CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health articles from March 2005

CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health archives from March 2005

Note from the editor.(Editorial)
March 22, 2005... Family members make up the largest group of community caregivers for people with mental health and substance use issues. They play an essential role in the community health system and have a huge impact on clients' ability to deal with their...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 22, 2005... In the winter issue story on medication adherence on page 4, information was incorrectly attributed to Candice Traynor. CrossCurrents regrets the error.

CAMH welcomes Judith Tompkins--chief of nursing.(news from CAMH)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Judith Tompkins joined CAMH in January as our new chief of Nursing, replacing Georgi Beal, who retired in December. Judith has worked in the field of addiction and mental health for over 30 years. Most recently, she was regional director of...

Technology reaches adults with developmental disabilities in remote areas.(news from CAMH)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Surrey Place Centre and CAMH are teaming up to provide access to specialized health services for people with developmental disabilities living in remote northern communities. Through video-conferencing technology, clients and staff at agencies...

Creative partnership with Tafelmusik.(news from CAMH)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... The Workman Theatre Project commissioned nine paintings that were displayed at Tafelmusik's "Metamorphosis: From Myth to Music" in its home venue of Trinity-St. Paul's Centre. The partnership was part of Toronto's Metamorphosis Festival in...

Farewell.(news from CAMH)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... On a personal note, it has been my pleasure to bring you the News from CAMH column for the past five years. This is my last column, as I am leaving CAMH. David Goldbloom, executive editor of CrossCurrents, will be offering his insights in my...

Community drug diversion program gets youth back on track.(profile)
March 22, 2005... Cannabis has become so prevalent in Canadian high schools that many students believe it's easier to access than cigarettes, according to Health Canada. Almost 30 per cent of 15-17-year-olds and 47 per cent of 18- and 19-year-olds surveyed had...

Beyond the debriefing debate: providing appropriate care after chaos.(news)
March 22, 2005... Originally from northern Sri Lanka, he's now living in Toronto--he lost 40 relatives to the tsunami, including his mother and sister. "This man was desperate, but there was no point going back to Sri Lanka--there was nothing left," says Dr....

More countries crack down on smoking in public places.(news)
March 22, 2005... Tobacco killed more than 100 million people in the 20th century and is poised to kill one billion people this century, according to the World Health Organization WHO). To combat the problem, the WHO has lunched the first-ever global public...

Brain may explain gender differences in eating disorders.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Differences in how males and females process information may explain why females are 10 times more likely than males to develop eating disorders, according to researchers at Japan's Hiroshima University. Thirteen men and 13 women performed a...

Second-hand smoke may lower children's IQ.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) have mildly to moderately lower scores on reading, math and visuospatial tests than non-exposed children, according to the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center in Ohio. In the...

Overweight children suffer more than just 'puppy fat'.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Obese and even slightly overweight children can suffer socially and psychologically, according to researchers at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Previous studies linking childhood obesity with quality of life used clinical...

Seizure drug may help people with bipolar disorder and alcohol dependency.(research update)
March 22, 2005... Valproate, an anti-convulsant drug, may be effective in decreasing heavy drinking among people with bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. In the double-blind study, researchers...

Depression in families may span many generations.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Children whose parents and grandparents have a history of depression are more than twice as likely as children with no family history of depression to develop a psychiatric disorder before they reach their early teens, according to researchers...

Pediatric clients get poor follow-up for ADHD.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who are prescribed stimulant medication rarely receive optimal follow-up care, according to a survey conducted by the Children's Research Institute at Ohio State University. Parents...

Psychiatric diagnosis facilitates AIDS treatment.(research update)
March 22, 2005... People living with AIDS who are receiving treatment for a psychiatric disorder are more likely to start antiretroviral therapy earlier and to have it prescribed for at least six months than their counterparts without a psychiatric disorder,...

Gamblers' brains provide addiction clue.(research update)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... People with a gambling addiction have a pattern of brain activity similar to that of people with drug addiction, according to research from Germany's Hamburg University Hospital. The parts of the brain that are active when people feel rewarded,...

All together now: the magic and the mess of families.(focus)
March 22, 2005... MY FOUR SIBLINGS AND I WERE CAUGHT COMPLETELY OFF guard when our parents died unexpectedly within seven weeks of each other. I remember my sister screaming at the nurses, "Don't you understand that I just lost my father?" as she dove into mom's...

Caring for the caregiver: concurrent disorders pose unique challenges for families.(focus)
March 22, 2005... TO SAY THAT ANNE * NEEDED SUPPORT WOULD BE AN understatement. She needed help dealing with incidents like the time her husband scaled the roof of a cathedral, where he waited for a helicopter to take him to God. Or the times he'd become...

Helping families gain control: tips from the front lines to the family home.(focus)
March 22, 2005... "EDUCATE YOURSELF" AND "SEEK SUPPORT" ARE COMMON words of wisdom for people living with a family member who has a mental health or substance use issue. CrossCurrents takes this good advice one step further with practical tips from the experts...

The long road home: families key to caring and recovery in first episode psychosis.(focus)
March 22, 2005... AT 15, TARA MARTTINEN HEARD MULTIPLE TORTURED screams coming from the woods near her boyfriend's house in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She could ignore the strange murmurings she'd been hearing on the bus and at home, but these screams sounded...

Advocacy and hope: one mother fights against the odds.(focus)
March 22, 2005... I HAVE BEEN ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE TO GOVERNMENT gambling policies since our son Trevor died by suicide in 1995. His death resulted from the senseless expansion of legalized gambling into our communities, with accessibility to electronic...

Diagnosing the Simpsons: North America's favourite family goes to therapy.(focus)
March 22, 2005... IN THE SPIRIT OF THE CARTOON THE SIMPSONS, IN WHICH most of society's rules get bent if not broken, we're chucking out all thought of privacy legislation and publishing psychiatric case notes for the Simpson family. A few years ago,...

Common questions about same-sex families.(q & a)
March 22, 2005... How many same-sex families exist in Canada? It is estimated that between two and 10 million same-sex families exist in the United States, but there is little solid data for Canada. The 2001 Statistics Canada census was the first to collect...

Helping adolescents at risk: contemporary approaches to multiple problems.("Helping Adolescents at Risk: Prevention of Multiple Problem Behaviors")(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Statistically, adolescence is a period of greater risk than any other in terms of academic failure, violence and health-compromising behaviours. Helping Adolescents al Risk examines some of the major transformations in how adolescent risk and...

Focus on family.(downloaded)(Vanier Institute of the Family, National Clearinghouse on Family Violence)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Vanier Institute of the Family www.vifamily.ca For Canadians, the first stop for information for and about families is the Vanier Institute. The Virtual Library offers various resources through Family Facts--for data about Canadian...

Students with psychiatric disabilities.(downloaded)(Education--Your Future: A Guide to College and University for Students with Psychiatric Disabilities)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2005... Just in time for planning post-secondary education, the Canadian Mental Health Association has released Your Education--Your Future: A Guide to College and University for Students with Psychiatric Disabilities. Based on information from schools...

Is feeling bad good? The evolutionary benefits of depression.(the last word)
March 22, 2005... CONTEMPORARY BOTANISTS AND zoologists regularly examine how evolution affects their field; but among psychiatrists, the role of evolution in major depression remains a controversial topic. Why? Some argue that evolution is too all-encompassing...

Conferences.(Calendar)
March 22, 2005... CANADA International Conference on Eating Disorders April 28-May 1, Montreal, Quebec Contact: Academy for Eating Disorders, 60 Revere Dr., Ste. 500, Northbrook, Illinois 60062 USA tel 847 498-4274 fax 847 480-9282 e-mail info@aedweb.org...

Editorial.(Editorial)
March 22, 2005... In the rush to denounce Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis, progressive religious intellectuals forgot that, at bottom, Huntington was repeating the argument that we have been making for decades. It runs like this: What matters...

Religious strangers as menaces.
March 22, 2005... Religious Strangers As Menaces The collisions of faiths, or the collisions of peoples of faith, are among the most threatening conflicts around the world in the new millennium. They grow more ominous and even lethal every season. Lulled as...

Inclusiveness and justice: the pitfalls and possibilities of interfaith work.
March 22, 2005... Interfaith organizations seek to bring together religiously diverse groups and individuals to build understanding and cooperation. This paper focuses on two questions central to the interfaith enterprise: Which groups and individuals should...

First response.
March 22, 2005... The theoretical issue that I'm bringing to this discussion is this: Do you think your way into a new way of acting or do you act your way into a new way of thinking? I believe it's the second. I believe that people really need to act their way...

Second response: friendship over justice.
March 22, 2005... I'd like to begin by echoing Eboo's remark that it's true and important that decent and sincere religious Christians, Muslims and Jews can wind up on different sides of such issues as the war in Iraq or the situation in Israel and Palestine....

Third response: encouragement from one generation to the next.
March 22, 2005... I want to begin with Dr. Thistlethwaite's question: "Do you think your way into a new way of acting, or act your way into a new way of thinking?" My answer: BOTH! It depends on the situation and the issue. On certain issues and in some...

Fourth response.
March 22, 2005... In responding to Dr. Patel's inquiry, I decided to focus on two issues: language and power. For me, coming from an Islamic position, I have to ask for some clarification of the terms. Language definition and use is an all important issue in...

Fifth response.
March 22, 2005... I speak here this afternoon as a Buddhist. From a Buddhist standpoint, I might say to the wonderful dilemma that Eboo Patel set for us: "Don't cling to the hope and the aspiration of doing it right. Don't crave the utopian situation in which...

Sixth response; Religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue: a view from India.(Column)
March 22, 2005... I want to begin my response to Eboo Patel's thought-provoking paper with a vignette about an event I attended in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. The event was a day-long "fast against communalism" organized by political, academic and...

From the margins to the centers of power*: the increasing relevance of the global interfaith movement.
March 22, 2005... Interfaith (2) dialogue across the diversity of religious identities has moved from the margins of Western society in 1893 to multiple centers of power worldwide within slightly more than one hundred years. What was once a concept has now...

On evangelicals and interfaith cooperation: an interview with Tony Campolo by Shane Claiborne.(Interview)
March 22, 2005... Tony Campolo is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church and professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Shane Claiborne is a founder of the Simple Way Community in Philadelphia and a...

Pagan involvement in the interfaith movement: exclusions, dualities, and contributions.(Column)
March 22, 2005... I am a Witch; a Wiccan priestess if you prefer; a Pagan to use a larger religious categorization, with an M.Div. from Harvard. I walk in many social and spiritual realms. I am a feminist. As a young woman, I recognized in the writings of the...

Overcoming religiously motivated violence.
March 22, 2005... The dramatic turn of world events at the dawn of the twenty-first century--including the collapse of the Oslo Peace process in September of 2000 in the face of a renewed and ongoing cycle of violence in the Middle East; the terrorist attacks on...

The contribution of H.H. the XIVth Dalai Lama to interfaith education.
March 22, 2005... Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama is a great teacher and learner in interfaith education, with lessons for the entire human community. I would like to thank His Holiness for a number of gifts that have enriched my life and, I...

The power of inter-religious cooperation to transform conflict.
March 22, 2005... Religion sparks violence and impedes efforts to address global problems like terrorism, according to many. Reality is more complex. Religious networks are also working to eliminate terror, prevent and mediate violent conflicts, and aid the...

Multiculturalisms: Western, Muslim and future.
March 22, 2005... We are accustomed to thinking of the West as open to and tolerant of difference, and the Muslim world as being homogenous and violently opposed to cooperation with others. What we forget is the not-so-distant history of the West as the site of...

Learning the language of interfaith dialogue*: the Religious Life Council at Princeton University.
March 22, 2005... How can you pray, if not to God? a student asked me. I was stunned, never having considered the question. Do you believe in God? they wondered. I, the sole Buddhist student on the Princeton Religious Life Council, had no single...

The interfaith journey of an American girl.(Column)
March 22, 2005... Marshall, Michigan is one of those small Midwestern towns that represent many Americans' image of "hometown America." Our celebration of America's birth is one of the most vivid examples of this. On the Fourth of July, the people of Marshall...

Chi-town (x) changes.(POETRY)(Poem)
March 22, 2005... 400 years after Columbus got lost a real Indian in a single saffron robe said holiness is not the exclusive possession of any church Swami Vivekananda spoke at the Art Institute came to the World's Fair a bag handler left a...

I have seen the future, and it stinks.(BOOKS)(Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Suketu Mehta Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found Knopf, 2004, 542pp. $27.95 (cloth) "There will soon be more people living in the city of Bombay," Mehta reminds us, "than on the continent of Australia." And, as this stunning...

Integrating Ecofeminism: Globalization and World Religions.(BOOKS)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Integrating Ecofeminism: Globalization and World Religions Rosemary Radford Ruether Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. 195pp. $19.95 (paper) Rosemary Radford Ruether, one of the pioneers of American Christian feminist theology, has to...

When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today.(BOOKS IN BRIEF)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Harvey Cox When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 338pp. Since this engaging memoir-treatise deals with the challenges of teaching a course on "Jesus and the Moral Life" to (mostly)...

The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith, and the Christian Community.(BOOKS IN BRIEF)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Robin M. Jensen The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith, and the Christian Community Eerdmans, 2004, 152 pp. In this wide-ranging, clearly written, genially ecumenical survey, Jensen (Professor of the History of Christian Art at...

The Sacred Desert: Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture.(BOOKS IN BRIEF)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... David Jasper The Sacred Desert: Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture Blackwell, 2004, 204pp. The subtitle gives it away: there's much too much going on in this breathless, encyclopedic tour of the spiritual dimensions of "the...