CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health articles from June 2003

CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health archives from June 2003

Note from the editor.(Editorial)
June 22, 2003... THIS ISSUE FOCUSES ON HEALTH promotion, an area in which Canada has played a leading role since the presentation of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion at the First International Conference on Health Promotion in 1986. Health promotion, as...

CAMH overcomes SARS challenge. (News from the Centre).(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2003... CAMH, like all other Toronto-area hospitals, was affected by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Although CAMH continues to have no cases of SARS, we have been operating under the restrictions of the province-wide directives...

Madness and Arts Festival may become a tradition. (News from the Centre).(Brief Article)
June 22, 2003... The Madness and Arts Festival, hosted by the Workman Theatre Project and CAMH, was a huge success. The festival, the first of its kind in the world, explored mental health and art through workshops, panel discussions, art exhibits, theatre...

CAMH launches new information centre. (News from the Centre).(Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2003... As an exciting new public education initiative, CAMH is set to open the McLaughlin Addiction and Mental Health Information Centre in late June. This expanded information resource will increase CAMH's ability to reach and support Ontarians in...

Addiction and mental health conference. (News from the Centre).
June 22, 2003... CAMH, in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addiction Programs and the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Association of Ontario, is hosting a major conference entitled 'Making...

New screening protocol promises to uncover often-overlooked abuse. (Profile).
June 22, 2003... SINCE SHE WAS 16, JOANNE* HAD BEEN IN AND OUT OF psychiatric institutions across Ontario. Seen by an estimated 20 psychiatrists, she received diagnoses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and went through a myriad of antipsychotic...

Urban Elder brings traditional healing to the twenty-first century. (News).
June 22, 2003... VERN HARPER'S BUSINESS CARD READS, SIMPLY, "ELDER, Aboriginal Services." If his job title is unusual, that's because his role is equally so. Known to his clients and close community as Chief A-Sin ("Rock" in the Cree language), Harper is an...

Treating the terrorized: practicing on the front line. (News).
June 22, 2003... TORONTO STUDENT REBECCA KIRSH WAS IN ISRAEL working on a kibbutz last year. The bus she was on had stopped for a short break in the city of Afula. As she contemplated getting a drink, she heard what she describes as an "innately terrifying"...

'The Sopranos' wins praise for portrayal of female therapists. (News).
June 22, 2003... WHEN ALLY MCBEAL'S THERAPIST PLAYED A LAUGH track in her office, you could practically hear the collective groan. Or on Seinfeld, when Elaine's psychiatrist whisked her off to Paris, then used "mind games" when she tried to break up with...

Suicide risk high among people with bipolar disorder and addiction. (Research Update).(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... People with both a bipolar disorder and a substance use disorder (SUD) are almost twice as likely to attempt suicide as those with a bipolar disorder alone, according to new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto....

Expressing anger may be good for your heart. (Research Update).(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... Outward expression of anger, in moderation, may protect men against heart disease. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, reached this conclusion after a two-year study of 23,522 male health professionals...

Moderate alcohol use may lower risk of stroke. (Research Update).(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... Moderate consumption of alcohol may reduce a person's risk of stroke, while heavy consumption apparently increases the risk, according to researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Analysis of 35 epidemiologic studies from 1983...

Mild brain injury can lead to major depression. (Research Update).(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... Major depression following mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) can have a wide-ranging negative impact on a client's life, according to a new study from Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Researchers assessed 170...

Swedish study finds single-parent children at risk. (Research Update).(mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide risks)
June 22, 2003... New research from Sweden has added more fuel to the debate over single-parent families. The study has found that children of such families have an increased risk of mental illness, alcohol dependency and other substance use problems and...

Quitting smoking gets easier with experience. (Research Update).(older smokers who use nicotine patches more likely to quit )(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... A new study shows that quitting smoking gets easier with age and the number of times a person tries to quit. Spanish researchers at the University of Bilbao followed 1,768 people trying to quit smoking over the course of two years. Of these,...

Link between neuroleptic medications and smoking identified. (Research Update).(antipsychotic agents intensify nicotine properties)(Author Abstract)
June 22, 2003... Scientists at the University of Toronto have uncovered a potential link between neuroleptic medications commonly used to treat schizophrenia and high rates of smoking among people with schizophrenia. The researchers began by injecting nicotine...

Peer assessment process may reduce methadone-related deaths. (News).
June 22, 2003... A RECENT REPORT FROM THE ONTARIO CORONER'S office might provide life-saving insights for American health officials trying to cope with a surge of methadone-related deaths. The coroner's report looked at methadone deaths in Ontario between...

A call to action: health promotion enhances work of mental health and addiction practitioners. (Focus).
June 22, 2003... Professionals in the mental health and addiction fields who follow a recovery model have similar aspirations as practitioners in the health promotion field. Indeed these professionals approach the work they do with clients with a similar set of...

A matter of degree: social norming strategy challenges campus drinking culture. (Focus).
June 22, 2003... It used to be that every autumn, university and college students were greeted with dramatic warnings about the extreme dangers of drinking on campus. Residence halls and lounges would be littered with posters of body bags and coffins, carrying...

Is your hospital healthy? Organizational commitment promotes staff well-being. (Focus).
June 22, 2003... Rosemary is holding down a heavy caseload in her mental health clinic and is doing a remarkable job. But there are signs that the stress is getting to her. It's early summer, and Rosemary has already phoned in sick seven times this year. ...

Healthy aging: awareness grows of need to promote mental health among older adults. (Focus).
June 22, 2003... Canadians are living longer than ever. With age comes the increased risk for mental and emotional problems caused by changing roles and lifestyles, loss of partners and friends, declining physical health and economic constraints. But while...

Smoking out psychiatric institutions: tobacco-free policies support healthier environments. (Focus).
June 22, 2003... Lighting a cigarette, smoking it down to its filter, using it to light another. It is a hypnotic ritual that puts a stranglehold on the occupants of the hazy smoking rooms found in many psychiatric institutions. Rewarding good behaviour...

Common questions about health promotion. (Q & A).
June 22, 2003... How does the concept of health promotion differ from concepts such as harm reduction, prevention, relapse prevention and health recovery? Health promotion, the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health,...

Dual Disorders: Progress in Connecting Two Fields.(Book Review)
June 22, 2003... THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS BOOK appeared as a sapling of a text in 1987. Barely 140 pages long, it helped start a discourse that has grown and advanced considerably in the intervening period. With the recent publication of the third edition, one...

Beyond Crazy: taking a whack at stigma.(Beyond Crazy: Journeys through Mental Illness)(Book Review)
June 22, 2003... IN THEIR LATEST BOOK, Beyond Crazy: Journeys through Mental Illness, Julia Nunes and Scott Simmie take a big whack at stigma with their examination of thematic journeys through mental illness. While their last analysis, The Last Taboo,...

Getting a handle on mental health promotion. (Downloaded).
June 22, 2003... As the boundaries between mental health and physical health, as well as health promotion and treatment, begin to merge, governments and policymakers have begun to view means toward health and well-being through a different lens. Here are some...

Is the prognosis for schizophrenia really better in low-income countries than in the West? (The Last Word).
June 22, 2003... DURING THE LAST 30 YEARS, CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHIATRY has embraced, almost without question, the notion that the prognosis for schizophrenia is better in low-income countries than in the wealthy countries of the West. Close examination of the...

Conferences.
June 22, 2003... CANADA 44th Annual Institute on Addiction Studies July 6-10, Barrie, Ontario Contact: Alcohol and Drug Concerns Inc., 4500 Sheppard Ave. E., Ste. 112, Toronto, ON M1S 3R6 tel (416) 293-3400 fax (416) 293-1142 ...

Instead of war: the urgency and promise of a global peace system.
June 22, 2003... Perhaps the oldest and most widely cited maxim of international relations is the Latin phrase si viz pacem, para bellum (if you want peace, prepare for war). (1) Sociologist and political economist William Graham Sumner once suggested: "A wiser...

What is theology?
June 22, 2003... Some years ago when I was making a rather long trip by air, I found myself seated besides an important-looking gentleman. I am not usually seated by really important-looking people, because I make it a practice of traveling in the cheapest...

In search of a non-dogmatic theology.
June 22, 2003... In another respect, it is our epoch which has discovered theology. One no longer needs to believe in God. We seek rather the "structure," that is, the form which may be filled with beliefs, but the structure has no need to be filled in order to...

Tongue in check: paralleling the Taliban with the Amish.
June 22, 2003... Many will assume I have tongue in cheek when they read the subtitle of this essay. To a certain extent I do, since I am a specialist in neither Islam nor Anabaptism, faith traditions which are beyond comparison in terms of their historical...

On nurturing a modern Muslim identity: the institutions of the Aga Khan Development Network.
June 22, 2003... A few days after the beginning of the bombing in Afghanistan, the Taliban organized a field trip for a handful of Western journalists to see the devastation. I was in Oxford at the time, and watched on Britain's Channel Four News as the convoy...

Faithful and pluralistic: engagement among people of living faiths.
June 22, 2003... Brian Wren, writer of hymns, titled one "Each Seeking Faith" (# 13, Bring Many Names). The verses expect a person to seek faith through light, truth, peace and life. Verse 2 states: Each seeking faith is seeking truth, for truth is...

DNA and Neshamah: locating the soul in an age of molecular medicine.
June 22, 2003... I am a scientist who is about to address a purely religious subject. This is a slightly stressful situation, but one familiar to many Jews. My teacher Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz put it this way in a 1995 article in Torah u-Maddah: Popular...

Alchemists at work: God, money, and the common good.
June 22, 2003... I am happy to be here because the theme for this conference includes some of my favorite topics--women, God, and money. Each one would be wonderful to talk about separately, but when taken together, they become an irresistible assignment for me...

Six critics review Walter Wink's The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man: a summary and appreciation.
June 22, 2003... Walter Wink is a professor at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. His specialty and faculty discipline is Biblical Interpretation. In this important world of very specialized scholarship he has published an impressive spate of sturdy...

A historian's response.
June 22, 2003... The Historian and the Theologian As an historian, rather than a theologian, I have been summoned to express my opinion on a theological book. I do not claim any expertise in this field in which Walter Wink is a recognized authority....

Response to Gabriele Boccaccini.
June 22, 2003... It is gratifying to receive affirmation of my historical integrity from a hardnosed historian like Gabriele Boccaccini, even in a work so filled with theology. That does not keep him, however, from making several helpful corrections to my work....

Constructing a meaningful alternative.
June 22, 2003... Over the years I have had occasion to review more than one book written by Walter Wink. When I was a sophomore in college I took a class on "The Mission and Expansion of Early Christianity," taught by Abe Malherbe. Dr. Malherbe asked us to...

Response to Delbert Burkett.
June 22, 2003... Delbert Burkett is probably the world's leading authority on the literature dealing with the son of the man. He has helpfully plowed through hundreds of articles, books, and reviews, saving me vast amounts of time, and moving the discussion...

The myth of the suppressing church: a comment on Walter Wink's The Human Being.
June 22, 2003... Rather than mere Bible criticism, Walter Wink's new book--in this, like his previous books--is Bible critique in the service of ecclesiastical and ultimately of social reform. He writes: The present meaning of the historical Jesus has...

Response to Jack Miles.
June 22, 2003... Jack Miles is not only one of the most original, but also most literate, of scholars wrestling with the meaning of God and Christ today. His God: A Biography (New York: Vintage, 1995) is richly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, which it won in...

The second shoe: an appreciation and critique of Walter Wink's The Human Being.
June 22, 2003... In this exegetical and theoretical tour de force, Walter Wink has dropped the second shoe. The first shoe was dropped twenty-nine years ago with the publication of his Bible in Human Transformation. The subtitle of that book reads: "Toward a...

Response to Wayne G. Rollins.
June 22, 2003... From the very beginning of my work, Wayne Rollins has known, better than anyone, what my objective was. In 1973 he gave a precis and appreciation of my project at the Society of Biblical Literature, characterizing it as somewhat flamboyant, an...

Review and appreciation: Walter Wink's The Human Being.(Book Review)
June 22, 2003... I am delighted to review Walter Wink's book, The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man. Walter Wink and I occupy practically the same space at different times. We go regularly through the same corridors at Union Theological...

Response to Alan Segal.
June 22, 2003... It is a pleasure long deferred to meet my neighbor Alan Segal and discover how irenic he is. Dialogue over my paper is really a trialogue, between Segal, myself, and Carl Jung. Alan is kindness itself when dealing with me. But he is thoroughly...