By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon FORT LUPTON – A clinic with roots caring for migrant farm workers in an old onion shed offers one of the most sophisticated models in Colorado for integrating mental health with primary care. “If you come to my health center, your chances of also seeing a mental health counselor are great,” said Dr. Tillman Farley, medical services director for Salud Family Health Centers. “Wall Street bankers don’t get the care that we give our patients.” The mental health counselors don’t wait for a doctor or other health provider to invite them into a patient’s room. They see all…
News - Part 41
By Donald J. Mares It is no secret that there is a strong connection between the mind and body. Religious leaders, philosophers, doctors and many others have discussed the mind/body connection for centuries. Yet the treatment of mental and physical health has been compartmentalized in modern Western medicine. In the United States, there are two systems of care: the behavioral health system and the physical health system. These systems are perpetuated through insurance reimbursements, through laws, medical education and many other cultural and social institutions. The distinction between mental and physical health is both a product and promoter of the…
By Molly Maher Just a little more than a week after World TB Day, an active case of tuberculosis has been confirmed at the University of Colorado Denver. After the student, whose identity is being kept private, was diagnosed, an unconfirmed number of students, staff and faculty who were at risk of contracting tuberculosis were notified and encouraged to get tested, CU Denver spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery confirmed. This is the second case of active tuberculosis in the past 12 months reported to Health Center at Auraria. This compares to a record high of four active cases in 2000. Dr. Randall…
By Zeik Saidman We lied, kidnapped, abandoned and then manacled and drugged my mother-in-law. At least this is the way my wife describes the experience of placing her mother in a nursing home. True, we did use the therapeutic fib (Alzheimers experts use this concept) to lure her to the nursing home facility. We told my mother-in-law that she was going to visit with the nice man who had come to her home to talk about senior services in the area. In actuality, he was the director of the Alzheimers unit and his visit was to conduct an assessment for…
By Mikaila Ellis Fethke Altenbern Colorado continues to lag behind most other states on immunizing babies and toddlers and a new book asserts that parents have given in to irrational fears rather than heeding overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe. The Colorado Health Foundation this week released its annual Health Report Card. Colorado ranked 30th in the nation for immunizations in children aged 19 to 35 months. That’s better than 2002 when Colorado ranked dead last in the country, but worse than 2008 when Colorado had improved to nearly 80 percent vaccination rates. Only 65.2 percent of Colorado’s infants were fully vaccinated…
Robert Wood Johnson FoundationState of the StatesLaying the Foundation for Health ReformFebruary 2011
Men who abuse women physically and emotionally may also sabotage their partners birth control, pressuring them to become pregnant against their will, new reports suggest. Read full report from New York Times.
More than 200 Americans died between January 2005 and June 2010 because of problems with monitoring devices. Many times, though, this was not a malfunctioning device, but the result of a hospital staff worn down or distracted by the constant alarms, ignoring or silencing them without providing the proper care, the Boston Globe investigates.
By Diane Carman Dr. Daniel Feiten has been shepherding babies and their parents through the challenges of childhood and adolescence for more years than he cares to count. He is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he received the Career Teaching Scholar Award in 2009. He is one of the founders of Greenwood Pediatrics, one of the largest practices in Colorado. And, to his dismay mostly out of necessity he has become an expert on childhood obesity. So lets start with a little good news. Its my favorite success story, he said….
By Rebecca Jones EdNewsColorado Keeping kids thin and fit is no small order in 2011. Schools experiment with countless ideas to battle childrens obesity. Theyve tried cooking classes, nutrition education, inviting kids to work in school gardens, improving cafeteria food, banning sugary snacks. Theyve upgraded playgrounds, tinkered with recess, mandated daily physical activity, organized bike clubs and revised physical education standards. Theyve coached parents, coached teachers, coached lunch ladies, coached coaches. Yet for all the different approaches, the empirical evidence proving what works and what doesnt is remarkably sketchy. Evidence-based anti-obesity programs that repeated studies have proven effective simply dont…