a very extensive questionnaire on their lifestyle. The only thing they have in common is that they all live in a very rural area," Emmanuelle Amar, director of Remera in the south east of France, said. 

 

While the cause of the defects are unknown, research has shown that exposure of the mother to certain chemicals or medication during the pregnancy can increase the risk.

 

Last week, Buzyn told French news channel LCI that environmental experts would join health experts in investigating the cases to try to shed light on the phenomenon.

 

Do we know how many children are born with these malformations in France?

 

There is currently no register of babies born with deformities such as those seen in these cases. 

 

Instead there are just a few regional registers in the Rhône-Alpes, Brittany and the West indies that provide this kind of data.

 

Santé Publique France claims that an average of 150 babies are born each year around France with these kinds of birth defects however this figure is actually based on incomplete data which only takes into account 19 percent of France. 

 

What is the most likely explanation?

 

The medical community in France is divided. 

 

When it revealed the results of its first investigation in early October, France's public health authority, Santé Publique France said "the statistical analysis does not highlight an excess of cases compared to the national average", referring directly to the cases in the Ain department. 

 

"We have not identified a common exposure to the occurrence of these malformations," said the director of the health body, François Bourdillon.

 

Guidel in Brittany. Photo: AFP

 

"For the Loire-Atlantique and Brittany, the investigation concludes that there has been an excess of cases however "no common exposure was identified for the clustered cases of these two regions," said Anne Gallay another of the directors at Santé Publique France.

 

"We listened to their parents and their grandparents, visited the places where they live. No environmental factors - pesticides, for example - could be questioned."

 

At that point, the organisation has described the situation as "tragic" for the people involved but for the moment suggests there is no explanation. 

 

Previously the body had said that the cases were probably "down to chance".

 

However on the other side of the argument, Remera has dismissed the likelihood of it being down to a chance occurrence as "more than infinitesimal". 

 

Pesticides?

 

According to doctors at Remera, the most likely cause behind this extraordinarily unusual situation is the agricultural industry, meaning pesticides. 

 

Not least because at the same time as these cases took place among the human population in the Ain department, several calves were born without a tail and missing ribs in Chalamont, another village in the department. 

 

"It is believed that this revolves around agriculture," said Amar.

 

"We have the elements, the data on these cases, but we need to bring the scientists together. For example, an ecotoxicologist (someone specialising on the effects of toxic chemicals on biological organisms) must work on it, and determine which is the most appropriate study," she said.

 

"We are definitely facing an excess of cases. We have the scientific and moral obligation to go further," director of Remera, Amar said. 

 

Photo: AFP

 

What do the parents say?

 

Unsurprisingly, the parents of these children want answers. 

 

Melinda Mostini (pictured with her son Leo above), one of the mothers concerned has questioned if "it could be environmental". 

 

In her interview with FranceInfo, she mentioned "fertilizers, pesticides" and said "there may have been something that happened at this time in the town".

 

"I am outraged that no investigation has yet been launched," Céline Figueiredo, mother of Sacha, one of the babies born in Ain, said.

 

"We have the means in France to investigate the causes of these malformations. They must try to give us answers rather than cover up the case."

 

"We are impressed by Sacha. He never asks for help. But since he started at school, some of his friends have to ask him questions or make fun of him and he tells us he wants a hand.

 

"It is important for us to understand what may have happened during my pregnancy and to be able to answer him one day."

French babies born with missing limbs prompt inquiry

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Image copyright AFP

Image caption A cluster of birth defect cases was initially dismissed, but several more have now emerged

France has launched a national investigation into the number of babies being born with missing arms or hands - weeks after an initial inquiry closed.

The first investigation began after it emerged more than a dozen children had been born with the condition in clusters in three French regions.
It ended after health authorities failed to identify a common cause.
But now another 11 cases have come to light, prompting health officials to open a fresh investigation.

• Evidence of harm from French epilepsy drug
• Ageing in the wake of thalidomide

The condition is a type of agenesis, where the upper limbs of a foetus fail to form correctly during pregnancy.
It includes entire missing upper limbs, missing forearms and hands, or fingers - but not unrelated medical conditions, such as missing thumbs.
The cases are clustered in the regions of Ain in the east of France, and in neighbouring regions Brittany and Loire-Atlantique, on the north-west coast.

'All of France wants to know'

Health Minister Agnès Buzyn had already pledged a further investigation in the wake of the initial report's lack of explanations, amid continued public concern and widespread media coverage.
Speaking on French television on Wednesday morning, she said the first results from the national inquiry would be published in January, with more to follow by summer.

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"I think all of France wants to know," said Ms Buzyn. "We don't want to rule anything out. Perhaps it's do with the environment, or something they ate, or something they drank. Perhaps it's what they breathed - right now I just don't know."
All the cases reported in Ain involve people within a 17km (11 miles) radius of the village of Druillat, leading to speculation about the possible influence of pesticides - which has yet to be proven.
The stories of some affected children were widely covered in the French media in the wake of the first report.
Ryan, now aged eight, is one of the children from the Ain region who is missing a hand.
His parents told French news channel Franceinfo that there had been no hint of a problem on ultrasound scans. Instead they found out when he was born, and doctors were unable to tell them why.

Image Copyright @franceinfo @franceinfo

Report

Another affected mother, from Brittany, said she was quizzed by doctors after the birth of her son Leo with a malformed forearm.
They wanted to know about eating habits or any pharmaceuticals of drug use - but again, could not find a cause.

How the inquiry unfolded

The regional register for birth defects, Remera, had raised concerns about a possible surge in cases in Ain in July, following reports from local doctors. It discovered seven cases clustered close together around Druillat over six years.
But an initial report from Public Health France in October concluded that those cases, between 2009 and 2014, were not significantly higher than the national average.
However, it now says that the 11 new cases it uncovered were all from Ain, covering 15 years since 2000.
Three other cases in Loire-Atlantique and four in Brittany were also looked at. In those cases, the health body acknowledged that the numbers were higher than average - but again, no common cause was found.
Officials concluded that in all three regions, further investigations were not possible without a hypothesis to pursue.

The report also said that monitoring of birth defects was only carried out by a handful of registers, covering just 19% of births in France. That has prompted some fears that the number of cases may be under-reported.
On Tuesday, Public Health France announced that the new cases had been uncovered by a further analysis of hospital databases.
It warned that a comprehensive survey several years after the birth of affected children would be "complex".
The case has drawn parallels with the Thalidomide scandal, involving a drug often taken by pregnant women to alleviate morning sickness. The link between Thalidomide and limb malformation during pregnancy was only uncovered after years of the drug's use.
However, no such link between a chemical or pharmaceutical cause has been drawn in France.

My Daughter dressed as a Giraffe

My now youngest daughter age 25, Deborah's closest sister in age, left to teach at her school as a giraffe today. She takes after her dad, she is tall 6 feet 2 inches, so her clever costume truly suits her. She teaches special needs children, and surely her costume will make many smile.
You guessed it, today is Halloween in North America. There will be much demonic activities and parties scattered throughout our beautiful land. There will be many fire cracker injuries that Erica, my nurse daughter will have to treat in emergency at our local hospital. As a young  working mom, at Children's Hospital, I would have my husband bring in the kids for an afternoon shift, and we would go to a few homes with all four of my girls frequently without costumes and solicit for candies. The neighborhood downtown would have many more choice goodies than our poorer  area we lived in. My children would receive candies even if they were not dressed up. Their pillow cases would be full of delicious sugary things in a few hours. My best collection as an immigrant child, new to this "celebration" was to receive a toothbrush from a dentist's home. Now day's even churches offer an alternative day, by having trunk events from their car for instance in a church parking lot. They would also have games. How far we have come from true Christian teachings. My involvement is to have my lights off tonight, and head to the stores tomorrow for 75 percent discounted candies. I believe Halloween  was All Saint's Day.. a Hallow Eve initially and now the devil has distorted the occasion once again. Stay pure for the Lord is returning very soon.

Trying to get better; Somehow...

It has been almost 5 months since I poked my lower leg with a branch in the garden. The infection is still there, and now I have finally had an MRI. My journey to recovery has been so long that I can write a novel about it. One health authority has only 2 retiring dermatologist, and the other has a dime a dozen.  I still did not get a biopsy. One emergency specialist on the phone said to the doctor 'what is she doing here' it is a General Practitioners issue. So I go bouncing around from one health clinic to another still with no resolve. Vancouver General Hospital has graciously referred me to a rapid surgery clinic, only to find that they don't 'do legs' . So I was referred to the trauma clinic, 'where they don't do anything unless they see a foreign object in your body'. So now I am 5 months later referred to a plastic surgeon.. hopefully, I still have to check with my infectious controll doctor.
So please forgive me for not engaging more with my readers. I would encourage you all to read some of the earlier posts at this time.

So sorry, but I have to get better.. somehow.

Health

October 26, 2018 5:00 pm

Updated: October 26, 2018 7:17 pm

Saskatoon teen creates mental health app for victims of bullying

By Nicole Stillger Reporter  Global News

News: Saskatoon teen bullied through school develops mental health appx

WATCH: A Saskatoon teen who was bullied in school starting in Grade 2 has developed an app to help other kids address and cope with mental health and bullying. Nicole Stillger with her story.

A A

Kelli Lemstra says the bullying began in Grade 2.
“I was struggling with the relationships with a lot of my friends,” she said. “It got really hard when everyone started getting cell phones which was in Grade 7 and 8.”
READ MORE: Dedicated mental health team operating in Prince Albert, Sask.
That’s when the 16-year-old said things became unbearable.

“(People) were texting me awful things, commenting on all of my social media, making rude accounts about me, calling me on my phone on unknown caller telling me to kill myself,” she said.
With what Kelli thought was a lack of support from her school, and no way to make the bullying stop, the teen and her parents didn’t know where to turn.
“Most fathers would agree that your first job is to keep your kid safe,” Kelli’s dad Mark Lemstra said. “When you can’t keep your kid safe you don’t feel like much of a father.”
He said Kelli would get up to 200 texts per day from people telling her to harm herself.
“There’s a coping part for being a father as well,” Mark said. “I think you’d prefer that this happens to you than to your daughter. The tricky part is there’s not really any way to make it stop.”
READ MORE: Documentary shines light on mental health among Saskatchewan youths
In Grade 9, on a particularly bad day at school, she begged her dad to pick her up.
“I’m crying at school, I can’t get through my classes, I can’t focus on my work,” Kelli said.
That’s when she thought of the idea for a mental health app.

Kelli Lemstra hopes her mental health app helps others cope with bullying.
Tyler Schroeder / Global News

“I wanted to help people and I knew people suffering the same things I was suffering with was really important to me,” she said.
The app, called “The Daily Difference”, took more than a year to develop and includes eight self-help modules with tips on how to cope with things like anxiety and depression. There’s a section for journaling, relaxation videos and has ideas for ways to pay it forward.
“Her idea was that it needs to be kid friendly,” Mark said. “A whole team of people was looking at it to make sure that not only was it clinically warranted, but it was youth friendly.”

The Daily Difference features eight self-help modules to manage things like anxiety and depression.
Tyler Schroeder / Global News

One of those team members is registered social worker, Kayla Stefan, who worked closely with Kelli to help make her vision a reality. She said the app is another avenue for kids to access mental health or bullying support.
“Sometimes kids don’t feel comfortable receiving that one-to-one counseling support with psychologists or social workers,” Stefan said. “It’s just a way that they can access support, feel safe and comfortable.”
She added it can be scary for kids to reach out for support.

“You don’t know if you’re going to be shut down or if they’re going to be able to help or if the problem is going to get worse.”

Kelli admitted the bullying hasn’t completely subsided, but she is doing better and credits the app with helping her cope.
“I’ve definitely learned how to deal with the negativity,” she said.
Mark said he noticed over the last year his daughter has been more open about bullying and how to handle it.
“I think the last three to four days have been the best mental health state I’ve seen her be in four to five years,” he said.
Kelli’s hope is that others learn to develop the same outlook she has now.
“It’s not your fault somebody’s bullying you,” she said.

“Their actions don’t define you, it defines who they are.”

© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A man was found dead Thursday morning in a home on Glen Iris Drive, shortly after a woman shot herself in a vehicle on Ford Street while officers were attempting to approach her, Monroe police said. Photo: Channel 2 Action News

Husband, wife killed in murder-suicide in Walton County, police say

Updated 5 hours ago

By

• Chelsea Prince, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Authorities are investigating an apparent murder-suicide in the city of Monroe.

A man was found dead Thursday morning in a home on Glen Iris Drive, shortly after his wife shot herself in a vehicle on Ford Street while officers were attempting to approach her, interim Police Chief R.V. Watts told AJC.com.

Police were first alerted about 3:20 a.m. after Brittany Suzanne Folkerts, 45, called her son to tell him she had shot her husband, 51-year-old Ronald Edward Folkerts. 

His father, Brittany Folkerts’ ex-husband, called 911. He knew the couple lived on Glen Iris Drive, but he did not know the exact address.

Officers responding to Glen Iris did not locate the man’s body at that time, but they were given “a name and a lookout of a vehicle,” Watts said.

After learning another adult son lived nearby, officers were led to Ford Street, where they spotted Brittany Folkerts in a white Hyundai. Her 19-year-old son was standing near the driver’s-side door, talking to his mother.

“While they were approaching,” Watts said, “the subject took her own life in the vehicle.”

The woman’s son was not harmed. 

“Because they didn’t know what they had, they were giving him commands to get on the ground,” he said. “When the son backed away from the vehicle, that’s when they heard the gunshot.”

Police later found Ronald Folkerts shot dead inside his home. Watts said officers have had dealings with both husband and wife in the past. 

Agents with the GBI responded to process the scene. The GBI is expected to make an official determination on the cause of death.

'Bullying led to our daughter's prison suicide'

Image copyright PA

Image caption Katie Allan was jailed after admitting knocking down a teenage boy while drunk at the wheel of her car

The parents of a jailed student have claimed bullying and "humiliating" strip searches led her to take her own life.
Stuart and Linda Allan claim prison staff failed to heed warnings that their daughter Katie was "vulnerable" and had a history of self-harming.
Katie was jailed for 16 months in March for a hit-and-run crash while drunk.
The Glasgow University geography student, who was 20 at the time of the crash, died at Polmont Prison in June.
Her parents have now launched a campaign calling for changes to the way the legal system deals with mental health.


Media captionKatie Allan's parents, Linda and Stuart, said that when they went to visit their daughter in prison she tried to "put on a brave face"

They also want the courts to be forced to look at alternative sentencing options.
Katie's mother Linda said: "How she could be strip-searched and they hadn't seen the self-harming injuries that Katie had is beyond us.
"We feel that Katie's death was self-inflicted but that she was murdered by the Scottish criminal justice system. They are ultimately responsible for it."


'Katie broke the law'

She added: "Katie absolutely broke the law, that is not in dispute. Katie pleaded guilty and fully accepted she should be punished, that also is not in dispute.

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"What we didn't realise is that one impulsive decision would ultimately cost Katie her life. "The hardest thing for us to accept is how devastatingly Katie was let down by those that were ultimately responsible for her care."


We feel that Katie's death was self-inflicted but that she was murdered by the Scottish criminal justice system

Linda Allan, Katie's mother

"Some may say that Katie deserved what happened. She certainly deserved punishment.
"But this is Scotland, this is the 21st Century - what Katie did not deserve was the horrific experiences she endured daily at the hands of the Scottish Prison Service."
The hit-and-run incident, in which a 15-year-old boy was knocked down, happened in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, on 10 August last year.
Katie had downed four pints of beer before trying to drive home from a pub.
The student pleaded guilty at Paisley Sheriff Court to causing serious injury to the teenager by driving dangerously and driving more than four times above the legal alcohol limit.


Image copyright PA

Image caption Katie Allan had been a student at Glasgow University

Katie's father Stuart said: "When we visited Katie, she would put on a brave face and be as cheery as possible.
"And then when we left her after the visit was over, she would say 'Oh that will be me getting strip-searched again.'
"When we challenged her on why she was getting strip-searched, she said 'Because I don't kick and scream and spit'."


'Sad death'

He added: "At the end, before she took her own life, she must have been in a place that was so low because of the constant berating by other prisoners and how she was feeling about herself.
"There is a whole duty of care that didn't happen in that prison service and they really need to take responsibility for it."
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "This is of course a set of very tragic circumstances and our sympathies are with all who have been affected by this sad death.
"All deaths that occur in Scottish prisons are subject to a Fatal Accident Inquiry and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further until this takes place."

Utah man pleads guilty to child abuse homicide in hanging

• Oct 24, 2018 Updated Oct 24, 2018
•  
• Please Scroll Down for the story 

  

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A Utah man accused of helping a teenage girl kill herself and filming the act because he was fascinated with death has pleaded guilty to child abuse homicide.
In accepting a plea deal Tuesday in a Provo court, prosecutors say, 19-year-old Tyerell Joe Przybycien of Spanish Fork avoided a possible murder conviction that could have brought a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
Przybycien faces a prison term of at least five years when he's sentenced Dec. 7 and could still get a life sentence.
He acknowledged filming 16-year-old Jchandra Brown's 2017 suicide in Payson Canyon after buying rope, tying the noose and speaking to her as she passed out and died.
Prosecutors dismissed charges of failure to report a dead body and witness tampering.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Man accused of killing teen convicted of raping her

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man charged with killing a 16-year…

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Canada Oct. 24, 2018

Vancouver Island posts Canada’s highest assisted suicide rate

By Agnieszka Ruck

---

The Vancouver Island Health Authority says within two years of the legalization of assisted suicide, 3.6 per cent of all deaths on the island were assisted. Meanwhile, a national report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information paints a grim picture of the availability of palliative care. (Pixabay photo)

The rate of medically-assisted deaths on Vancouver Island is about five times higher than in the rest of the country.
A new report from the Vancouver Island Health Authority has revealed 3.6 per cent of all 504 deaths on the island in the first two years since Bill C-14 were assisted suicides, and the rate has since increased to four per cent. For the rest of Canada, the rate is less than one per cent.
“British Columbia has been at the forefront of the political move and legal challenges that have resulted in Bill C-14 (allowing) access to assisted dying,” one of the report’s authors, Dr. David Robertson, told the Times Colonist.
Robertson suggested that history is why more people are dying of assisted suicides on Vancouver Island than anywhere else in the country. Sue Rodriguez, a right-to-die activist who had ALS, and Margot Bentley, a woman with Alzheimer’s who became the centre of a famous spoon-feeding debate, were both B.C. residents, and Rodriguez lived on the island.
Robertson also said Vancouver Island has an “unusually high number” of doctors willing to end their patients’ lives, which means more access to assisted death.
The report noted it took the Netherlands 15 years for number of deaths by assisted suicide to rise to 3.9 per cent of total deaths.
The report also said of all islanders who went through with medically assisted suicides, 57 died at home, 26 per cent in acute-care hospitals, 12 per cent in hospices or palliative care units, and three per cent in residential or assisted care.
The top reasons patients gave for requesting assisted deaths were cancer (61 per cent), organ failure (19 per cent) and neurodegenerative disease (8 per cent). The average age was 76.
Also this fall, a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information has revealed difficult truths about the state of palliative care in this country.
A grim picture of Canadians dying amid the noise and bustle of hospital acute care wards, unable to access quality palliative care, emerged from CIHI’s first comprehensive, national assessment of palliative care here.
Even though three-quarters of Canadians say they want to die at home, most of us don’t, according to the report released in September. Only 15 per cent of people who died in 2016-7 received publicly funded palliative care at home.
Most patients (62 per cent) who had any form of palliative care only received it in an acute care hospital and mostly during the last month of their lives. When hospitals identify patients as palliative, nearly half of those patients (47 per cent) die before they can be discharged to a more appropriate setting.
CIHI estimates 89 per cent of all Canadians could benefit from palliative care during their last year of life. “Home care and palliative care are both not covered under the Canada Health Act and it results in a huge patchwork of programs across the country that are not consistent, well-funded or well-known,” said Nancy Lefebre, the chief clinical executive and senior vice president of St. Elizabeth Health Care in Markham, Ont.
“We’re certainly not where we need to be honouring people’s wishes to be dying at their place of choice and with dignity.”
Meantime, 40 per cent of those who choose so-called medical assistance in dying (or MAID) end their lives at home, under circumstances they control. A clear and accessible choice of palliative care would lead to a completely different conversation, said Carleen Brenneis, director of Covenant Health’s Palliative Institute in Edmonton.
“People need to have good care before they make these kinds of decisions,” said Brenneis.
A private members’ bill calling for a national palliative care strategy was introduced in the House of Commons in 2016 and became law in December 2017. CIHI’s report reveals there is still a long way to go to improve palliative care and access for Canadians.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since June 2016.
With files from Michael Swan at The Catholic Register.

Trump meets with U.S. pastor freed by Turkey

Freed pastor prays for Trump in White House

Faceoff for Mental Health backed by hockey association

Faceoff for Mental Health backed by hockey associations

By Paul Morden
More from By Paul Morden

Published on: October 22, 2017 | Last Updated: October 22, 2017 9:30 AM EDT

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A call from a coach launched Faceoff for Mental Health, a partnership with hockey associations in Sarnia and Lambton County to raise awareness of mental health issues for children and youth.

“It really was to see if there was anything we could do to get more awareness around the hockey community,” said Alex McFadden, coach of the Lambton Jr. Sting Minor Midget AAA.
“You hear stories about some of the things that have happened with some of the youth in Sarnia and it’s devastating,” he said.
“It breaks your heart.”
McFadden said he contacted Craig McKenzie, director of operations at St. Clair Child and Youth Services, to ask if there was anything he could do to make himself, and other coaches in the local hockey community, more aware of how they could help.
McKenzie said one in five children and youth will experience a mental health problem.
“That’s one player on a line,” he added.
McKenzie said that following the initial conversation, they decided to reach out to other teams and associations to see if they were interested in getting involved.
“I was blown away by the response,” McKenzie said.
“I think almost every hockey association threw their hat in the ring, right away and said, ‘We need to talk about this.’”
St. Clair Child and Youth Services, the lead agency for children’s mental health in Lambton, has been offering mental health sessions with team bench staff in the associations to talk about signs and symptoms to watch for, and where to find help in the community.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t talk about it,” McKenzie said.
“Because they don’t talk about it, they often don’t know what the resources are, so that’s really one of the key things we’re focusing on.”
There are plans to expand the education campaign to players and hockey parents.
Also, local hockey associations are holding mental health awareness weekends throughout November, with home teams showing support by wrapping sticks in green tape, referencing the green ribbon for mental health symbol.
Sunday, the Lambton Jr. Sting Minor Midget AAA planned to make donations to support mental health initiatives during a ceremonial puck drop before its game with London at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Thursday, the Sarnia Legionnaires have a mental health awareness night planned for their 7 p.m. game with LaSalle, with both teams showing support with green tape on their sticks.
That night, children and youth wearing a local hockey jersey will get into the game free.
McKenzie said the campaign is considering creating a video to get the message out to players in the associations.
Another plan is to have the Faceoff for Mental Health and Kids Help Phone logos printed on pucks.
“We’re going to try and get those into the hands of every kid in the associations,” McKenzie said.
Associations involved in the campaign include Point Edward Minor Hockey Association, Sarnia Hockey Association, Lambton Sting Jr. AAA Hockey Club, Petrolia Minor Hockey Association, Lambton Attack Girls Hockey, Lambton Shores Minor Hockey Association and the East Lambton Minor Hockey Association.
“The whole county has been very supportive of this idea, which has been awesome,” McFadden said.
“It all started with the cup of coffee with Alex,” McKenzie said.

pmorden@postmedia.com

U.S. Opioid Abuse Fueling Life Expectancy Decline

By Robert Preidt
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Aug. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The opioid epidemic may be a major reason for recent declines in Americans' life expectancy, a new study says.
A second study found rising death rates among Americans ages 25 to 64, but cited a number of factors as potential causes.
In the first study, researchers looked at 18 wealthy nations and found that most of them had declines in life expectancy in 2015. It's the first time in recent decades that many of these countries had simultaneous declines in life expectancy for both men and women, and the declines were larger than in the past.
In countries other than the United States, the declines in life expectancy were mostly among people 65 and older. The main causes were influenza and pneumonia, respiratory disease, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other mental and nervous system disorders.

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Among Americans, the decline in life expectancy was concentrated among people in their 20s and 30s, and was largely due to a rise in opioid overdose deaths, according to report authors Jessica Ho, from the University of Southern California, and Arun Hendi, of Princeton University.
They noted that life expectancy in the United States and the United Kingdom continued to decline in 2016, which raises questions about future trends.
The second study found that death rates among Americans ages 25 to 64 rose between 1999 and 2016. Drug overdoses, suicides and alcoholism were the main reasons for this increase, but this age group also had a significant increase in deaths from heart, lung and other organ diseases.
"The opioid epidemic is the tip of an iceberg," study author Dr. Steven Woolf, from Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a news release from BMJ. Both studies were published Aug. 15 in the journal.

Woolf's research also found that rising death rates in this age group include all racial and ethnic groups, reversing years of progress in lowering death rates among black and Hispanic adults.
Death rates were higher among men than women, but the relative increase in drug overdose deaths and suicides was greater in women. That finding matches other research showing an increasing health disadvantage among American women, according to Woolf and his team.
They said no "single factor, such as opioids," explains the decrease in life expectancy, and urged "prompt action by policymakers to tackle the factors responsible for declining health in the U.S."

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Religion

China Is Treating Islam Like a Mental Illness

The country is putting Muslims in internment camps—and causing real psychological damage in the process.

Sigal Samuel

Aug 28, 2018

A woman stands behind a pillar during the Eid al-Adha festival at a Chinese mosque.Jason Lee / Reuters

One million Muslims are being held right now in Chinese internment camps, according to estimates cited by the UN and U.S. officials. Former inmates—most of whom are Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic minority—have told reporters that over the course of an indoctrination process lasting several months, they were forced to renounce Islam, criticize their own Islamic beliefs and those of fellow inmates, and recite Communist Party propaganda songs for hours each day. There are media reports of inmates being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which are forbidden to Muslims, as well as reports of torture and death.

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The sheer scale of the internment camp system, which according to The Wall Street Journal has doubled in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region just within the last year, is mindboggling. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China describes it as “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.” Beijing began by targeting Uighur extremists, but now even benign manifestations of Muslim identity—like growing a long beard—can get a Uighur sent to a camp, the Journal noted. Earlier this month, when a UN panel confronted a senior Chinese official about the camps, he said there are “no such things as reeducation centers,” even though government documents refer to the facilities that way. Instead, he claimed they’re just vocational schools for criminals.

China has been selling a very different narrative to its own population. Although the authorities frequently describe the internment camps as schools, they also liken them to another type of institution: hospitals. Here’s an excerpt from an official Communist Party audio recording, which was transmitted last year to Uighurs via WeChat, a social-media platform, and which was transcribed and translated by Radio Free Asia:

Members of the public who have been chosen for reeducation have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient. … The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people. … If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumor.

“Religious belief is seen as a pathology” in China, explained James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, adding that Beijing often claims religion fuels extremism and separatism. “So now they’re calling reeducation camps ‘hospitals’ meant to cure thinking. It’s like an inoculation, a search-and-destroy medical procedure that they want to apply to the whole Uighur population, to kill the germs of extremism. But it’s not just giving someone a shot—it’s locking them up for months in bad conditions.”
China has long feared that Uighurs will attempt to establish their own national homeland in Xinjiang, which they refer to as East Turkestan. In 2009, ethnic riots there resulted in hundreds of deaths, and some radical Uighurs have carried out terrorist attacks in recent years. Chinese officials have claimed that in order to suppress the threat of Uighur separatism and extremism, the government needs to crack down not only on those Uighurs who show signs of having been radicalized, but on a significant swath of the population.
The medical analogy is one way the government tries to justify its policy of large-scale internment: After all, attempting to inoculate a whole population against, say, the flu, requires giving flu shots not just to the already-afflicted few, but to a critical mass of people. In fact, using this rhetoric, China has tried to defend a system of arrest quotas for Uighurs. Police officers confirmed to Radio Free Asia that they are under orders to meet specific population targets when rounding up people for internment. In one township, police officials said they were being ordered to send 40 percent of the local population to the camps.

China is going to outrageous lengths to surveil its own citizens

The government also uses this pathologizing language in an attempt to justify lengthy internments and future interventions any time officials deem Islam a threat. “It’s being treated as a mental illness that’s never guaranteed to be completely cured, like addiction or depression,” said Timothy Grose, a China expert at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. “There’s something mentally wrong that needs to be diagnosed, treated—and followed up with.” Here’s how the Communist Party recording cited above explains this, while alluding to the threat of contagion:

There is always a risk that the illness will manifest itself at any moment, which would cause serious harm to the public. That is why they must be admitted to a reeducation hospital in time to treat and cleanse the virus from their brain and restore their normal mind. … Being infected by religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology and not seeking treatment is like being infected by a disease that has not been treated in time, or like taking toxic drugs. … There is no guarantee that it will not trigger and affect you in the future.
Having gone through reeducation and recovered from the ideological disease doesn’t mean that one is permanently cured. … So, after completing the reeducation process in the hospital and returning home … they must remain vigilant, empower themselves with the correct knowledge, strengthen their ideological studies, and actively attend various public activities to bolster their immune system.

Several other government-issued documents use this type of medical language. “This stuff about the poison in the brain—it’s definitely out there,” said Rian Thum, noting that even civilians tasked with carrying out the crackdown in Xinjiang speak of “eradicating its tumors.” Recruitment advertisements for staff in the internment camps state that experience in psychological training is a plus, Thum and other experts said. Chinese websites describe reeducation sessions where psychologists perform consultations with Uighurs and treat what they call extremism as a mental illness. A government document published last year in Khotan Prefecture described forced indoctrination as “a free hospital treatment for the masses with sick thinking.”

This is not the first time China has used medical analogies to suppress a religious minority. “Historically, it’s comparable to the strategy toward Falun Gong,” said Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the European School of Culture and Theology in Germany. He was referring to a spiritual practice whose followers were suppressed in the early 2000s through reeducation in forced labor camps. “Falun Gong was also treated like a dangerous addiction. … But in Xinjiang this [rhetoric] is certainly being pushed to the next level. The explicit link with the addictive effect of religion is being emphasized possibly in an unprecedented way.”

Internet sleuths are hunting for China’s secret internment camps for Muslims

Tahir Imin, a U.S.-based Uighur academic from Xinjiang who said he has several family members in internment camps, was not surprised to hear his religion being characterized as if it’s a disease. In his view, it’s part of China’s attempt to eradicate Muslim ethnic minorities and forcefully assimilate them into the Han Chinese majority. “If they have any ‘illness,’ it is being Uighur,” he said. In addition to Uighurs, The Washington Post has reported that Muslim members of other ethnic groups, like the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz, have been sent to the camps. “I think the Chinese government is saying: ‘This ideological hospital—in there, send every person who is not [ethnically] Chinese. They are sick, they are not safe [to be around], they are not reliable, they are not healthy people.’”