Health and Psychology

Back when I was in college I was the person someone called to get the stray cat from out of the closet, from under the bed, from making life insane when all someone thought they were trying to do was help by taking the stray indoors.  

I speak cat.  Cats have about 100+ different vocalizations mainly to express how they feel or to connect with what is in their environment.  I wasn't allow cats as a child; my mother hated them.  But as soon as I left home ...

One of the things I do as a psychologist is to perform mental status examinations.  The most common mental status examination is something called a Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination.  It consists of several questions that function as screening items to assess orientation and consciousness,  immediate memory, attention and calculations, intermediate or remote memory, mood and affect, intermediate memory recall, speech and thought processes, perceptual disturbances, cogniti...

I work out in the Inland Empire a couple days a week doing social security disability evaluations.  At least once a week I see some child that should have received a diagnosis of autistic disorder but didn't.  This level of misdiagnosis isn't present in Los Angeles county. In Los Angeles it's more common for a diagnosis of autistic disorder to be made when there is minimal evidence to support it.  So why is this happening? Pediatricians or family practice physicians are seeing ...

I've been teaching for a long time.  I was learning disabled, spastic, and gifted, (advanced placement math, a history of needing speech, adaptive PE, and not able to spell anything) so that meant I was bored out of my mind in elementary school.  In junior high (what people now refer to as middle school) I spent my class time drawing or doodling, occasionally looking up to provide the correct answer then went back to what I liked. One teacher suggested that I work with other student...

Medical Trauma is a very common phenomenon.  It can happen when you awaken during a surgical procedure because the anesthesia wasn't deep enough, it can happen when you are misinformed about a medical procedure, it can happen when a procedure goes different than planned, and it can happen as a result of multiple procedures or being mistreated by a medical professional. 

The statistics are alarming.  About 100 patients a day wake up during a surgical pro...

I heard about the shooting at Santa Monica College from my psychological assistant, Catherine, in a text message.  "I'm home at the moment.  Shooting at SMC in library.  Campus on lockdown and supposed to give an exam at 3:30.  Sad news and adrenaline in my system."  Some of her students fled the library where they were studying for the exam or were sheltered in a locked room by library staff while the gunman shot through the drywall.

Some of these s...

Crowdfunding and other Crowd based sites

Crowdfunding allows companies or individuals with products or ideas to ask for money to put their products or ideas into production.

Kickstarter 

http://www.kickstarter.com This site lets you help to fund new products or new companies as they get started. You give the site a credit card number or pay through paypal and once they are funded the...

The Following is reposted from the National Cancer Institute:

BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing

Key Points

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors. Mutation of these genes has been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

A woman's risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer is greatly increased if she inherits a deleterious (harmful) BRCA1 or BRCA2 ...

I received an email from a psychological assistant of mine forwarded from an insurance company.  It talked about dual relationships being created by allowing clients to run up enormous debt and then having to collect that debt.  It's the wrong focus.

The focus should be on understanding your purpose and what you value.  If the purpose in providing mental health care is to help clients get better then allowing them to amass enormous debt doesn't serve that purp...

I'm completing an online course and a certificate course as a student.  I'm teaching a class that will be ending in a few weeks, and starting up teaching at a couple of schools.  I'm also getting ready to do formal evaluations of my professional staff at my company.  I think the big difference between my staff and students and myself as a student or teacher is that my staff and students already know how they are doing.  The evaluation process is ongoing, informal and const...