As Ross Szabo, CEO of the Human Power Project, writes in the Huffington Post, many men are not feeling well, and suffering needlessly:

Men are more than four times more likely to die by suicide than women. The suicide rate in men ages 35-64 has increased 28 percent in the last decade. We’re shocked every time someone like Robin Williams takes his own life, but he is certainly not alone. Men abuse substances more than women, we experience more antisocial behavior, and men are less likely to seek help for their mental health.

Szabo talks about his own experience in a video, “Moustaches and Mental Health are Manly”. Hell yeah they are.

Tweets by @standupkid

Source: standupkid
http://markjoyella.com/now-movember-means-mental-health-too/

CDC Suggests Quarantine-Lite for Some Ebola Clinicians: The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced recommendations for some US healthcare workers who have battled Ebola in West Africa that stop just short of the outright 21-day quarantine instituted by several states.”

Please explain this to me. If a doctor is willing to go to West Africa to help Ebola victims, what the HELL is the big deal about a few weeks of Quarantine? Jurors get sequestered for months in disgusting hotels with little (or no) contact allowed with their families. Jurors cannot even watch the news or read a newspaper. Yet avoiding jury duty can land one in jail! The possibility of catching Ebola doesn’t stop these doctors from their going abroad to offer their heartfelt “borderless” services, but 21 days in a room alone to possibly protect the rest of us – NOPE!

Is this the most absurd thing you have ever heard in your life? What is wrong with these people? Hey doc –you caught the virus. Were you not taking precautions? Thank you for putting your sweaty hand into a bowling ball and your sweaty feet into bowling shoes. Now we are supposed to trust these docs and this nurse who claims she had fever due to “anxiety”? Please someone find anxiety as a cause for fever in a medical textbook for me!

Dr. Craig Spencer

One would expect that those individuals in health care would be the first people willing to take these precautionary measures. How much does anyone really know about the contagious properties of Ebola? If we knew so much about the transmission of Ebola, why are these doctors catching it? They didn’t know enough NOT to catch the disease, but somehow they knew enough to insist that quarantine is a bad idea? Why were they not suited up properly in West Africa? If they were, why are they infected? What the hell is going on here? Does anyone know if this virus can mutate and become stronger and therefore more easily contagious? Could repeated exposure have anything to do with the level of transmission? What happens if Ebola interacts with another virus or bacterial infection that is prevalent here and not in Africa? Remember, it wasn’t until the 1980s that researchers understood that helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) was responsible for approximately 60 percent of peptic ulcers.

So, Ms. Whiny Red-Haired Nurse who was going to take legal action if she were quarantined, I guess you are too young to have witnessed the early spread of HIV, a virus that first obliterated communities that the Reagan administration didn’t care about.

Jocelyn Elders

Here is the HIV/EBOLA paradox as I see it:

The U.S. government ignored the HIV/AIDS problem because in the 1980s it FIRST hit populations that they simply did not care about and who had little political influence at the time (gay men, I.V. drug users, the urban impoverished). Because of this millions died. The government is now ass-kissing Americans with social status (i.e. doctors and nurses) who are simply being asked to sit in quarantine for 21 days to prevent the spread of another potentially deadly virus.

Thank goodness the status of LGBTQ individuals is much better today than it was in the 1980s. However, the overall sociopolitical paradigm here is just a bit too similar for me to digest. I’m not equipped to comment on how IV drug users or any of the other early-affected HIV populations have fared regarding their social standing. However, the spread of Ebola in Africa (and earlier on the same continent, AIDS) was due largely to lack of educational and medical resources. How abominable is it that if that Ebola spreads in the United States it will be because of the obstinance and arrogance of educated doctors and health care workers who most certainly know better, and because of a government who won’t impose a lousy 21 day quarantine on these high-status individuals (who also have the benefit of the country’s finest health care should they become ill).

This brings me back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Who needs you? You know, CDC, at one point in time I think we Americans thought you were kind of an important agency, seemingly full of great intelligence and even mystique. Frankly, now you look like a flip-flopping politically maneuvered knitting circle. Quarantine-lite? LITE? This is just stupidity – extra heavy. Nobody is discriminating against doctors by asking them to stay in quarantine. This is not a violation of anyone’s civil rights, any more than jury duty is. Doctors are bound by the duty to “do no harm”.

The latest round is particularly despicable and the folks featured in them deserve much better treatment than to be dragged out as the REASON YOU SHOULDN’T SMOKE. We live in America, people, and if you want to shorten your life a minute at a time with those demon coffin nails, have at it. Please don’t spend our public money on stating the obvious to those with free will. Ever hear of Darwin?

Go ahead NYC Quits, hand out those nicotine patches and help people — that’s a good thing. But for the love of all that is holy GET THOSE TV ADS OFF THE AIR. They only scare children and not smokers. And if scaring kids is your main goal then.. GFY.

What do you think? Comment away!

Photo credit Heather Phelps-Lipton

Last fall, Anna Hieronimus and Elise Kornack were all set to open their new restaurant/yoga studio, on a quiet, beautiful street in Carroll Gardens, awaiting only the final permit from the city. The Fire Department was scheduled to do the final inspections on October 29, but instead of the visit they expected, they got, instead, a visit from Superstorm Sandy.

“City officials were totally bogged down after that,” said Kornack recently from Take Root, which ended up opening in January. “We had to wait two and a half months to open.”

Located on Sackett Street between Henry and Hicks, Take Root’s warm, cozy dining room is designed, according to Kornack, to make guests feel as though they’re walking into Kornack and Hieronimus’ home—which is where their business began.

The two met three years ago and shortly thereafter moved in together (they’re now engaged and will be married this fall); a former sous-chef at Aquavit and winner on the Food Channel’s Chopped, Kornack became “obsessed” (her word) with the garden of their new apartment in Prospect Heights, and the two began holding dinner parties in their backyard for 10 to 12 people at a time. The dinners grew so popular they began selling tickets; after some neighbors complainted, they decided to open a restaurant that would replicate their homey dinner party experiences.

Hieronimus (left) and Kornack. Photo credit Heather Phelps-Lipton

At the same time, Hieronimus, whose mother ran a holistic health care center in Baltimore—“yoga and Ayurveda have always been a part of my life,” she said—was becoming a more serious practitioner of yoga, and several years ago underwent a teacher training program at Kripalu. Though she was teaching yoga privately, she realized that she really wanted to work with children, so behind Take Root’s dining room, just past the newly remodeled kitchen, is a yoga space for children, for toddlers to age six.  The classes combine traditional yoga moves with singing, dancing, and creative movement.   Hieronimus also offers yoga workshops for adults.

Take Root serves an $85 tasting menu on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, with one seating at 8 pm by reservation. Children’s yoga classes are held Wednesday through Saturday. On Saturday morning, Hieronimus hosts a children’s reading circle in the yoga studio, while parents and caretakers are invited sit in the dining room and chat and munch on Kornack’s home-made baked goods and sip coffee and lemonade. On Sundays, a small-plates brunch is served beginning at 11 a.m.

Take Root’s yoga program is currently offering a summer special: bring a friend or a sibling and get a 50% discount on the class. The classes are $12, with a $2 discount for first time visitors; the reading circle is $5 and designed, said Kornack, to offer a variety of price points for people in the neighborhood.

“Our goal is to create a small community,” said Kornack.  “I cook for people to hang out and eat.”

Photo credit Heather Phelps-Lipton

Update: The Times reports that Judge Johnny Lee Baynes, who earlier issued a temporary restraining order against SUNY’s attempt to close LICH, today, in response to complaints that SUNY was denying LICH essential medical staff, ordered that SUNY “should maintain staffing on par with what it was before SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which operates it, first moved to close it earlier this year.” The Times article indicates that the LICH staff had been told that the ER could no longer accept patients brought by ambulance because the ER wasn’t sufficiently staffed to handle any other than walk in patients. The Times quotes Eliza Bates, a spokeswoman for the nurses’ association, as saying “the judge’s order should prevent that.”

Michelle Green of the NYS Nurses Association tells BHB:

Long Island College Hospital is open for care, and nurses, caregivers, and doctors continue to provide the very best care to Brooklyn patients. But SUNY appears intent on closing this vital Brooklyn hospital. We’re glad that Judge Baynes is taking SUNY’s actions—and the impact these actions could have on Brooklyn patients—very seriously. We will continue to do whatever it takes to keep LICH and all Brooklyn hospitals open for care.

BHB has obtained an email sent out by Dr. Tom Sorra, leader of the LICH Concerned Physicians group about the current situation:

I’m sending out a very brief update on the rapidly-developing situation at LICH –
a press release with more details will be forthcoming tomorrow, which I will send to all.

The attorneys for Concerned Physicians, NYSNA and 1199 were in court today and made a persuasive argument about SUNY/DMD’s violations of the previous TRO (restraining order) issued.
The court set a hearing for contempt and obliged SUNY/DMC to maintain staffing levels as they were in February 2013.

SUNY/DMC ignored the court order, and several hours later sent the following email to all LICH MD’s, which is clearly in violation of the court order – claiming that they are doing this because of “an unsafe situation with MD’s and staff leaving”.

This is a blatant lie!
There is no unsafe situation, and SUNY/DMC officials lies need to be exposed!

Concerned Physicians and other members of the LICH Coalition have been in meetings and on conference calls this evening to discuss this situation and will keep you all advised of developments as they occur.

Please call your elected officials, press and other contacts to spread the word –

the criminal actions of SUNY/DMC against LICH need to be stopped!

Toomas M. Sorra, MD
Concerned Physicians of LICH

Dear Medical Staff,
University Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB) of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center continues to make good faith efforts to staff the Long Island College Hospital and maintain its patient services. Attempts to replace medical, nursing, and management staff have been on-going. However, we have not successfully recruited personnel for key vacancies, either through locum tenems or permanent recruitment. Due to the departure of critical staff that cannot be replaced in a timely manner, we are taking steps to ensure patient health, safety, and welfare. We cannot allow the public to have an expectation of services that are not possible for us to provide.

We request that you discuss other options for inpatient care and emergency services with your patients. The Central Brooklyn campus of University Hospital of Brooklyn will facilitate patient transfers should you choose to do so.

Emergency Services

To that end, the emergency room will not accept ambulance patients effective June 20, 2013 at 6:00 A.M. FDNY – EMS has been notified that the UHB Long Island College Hospital campus of SUNY Downstate will be on ambulance diversion for emergency room services. Walk in patients will receive medical screening and stabilizing treatment. If further care is needed, patients will be transferred to another area hospital. Patients using the EMS ambulance services will be taken to the nearest hospital with appropriate resources. Hospitals in Brooklyn have been notified of the diversion.

Please be assured that all efforts will be made to assist you in the transfer of patients to University Hospital or to the facility of the patients’ choice. Current inpatients will also be notified in writing and medical leadership will be available for further discussion. For further information and assistance, please call Mr. George Caralis at (718) 270-4293, Mr. Michael Miller at (718) 780-4651 or Dr. Michael Lucchesi at (347) 424-9084.

This dispatch in from a BHB reader:

As of tonight ambulances are not allowed to bring patients to LICH – the hospital is on permanent diversion. Is it closing?

While there’s no word on whether LICH is closing, sources confirm to BHB that SUNY has instructed EMT to not send patients to the hospital as of 6 AM tomorrow (6/20) morning.

DEVELOPING…

Tweets about “#savelich”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/60242