Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 6. Source pages: 4.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Louisiana Primary Care Association (LPCA) a $200,000 grant to support rural communities fighting the opioid epidemic, according to a LPCA press release. The funding supports Community Health Centers in the treatment and prevention of opioid abuse in rural communities. LPCA was selected as one of 120 grant recipients to receive funding as part of HRSA’s Rural Communities Opioid Response planning grant process.
Recipients across 40 states will receive $200,000 for one year to formalize partnerships with local stakeholders, conduct needs assessments, and develop plans to implement and sustain substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder, prevention, treatment, and recovery interventions.
LPCA will use these funds to provide leadership and technical assistance to five rural Community Health Centers. This consortium will develop and plan the roll out of protocols that result in increased access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services in the rural communities at the highest risk of substance abuse disorder.
According to HRSA, more than 130 people a day die from opioid-
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. 6. Source pages: 5.
A measure allowing for student access to applied behavior analysis providers in schools had passed the House on May 15 with a 91 to 0 vote and then passed the Senate last week, 35 to 0. A similar measure, SB 78 by Senator Martiny passed also but was pulled from the calendar after Rep. Simon's bill went through both chambers.
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. 6. Source pages: 12.
Dr. Richard Blocker has developed and launched his "Employee Confidential Project," an enterprise web database capable of managing an unlimited number of individual consultants, facilities and records. The big data tool is offered by his company, Psymetra, and the analytics are offered as a “web service” to be run in-house by subscribing businesses and management consultants.
Big data analytics examines large amounts of data to uncover hidden patterns, correlations and other insights. How did Dr. Blocker get into this type of software development?
"I had been providing psychological consultation services to nursing care facilities," he said. "I found a staggering rate of employee turnover. During this period my partner, Tricia Knaack, and I had been coding and to a lesser degree, selling EMR-type software. As a small shop, we were not excited about keeping up with the ephemeral agenda of CMS for software. Full-court policy- wonking was not our thing. We weren't really making any money but were learning a lot and enjoying the coding."
"We starting writing a project to analyze employee turnover," Dr. Blocker said. "We decided to upgrade our skills to scalable internet-based development and we expanded our turnover application beyond just healthcare (e.g., police departments, hospitality and other industries). We gradually added a large survey component, basically re-writing a year's worth of coding. We knew the survey concept wouldn't work in a business without strong respondent confidentiality, so confidentiality became our algorithm and mantra (hence, "The Employee Confidential Project"). Adding surveys again expanded the scope of our work to include a broad swath of workforce issues."
Dr. Blocker's Psymetra Labs has thousands of survey items in a searchable survey item database making on- the-fly survey construction feasible. The survey archives available to subscribers grows with each new survey from any and all facilities using the system anywhere, in any industry. Analyses are anchored to employee turnover and employer-defined employee readiness as outcome criteria.
Dr. Blocker has served as owner and clinical director of Riverside Psychotherapy Associates, Inc., a multidisciplinary mental health practice, until 2001, when he entered solo practice and focused on consulting to hospitals and long term care facilities in the south Louisiana area, and then went further in IT and performance analytics.
"I think the fun part of this for psychologists is the potential for effect at scale and the novelty of studying stress and human coping in real time. Cambridge Analytica showed the raw power of human analytics to scale. Now hopefully, there is still room for a more positive contribution. There is the opportunity to save lives in healthcare and law enforcement," he said.
"The statistic and testing background certainly helps organize the analytics and surveys. Graduate school quality discipline and research skills also help. The coding is a different beast but can be learned online. It's pretty exciting stuff."
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. 6. Source pages: 12.
Dr. Susan Glanville has completed three books, Indian Santa, the True Story, Walking in Sunshine, and Lost Hero Found, written and illustrated under her nom de plume, Susie Marie PhD®. She travels the South sharing her books and entertaining audiences at her live presentations.
The books are part of her Power of T.E.A.® (thoughts, emotions, actions) series, a psychological system for success that Glanville has been developing for almost twenty years.
In 2000, a friend who was a teacher sought her help for her stressed-out students when Louisiana implemented the LEAP test, a standardized exam for public school students. At the time Dr. Glanville was the producer and host of a local television show in New Orleans, so she began to include special segments for the students. She also worked with them every week in their classroom. “I was encouraged to continue developing my methods for success when the students passed the exams, and did better than all of the other classes at the school.”
She based the framework for her “thoughts, emotions, actions” system on one of the textbooks she used while teaching at Delgado Community College. The opening paragraph described psychology as the science of cognition, affect, and behavior. Over the years, she broadened her methods. “I expanded my programs, incorporating experiences with the people, places, crops, and critters in my rural life to help teach key principles and practices to local students and families.”
When she moved away from the city after her children were grown, Dr. Glanville found fertile soil to grow her ideas for her books and presentations. She worked on themes having to do with natural and rural life, blending art, entertainment and healthy psychological messages and practices.
Dr. Glanville now drives her RV across the South to entertain audiences with her live shows. “Because I have spent so many years in the performing arts and the broadcast media, I inevitably find myself creating sets and collecting props for my events. My RV has plenty of room for everything I need, plus I get to spend the night camping in beautiful parks instead of checking in and out of hotel rooms.”
You can find out more about Susie Marie PhD®, and invite her to do one of her shows for your group, at her website, SouthRiverStories.com.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Cass Nelson-Dooley, M.S. Ulysses Press, June 2019 In Heal Your Oral Microbiome, author Cass Nelson-Dooley, frequent columnist for the Times, outlines the key reasons, facts and approaches for healing the microscopic, ecological system that lives in our mouths.
The very idea, that we are full of, covered with, and live in harmony or disharmony with other life forms, is at the center of the explosion of research and a Zeitgeist of thinking. It is at the core of Heal Your Oral Microbiome and while a little shocking to our sanitized view of our bodies and our health, the work offers a convincing argument to embrace a whole new idea of where health originates.
Once you get over the idea that we coexist with all these "bugs," readers can enjoy a conversational and evidence based review of the scientific status of the oral microbiome, of the critical importance of our mouth's relationship to our gut, of the quality nutrition needed to nurture health in modern life, and of how dysfunction in the any of a variety of these areas can be an underlying cause of serious and even life-threatening diseases.
There is a paradigm shift occurring in health and healthcare, and in Heal Your Oral Microbiome the author makes it clear that the starting place for this is right under our noses.
Cass Nelson-Dooley studied medicinal plants in the rain forests of Panama as a Fulbright Scholar, then researched the pharmacology of medicinal plants at the University of Georgia and diagnostic laboratories. She has co-authored, “Nutrient and Toxic Elements” in Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine and authored case studies in Case Studies in Integrative and Functional Medicine, and published in journals such as The Journal of Nutrition, Obesity Research, and Current Medicinal Chemistry.
In Heal Your Oral Microbiome Nelson-Dooley takes readers through a tour of the rainforest in our mouths. She applies straightforward, understandable science writing with strong emphasis on the practical steps to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
In the first chapters she helps readers understand how the microbiome works and why it is important, backing the descriptions with research evidence. To keep the gut microbiome healthy, she explains, we have to think about it more as an ecological system with communities of bacteria and an environment these communities depend on.
She points out that the mouth has a unique role as the first meeting place between the immune system, the gut, and the outside environment. Bacteria in the mouth seed the GI tract to the tune of 1 trillion bacteria every day.
These bacteria can have complex, multiple and interwoven roles, that scientists are just beginning to understand with the advent of DNA testing, she says. The bacteria in the mouth can make vitamins, communicate to the immune system to tell it how to respond, soothe inflamed tissue, form a barrier between your gut and bloodstream, help capture nutrients from your food, and fine-tune your metabolism. One of the most important roles is to protect from the bacteria that cause disease. "Amazingly, the oral microbiome influences health or disease in many other systems of the body, not just the GI track." She describes the link between the oral microbiome and heart disease, diabetes, joint disease, obesity, nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune disease, nervous system disease, asthma, eczema, or cancer. Included is inflammatory bowel disease and other intestinal illnesses such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, and many more.
Another example is the microbial ecology of cavities. "Until recently, a single bacterium was thought to cause cavities: the infamous Streptococcus mutans (or S. mutans, for short). However, scientific discoveries have taught us that it is not one single bug causing the problem, but instead an overall shift in the oral microecology that sets the stage for cavities."
"One of the most astounding discoveries is that oral pathogenic bacteria have been found in atherosclerotic plaques in the cardiovascular system." The evidence for relationship to rheumatoid arthritis also exists, as does the bidrectional association between diabetes and periodontal disease.
Another theme in Heal Your Oral Microbiome is that modern life is hard on our bugs.
While antibiotics have saved countless lives they are one of the biggest dangers to the microbiome. "They wipe out all of our bacteria, not just infection-causing bacteria. And while our microbiomes grow back rapidly after we finish antibiotics, they never return to their original stable state."
The modern diet, low in vegetables, fruits, fiber and raw foods, and high in sugars and refined carbohydrates, starves the microbiome, she notes. Babies born by C-section have much less similarity to the mother's microbiome, and less diversity, than babies born vaginally because they miss out on the first major inoculation from the birth canal. Bottle fed babies also miss out in probiotic bacteria and the prebiotics in breast-milk.
Readers who enjoy understanding why to do something will appreciate the first chapters, while those who want to grab the excellent practical advice will be delighted with the chapters on solutions. Nelson-Dooley covers diet and nutrition, recommendations that anyone can begin immediately. One of the most powerful ways to shift your microbiome is to eat more plant-based foods and fiber. Prebiotics, found in these foods, are literally bacteria food. The more prebiotics you eat, the more you feed your good bugs, and the happier you and your bugs are."
She outlines dental hygiene, why you must free yourself from sugars and of course, no smoking, and ways to boost the immune system.
She gives specific recommendations. Here is one example for probiotics. "I like Custom Probiotics (available online) and Masters Supplements (available through a practitioner). Take 50 to 300 billion colony forming units per day (CFU/day) to provide your body with a good dose of healthy microbiota. A dose of 50 billion CFU/day is appropriate for maintaining health. A dose of 300 billion CFU/ day is appropriate for someone with serious illness related to bacterial imbalance, such as ulcerative colitis. At high doses like 300 billion CFU/day, you should be under the care of a health- care professional knowledgeable about probiotic therapies."
Nelson-Dooley also offers a powerful chapter about the newest and most important diagnostic tests available to find out what is the state of the environment of your mouth, assessments that may well be unknown to the readers' physicians or dentists. "Testing is a powerful tool for you and your healthcare practitioners," she writes, "to get to the underlying causes of illness or simply to optimize wellness. Laboratory tests can detect inflammation, dysbiosis, food sensitivities, infections, hormonal imbalances, or leaky gut using a blood, urine, saliva, or stool sample."
What to test? She includes these: "1. Microbes. There are tests that measure your oral, fecal, and small intestinal microbes. You can also work with your health- care provider to order urinary organic acids, which can detect bacterial and fungal metabolism. 2. Immune system. Food sensitivity, celiac disease, and leaky gut testing can help you pinpoint why the immune system is malfunctioning. 3. Inflammation. Use hs- CRP to check your overall state of inflammation." A real treat is helping the reader in finding the rare healthcare professionals–needles in haystacks– who hold to this new view and root-cause assessment and natural treatments.
"Once you have dysbiosis," Nelson-Dooley writes, "it may or may not be easy to fix. In a healthy person who is eating a healthy diet, taking probiotics alone might be enough to tip the scales back to a healthy micro- biome. Someone with chronic symptoms may need to consult with a healthcare practitioner to treat their microbial dysbiosis. Even in a healthy person, a single infection could cause dysbiosis and their microbiome may never fully get back to normal. In this situation, a health professional can really help. Clinicians often try to boost beneficial bacteria, wipe out the problem-causing microbes, and then continue rebuilding the good bacteria and strengthening the immune system."
"Because the gut is so critical to overall health, evaluating and restoring gut function is a foundational clinical strategy in integrative and functional medicine." She recommends finding a healthcare practitioner in your area "who can help you determine what is holding you back from achieving optimum wellness." Readers can begin with The Institute for Functional Medicine and the online directory of clinicians. Also the Kresser Institute has a directory of clinicians that have completed advanced training in functional medicine and ancestral diet and lifestyle.
Cass Nelson-Dooley, MS, has over a decade of experience teaching doctors about integrative and functional laboratory results. In 2013, she started Health First Consulting, LLC, a medical communications company with the mission to improve human health using the written word.
Cass Nelson- Dooley, MS, researcher and science writer. She is the daughter of the Times publisher and a regular contributor to the newspaper. (Courtesy photo)
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. 5. Source pages: 2.
Gig Costello, I-O psychologist, frequently reminds me that Irv lane, an I-O professor of ours, used to notice how people rushed around "Enthusiastically solving the wrong problem."
Archimedes walked into my writing room cradling a howling kitten that was so tiny it fit into his hand. The kitten had magically appeared in our barn, belting out her complaints at decibel levels that we could hear from inside the house. After a few hours we concluded that the mother wasn’t coming back, and that this was another coerced adoption. (We acquired our last family cat in the same way ––I feel sure this is a co-evolutionary strategy between cats and humans).
It wasn’t bad timing. "I'd been thinking of another cat," Archimedes said, “But I wasn’t thinking about one this little." We had no experience trying to foster a kitten this young, but mothering instincts kicked in for both of us and we jumped into action.
Archimedes called the vet, "What do we do?" Bottle feed. Milk substitute. Be patient said the YouTube experts. Use the right kind of nipple. Try warming the milk. Don’t make it too hot, or too cold. Brush with a soft toothbrush. Be careful, kittens are very fragile.
As directed, we firmly held her head with one hand and gently pried her mouth open, slipping the nipple into her mouth then we'd dropper in a sip of milk. Archimedes had a knack for steady, forceful control, with no chance for escape. I would try to coax, cajole, pet and sing her into it. Armed with advice from the vet, the pet store, and the fanatics on YouTube we strived to be patient and careful. We spent $150 in pet supplies buying various milk substitutes, baby bottles, droppers, syringes, and nipples, even something called a "squirrel nipple."
The tiny thing fought us the whole time, squirming and kicking. Why is she not sucking on this bottle? Let’s try a different nipple. Let’s cut a larger hole in it. Let’s warm the milk more. All painfully tedious.
After a few days we became anxious and a little desperate. We couldn’t see how a few milliliters of milk substitute was going to keep this creature alive. I stayed up all night with her trying to find a way to help her adapt to the bottle. Archimedes took the kitten and went looking for the mother in the woods around our house. Kittens this age were supposed to be drinking at least 15 ml at a feeding, we were lucky to make five.
Another day passed and we began to despair, considering our options. We could spend $1000 at the vet to keep her alive. We could euthanize her (Nobody with intact emotional circuitry could kill this kitten.) Or we could keep trying and risk the kitten starving to death, as one expert warned. We decided to let go and let God.
Letting go and accepting whatever happened also had the result of allowing more risk-taking and so when Archimedes brought home a Sam’s rotisserie chicken I decided to take some of the drippings and see if the kitten could independently eat something not in a bottle.
She gobbled down the consommé like she was starving (she was). Eureka. We offered her a tiny piece of pork. She wolfed that down and didn't choke! We sat there and fed her bites of pork for 30 minutes––amazed by our stupidity––while she ferociously attacked her food.
Archimedes and I had framed the problem and anchored our solutions in a false problem definition. The kitten was not small because she was young, she was small because she was malnourished, being the offspring of a wild cat in the neighboring woods. This kitten could eat normal food. Five days after we rescued her, she’s practically eating her weight in cat food. We're lucky we didn't starve her to death trying to help her.
We see this all the time–– dramatic examples of the psychology of judgment. Turn on either red or blue news and we see cognitive frames, anchors, confirmation bias and overconfidence in conclusions and decisions. We like to think that we’re more right than wrong, but the likelihood is we're usually more wrong than right. Starting with that insight is an antidote, and collaborative problem-solving a good treatment, for what we call human judgment.
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. 5. Source pages: 4.
The Advocate won its first Pulitzer Prize for reporting what ultimately the helped change Louisiana's nonunanimous jury law. The Pulitzer was announced in April.
The Advocate reported on the racial impacts of Louisiana’s unique laws that allow juries to convict individuals without a unanimous verdict. The paper's reporting set the stage for voters to amend the state constitution for unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.
This is the first Pulitzer Prize in the state since 2006, when The Times-Picayune received two for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. It is the sixth time the century-old award has gone to a Louisiana news organization, said The Advocate.
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. 5. Source pages: 4.
Gov. Edwards issued a statement that Louisiana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), $252 billion in the third quarter of 2018, is the highest on record for the state. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Louisiana’s real GDP increased by $2.3 billion from $249.7 billion in the second quarter of 2018 to $252 billion in the third quarter of 2018. Since last year, Louisiana’s GDP increased $15.5 billion, from $236.5 billion in 2017 to $252 billion in the same period for 2018.
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. 5. Source pages: 4.
Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists called a special meeting for Monday, May 6, to address the legislative session and bills including SB 187 by Milkovich, HB146, HB320, HB 423, HB503, SB29, SB97.
At the meeting the board members will also conduct an Executive Session for the following:
"Attorney/Client Privilege – To receive legal advice related to appropriately responding to disparaging and inaccurate information disseminated publicly, to legislators, and to licensees. Discussions are attorney/client priveleged and are to be held in executive session due to potential impact current complaint matters related to P16-17-14C and P17-18-11C as well as matters pertaining to the following litigation: Eric R. Cerwonka v. Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists Suit No.: 656,587, Section 24 (ON APPEAL in the LA First Circuit); and Eric R. Cerwonka v. Louisiana Board of Examiners of Psychologists and Jaime Monic Civil Action No. 6:17-CV-1095."
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. 5. Source pages: 6.
Senator Milkovich is again proposing his legislation to put into place additional protections for due process in board complaints process. In 2018 he proposed SB 286 called "The Physician's Bill of Rights." That measure passed the Senate but failed in the House Health & Welfare Committee. This year Senator Milkovich is proposing SB 187 and extending it to cover all boards. He calls the measure the "Licensee's Bill of Rights."
SB 187 would require that notice of complaints be within 10 days of receipt by the board, including the name of the person making the complaint and identification of the board staff member making the complaint if it originated with the board staff member. Proposed law requires the notice to the licensee to include a detailed description of the complaint.
The law would provide an opportunity for the executive director to remove any investigator alleged to be biased, hostile, or unfair to the licensee from an investigation upon request of the licensee.
The measure would prohibit the board investigator from having communications with the board or executive director unless the licensee subject to the complaint is present.
It would require the board investigator to make a written recommendation to the executive director regarding the outcome of the investigation, and that the recommendation to be presented only to the executive director and not to any member of the board.
A case against a licensee shall be dismissed if the investigator, witness, prosecutor, or executive director discusses the case with any board member regarding the facts of the case prior to or during a hearing.
SB 187 would require that all files of the board regarding the complaint and investigation shall be available to the licensee that is subject to the complaint through full discovery and that all relevant facts of the case be included in the record.
The proposed law prevents the use of anonymous hearsay testimony during a hearing and grants the licensee the right to confront witnesses.
The new law would require the board to give 10 days notice to any licensee before suspending or terminating his license, but allows the board to seek a temporary restraining order to terminate the licensee's license, permit, or certificate sooner than the 10 days if the board believes the 10 days will be a threat to the public.
Under the new law, the board would have to conclude all investigations within 30 days or give notice to the licensee that the investigation is ongoing.
SB 187 would prohibit the board from having a rule, regulation, or any contract that requires the licensee to waive any legal or constitutional rights to have access to the courts, due process, discovery, evidence, or any other right established pursuant to proposed law. And it allows a licensee to have his case transferred to the division of administrative law or an independent administrative law judge.
In 2018 the Louisiana Medical Society and a national watchdog group, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, spoke in support of the measure.
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. 5. Source pages: 10.
Tulane News reported that the Society for Research in Child Development has named Dr. Sarah Gray, assistant professor of psychology at Tulane University, as a recipient of its prestigious Early Career Award.
Dr. Gray and the other four winners were honored for distinguishing “themselves as researchers and scholars, as evidenced through research, publications and scholarly activities," noted the Society, as reported by Barri Bronston of Tulane News.
Dr. Gray is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane with a focus in children's mental health and physiological consequences of exposure to early life stress and trauma, and especially in underserved children and their caregivers.
Bronton's report said that the Society for Research in Child Development Early Career Award Committee acknowledged Gray for her use of diverse methodologies to understand violence exposure in child development. The Society also noted the value of her approach in studying sensitive parenting and physiological self-regulation in vulnerable mothers and children. And also they honored her for "advancing rigorous research that improves the lives of young children and parents who have been exposed to trauma."
"I was deeply honored to be recognized for the quality of the work I have been doing with my students and collaborators here in New Orleans,” Gray said in the report.
“Tulane's interdisciplinary strength around the study of violence and early adversity, as well as the support of my senior colleagues in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the School of Medicine, have been instrumental in allowing me to do more ambitious science."
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Dr. Damian Murray, an assistant professor in Tulane’s Department of Psychology, and evolutionary psychologist, is studying the emotions and immune system gene regulation, reported Roger Dunaway from Tulane News.
In his work with UCLA professors Martie Haselton and Steven Cole and recent graduate Melissa Fales, Dr. Murray collaborated on a research project featured in Psychoneuroendocrinology, a journal for interdisciplinary articles of psychology, neurobiology, endocrinology and immunology.
“What we found was that women who fell in love had increased activity of genes involved in antiviral defenses, compared to when they began the study," said Dr. Murray in the article.
“No similar change was observed in women who did not fall in love. This could reflect a kind of a proactive response to anticipating future intimate contact, given that most viruses are spread via close physical contact. However, this increased activity of antiviral genes is also consistent with the biological preparation of the body for pregnancy. From this women-only sample, both of these interpretations remain possible.”
“A few years ago, Martie Haselton and I attended a talk by Steven Cole on the epigenetic and health consequences of being chronically lonely. Chronic inflammation is bad for health, and loneliness is one of the biggest predictors of mortality. Martie and I wondered if there could be a flipside to this ‘lonely’ epigenetics profile and we arrived at love. Is new romantic love the actual antithesis of loneliness? The answer depends on whom you ask, but we wanted to investigate whether new romantic love in new romantic relationships was associated with favorable health and a favorable immune-related epigenetic profile,” Murray said to Tulane News.
The 12-month paid study took place on the UCLA campus and included 47 women who completed the research, which included blood draws and bi-weekly questionnaires.
“One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how we could access this fairly narrow population and be in the best position to make statistical inferences. We arrived at a two-year longitudinal study that would assess within-person change in gene expression over time. We put out flyers and women called or emailed us and were pre-screened. It was a challenge to recruit for this study. Over half the women we pre-screened had been seeing someone romantically for less than a month and reported already being in love with them, but by study completion we had a sample of 47 women who had completed at least two blood draws,” Murray said.
After completing a baseline blood draw, the participants were given questionnaires every couple of weeks to answer specific life-event questions. One of the questions asked the participant if they had fallen in love with their partner.
Murray and his colleagues plan to look at the longer- term epigenetic and health implications of love with those who have been securely in love for an extended period. The follow-up study will include both women and men.
“Ultimately, I think what we’d like to accomplish is to be able to map the physiological changes that accompany the initiation and progression of human romantic relationships and see how those have implications for both immediate and long-term health and how the epigenetic implications of love may facilitate pregnancy and reproduction,” Murray said.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.
Dr. Thompson (Tom) Davis, Professor, Director of the Psychological Services Center, and Director of the Laboratory for Anxiety, Phobia, & Internalizing Disorder Studies at the Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, was an invited speaker at the prestigious Yale conference, and the first non-Yale presenter to speak in the history of the event, the Annual Spotlight on Anxiety Forum: The Many Faces of Anxiety, presented by Yale Child Study Center, Anxiety & Mood Disorders Program. The conference was in April.
The Yale Child Study Center Anxiety & Mood Disorders Program is a leading clinical and research center for the assessment and treatment of children with anxiety and comorbid disorders.
Dr. Davis spoke on "Fears & Phobias." Davis recently published an article, as an invited author, on one-session CBT treatment for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology.
Dr. Davis is one of the few psychological scientists who understand the nuances of the one-session CBT treatment. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, Behavior Therapy, the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, and Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.
One of Dr. Davis’ books, Intensive One-Session Treatment of Specific Phobias, published by Springer, is considered to be the treatment manual for this approach.
One of the few experts in the world on one-session treatments for children with phobias, Dr. Davis was named to an international team to study the topic. In 2016 he was contacted by research scientists in the United Kingdom to be part of the $2 million research program and grant from the U.K. National Institute for Health Research.
Why is this topic so relevant these days and important to these professionals? "I think there is a push to get as much 'done' therapeutically in as little time as possible," Dr. Davis said. "A treatment like OST certainly does that–giving patients the option of even traveling in for just a day or a weekend of care. Better understanding this treatment may lead to more innovative ways to help with other problems––probably not in just 3 hours, but even if we were able to take 20 or 30% off the time involved in other therapies that would be tremendous."
The response to his work was very positive but he noticed that there is a dissemination problem for one-session treatment. "Where does one go to get it? How can one be trained in it? etc. As a result, it is still hard to find a practitioner who does it even though the treatment has been around for almost 40 years!"
Dr. Davis' Annual Review article can be obtained at https://www.annualreviews.org/ doi/abs/10.1146/annurev- clinpsy-050718-095608
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. 4. Source pages: 2.
H. L. Mencken, the famous journalist, humorist and political critic of the 1930s wrote, "The believing mind reaches its perihelion in the so called Liberals. They believe in each and every quack who sets up his booth on the fair-grounds, including the Communists. The Communists have some talents too, but they always fall short of believing in the Liberals." I wonder what he'd say about politics today.
The Mueller report, with the likely final conclusion that Trump did not, after all, collude with the Russians, winds up causing a shift in the perceptual frame for many in the progressive mindset, including a goodly number of psychologists, a group that has been shown to be not at all diverse. Rather, 94% of us sit firmly on the political Left.
A lack of Left–Right diversity, like all other types of group homogeneity, restricts problem-solving and innovation. Left leaning people, according to Eysenck, are tender-minded, and I've wondered if this accounts for the conflict avoidance that seems to plague us. (Bill McCown will straighten me out at the LPA convention if so–– he's speaking on political hyper-polarization.)
Mueller surprised both the Right and the Left. The Right suspiciously expected fabrications. The Left expected hard evidence for impeachment. Mueller causes both sides to rethink, an unusual and lucky intervention if it holds. The FBI has egg all over its faceless actors and some in the media will have to cope with being preserved for posterity sounding like imbeciles. But all in all, a lucky intervention, I think.
None of this back and forth should be a concern to psychology. We are watching Rattlers vs Eagles, from Sherif's Robbers Cave, the normal functioning of a system. Trump, as much as one may dislike him and his style, is a change agent. The system put him there, just like it put President Obama there. This time, with Mueller's Report, the chips look like they will fall to the Right. But either kind of Kool-Aid is not good for psychology to be drinking.
Psychology's job is to get the best grip we can on a social process and climb up the mountain to the highest perch possible and have a good look around. But to gain this kind of objectivity we still need a good scrubbing.
In the March issue of Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, Malte Elson and others found that professional advocacy associations, including APA, put out policy statements that are suspect. They looked at policy statements about the effect of media on the public and found 91% lacked clarity and transparency, 62% overgeneralized, 79% exaggerated, 96% ignored diverse viewpoints, and 29% had non-credible sources.
Mencken also said, "The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."
Psychology is dangerous like that––in a good way. But we've got a lot of our own business to be minding, so that the public receives good advice and looks to us with trust. And, so that trust is deserved.
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. 4. Source pages: 3.
This is a response to the article written by Dr. Branaman “Court cases, market forces reshaping psychology,” posted in the National Psychologist on November 19, 2018 and reposted on the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists website in February, 2019.
Dr. Branaman notes that the Federal Trade Commission has been focused on “increased competition to facilitate a ‘free market’ in the professions and has closely watched activities of professional associations and state regulatory boards. Market forces and court decisions have also ‘chipped away’ at the practice of psychology.”
The statement suggests that what is happening in Texas is a result of some mysterious process at a level out of reach of mere psychologists.
Dr. Branaman cites relevant court cases which have had major repercussions for the practice of professional psychology. He discusses the Serafine case in which the U. S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Serafine could describe herself as a psychologist for political purposes. He failed to mention that she initially lost in district court and that the Atty. Gen. of the State of Texas declined to appeal the decision of the Fifth Circuit Court. He also failed to mention that the Atty. Gen. was the only person who could make the decision to appeal that case and that person was the notorious Ken Paxton who has been under indictment for many years now.
In a rather passive voice, he argues that it is logical to conflate freedom of speech with the licensing of professionals such as psychologists. In other words, his point seems to be that Serafine made a valid point that restricting the use of the term “psychologist” to properly trained and appropriately licensed practitioners is a violation of non-licensed people’s freedom of speech and also violates people’s access to a free market. He attempts to strengthen his point by noting that licensing boards may be universally vulnerable to lawsuits. He cites some other court cases to bolster his argument.
He also discusses another development in Texas psychology. He points out that licensed psychological associates (LPA’s) have filed lawsuits, which they lost, in an effort to win the right to “the independent practice of ‘psychology’. He recognizes that this privilege has been reserved for doctoral level professionals and even offers the opinion that the doctoral degree should be the standard for the practice of professional psychology.
What is his conclusion? He asserts, “… It now seems that licensing of individuals with masters level training in psychology is inevitable.” He warns, “First, there will be increasingly sharp scrutiny of regulatory boards by the public, state legislatures and federal regulations. There may be individual or class-action suits.”
His final statement is “I expect greater challenges may come. Where we go from here remains to be seen.”
This article appears to be an attempt to terrorize and demoralize psychologists nationwide and to convince them that the deregulation of licensing boards is inevitable. Of course, if you take this to its logical conclusion, all professionals are at the mercy of market forces and the ravages of court proceedings without regard for the welfare of the public.
The article fails to articulate the importance of licensing boards and of the strict regulation of healthcare practice and other professions. Clearly, an erosion of the standards for healthcare practice would result in massive harm to the public. Dr. Branaman fails to note that regulatory boards were developed over the years to protect the public from improperly trained, unscrupulous, ruthless, unethical and destructive professionals, both in healthcare and other professions.
I recently became aware that the state of Texas is attempting to dismantle the Plumbers Licensing Board; however, the Plumbers are resisting this attempt on a massive scale. Such action by the State of Texas could endanger the health and welfare of many and might lead to the deaths of innocent people for a variety of reasons.
The same thing holds for psychologists. If unscrupulous, ruthless, unethical, destructive and improperly trained “psychologists” are turned loose on the public, many deaths may result. Mental illness is life-threatening and many people die each year if their mental illness is not properly treated.
Psychologists in high leadership positions should be more concerned about the potential for harm to the public as opposed to the forces of the market. If these psychologists are concerned about potential lawsuits, then they should consider the possibility of lawsuits as a result of wrongful deaths.
James (Pat) Thompson, PhD Houston, Texas Licensed Texas & Louisiana Member, Louisiana Psychological Association
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.