Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 4.
ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana, –The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on November 20 that it is awarding $1.5 million to fund a pilot project to control feral swine in Louisiana and nine other states across the country.
These projects are part of the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program (FSCP) – a joint effort between USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to help address the threat that feral swine pose to agriculture, ecosystems and human and animal health.
“Feral swine cause significant damage to crops and grazing lands, while also impacting the health of our natural resources,” said Tim Landreneau, NRCS acting state conservationist in Louisiana. “By collaborating with our partners nationally and here in Louisiana, our hope is to control and eradicate this invasive species – improving operations for farmers while also protecting our natural resources for the future.”
NRCS is awarding more than $16.7 million this year for feral swine pilot projects in select areas of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The funding limit for a single award is $1.5 million. Awardees are required to provide at least 25 percent of the partnership agreement budget as a match to NRCS funding. APHIS is providing $23.3 million this year to the Wildlife Services programs located in the pilot projects states.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 4.
Department of Health Bureau of Health Services Financing Publishes Rule for Behavior Analysis
According to the November Louisiana Register the Department of Health Bureau of Health Services Financing adopted a new Rule for Applied Behavior Analysis-Based Therapy Services Reimbursement Methodology (LAC 50:XV.703)
The Department of Health, Bureau of Health Services Financing has amended LAC 50:XV.703 in the Medical Assistance Program as authorized by R.S. 36:254 and pursuant to Title XIX of the Social Security Act. This Rule is promulgated in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, R.S. 49:950 et seq. The Rule states:
"Title 50 PUBLIC HEALTH⎯MEDICAL ASSISTANCE Part XV. Services for Special Populations Subpart 1. Applied Behavior Analysis-Based Therapy Services §703. Reimbursement Methodology "A. … B. Effective for dates of service on or after January 1, 2017, ABA rates and codes in effect on December 31, 2016 may be realigned to be consistent with Louisiana commercial rates or ABA codes adopted by the American Medical Association via current procedural terminology (CPT) codes. 1. … 2. New prior authorizations with a begin date after the promulgation date of these provisions must use the codes in effect prior to January 1, 2017 for those services provided and to be delivered prior to January 1, 2017, and for any services provided after January 1, 2017, the codes in effect at the time of service delivery."
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 7.
Drs. Gengel, Gillespie, and Ransom Speak at Thinktank's ADHD Symposium in November
Dr. Stacey Gengel, Dr.Gail Gillespie and Dr. Sean Ransom presented at Turbo Thinktank's ADHD symposium, a day-long event that touched on topics and challenges related to ADHD. Covered were diverse treatment options, strategies and solutions for individuals in the community, including for networking and support. The event was held at Metairie Park Country Day School in New Orleans on November 16.
Dr. Stacy Gengel presented on “Maybe You Should Get Him Evaluated” and information about psycho-educational evaluations and a step-by-step guide for what to expect. Dr. Gengel is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children in schools, treatment centers, and private practice. She received her doctoral degree in School Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr. Gail Gillespie presented "Emotional Freedom Technique: A Complementary and Alternative Therapy for Calming ADHD Symptoms and Behaviors." Dr. Gillespie is a licensed psychologist in private practice in New Orleans. She received her Ph.D. in 1992 with a specialization in school psychology after completing her internship through LSU Medical Center’s School Psychology Internship Consortium. She worked as a school psychologist in Jefferson Parish for five years before going into full-time private practice. She provides evaluation and treatment to school aged children and their families.
Dr. Sean Ransom, the founder of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Center of New Orleans, trained in CBT at the University of South Florida, a member institution of the Academy of Clinical Psychological Sciences, where he received his doctorate. He received additional training with the founders of CBT at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.
In 2009, Dr. Ransom began serving as a clinical faculty member in the Tulane University Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and led the Patricia Trost Friedler Center for Psychosocial Oncology. Through his affiliation with Tulane, Dr. Ransom continues to lecture and to provide service to psychiatry residents and medical students.
He presented on "Busting ADHD-Related Anxiety with CBT: An Interactive Workshop."
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 12.
by Janet & Lee Matthews [Editor’s Note: We are re-running this delightful contribution from our Christmas issue in 2014. We shared the article from Drs. Lee and Janet Matthews as a letter to the editor and enjoyed their messages and their greeting of " Happy Holidays from the Matthews Ménage, Janet, Lee, Judy and Lucy." We lost our colleague Janet in March this year. See the article this issue on her endowed chair at University of Tampa.] The holiday season for most people is a fun time of the year filled with parties, celebrations and social gatherings with family and friends. For some people, it is a time filled with sadness, self-reflection, loneliness, depression and anxiety.
Whether you call it Holiday Blues, Holiday Depression (sometimes called Winter Blues just to confuse things) or Holiday Grief, these feelings may impact us or our clients at this time of the year. The Blues can result from a mismatch between high expectations for the perfect holiday mixed with memories of holidays past, loved ones no longer present and the reality of the current holiday. There are several factors responsible for these feelings. Fewer daylight hours, and the fact that between 2-5% of the population have some symptoms of seasonal depression (the old term was Seasonal Affective Disorder).
A second factor is extra costs that often strain our weekly, monthly or yearly budgets, whether it is special presents or last minute travel costs. The holidays also mean more activities and less time. We know you will not believe it, but there are only 168 hours in each week. The normal responsibilities and tasks involving family and work get added to by other chores, so many of us and our clients feel a significant time crunch. We all know and tell our clients that when you are stressed, exercise and sleep are good antidotes for those feelings, but they often take a back seat to extra errands and household chores. Throw in overindulgence in food and drink, and the blues may follow.
Relationships can be a trigger point for holiday blues. Whether it is the cousin Lee whose personality you can’t stand, or the first holiday season without a loved one, you can find yourself feeling sad. Another factor is non- traditional living. Back around the middle of the last century (You know, 1950-1960), the family was two parents, two children, (and maybe two dogs). Today less than 23 % of all households meet that criteria. We have redefined the family, but separations, divorce, death, adoptions, social change have lead to the creation of alternative family forms that may cause some people to feel some dissonance with the traditional holiday-related behavior and values. What about intervention for holiday blues. Here are a Baker’s dozen (We are both related to families named Baker) keys to reduce holiday blues.
1) One key to minimizing holiday blues is to know that the holidays can trigger stress and depression.
2) Accept that things aren't always going to go as planned. Something always comes up. Accept those imperfections, both in yourself and in others.
3) Acknowledge and express your feelings. You can't force yourself to be happy just because it's the holiday season, especially if you have had a recent loss in the family or you can’t be with loved ones.
4) Don't be a martyr. Seek support, be it from family, friends, the community, or religious activities. Helping others can lift your spirits and broaden your friendships.
5) Be realistic. Traditions and rituals change as families change and grow. Hold on to those you can and want to keep, but accept that you may have to let go of others. Find new ways to celebrate.
6) Stick to a budget. You can’t buy happiness with gifts.
7) Set realistic resolutions. Don’t resolve to change your whole life, return to basic healthy routines with small specific goals set in a reasonable time span.
8) Accept family members and friends as they are. Practice forgiveness, or at least set aside grievances for later.
9) Plan ahead, whether it is menus, shopping trips or travel.
10) Learn to say “NO”. If you say yes only when you want to do something, you will avoid feeling overwhelmed, resentful or bitter.
11) Make some time for yourself. Hide in the bathroom, take an evening walk, listen to music, even if only for a few minutes.
12) Don’t abandon health habits. Get some exercise, some sleep, and some indulgence, but not overindulgence.
13) Seek “professional” help. Whether it is your own psychologist, your spouse, significant other, fishing buddy, coffee group, canine or in our case, feline companions to help you realize you need to do the 12 above keys.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 14.
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In by Roger Fisher & William Ury
Courtland Chaney, PhD Industrial-Organizational Psychologist Human Resource Management Associates, Retired LSU faculty member
My Christmas stocking stuffer would be Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury with Bruce Patton as editor, Penguin Books, second edition, 1991.
Getting to Yes – Negotiating Agreement without Giving In deserves recognition as a classic. Millions of copies in at least 18 languages, this national best seller is a brief, straightforward approach to mutually acceptable agreements that meet the interest of both (dare I say all) parties when interests are not identical.
The text begins by acknowledging that negotiating agreements and coping with the inevitable inherent in negotiations is simply a part of life. As such, we can all benefit from understating the various approaches to and elements of negotiation as well as how to manage the stages of what the authors call “principled” negotiation. Principled negotiators attempt to reach decisions based on the merits of the situation, allowing one to obtain what you are entitled to while treating others in a fair and decent manner. It is an all-purpose strategy for win-win negotiations.
After emphasizing the importance of separating the “people” involved in the negotiations from the “interests” of those individuals, the authors provide methodologies for focusing on interests, inventing alternative solutions, using objective criteria to evaluate options, and understanding how to leverage your best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 14.
Matt Rossano, PhD Professor, Past Chair, Department of Psychology Southeastern Louisiana University Author Religious Beliefs, Evolutionary Psychiatry and Mental Health in America by Kevin Flannelly
Author Kevin Flannelly says something interesting and a bit surprising on p. 183 of his book: “There is very little evidence that belief in God, in and of itself, is related to mental health….” Given this, one might wonder how you fill the pages of an over 300-page book dedicated to the subject. It turns out that mere belief is relatively unimportant. The content of belief is critical. Flannelly reviews a considerable body of research showing that believing positive things about God, the afterlife, the world and one’s place in it have important beneficial effects on psychiatric symptoms associated with anxiety disorders, agoraphobia, depression, obsessive/compulsive disorder, and paranoia. For example, if one believes that God is loving and benevolent then life satisfaction goes up and psychiatric symptoms go down. However, the opposite is true if one sees God as wrathful and punishing. Since most believers hold the former view, by and large, religion plays a positive role in their mental health. A laudable strength of the book is how it situates the empirical work both historically and neuroscientifically. The human brain evolved to assess threat. Religious belief puts that threat within the larger context of a munificent, meaningful universe.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 14.
Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey
Kim VanGeffen, PhD Neuropsychologist, New Orleans LPA Director and Past President 2015 Distinguished Psychologist
Now that it is holiday time and I have finished setting up all of the Christmas decorations, I can settle in with a Christmas cozy mystery. Cozy mysteries typically take place in quaint small towns with female characters who stumble into solving crimes. These books are typically written in series so that, if you like the author and characters, you can read multiple books in the series.
Some of my favorite cozy mystery authors include Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier who have a number of mysteries set at different holidays. Joanne Fluke has written several Christmas themed mysteries which take place in a small town in Minnesota. The main character is a cookie baker and her mysteries include recipes for cookies. This year I am reading Apple Cider Slaying which is the first in a new series by Julie Anne Lindsey. These mysteries are set on an apple farm in Blossom Valley, West Virginia. The main character, Winnie Montgomery, has come to live on the farm to help her grandmother run her struggling farm and family business of growing apples and making cider. When the grandmother is suspected of killing her nemesis at a Christmas party at the orchard, Winnie springs into action to solve the crime. This novel also includes several recipes at the end. I am also looking forward to reading Leslie Meier’s New Year’s Eve Murder.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 14.
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
John Fanning, PhD Neuropsychologist, New Orleans Past President, LA Psych Assn
Tara Westover is a young woman from rural Idaho who was raised in a large family of survivalists almost completely separated from mainstream American life. The family was headed by a rigid–and probably mentally ill–patriarch who viewed schools as agents of indoctrination, and
outsiders (including other Mormons in the region) as "the Illuminati". The family's main economic activity involved salvaging junkyard metal, until her mother developed a thriving business making and selling herbal remedies. The family stockpiled home-canned food and prepared for apocalypse. The children did not go to the doctor, receive vaccinations, or visit the dentist. They labored in the junkyard under conditions which could only be described as extremely dangerous, with sometimes-serious injuries treated with their mother's herbal remedies. The lines of authority within the family were relentlessly coercive, and Tara herself was subjected to repeated violent physical abuse by a brother.
When another brother took the deeply rebellious step of going to college, Tara began to seriously consider breaking with the life she had known. She was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Although she had learned to read at home, learning enough math to get an ACT score which would get her admitted to Brigham Young University was a major challenge. When she entered college she was unprepared socially as well as academically. I dare say that no one reading this ever asked his/her history prof "What's the Holocaust?" in class. Beyond that, however, was the paradox of feeling bound by family-of-origin edicts even as she rejected and rebelled against their rules and their way of looking at the world. She was fortunate to have had friends and benefactors, particularly at BYU.
Without revealing the eventual outcome of her liberationist rebellion (suffice to say she is no longer working in a junkyard), Educated examines both the rewards (immense) and personal costs (also immense) of her protracted struggle to break free and establish her own path. I found Educated truly riveting, and wrenchingly inspirational. Highly recommended.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
Homegoing byYaa Gyasi
Marva Lewis, PhD Associate Professor, Tulane University Violence Prevention Institute
The author, born in Ghana and reared in Huntsville, AL, tells the interwoven stories of 8 generations of a family that began with two sisters captured in Africa and forced into slavery at the beginning of the mid-Atlantic slave trade. One sister is taken to the United States and one remains in Africa.
The book then tells the stories of their descendants -those who were taken and those who stayed – over the span of 8 generations. The book has won the National Book Critics Circle/John Leonard Award among other awards and acclaim.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
Rednecks, Redeemers, and Race by Stephen Cresswell
Bill McCown, PhD Professor, Associate Dean College of Business and Social Sciences. ULM
This scholarly work about our eastern neighbor may be an odd choice for contemporary holiday reading. But it may have important lessons for today’s national discourse.
After the Civil War Mississippi, once the jewel of the Confederacy, was in
economic ruins. But the unfathomable nightmare of slavery was finally legally over. From these ashes there was at last a hope for what Walt Whitman saw as a bright and uniquely American Transformation. For a brief while, both freedmen and poor rural whites, most of whom were just simple frontier dwellers, were actually learning to coexist as equals, as Americans. For once they could share in the possibilities of economic progress and justice that this new American experiment now promised. However, this hope was just a brief glimmer. It was soon back to business as usual with the antebellum planting class regaining its berth on top. And just as soon Mississippi was economically foundering, trapped in a spire of poverty. It has never emerged from this mire. What happened?
Cresswell, a historian by training, is gentle in his assignment of blame. But his data suggests that federal and state governments, business interests, and even religious forces kept Mississippi backwards. First they did this by fostering fierce class and social divisions. Then they stifled the Constitutional rights of the newly freed African Americans, codifying racism into practically every aspect of Mississippi life. They followed up by limiting similar rights and opportunities for the majority of poor whites and certainly the remaining native peoples. This was followed with a social agenda that caused generations of poverty by stifling business and economic competitiveness and limiting educational opportunities. But there really was no grand conspiracy. No one was pulling any master strings. In the end there was no single culprit, only many self-serving and even some well-intentioned actors and interests from every political spectrum. There were many people to blame, united only by their lack of vision.
In retrospect the history of Mississippi makes it clear that individual rights and freedom, as the conservative economists now argue, are essential to prosperity. So too is investment in education, as progressives now note. Both the left and the right have something to learn from the history of our neighbors. Both sides could also do a bit better talking with each other and pointing fingers a little less. Our current stakes are very high.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Michael Chafetz, PhD Neuropsychologist, New Orleans Author
Ed Snowden is the tech genius who exposed the methods by which the National Security Agency (NSA) snoops and records private data on all of the country's citizens, and keeps a Permanent Record of this data. This book is a thriller. Not the kind with chase scenes and shoot- outs, but a delicious mental thriller that keeps you wondering how he will pull it off and not get caught. It is also a deeply personal story of how a young boy grows up to be a tech wizard and gains access to the country's most cherished secrets. Snowden's coming-of-age experience was 9/11. He wanted to do whatever he could to help. He joined the military but broke both legs in training and ultimately realized that he would be more able to contribute through the use of his computer gifts. He was able to hire on with the CIA and then NSA with a cover position through Dell Computers. As cloud computing started developing in earnest, he became appalled at the corporate surveillance in everyone's home, with appliances reporting back to their manufacturers about what you ate and what you watched on TV.
It's a small leap from corporate to government invasion of your privacy. Snowden took great pains to discuss our constitutional rights and show how privacy rights are interpretable from them. The way the NSA got around this was to redefine it within the context of your relationship to various corporations. They reasoned that because you had already shared your phone records with your phone service provider, you forfeited your privacy rights.
Snowden realized that to become a whistleblower, he would not only have to blow the whistle on secret programs but on the larger system of secrecy. The technological power of the government was frightening.
The story of how Snowden got the information into the hands of responsible journalists was compelling. Snowden's work prompted the change in various laws so that government is somewhat more restricted. He is still in exile and still feels the need to alter his appearance when he goes out. He works with a non-profit organization to help keep the internet more secure than it was in 2013. He is truly a man of conscience and courage.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
ValaRay Irvin, PhD Director, University Counseling Center Southern University-Baton Rouge Secretary, LA Psych Assn
A powerful and thought-provoking true story, Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds and the system stacked against them.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 2.
by Julie Nelson ASPPB is rolling out their poor quality, high-priced "skills" exam, which they seem determined to add to the law-enforcement systems at the state regulatory boards.
For what looks to be mostly a commercial effort and moneymaker for the ASPPB, the move is bringing both the standard exam and the new exam into sharper focus by the critics. Some of the most damning observations include:
• a base rate for disciplinary actions that would make it almost impossible for the test to be validated for its purpose; • a serious criterion and criterion validity problem; • the absence of methodology for setting the cut off score; • a very likely situation that both the EPPP and EPPP-2 discriminate on the basis of race; • and a high price. The sad thing is that this new, expensive and low quality exam, comes at a cost that is to be shouldered by the young psychologist hopefuls. Candidates have to spend $700 to $800 to take the exam and this will go to $1200 or more. Add to this the issue of a recommended cut-off that is based on percentiles rather than raw content scores. No matter what then, 50% of the candidates probably take the test again. What is this cut score based on? Nothing that I can tell.
ASPPB is a strange organization. It is a private, nonprofit corporation composed of government officials from state regulatory boards. It has a lot of cash on its balance sheet and a 55% growth over the last five years. But, under scrutiny, the EPPP system, and especially the EPPP-2, looks both poor in quality and fairly expensive. And the boards–and the candidates–are somewhat of a captured market for ASPPB as a vendor, which fools with quality.
The entire situation is a perfect example of what happens when you’re spending someone else’s money on someone else.
There are four ways to spend money, said Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel prize for looking at the psychology of spending, among other things. Friedman said you can spend your own money on yourself and when you do you're going to be careful about the quality and cost.
When you spend your own money on someone else you're going to be careful about the cost but less concerned about the quality.
When you're spending someone else's money on yourself, you're going to go for the best quality but you're not going to be too concerned about the cost.
The fourth way to spend money is when you're spending someone else's money on someone else. And that's what the state boards are doing––spending the candidates' money to "protect the public." The tendency is to care neither about quality or cost.
LSBEP should be commended for their opposition to the new test, and their demand that the vendor, ASPPB, provide a decent selection-testing product, that is useful, valid, and sold at a reasonable cost.
[Julie Nelson is a licensed psychologist, journalist, organizational consultant, and publisher of the Times. She also holds other various positions in the community. However, her opinions here are those of her own, and do not represent any group or association. She and the Times receive no compensation other than paid advertising. Email her at drj@drjulienelson.com, ––she welcomes feedback.]
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 3.
Kristen Mosbrucker of the Advocate reported last month that Louisiana per capita personal income gre by 5.2% between 2017 and 2018. This is faster than the national average of 4.9%, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data released last month.
Per capita income in the Bayou State grew to $46,242 as of 2018 but is lower than the U.S. average of $54,446. Texas saw its personal income increase by 5.1% to $50,355 during the same time frame. Mississippi's personal income increased by 4% to $37,834 and Alabama's by 4.4% to $42,238, reported Mosbrucker.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 11. Source pages: 2.
If you take Louisiana's rank in health outcomes and correlate it with Louisiana's rank in medical costs per capita, you get an r of –1.0.
Maybe every other or third year it's –.9, because Mississippi or Alabama beats us out of the bottom spot in health outcomes. But it's clear that either way, things are miserably off track in Louisiana's "Health Care System."
The system is paralleled by the United States. Nationally we exhibit the same pattern– highest in cost and last or nearly last in health outcomes when compared to the list of industrialized countries.
The equation suggests the real goal of the current system is not the publicized goal, and the strength of the relationship also suggests lots of resistance to change.
What's a consumer of services of this type of system to do? It would not be unreasonable given these statistics to avoid the current healthcare system altogether. Or, do the opposite of what your healthcare practitioner recommends, especially if inexpensive! Add to this the finding that medical errors are the third reason for death, and you have quite a system to contend with.
Like the pregnant, laboring women in olden days who became hysterical with fear when assigned to the physicians instead of the midwives. Everybody knew it could be a death sentence to be attended to by the physicians (who regularly transferred infections to birthing women from the cadavers of the sick). Run like hell in the opposite direction, would have been good advice. Have your baby in a field!
At the Louisiana Psychological Association workshop on health psychology, Dr. Bonnie Kaplan brought to bear convincing theory and research, deductive and inductive reasoning, to show that not only mental illness but all physical health should start with curing nutritional deficiencies. At best, we ingest only 50% of the nutrients we need, so these deficiencies are a given in our modern society.
Dr. Linda Brannon said it in a beautifully succinct manner that the healthcare system we now have was designed over half a century ago to solve problems and diseases that are now solved for the most part. The system we need is a completely new one for today’s health problems.
Where does this leave psychology? Kaplan shows us that we all must be thought leaders and change agents ––not an easy role. Psychology can use our scientific methods, our statistical reasoning, our rigorous training in the science of behavior, to move beyond the poor judgments that plague human problem-solving.
We can help change this mess. We can work from outside the r = –1.0 system.
We'll need to reestablish the link to our best most innovative thinkers, hone ourselves to the task, and get out of politics that muddy our scientific thinking. We'll need a stronger collective voice. And, we need to accept that blowback is a normal result of being a disruptor type change agent. Just as Dr. Kaplan said– systems don't like to change, but hang on– it will get better.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.