Emma Langford EMMA Langford is one of the artists in the line-up for the revived Music for Mental Health performance at Dolans Warehouse on Sunday January 16. The event is returning after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic. In order to meet the latest Covid guidelines, the popular fundraising and mental health awareness event […]
The post Mental health is music to their ears first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:3203:"Emma Langford
EMMA Langford is one of the artists in the line-up for the revived Music for Mental Health performance at Dolans Warehouse on Sunday January 16.
The event is returning after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic. In order to meet the latest Covid guidelines, the popular fundraising and mental health awareness event has been adapted to a matinee gig that will take place on Sunday, January 16 from 4 p.m.
Organizer and founder of the social impact company Humanli, Karl Daly, said: ?We thought it was very important to move the event forward. With the ongoing pandemic, it’s so important right now to create mental health awareness and raise funds for charities. Our cast want to get on stage and perform, so we’ve done our best to make sure the event is viable and safe for everyone. “
The line-up includes classically trained soprano Leah Barniville, who reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent at the age of 14, and local sensation Emma Langford.
The Ennistymon School Choir will sing a song specially written for the event by Susan O’Neill. The Lost Boys, Afro-Pop and Stray Saints have also been confirmed.
2016 All-Star Mary Hulgraine will share her story about her mental health issues and presenter and writer Meghann Scully will briefly interview the supported charities.
Music for Mental Health is a social impact event bringing together artists, businesses and causes to promote mental health awareness in Ireland.
All artists perform for free and All funds raised from ticket sales will be distributed to the seven charities within the Humanli family.
You are: Blue Box Creative Arts Therapy, Cliona’s Foundation, CareBright Community, Clare’s Wish Foundation, Corpus Christi Primary School, Limerick Suicide Watch, and Lime Tree Theater.
The post Mental health is music to their ears first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1206:"Emma Langford EMMA Langford is one of the artists in the line-up for the revived Music for Mental Health performance at Dolans Warehouse on Sunday January 16. The event is returning after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic. In order to meet the latest Covid guidelines, the popular fundraising and mental health awareness event […]
The post Mental health is music to their ears first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:3203:"Emma Langford
EMMA Langford is one of the artists in the line-up for the revived Music for Mental Health performance at Dolans Warehouse on Sunday January 16.
The event is returning after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic. In order to meet the latest Covid guidelines, the popular fundraising and mental health awareness event has been adapted to a matinee gig that will take place on Sunday, January 16 from 4 p.m.
Organizer and founder of the social impact company Humanli, Karl Daly, said: ?We thought it was very important to move the event forward. With the ongoing pandemic, it’s so important right now to create mental health awareness and raise funds for charities. Our cast want to get on stage and perform, so we’ve done our best to make sure the event is viable and safe for everyone. “
The line-up includes classically trained soprano Leah Barniville, who reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent at the age of 14, and local sensation Emma Langford.
The Ennistymon School Choir will sing a song specially written for the event by Susan O’Neill. The Lost Boys, Afro-Pop and Stray Saints have also been confirmed.
2016 All-Star Mary Hulgraine will share her story about her mental health issues and presenter and writer Meghann Scully will briefly interview the supported charities.
Music for Mental Health is a social impact event bringing together artists, businesses and causes to promote mental health awareness in Ireland.
All artists perform for free and All funds raised from ticket sales will be distributed to the seven charities within the Humanli family.
You are: Blue Box Creative Arts Therapy, Cliona’s Foundation, CareBright Community, Clare’s Wish Foundation, Corpus Christi Primary School, Limerick Suicide Watch, and Lime Tree Theater.
The post Mental health is music to their ears first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641768111;}i:1;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:128:"Governor Hochul announced the availability of $ 4.5 million in funding to improve drug prevention efforts in communities in need";s:4:"link";s:156:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/governor-hochul-announced-the-availability-of-4-5-million-in-funding-to-improve-drug-prevention-efforts-in-communities-in-need/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Samuel Tuck";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sun, 09 Jan 2022 19:32:39 +0000";s:8:"category";s:9:"Treatment";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9961";s:11:"description";s:1408:"
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of up to $ 4.5 million in federal funding under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) program to build coalitions to prevent substance use and abuse in underserved areas of New York State. These coalitions are designed to better involve vulnerable and isolated communities in […]
The post Governor Hochul announced the availability of $ 4.5 million in funding to improve drug prevention efforts in communities in need first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:6315:"Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of up to $ 4.5 million in federal funding under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) program to build coalitions to prevent substance use and abuse in underserved areas of New York State. These coalitions are designed to better involve vulnerable and isolated communities in the development and implementation of strategies to prevent environmental change. Funding is provided through an application process (RFA) administered by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS).
?Addiction can hit any family suddenly and hard. The fight against the opioid crisis is a personal battle for me, and I want all New Yorkers struggling with addiction to know that we are here for you. ” said Governor Hochul. “Treatment services should be accessible to everyone, and this new funding will go a long way in ensuring that New Yorkers in underserved communities have the resources they need to fight addiction and move toward recovery.”
Funded coalitions will use the Strategic Prevention Framework to develop culturally appropriate and tailored prevention for underserved communities and populations, including veterans, LGBTQ youth, Latinx, people over 50, people with disabilities, rural communities and migrant communities. This approach involves leveraging local data sources that can identify culturally specific substance use and abuse issues, and helps promote specific prevention strategies to reduce substance use by minors and create lasting positive change for high-risk communities.
Up to $ 150,000 per year will be awarded to a coalition in each of the 10 economic development zones in New York State for 3 years. The RFA for this initiative can be viewed here.
OASAS Commissioner Chinazo Cunningham said: ?To properly address the circumstances that lead to substance use and addiction requires a community-based approach, recognizing that different communities and populations require different services. This allows us to target our services where there is greatest need, and with these new coalitions we will be able to bring these vital prevention services to a range of communities and populations in high need. “
State Senator Pete Harckham said, ?We need to bring the opioid overdose crisis to every New York community. New federal grants to establish community-based coalitions that advance substance use prevention programs in underserved areas will greatly benefit residents. With culturally relevant information specifically aimed at different groups, these prevention programs will bring hope to where it is needed, and I am grateful to Governor Hochul for securing the necessary funding. “
Assembly member Phil Steck said, ?I am delighted that OASAS is using federal funds from block grants to build coalitions for drug use and abuse prevention in the underserved areas of our state. Access to treatment and prevention is definitely tied to the financial hierarchy, even if substance abuse does not discriminate. Using these dollars for coalitions of greatest need will ensure better health outcomes for those who live in these areas. “
In recent years, New York State has adopted an aggressive, multi-pronged approach to tackling the opioid epidemic, creating a nationwide leading continuum of addiction care with comprehensive prevention, treatment and recovery services. To combat this epidemic, the state has worked to expand access to traditional services, including crisis services, inpatient, outpatient, and inpatient treatment programs, as well as drug treatment and mobile treatment and transportation services.
Governor Hochul was a member of the NYS Heroin and Opioid Task Force, which recommended new, nontraditional services in 2016, including recreation centers, youth clubhouses, expanded peer services, and open access centers that provide instant assessments and referrals to care. These services have since been established in numerous communities across the state and have helped people in need access care closer to where they live.
New Yorkers struggling with an addiction or their loved ones can find help and hope by calling the state’s toll-free 24/7 HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY ( 1- 877-846-7369) or by SMS to HOPENY (short code 467369).
Available addiction treatments, including crisis / detox treatments, inpatient, inpatient, or outpatient care, can be found on the NYS OASAS Treatment Availability Dashboard at FindAddictionTreatment.ny.gov or on the NYS OASAS website.
If you or a loved one has had insurance barriers related to treatment or need help filing a rejected claim, contact the CHAMP helpline by phone at 888-614-5400 or email [email protected].
The post Governor Hochul announced the availability of $ 4.5 million in funding to improve drug prevention efforts in communities in need first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1408:"Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of up to $ 4.5 million in federal funding under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) program to build coalitions to prevent substance use and abuse in underserved areas of New York State. These coalitions are designed to better involve vulnerable and isolated communities in […]
The post Governor Hochul announced the availability of $ 4.5 million in funding to improve drug prevention efforts in communities in need first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:6315:"Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the availability of up to $ 4.5 million in federal funding under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) program to build coalitions to prevent substance use and abuse in underserved areas of New York State. These coalitions are designed to better involve vulnerable and isolated communities in the development and implementation of strategies to prevent environmental change. Funding is provided through an application process (RFA) administered by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS).
?Addiction can hit any family suddenly and hard. The fight against the opioid crisis is a personal battle for me, and I want all New Yorkers struggling with addiction to know that we are here for you. ” said Governor Hochul. “Treatment services should be accessible to everyone, and this new funding will go a long way in ensuring that New Yorkers in underserved communities have the resources they need to fight addiction and move toward recovery.”
Funded coalitions will use the Strategic Prevention Framework to develop culturally appropriate and tailored prevention for underserved communities and populations, including veterans, LGBTQ youth, Latinx, people over 50, people with disabilities, rural communities and migrant communities. This approach involves leveraging local data sources that can identify culturally specific substance use and abuse issues, and helps promote specific prevention strategies to reduce substance use by minors and create lasting positive change for high-risk communities.
Up to $ 150,000 per year will be awarded to a coalition in each of the 10 economic development zones in New York State for 3 years. The RFA for this initiative can be viewed here.
OASAS Commissioner Chinazo Cunningham said: ?To properly address the circumstances that lead to substance use and addiction requires a community-based approach, recognizing that different communities and populations require different services. This allows us to target our services where there is greatest need, and with these new coalitions we will be able to bring these vital prevention services to a range of communities and populations in high need. “
State Senator Pete Harckham said, ?We need to bring the opioid overdose crisis to every New York community. New federal grants to establish community-based coalitions that advance substance use prevention programs in underserved areas will greatly benefit residents. With culturally relevant information specifically aimed at different groups, these prevention programs will bring hope to where it is needed, and I am grateful to Governor Hochul for securing the necessary funding. “
Assembly member Phil Steck said, ?I am delighted that OASAS is using federal funds from block grants to build coalitions for drug use and abuse prevention in the underserved areas of our state. Access to treatment and prevention is definitely tied to the financial hierarchy, even if substance abuse does not discriminate. Using these dollars for coalitions of greatest need will ensure better health outcomes for those who live in these areas. “
In recent years, New York State has adopted an aggressive, multi-pronged approach to tackling the opioid epidemic, creating a nationwide leading continuum of addiction care with comprehensive prevention, treatment and recovery services. To combat this epidemic, the state has worked to expand access to traditional services, including crisis services, inpatient, outpatient, and inpatient treatment programs, as well as drug treatment and mobile treatment and transportation services.
Governor Hochul was a member of the NYS Heroin and Opioid Task Force, which recommended new, nontraditional services in 2016, including recreation centers, youth clubhouses, expanded peer services, and open access centers that provide instant assessments and referrals to care. These services have since been established in numerous communities across the state and have helped people in need access care closer to where they live.
New Yorkers struggling with an addiction or their loved ones can find help and hope by calling the state’s toll-free 24/7 HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY ( 1- 877-846-7369) or by SMS to HOPENY (short code 467369).
Available addiction treatments, including crisis / detox treatments, inpatient, inpatient, or outpatient care, can be found on the NYS OASAS Treatment Availability Dashboard at FindAddictionTreatment.ny.gov or on the NYS OASAS website.
If you or a loved one has had insurance barriers related to treatment or need help filing a rejected claim, contact the CHAMP helpline by phone at 888-614-5400 or email [email protected].
The post Governor Hochul announced the availability of $ 4.5 million in funding to improve drug prevention efforts in communities in need first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641756759;}i:2;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:81:"Cox?s Creek man faces 10 years in prison for drug overdose death of Bardstown man";s:4:"link";s:110:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/coxs-creek-man-faces-10-years-in-prison-for-drug-overdose-death-of-bardstown-man/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Samuel Tuck";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sun, 09 Jan 2022 16:04:11 +0000";s:8:"category";s:4:"News";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9958";s:11:"description";s:1265:"
NC-GAZETTE / WBRT RADIOEMPLOYEE REPORT Saturday, January 8, 2022 – A man from Cox’s Creek was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for his role in the death of a Bardstown man from a drug overdose in March 2020. ROBERT ESTEL GIRDLEY Robert Estel Girdley, 36, was one of three […]
The post Cox?s Creek man faces 10 years in prison for drug overdose death of Bardstown man first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:2815:"NC-GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
EMPLOYEE REPORT
Saturday, January 8, 2022 – A man from Cox’s Creek was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for his role in the death of a Bardstown man from a drug overdose in March 2020.
ROBERT ESTEL GIRDLEY
Robert Estel Girdley, 36, was one of three people arrested on November 24, 2020 for the Bardstown man’s overdose.
The Bardstown Police investigation revealed that on March 15, 2020, Girdley was selling cocaine and heroin to the Bardstown man who later died of an overdose.
When arrested, he was charged with second degree manslaughter; Trafficking in controlled substances (heroin); Trafficking in first degree controlled substances (less than 4 grams of cocaine); Possession-controlled substance of the first degree (methamphetamine); and falsely report an incident.
Girdley pleaded guilty for reckless homicide in a charge in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday; a case of trafficking in a controlled substance, heroin; and one is trading in controlled substances of the first degree.
The Kentucky Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor’s Office was handling the case.
Judge Charles Simms sentenced Girdley to 10 years in state prison. Girdley cannot be paroled until he has served at least 50 percent of his sentence.
-30-
NC-GAZETTE / WBRT RADIOEMPLOYEE REPORT Saturday, January 8, 2022 – A man from Cox’s Creek was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for his role in the death of a Bardstown man from a drug overdose in March 2020. ROBERT ESTEL GIRDLEY Robert Estel Girdley, 36, was one of three […]
The post Cox?s Creek man faces 10 years in prison for drug overdose death of Bardstown man first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:2815:"NC-GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
EMPLOYEE REPORT
Saturday, January 8, 2022 – A man from Cox’s Creek was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for his role in the death of a Bardstown man from a drug overdose in March 2020.
ROBERT ESTEL GIRDLEY
Robert Estel Girdley, 36, was one of three people arrested on November 24, 2020 for the Bardstown man’s overdose.
The Bardstown Police investigation revealed that on March 15, 2020, Girdley was selling cocaine and heroin to the Bardstown man who later died of an overdose.
When arrested, he was charged with second degree manslaughter; Trafficking in controlled substances (heroin); Trafficking in first degree controlled substances (less than 4 grams of cocaine); Possession-controlled substance of the first degree (methamphetamine); and falsely report an incident.
Girdley pleaded guilty for reckless homicide in a charge in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday; a case of trafficking in a controlled substance, heroin; and one is trading in controlled substances of the first degree.
The Kentucky Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor’s Office was handling the case.
Judge Charles Simms sentenced Girdley to 10 years in state prison. Girdley cannot be paroled until he has served at least 50 percent of his sentence.
-30-
Coal miners in Indonesia have shirked their obligation to provide 25% of their production for the domestic market, leading to a critical shortage of fossil fuel for power generation. This has led the government to ban coal exports throughout January, but energy policy experts say this does not address the root of the problem: Indonesia’s […]
The post In view of the threat of power outages, Indonesia?s energy crisis underscores its dependence on coal first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:9464:"JAKARTA – An abrupt ban on coal exports by the Indonesian government for the whole of January for fear of domestic supply shortages should be a wake-up call to accelerate the country’s transition from fossil fuels, experts say.
When the ban was announced on January 1, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said it was a necessary step to prevent blackouts for 10 million households.
?If the export ban is not imposed, there will be almost 20 coal-fired power plants [total] it will assume a capacity of 10,850 megawatts, ?said Ridwan Jamaludin, the general director of the Ministry of Coal, as quoted by local media.
Under the “Domestic Market Obligation” (DMO), which has been in force since 2009, miners have to sell 25% of their production on the domestic market. A large part of this is intended for the state electricity supplier PLN, which sells coal at a maximum price, which is currently less than half the world market price.
Because higher profits can be made from exporting coal, many miners have not reached their DMO and are leaving the PLN network of coal-fired power plants on January 1st with less than 1% of the fuel they need that month.
“That amount is not enough to meet the needs of every coal-fired power plant,” said Ridwan. “If strategic measures are not taken immediately, there will be widespread power outages.”
Coal power plant in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia. Image by Bkusmono / Wikimedia Commons.
While the ban has an immediate impact on stockpiling, the energy minister said, policy experts say the crisis shows the need to wean Indonesia off its coal dependency and towards renewable energy sources.
“We caused this crisis ourselves, not because we lack potential energy sources, but because our policies keep driving us to continuously burn coal so that our inventories are running low,” Mahawira Singh Dillon, senior policy researcher at the clean energy nonprofit Yayasan Indonesia Cerah said during a discussion on Twitter recently.
He said the government had been enacting guidelines for years that favor mining companies rather than renewable energy investors. For example, coal-fired power plants are heavily subsidized.
In 2020, despite widespread criticism, the legislature passed a controversial mining law. Critics say the law undermines environmental protection for the benefit of mining companies, including by granting larger concessions and longer contracts while reducing their environmental obligations. This practically ensures the continued existence of seven large coal mines, whose contracts would otherwise have expired between 2020 and 2025.
And while the government announced a plan at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November to shut down 9.2 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants by 2030, it is still planning to build 13.8 GW of new coal-fired power plants over the same period.
Even the DMO policy was a concession to the coal companies, but it has now backfired, Mahawira said. The companies had campaigned with the government for DMO to have a guaranteed buyer in PLN at a time when coal exports were grossing around $ 55 a ton. Since the DMO was capped at $ 70 per ton, it meant they received a premium from PLN.
Then the market turned. Last October, global coal prices soared to a record high of $ 270 per tonne; today they’re around $ 152 per tonne as coal demand hits a record in 2021 and supply remains tight.
“She [miners] I didn’t expect global coal prices to exceed $ 200 per ton, ?Mahawira said. ?So you’re naughty now [and exporting their coal instead]. “
The Indonesian Coal Mines Association (ICMA) called on the government to lift the ban, saying the policy will harm the mining industry and cost the country $ 3 billion in lost coal export revenues.
Coal mine in Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler
This is not the first time Indonesia has faced an energy crisis as coal miners prefer to export their products rather than sell their products domestically. According to Sarah Agustio, a researcher at Trend Asia, an NGO focused on the clean energy transition, Indonesia has experienced major bottlenecks four times in the last 15 years: 2007, 2008, 2018 and mid-2021.
In July 2021, PLN’s power plants had less than 10 days of coal. This prompted the government in August to impose a coal export ban on 34 companies.
As long as Indonesia continues to rely on coal to power the country, it will continue to face more episodes of energy shortages, Sarah said.
“The export ban shows that Indonesia has not learned from the experience of the past 15 years,” she said. “This is a sign that we have to switch to renewable energies.”
But the pace of change is icy, she said. The government has set itself the goal of increasing the share of renewable energies in the country to 23% by 2025. 15% should be achieved by the end of 2021; as of October, however, the share of renewable energies in the energy mix was only 10.9%.
“The switch to renewable energies is not to be taken seriously,” said Sarah, “although we know that we have many renewable sources such as wind and water.”
In order to reduce the export incentive for miners, experts have asked the government to lift the price cap under the DMO.
“The DMO [price] should be made dynamic, below the international price, but not fixed, ?said Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) policy think tank.
This will inevitably lead to a spike in electricity prices, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if the end result for the country is a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, he said.
The only reason for the increase is that current prices are being kept artificially low by heavy subsidies. If PLN were forced to buy coal at market prices, the electricity it produces would be less competitive than that produced from renewable sources, Fabby said.
By lifting the DMO price cap, the price of coal-based electricity would reflect the true cost of the country’s reliance on coal burning, he added.
“If prices are raised, PLN will be forced to use renewable energy,” he said.
Banner image: Coal barge in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, a leading coal producer and exporter. Image by Andrew Taylor / WDM via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you’d like to post a public comment, you can do so at the bottom of the page.
The post In view of the threat of power outages, Indonesia?s energy crisis underscores its dependence on coal first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1330:"Coal miners in Indonesia have shirked their obligation to provide 25% of their production for the domestic market, leading to a critical shortage of fossil fuel for power generation. This has led the government to ban coal exports throughout January, but energy policy experts say this does not address the root of the problem: Indonesia’s […]
The post In view of the threat of power outages, Indonesia?s energy crisis underscores its dependence on coal first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:9464:"JAKARTA – An abrupt ban on coal exports by the Indonesian government for the whole of January for fear of domestic supply shortages should be a wake-up call to accelerate the country’s transition from fossil fuels, experts say.
When the ban was announced on January 1, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said it was a necessary step to prevent blackouts for 10 million households.
?If the export ban is not imposed, there will be almost 20 coal-fired power plants [total] it will assume a capacity of 10,850 megawatts, ?said Ridwan Jamaludin, the general director of the Ministry of Coal, as quoted by local media.
Under the “Domestic Market Obligation” (DMO), which has been in force since 2009, miners have to sell 25% of their production on the domestic market. A large part of this is intended for the state electricity supplier PLN, which sells coal at a maximum price, which is currently less than half the world market price.
Because higher profits can be made from exporting coal, many miners have not reached their DMO and are leaving the PLN network of coal-fired power plants on January 1st with less than 1% of the fuel they need that month.
“That amount is not enough to meet the needs of every coal-fired power plant,” said Ridwan. “If strategic measures are not taken immediately, there will be widespread power outages.”
Coal power plant in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia. Image by Bkusmono / Wikimedia Commons.
While the ban has an immediate impact on stockpiling, the energy minister said, policy experts say the crisis shows the need to wean Indonesia off its coal dependency and towards renewable energy sources.
“We caused this crisis ourselves, not because we lack potential energy sources, but because our policies keep driving us to continuously burn coal so that our inventories are running low,” Mahawira Singh Dillon, senior policy researcher at the clean energy nonprofit Yayasan Indonesia Cerah said during a discussion on Twitter recently.
He said the government had been enacting guidelines for years that favor mining companies rather than renewable energy investors. For example, coal-fired power plants are heavily subsidized.
In 2020, despite widespread criticism, the legislature passed a controversial mining law. Critics say the law undermines environmental protection for the benefit of mining companies, including by granting larger concessions and longer contracts while reducing their environmental obligations. This practically ensures the continued existence of seven large coal mines, whose contracts would otherwise have expired between 2020 and 2025.
And while the government announced a plan at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November to shut down 9.2 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants by 2030, it is still planning to build 13.8 GW of new coal-fired power plants over the same period.
Even the DMO policy was a concession to the coal companies, but it has now backfired, Mahawira said. The companies had campaigned with the government for DMO to have a guaranteed buyer in PLN at a time when coal exports were grossing around $ 55 a ton. Since the DMO was capped at $ 70 per ton, it meant they received a premium from PLN.
Then the market turned. Last October, global coal prices soared to a record high of $ 270 per tonne; today they’re around $ 152 per tonne as coal demand hits a record in 2021 and supply remains tight.
“She [miners] I didn’t expect global coal prices to exceed $ 200 per ton, ?Mahawira said. ?So you’re naughty now [and exporting their coal instead]. “
The Indonesian Coal Mines Association (ICMA) called on the government to lift the ban, saying the policy will harm the mining industry and cost the country $ 3 billion in lost coal export revenues.
Coal mine in Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler
This is not the first time Indonesia has faced an energy crisis as coal miners prefer to export their products rather than sell their products domestically. According to Sarah Agustio, a researcher at Trend Asia, an NGO focused on the clean energy transition, Indonesia has experienced major bottlenecks four times in the last 15 years: 2007, 2008, 2018 and mid-2021.
In July 2021, PLN’s power plants had less than 10 days of coal. This prompted the government in August to impose a coal export ban on 34 companies.
As long as Indonesia continues to rely on coal to power the country, it will continue to face more episodes of energy shortages, Sarah said.
“The export ban shows that Indonesia has not learned from the experience of the past 15 years,” she said. “This is a sign that we have to switch to renewable energies.”
But the pace of change is icy, she said. The government has set itself the goal of increasing the share of renewable energies in the country to 23% by 2025. 15% should be achieved by the end of 2021; as of October, however, the share of renewable energies in the energy mix was only 10.9%.
“The switch to renewable energies is not to be taken seriously,” said Sarah, “although we know that we have many renewable sources such as wind and water.”
In order to reduce the export incentive for miners, experts have asked the government to lift the price cap under the DMO.
“The DMO [price] should be made dynamic, below the international price, but not fixed, ?said Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) policy think tank.
This will inevitably lead to a spike in electricity prices, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if the end result for the country is a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, he said.
The only reason for the increase is that current prices are being kept artificially low by heavy subsidies. If PLN were forced to buy coal at market prices, the electricity it produces would be less competitive than that produced from renewable sources, Fabby said.
By lifting the DMO price cap, the price of coal-based electricity would reflect the true cost of the country’s reliance on coal burning, he added.
“If prices are raised, PLN will be forced to use renewable energy,” he said.
Banner image: Coal barge in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, a leading coal producer and exporter. Image by Andrew Taylor / WDM via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you’d like to post a public comment, you can do so at the bottom of the page.
The post In view of the threat of power outages, Indonesia?s energy crisis underscores its dependence on coal first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641706992;}i:4;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:49:"Macon Head Space hosts mental health pop-up event";s:4:"link";s:79:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/macon-head-space-hosts-mental-health-pop-up-event/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:12:"Carla Fowler";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sun, 09 Jan 2022 03:37:39 +0000";s:8:"category";s:13:"Mental Health";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9952";s:11:"description";s:1448:"
Nancy Cleveland started the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations. MACON, Georgia – On Saturday, Macon Head Space and the Southern Center for Choice Theory at Lake Tobesofkee hosted their second pop-up mental health gym to help people relax and manage stress. “You don’t have to go to […]
The post Macon Head Space hosts mental health pop-up event first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:3162:"Nancy Cleveland started the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations.
MACON, Georgia – On Saturday, Macon Head Space and the Southern Center for Choice Theory at Lake Tobesofkee hosted their second pop-up mental health gym to help people relax and manage stress.
“You don’t have to go to Atlanta or Savannah, you can do it right here; and the activities I have selected are just sort of alternative ways for you to create your own space and develop your own formula around your thinking “said Nancy Cleveland.
Cleveland kicked off the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations.
The morning started with tea at 10 a.m. and continued with yoga and poetry. It all ended with attendees creating vision boards.
Several dozen people came, including Marcus Johnson, who says he is proud to live in a city that sponsors and offers free mental health events.
?I’ve been looking forward to yoga the most because I don’t think I really have a yoga-friendly body, but it makes yoga easier for everyone; and everyone can benefit from yoga that and the drum circle because the drum circle does so much to relieve stress and anxiety, “said Johnson.
All participants also had the opportunity to speak to a therapist for free.
To find dates and times for future pop-up gyms, visit Macon Head Space’s website or follow their page on Facebook.
Would you like to do something fun? Book a class at this DIY workshop in Perry
The Houston County Schools project is giving away 30,000 confirmation bracelets
The post Macon Head Space hosts mental health pop-up event first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1448:"Nancy Cleveland started the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations. MACON, Georgia – On Saturday, Macon Head Space and the Southern Center for Choice Theory at Lake Tobesofkee hosted their second pop-up mental health gym to help people relax and manage stress. “You don’t have to go to […]
The post Macon Head Space hosts mental health pop-up event first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:3162:"Nancy Cleveland started the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations.
MACON, Georgia – On Saturday, Macon Head Space and the Southern Center for Choice Theory at Lake Tobesofkee hosted their second pop-up mental health gym to help people relax and manage stress.
“You don’t have to go to Atlanta or Savannah, you can do it right here; and the activities I have selected are just sort of alternative ways for you to create your own space and develop your own formula around your thinking “said Nancy Cleveland.
Cleveland kicked off the event with Macon Head Space to help normalize mental health issues and conversations.
The morning started with tea at 10 a.m. and continued with yoga and poetry. It all ended with attendees creating vision boards.
Several dozen people came, including Marcus Johnson, who says he is proud to live in a city that sponsors and offers free mental health events.
?I’ve been looking forward to yoga the most because I don’t think I really have a yoga-friendly body, but it makes yoga easier for everyone; and everyone can benefit from yoga that and the drum circle because the drum circle does so much to relieve stress and anxiety, “said Johnson.
All participants also had the opportunity to speak to a therapist for free.
To find dates and times for future pop-up gyms, visit Macon Head Space’s website or follow their page on Facebook.
Would you like to do something fun? Book a class at this DIY workshop in Perry
The Houston County Schools project is giving away 30,000 confirmation bracelets
The post Macon Head Space hosts mental health pop-up event first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641699459;}i:5;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:94:"Demi Lovato absolviert drei Jahre nach fast tödlicher Überdosis einen WEITEREN Reha-Aufenthalt";s:4:"link";s:124:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/demi-lovato-absolviert-drei-jahre-nach-fast-todlicher-uberdosis-einen-weiteren-reha-aufenthalt/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Samuel Tuck";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sun, 09 Jan 2022 02:59:00 +0000";s:8:"category";s:4:"News";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9949";s:11:"description";s:1282:"
Demi Lovato absolvierte einen weiteren Reha-Aufenthalt, als 2021 zu Ende ging, drei Jahre nach ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis Heroin mit Fentanyl. Eine Quelle in der Nähe des ehemaligen Disney Channel-Stars bestätigte, dass der Sänger zu Hause ist und es ihm ?gut geht?, nachdem er leise eine weitere Rückkehr in die Reha abgeschlossen hatte, berichtete die […]
The post Demi Lovato absolviert drei Jahre nach fast tödlicher Überdosis einen WEITEREN Reha-Aufenthalt first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:20577:"Demi Lovato absolvierte einen weiteren Reha-Aufenthalt, als 2021 zu Ende ging, drei Jahre nach ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis Heroin mit Fentanyl.
Eine Quelle in der Nähe des ehemaligen Disney Channel-Stars bestätigte, dass der Sänger zu Hause ist und es ihm ?gut geht?, nachdem er leise eine weitere Rückkehr in die Reha abgeschlossen hatte, berichtete die New York Post.
Demi, die die Pronomen sie / sie verwendet, verbrachte kürzlich einige Zeit in einem Rehabilitationszentrum in Utah, um ihnen zu helfen, nüchtern zu werden, sagte die Quelle.
Die nicht-binäre Berühmtheit gab letzten Monat bekannt, dass sie offiziell “nüchtern” werden wird.
Nachdem die 29-jährige Sängerin zuvor einen “kalifornischen nüchternen” Ansatz verfolgt hatte, um sich von ihrem früheren Drogen- und Alkoholmissbrauch zu erholen, gab sie bekannt, dass sie keinen Alkohol mehr trinken oder Marihuana in Maßen rauchen wird.
“Ich unterstütze meine ‘kalifornische Nüchternheit’ nicht mehr”, schrieb Demi im Dezember in ihrer Instagram-Story. ‘Nüchtern nüchtern ist der einzige Weg zu sein.’
Quellen enthüllten, dass Demi Lovato vor kurzem eine Entziehungskur absolviert hat und jetzt zu Hause ist und es ihr gut geht, nachdem sie angekündigt hatte, wieder ?nüchtern? zu werden
Die 29-jährige Sängerin rasierte sich die Haare und debütierte am Freitag anlässlich des Heiligabends auf Instagram mit dem schicken neuen Buzz-Cut. Fans begannen zu spekulieren, dass das Video anscheinend in einem Rehabilitationszentrum aufgenommen wurde
Demi wurde 2018 von mit Fentanyl versetzter Heroin überdosiert, was zu Hirnschäden führte und den ehemaligen Disney Channel-Star legal erblindete (Im Bild: Demi Lovato steckte in einem LA-Krankenhaus mit einer IV fest, während sie sich von ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis erholte)
Im März gab Demi bekannt, dass sie nur wenige Minuten vom Tod entfernt waren, als ihre Assistentin sie in der Nacht ihrer Überdosis im Jahr 2018 fand, und sagte CBS Sunday Morning, dass ?wenn sie niemand gefunden hätte, wäre sie nicht hier?.
Die traumatische Überdosis führte dazu, dass sie nach einem Herzinfarkt und drei Schlaganfällen im Krankenhaus legal blind und mit Hirnschäden erlitten hatten.
Fans begannen zu spekulieren, dass der Heart Attack-Sänger in ein Reha-Zentrum eingecheckt hatte, nachdem er den Hintergrund eines Videos untersucht hatte, das der Promi am Heiligabend geteilt hatte.
Die Singer-Songwriterin zeigte ihr elegant geschminktes Gesicht und ihren frischen Buzzcut in einem kurzen Nahaufnahme-Bumerang. Sie lächelten gewinnend und neigten den Kopf zur Seite, um den neuen Haarschnitt besser sehen zu können.
Die Spekulationen gingen weiter, nachdem Demis ältere Schwester Dallas Lovato am 26. Dezember ein TikTok-Video veröffentlicht hatte, das das Wiedersehen des Camp Rock-Stars mit ihren Schwestern zeigt.
?Wenn du zu Weihnachten genau das bekommst, was du dir gewünscht hast ? deine Schwester?, schrieb der 33-jährige Dallas über das süße Video, das im Dezember veröffentlicht wurde
?Ich habe dich ausgetrickst, tut mir leid?, sagte Demi, als sie ihre jüngere Schwester Madison De La Garza, 20, umarmten. ?Schlampe?, scherzte Madison, als die beiden Geschwister lachten.
Auf die Frage eines Produzenten ihrer YouTube-Dokumentation Dancing With the Devil, ob sie ?völlig nüchtern? seien, sagte Demi, dass sie immer noch Gras rauchen und trinken, nachdem sie sich schwer getan hatten, sich mit der Vorstellung abzufinden, dass sie es vielleicht nie schaffen würden, etwas Erleichterung” von einer Substanz wieder.
Demi gab in ihrer YouTube-Dokumentation Dancing With The Devil bekannt, dass sie aufgrund einer fast tödlichen Drogenüberdosis 2018 ?DREI Schlaganfälle, einen Herzinfarkt und jetzt einen Hirnschaden? hatte
Demi zeigte ihr elegant geschminktes Gesicht und ihren neuen Haarschnitt in einem kurzen Nahaufnahme-Bumerang. Sie trugen zuvor einen stylischen Pixie-Schnitt
?Ich habe gelernt, dass ich die Tür noch mehr öffnen möchte, wenn ich die Tür zu Dingen verschließe?, erklärten sie. ?Ich habe gelernt, dass es nicht funktioniert, wenn ich sage: ?Ich werde das nie wieder tun.’
?Ich habe wirklich damit zu kämpfen. Ich weiß, ich bin fertig mit dem Zeug, das mich umbringen wird. Aber ich wünschte, ich könnte etwas Linderung bekommen, vielleicht durch Gras oder so. Und mir selbst einzureden, dass ich nie etwas trinken oder Marihuana rauchen kann, habe ich das Gefühl, dass ich damit scheitern würde, weil ich so ein Schwarz-Weiß-Denker bin.
?Ich hatte es mir so viele Jahre in den Kopf gebohrt, dass ein Drink einer Crack-Pfeife gleichkam. Ich habe bisher gezögert, mitzuteilen, dass ich Gras rauche und in Maßen trinke.’
Demi gab zu, dass sie sich aus verschiedenen Gründen damit auseinandergesetzt haben, wie und wann sie diese Informationen mit der Welt teilen sollten – der erste war, dass sie nicht wollten, dass die Leute sie für die Entscheidung “kritisieren”, nachdem sie als “Aushängeschild von” festgehalten wurden Nüchternheit” in den Jahren nach ihrer Überdosis.
“Ich möchte auch nicht, dass die Leute das hören und denken, dass sie einfach ausgehen und versuchen können, etwas zu trinken oder einen Joint zu rauchen, weil es nicht jedermanns Sache ist”, fuhren sie fort.
?Wiederherstellung ist keine Einheitslösung. Und Sie sollten nicht gezwungen werden, nüchtern zu werden, wenn Sie nicht bereit sind. Du solltest nicht für andere nüchtern werden. Sie müssen es selbst tun.’
Dancing With The Devil, das kurz vor Lovatos gleichnamigem Album uraufgeführt wurde, wurde am 23. März auf YouTube ausgestrahlt
»Als sie mich fanden, war ich nackt, blau. Ich wurde buchstäblich für tot gehalten, nachdem er mich ausgenutzt hat ?, sagte Demi in ihrer Dokumentation, in der sie erzählt, wie ihr Drogendealer sie sexuell missbraucht hat
Diejenigen, die Demi am nächsten standen, gaben zu, dass sie unterschiedliche Meinungen zu ihrer Entscheidung haben – ihr Manager Scooter Braun gestand, dass er “nicht wirklich einverstanden” mit der Idee ist, Substanzen in “Mäßigung” zu konsumieren.
?Demi weiß, dass ich mit der ganzen Moderationssache nicht wirklich einverstanden bin?, gibt er zu. ?Was ich mit Sucht gelernt habe, ist, wenn ich sie dazu dränge, zu tun, was ich will, stoße ich sie weg. Ich kann sie nicht kontrollieren. Was ich tun kann, ist, eine Freundin zu sein und zu hoffen, dass sie Recht hat.’
Ihr ehemaliger Assistent Jordan Jackson ? die Person, die Demi nach ihrer Überdosis gefunden und den Notruf getätigt hat ? gestand ebenfalls, dass es ihr Angst machte, wenn ihr Chef nicht ganz nüchtern war.
Andere nüchterne Stars, wie der seit über drei Jahrzehnten nüchterne Sänger Elton John, äußerten Skepsis gegenüber dem nüchternen Lebensstil Kaliforniens.
?Mäßigung funktioniert nicht?, sagte er. ‘Verzeihung. Wenn du trinkst, wirst du mehr trinken. Wenn Sie eine Pille nehmen, nehmen Sie eine andere. Entweder du tust es oder du tust es nicht.’
Er fügte hinzu: ?Das Tolle an Demi ist, dass sie sich in so jungen Jahren über ihre Süchte und ihre Probleme sowie den Stress und den Druck des Ruhms geöffnet hat und viele Leute Angst haben, sich darüber zu öffnen.
?Ich habe das Gefühl, wenn man sich erst einmal öffnet, bekommt man den Affen von seinem Rücken und kommt ans Licht.
Nach Jahren der Nüchternheit in jungen Jahren beschloss Demi, ?Kalifornien nüchtern? zu werden, was bedeutet, dass sie immer noch in Maßen Marihuana trinken und rauchen
?Reden wir über Heroin? Machen wir das?’ Demis Freund Matthew Scott Montgomery fragte die Kameramänner und Produzenten hektisch in Dancing With the Devil
Elton John, der mit Demi befreundet ist, gab zu, dass er nicht mit der Entscheidung des Heart Attack-Sängers einverstanden war, in Maßen zu trinken und zu rauchen
?Das bedeutet nicht, dass du geheilt bist, denn das wirst du nie sein. Sucht ist eine lebenslange Sache. Aber Sie können das fantastischste Leben haben. Ich bin seit 30 Jahren nüchtern, mir sind die unglaublichsten Dinge passiert. Und ich hoffe, dass sie das auch tut, weil sie so ein tolles Mädchen ist.’
Demi begann ihre Reise in Richtung Nüchternheit, nachdem ihre Assistentin sie am Rande des Todes gefunden hatte, nachdem sie mit Fentanyl versetzte Heroin bekommen und dann von ihrem Drogendealer sexuell missbraucht worden war.
»Als sie mich fanden, war ich nackt, blau. Ich wurde buchstäblich für tot gehalten, nachdem er mich ausgenutzt hat ?, sagten sie in ihrer Dokumentation.
Sie erzählten, wie Krankenhausmitarbeiter sie danach fragten, ob die Begegnung einvernehmlich gewesen sei. Sie sagten: ?Ich hatte einen Blitz von ihm über mir. Ich sah diesen Blitz und sagte “ja”.
“Erst einen Monat nach der Überdosis wurde mir klar: “Sie waren nicht in der Verfassung, eine einvernehmliche Entscheidung zu treffen”.
Ihre Überdosis verursachte eine Reihe von Problemen, darunter drei Schlaganfälle, einen Herzinfarkt und Organversagen, zusammen mit Lungenentzündung, Erstickung, Hirnschäden und dauerhaften Sehstörungen, die das Autofahren unmöglich machten.
Sie erzählten, wie die Überdosis blinde Flecken in ihrem Sichtfeld hinterließ und wie sie ihre Schwester bei einem Besuch am Krankenbett nicht sehen konnten, berichtete TMZ.
“Es war interessant, wie schnell ich mich angepasst habe”, sagten sie der Times über den Sehverlust. ?Ich habe mir keine Zeit gelassen, darüber wirklich traurig zu sein. Ich dachte nur: “Wie repariere ich es?”‘
Demis neuestes Projekt war ihre Peacock-TV-Show, Unidentified With Demi Lovato, die “die Zuschauer auf einen Roadtrip mitnimmt, um endgültige Antworten auf einige der größten Fragen über außerirdisches Leben zu finden” mit der Berühmtheit.
In einem kürzlich erschienenen viralen Clip der Show sangen sie zu einer anerkennenden Erscheinung, während sie paranormale Störungen für die Show erforschten.
Demis spontaner Auftritt kam, als sie mit ihrem engen Freund Matthew Scott und dem paranormalen Ermittler Chris Smith die verlassene Stadt Vulture City in Arizona – angeblich die Quelle zahlreicher geisterhafter Unruhen – besuchten.
Als das Trio ein baufälliges ehemaliges Bordell betrat, stolperte das Trio über Carmen, ein Gespenst mit deutlich feministischen Neigungen und einem anhaltenden Groll gegen Männer, nachdem sie vom anderen Geschlecht im Leben misshandelt worden waren.
Demi hat in ihrer Show Unidentified With Demi Lovato, die das außerirdische Leben auf der Erde erforscht, einem Geist mit einem Groll gegen Männer ein Ständchen gesungen, um ihm zu helfen, das Trauma des Sexismus zu überwinden
Irgendwie schaffte es die Gruppe, über einen EMF-Detektor – ein Gerät, das bei paranormalen Kontakten ein scharfes, hohes Geräusch aussendet – mit einer technisch versierten Carmen zu kommunizieren – die Gruppe verwickelte sich in einen unwahrscheinlichen Diskurs.
Ermutigt von Scott und Smith, die vor dem Raum warteten, fuhr Lovato fort, Carmen zu stärken, indem er eine Acapella-Version ihrer Single Skyscraper von 2011 sang.
Nach Beendigung einer Strophe des Tracks ? die einen Text über ?stark bleiben und an sich selbst glauben? enthält ? gab der Detektor drei kurze Ausbrüche aus, die auf eine positive Reaktion von Carmen hindeuteten.
Offensichtlich begeistert sagte Lovato: “Das sind die coolsten Standing Ovations, die ich je hatte.”
The post Demi Lovato absolviert drei Jahre nach fast tödlicher Überdosis einen WEITEREN Reha-Aufenthalt first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1282:"Demi Lovato absolvierte einen weiteren Reha-Aufenthalt, als 2021 zu Ende ging, drei Jahre nach ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis Heroin mit Fentanyl. Eine Quelle in der Nähe des ehemaligen Disney Channel-Stars bestätigte, dass der Sänger zu Hause ist und es ihm ?gut geht?, nachdem er leise eine weitere Rückkehr in die Reha abgeschlossen hatte, berichtete die […]
The post Demi Lovato absolviert drei Jahre nach fast tödlicher Überdosis einen WEITEREN Reha-Aufenthalt first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:20577:"Demi Lovato absolvierte einen weiteren Reha-Aufenthalt, als 2021 zu Ende ging, drei Jahre nach ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis Heroin mit Fentanyl.
Eine Quelle in der Nähe des ehemaligen Disney Channel-Stars bestätigte, dass der Sänger zu Hause ist und es ihm ?gut geht?, nachdem er leise eine weitere Rückkehr in die Reha abgeschlossen hatte, berichtete die New York Post.
Demi, die die Pronomen sie / sie verwendet, verbrachte kürzlich einige Zeit in einem Rehabilitationszentrum in Utah, um ihnen zu helfen, nüchtern zu werden, sagte die Quelle.
Die nicht-binäre Berühmtheit gab letzten Monat bekannt, dass sie offiziell “nüchtern” werden wird.
Nachdem die 29-jährige Sängerin zuvor einen “kalifornischen nüchternen” Ansatz verfolgt hatte, um sich von ihrem früheren Drogen- und Alkoholmissbrauch zu erholen, gab sie bekannt, dass sie keinen Alkohol mehr trinken oder Marihuana in Maßen rauchen wird.
“Ich unterstütze meine ‘kalifornische Nüchternheit’ nicht mehr”, schrieb Demi im Dezember in ihrer Instagram-Story. ‘Nüchtern nüchtern ist der einzige Weg zu sein.’
Quellen enthüllten, dass Demi Lovato vor kurzem eine Entziehungskur absolviert hat und jetzt zu Hause ist und es ihr gut geht, nachdem sie angekündigt hatte, wieder ?nüchtern? zu werden
Die 29-jährige Sängerin rasierte sich die Haare und debütierte am Freitag anlässlich des Heiligabends auf Instagram mit dem schicken neuen Buzz-Cut. Fans begannen zu spekulieren, dass das Video anscheinend in einem Rehabilitationszentrum aufgenommen wurde
Demi wurde 2018 von mit Fentanyl versetzter Heroin überdosiert, was zu Hirnschäden führte und den ehemaligen Disney Channel-Star legal erblindete (Im Bild: Demi Lovato steckte in einem LA-Krankenhaus mit einer IV fest, während sie sich von ihrer fast tödlichen Überdosis erholte)
Im März gab Demi bekannt, dass sie nur wenige Minuten vom Tod entfernt waren, als ihre Assistentin sie in der Nacht ihrer Überdosis im Jahr 2018 fand, und sagte CBS Sunday Morning, dass ?wenn sie niemand gefunden hätte, wäre sie nicht hier?.
Die traumatische Überdosis führte dazu, dass sie nach einem Herzinfarkt und drei Schlaganfällen im Krankenhaus legal blind und mit Hirnschäden erlitten hatten.
Fans begannen zu spekulieren, dass der Heart Attack-Sänger in ein Reha-Zentrum eingecheckt hatte, nachdem er den Hintergrund eines Videos untersucht hatte, das der Promi am Heiligabend geteilt hatte.
Die Singer-Songwriterin zeigte ihr elegant geschminktes Gesicht und ihren frischen Buzzcut in einem kurzen Nahaufnahme-Bumerang. Sie lächelten gewinnend und neigten den Kopf zur Seite, um den neuen Haarschnitt besser sehen zu können.
Die Spekulationen gingen weiter, nachdem Demis ältere Schwester Dallas Lovato am 26. Dezember ein TikTok-Video veröffentlicht hatte, das das Wiedersehen des Camp Rock-Stars mit ihren Schwestern zeigt.
?Wenn du zu Weihnachten genau das bekommst, was du dir gewünscht hast ? deine Schwester?, schrieb der 33-jährige Dallas über das süße Video, das im Dezember veröffentlicht wurde
?Ich habe dich ausgetrickst, tut mir leid?, sagte Demi, als sie ihre jüngere Schwester Madison De La Garza, 20, umarmten. ?Schlampe?, scherzte Madison, als die beiden Geschwister lachten.
Auf die Frage eines Produzenten ihrer YouTube-Dokumentation Dancing With the Devil, ob sie ?völlig nüchtern? seien, sagte Demi, dass sie immer noch Gras rauchen und trinken, nachdem sie sich schwer getan hatten, sich mit der Vorstellung abzufinden, dass sie es vielleicht nie schaffen würden, etwas Erleichterung” von einer Substanz wieder.
Demi gab in ihrer YouTube-Dokumentation Dancing With The Devil bekannt, dass sie aufgrund einer fast tödlichen Drogenüberdosis 2018 ?DREI Schlaganfälle, einen Herzinfarkt und jetzt einen Hirnschaden? hatte
Demi zeigte ihr elegant geschminktes Gesicht und ihren neuen Haarschnitt in einem kurzen Nahaufnahme-Bumerang. Sie trugen zuvor einen stylischen Pixie-Schnitt
?Ich habe gelernt, dass ich die Tür noch mehr öffnen möchte, wenn ich die Tür zu Dingen verschließe?, erklärten sie. ?Ich habe gelernt, dass es nicht funktioniert, wenn ich sage: ?Ich werde das nie wieder tun.’
?Ich habe wirklich damit zu kämpfen. Ich weiß, ich bin fertig mit dem Zeug, das mich umbringen wird. Aber ich wünschte, ich könnte etwas Linderung bekommen, vielleicht durch Gras oder so. Und mir selbst einzureden, dass ich nie etwas trinken oder Marihuana rauchen kann, habe ich das Gefühl, dass ich damit scheitern würde, weil ich so ein Schwarz-Weiß-Denker bin.
?Ich hatte es mir so viele Jahre in den Kopf gebohrt, dass ein Drink einer Crack-Pfeife gleichkam. Ich habe bisher gezögert, mitzuteilen, dass ich Gras rauche und in Maßen trinke.’
Demi gab zu, dass sie sich aus verschiedenen Gründen damit auseinandergesetzt haben, wie und wann sie diese Informationen mit der Welt teilen sollten – der erste war, dass sie nicht wollten, dass die Leute sie für die Entscheidung “kritisieren”, nachdem sie als “Aushängeschild von” festgehalten wurden Nüchternheit” in den Jahren nach ihrer Überdosis.
“Ich möchte auch nicht, dass die Leute das hören und denken, dass sie einfach ausgehen und versuchen können, etwas zu trinken oder einen Joint zu rauchen, weil es nicht jedermanns Sache ist”, fuhren sie fort.
?Wiederherstellung ist keine Einheitslösung. Und Sie sollten nicht gezwungen werden, nüchtern zu werden, wenn Sie nicht bereit sind. Du solltest nicht für andere nüchtern werden. Sie müssen es selbst tun.’
Dancing With The Devil, das kurz vor Lovatos gleichnamigem Album uraufgeführt wurde, wurde am 23. März auf YouTube ausgestrahlt
»Als sie mich fanden, war ich nackt, blau. Ich wurde buchstäblich für tot gehalten, nachdem er mich ausgenutzt hat ?, sagte Demi in ihrer Dokumentation, in der sie erzählt, wie ihr Drogendealer sie sexuell missbraucht hat
Diejenigen, die Demi am nächsten standen, gaben zu, dass sie unterschiedliche Meinungen zu ihrer Entscheidung haben – ihr Manager Scooter Braun gestand, dass er “nicht wirklich einverstanden” mit der Idee ist, Substanzen in “Mäßigung” zu konsumieren.
?Demi weiß, dass ich mit der ganzen Moderationssache nicht wirklich einverstanden bin?, gibt er zu. ?Was ich mit Sucht gelernt habe, ist, wenn ich sie dazu dränge, zu tun, was ich will, stoße ich sie weg. Ich kann sie nicht kontrollieren. Was ich tun kann, ist, eine Freundin zu sein und zu hoffen, dass sie Recht hat.’
Ihr ehemaliger Assistent Jordan Jackson ? die Person, die Demi nach ihrer Überdosis gefunden und den Notruf getätigt hat ? gestand ebenfalls, dass es ihr Angst machte, wenn ihr Chef nicht ganz nüchtern war.
Andere nüchterne Stars, wie der seit über drei Jahrzehnten nüchterne Sänger Elton John, äußerten Skepsis gegenüber dem nüchternen Lebensstil Kaliforniens.
?Mäßigung funktioniert nicht?, sagte er. ‘Verzeihung. Wenn du trinkst, wirst du mehr trinken. Wenn Sie eine Pille nehmen, nehmen Sie eine andere. Entweder du tust es oder du tust es nicht.’
Er fügte hinzu: ?Das Tolle an Demi ist, dass sie sich in so jungen Jahren über ihre Süchte und ihre Probleme sowie den Stress und den Druck des Ruhms geöffnet hat und viele Leute Angst haben, sich darüber zu öffnen.
?Ich habe das Gefühl, wenn man sich erst einmal öffnet, bekommt man den Affen von seinem Rücken und kommt ans Licht.
Nach Jahren der Nüchternheit in jungen Jahren beschloss Demi, ?Kalifornien nüchtern? zu werden, was bedeutet, dass sie immer noch in Maßen Marihuana trinken und rauchen
?Reden wir über Heroin? Machen wir das?’ Demis Freund Matthew Scott Montgomery fragte die Kameramänner und Produzenten hektisch in Dancing With the Devil
Elton John, der mit Demi befreundet ist, gab zu, dass er nicht mit der Entscheidung des Heart Attack-Sängers einverstanden war, in Maßen zu trinken und zu rauchen
?Das bedeutet nicht, dass du geheilt bist, denn das wirst du nie sein. Sucht ist eine lebenslange Sache. Aber Sie können das fantastischste Leben haben. Ich bin seit 30 Jahren nüchtern, mir sind die unglaublichsten Dinge passiert. Und ich hoffe, dass sie das auch tut, weil sie so ein tolles Mädchen ist.’
Demi begann ihre Reise in Richtung Nüchternheit, nachdem ihre Assistentin sie am Rande des Todes gefunden hatte, nachdem sie mit Fentanyl versetzte Heroin bekommen und dann von ihrem Drogendealer sexuell missbraucht worden war.
»Als sie mich fanden, war ich nackt, blau. Ich wurde buchstäblich für tot gehalten, nachdem er mich ausgenutzt hat ?, sagten sie in ihrer Dokumentation.
Sie erzählten, wie Krankenhausmitarbeiter sie danach fragten, ob die Begegnung einvernehmlich gewesen sei. Sie sagten: ?Ich hatte einen Blitz von ihm über mir. Ich sah diesen Blitz und sagte “ja”.
“Erst einen Monat nach der Überdosis wurde mir klar: “Sie waren nicht in der Verfassung, eine einvernehmliche Entscheidung zu treffen”.
Ihre Überdosis verursachte eine Reihe von Problemen, darunter drei Schlaganfälle, einen Herzinfarkt und Organversagen, zusammen mit Lungenentzündung, Erstickung, Hirnschäden und dauerhaften Sehstörungen, die das Autofahren unmöglich machten.
Sie erzählten, wie die Überdosis blinde Flecken in ihrem Sichtfeld hinterließ und wie sie ihre Schwester bei einem Besuch am Krankenbett nicht sehen konnten, berichtete TMZ.
“Es war interessant, wie schnell ich mich angepasst habe”, sagten sie der Times über den Sehverlust. ?Ich habe mir keine Zeit gelassen, darüber wirklich traurig zu sein. Ich dachte nur: “Wie repariere ich es?”‘
Demis neuestes Projekt war ihre Peacock-TV-Show, Unidentified With Demi Lovato, die “die Zuschauer auf einen Roadtrip mitnimmt, um endgültige Antworten auf einige der größten Fragen über außerirdisches Leben zu finden” mit der Berühmtheit.
In einem kürzlich erschienenen viralen Clip der Show sangen sie zu einer anerkennenden Erscheinung, während sie paranormale Störungen für die Show erforschten.
Demis spontaner Auftritt kam, als sie mit ihrem engen Freund Matthew Scott und dem paranormalen Ermittler Chris Smith die verlassene Stadt Vulture City in Arizona – angeblich die Quelle zahlreicher geisterhafter Unruhen – besuchten.
Als das Trio ein baufälliges ehemaliges Bordell betrat, stolperte das Trio über Carmen, ein Gespenst mit deutlich feministischen Neigungen und einem anhaltenden Groll gegen Männer, nachdem sie vom anderen Geschlecht im Leben misshandelt worden waren.
Demi hat in ihrer Show Unidentified With Demi Lovato, die das außerirdische Leben auf der Erde erforscht, einem Geist mit einem Groll gegen Männer ein Ständchen gesungen, um ihm zu helfen, das Trauma des Sexismus zu überwinden
Irgendwie schaffte es die Gruppe, über einen EMF-Detektor – ein Gerät, das bei paranormalen Kontakten ein scharfes, hohes Geräusch aussendet – mit einer technisch versierten Carmen zu kommunizieren – die Gruppe verwickelte sich in einen unwahrscheinlichen Diskurs.
Ermutigt von Scott und Smith, die vor dem Raum warteten, fuhr Lovato fort, Carmen zu stärken, indem er eine Acapella-Version ihrer Single Skyscraper von 2011 sang.
Nach Beendigung einer Strophe des Tracks ? die einen Text über ?stark bleiben und an sich selbst glauben? enthält ? gab der Detektor drei kurze Ausbrüche aus, die auf eine positive Reaktion von Carmen hindeuteten.
Offensichtlich begeistert sagte Lovato: “Das sind die coolsten Standing Ovations, die ich je hatte.”
The post Demi Lovato absolviert drei Jahre nach fast tödlicher Überdosis einen WEITEREN Reha-Aufenthalt first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641697140;}i:6;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:66:"The Opioid Epidemic in the United States, 2021 Edition | Opinions";s:4:"link";s:92:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/the-opioid-epidemic-in-the-united-states-2021-edition-opinions/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:12:"Carla Fowler";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sat, 08 Jan 2022 20:22:42 +0000";s:8:"category";s:13:"Opioid Crisis";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9946";s:11:"description";s:1347:"
The other day in Mexico I met an elderly man from Virginia who had recently lost a brother to cancer. He gulped as he remembered his brother approaching parents on the street as a child to compliment them on the beauty of their offspring, adding that cancer wasn’t his brother’s only ailment. He was also […]
The post The Opioid Epidemic in the United States, 2021 Edition | Opinions first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:7018:"The other day in Mexico I met an elderly man from Virginia who had recently lost a brother to cancer. He gulped as he remembered his brother approaching parents on the street as a child to compliment them on the beauty of their offspring, adding that cancer wasn’t his brother’s only ailment. He was also a victim of the “other epidemic” – that is, the opioid crisis that caused around 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2019, while destroying countless other lives through addiction.
The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the overdose phenomenon, with the number of deaths in the US now exceeding 100,000. About 75 percent of these are attributed to opioids – a class of drugs that includes heroin, synthetic fentanyl, and prescription pain relievers like oxycodone.
A December article in the New York Times titled ?Opioids Feel Like Love. That is why they are deadly in difficult times, ?explains that such drugs? mimic the neurotransmitters responsible for calming social connections – parenting to children, lover to lover ?.
The article points out that isolation and loneliness often fuel addiction, and that in the United States, overdose death rates have increased fourfold over the past few decades and social isolation has increased. For example, a 2018 survey found that “only about half of respondents felt they had someone to turn to all or most of the time”.
It is hardly surprising, then, that coronavirus home-stay protocols and social distancing measures would lead many Americans to seek substitutes for human contact and affection – not that U.S. society has ever been very, um, loving.
Of course, life can get pretty lonely in a country that prefers to spend trillions on wars rather than ensuring its citizens have adequate access to basic rights like health care – and where a depraved capitalist system is actively thwarting for the sake of human solidarity Maintaining a tyranny of the elite.
Speaking of war, the half a million figure – the number of Americans killed by opioid overdoses in two decades – happens to be the number of Iraqi children reportedly killed by U.S. sanctions in 1996 alone. Given these statistics at the time, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, reiterated that “we think the price is worth it,” which embodies the deadly logic of capitalism pretty well.
This also applies to Purdue Pharma – maker of the massively addictive prescription pain reliever, OxyContin – owned by the billionaire Sackler family. As noted in a December 2020 US Congress hearing on the role of Purdue and the Sacklers in the opioid epidemic, ?Purdue targeted high volume prescribers to boost sales of OxyContin, ignoring and working on safeguards to stop the abuse should reduce prescription opioids and promoted “false narratives about their products to discourage patients from safer alternatives and to divert blame onto people struggling with addiction”.
In fact, former Purdue manager Richard Sackler once stated in an email that “abusers” of OxyContin (a brand of oxycodone) were “the culprits and the problem.” They are ruthless criminals “- undoubtedly a charming assessment of the person overseeing the ruthless flooding of US communities with dangerous addictive substances.
Purdue Pharma was resolved in 2021 in a settlement that will turn the Sacklers into slightly smaller billionaires, a predictable form of “justice” in a country where poor black people are regularly sentenced to life imprisonment or forced to endure other equally life-destroying things Penalties for minor drug offenses. The scene becomes all the more disgusting when you consider that OxyContin addicts often resort to heavily criminalized drugs such as heroin when the so-called “legal” ones are not available.
During the above-mentioned hearing before the US Congress, a representative from the state of David Sackler, a former board member of Purdue Pharma, gave his clear opinion: “I am not sure if I know of any family in America who are worse than yours “.
But while the Sacklers were selected for supposedly uniquely nefarious machinations, Purdue Pharma was just part and parcel of the American journey: turning killing into murder. Just ask the defense industry.
The company’s blame on the victims of its predatory business model is also symptomatic of a domestic neoliberal landscape where poor people are blamed for failing in the society that is effectively killing them – and they get the bill for the honors .
Other US corporate actors have also been tried for their contribution to the opioid epidemic. In November, a federal jury in Ohio found that CVS, Walgreens and Walmart – three of the most famous pharmacy chains in the country – were involved in creating a “public nuisance.” Yet this is still a fairly mundane indictment in a criminally incarcerated nation where government-corporate collusion in a profitable and deadly dependence on capitalism has spawned a thoroughly sick system.
And as long as opioids ?feel like love? in an otherwise loveless panorama, there is no end to the crisis in sight.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own views and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
The post The Opioid Epidemic in the United States, 2021 Edition | Opinions first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1347:"The other day in Mexico I met an elderly man from Virginia who had recently lost a brother to cancer. He gulped as he remembered his brother approaching parents on the street as a child to compliment them on the beauty of their offspring, adding that cancer wasn’t his brother’s only ailment. He was also […]
The post The Opioid Epidemic in the United States, 2021 Edition | Opinions first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:7018:"The other day in Mexico I met an elderly man from Virginia who had recently lost a brother to cancer. He gulped as he remembered his brother approaching parents on the street as a child to compliment them on the beauty of their offspring, adding that cancer wasn’t his brother’s only ailment. He was also a victim of the “other epidemic” – that is, the opioid crisis that caused around 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2019, while destroying countless other lives through addiction.
The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the overdose phenomenon, with the number of deaths in the US now exceeding 100,000. About 75 percent of these are attributed to opioids – a class of drugs that includes heroin, synthetic fentanyl, and prescription pain relievers like oxycodone.
A December article in the New York Times titled ?Opioids Feel Like Love. That is why they are deadly in difficult times, ?explains that such drugs? mimic the neurotransmitters responsible for calming social connections – parenting to children, lover to lover ?.
The article points out that isolation and loneliness often fuel addiction, and that in the United States, overdose death rates have increased fourfold over the past few decades and social isolation has increased. For example, a 2018 survey found that “only about half of respondents felt they had someone to turn to all or most of the time”.
It is hardly surprising, then, that coronavirus home-stay protocols and social distancing measures would lead many Americans to seek substitutes for human contact and affection – not that U.S. society has ever been very, um, loving.
Of course, life can get pretty lonely in a country that prefers to spend trillions on wars rather than ensuring its citizens have adequate access to basic rights like health care – and where a depraved capitalist system is actively thwarting for the sake of human solidarity Maintaining a tyranny of the elite.
Speaking of war, the half a million figure – the number of Americans killed by opioid overdoses in two decades – happens to be the number of Iraqi children reportedly killed by U.S. sanctions in 1996 alone. Given these statistics at the time, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, reiterated that “we think the price is worth it,” which embodies the deadly logic of capitalism pretty well.
This also applies to Purdue Pharma – maker of the massively addictive prescription pain reliever, OxyContin – owned by the billionaire Sackler family. As noted in a December 2020 US Congress hearing on the role of Purdue and the Sacklers in the opioid epidemic, ?Purdue targeted high volume prescribers to boost sales of OxyContin, ignoring and working on safeguards to stop the abuse should reduce prescription opioids and promoted “false narratives about their products to discourage patients from safer alternatives and to divert blame onto people struggling with addiction”.
In fact, former Purdue manager Richard Sackler once stated in an email that “abusers” of OxyContin (a brand of oxycodone) were “the culprits and the problem.” They are ruthless criminals “- undoubtedly a charming assessment of the person overseeing the ruthless flooding of US communities with dangerous addictive substances.
Purdue Pharma was resolved in 2021 in a settlement that will turn the Sacklers into slightly smaller billionaires, a predictable form of “justice” in a country where poor black people are regularly sentenced to life imprisonment or forced to endure other equally life-destroying things Penalties for minor drug offenses. The scene becomes all the more disgusting when you consider that OxyContin addicts often resort to heavily criminalized drugs such as heroin when the so-called “legal” ones are not available.
During the above-mentioned hearing before the US Congress, a representative from the state of David Sackler, a former board member of Purdue Pharma, gave his clear opinion: “I am not sure if I know of any family in America who are worse than yours “.
But while the Sacklers were selected for supposedly uniquely nefarious machinations, Purdue Pharma was just part and parcel of the American journey: turning killing into murder. Just ask the defense industry.
The company’s blame on the victims of its predatory business model is also symptomatic of a domestic neoliberal landscape where poor people are blamed for failing in the society that is effectively killing them – and they get the bill for the honors .
Other US corporate actors have also been tried for their contribution to the opioid epidemic. In November, a federal jury in Ohio found that CVS, Walgreens and Walmart – three of the most famous pharmacy chains in the country – were involved in creating a “public nuisance.” Yet this is still a fairly mundane indictment in a criminally incarcerated nation where government-corporate collusion in a profitable and deadly dependence on capitalism has spawned a thoroughly sick system.
And as long as opioids ?feel like love? in an otherwise loveless panorama, there is no end to the crisis in sight.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own views and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
The post The Opioid Epidemic in the United States, 2021 Edition | Opinions first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641673362;}i:7;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:67:"Psychologist discusses mental crisis affecting children | Messages";s:4:"link";s:94:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/psychologist-discusses-mental-crisis-affecting-children-messages/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:12:"Carla Fowler";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sat, 08 Jan 2022 08:35:33 +0000";s:8:"category";s:13:"Mental Health";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9943";s:11:"description";s:1198:"
In December 2021, the US Surgeon General issued a recommendation on the mental health crisis in children caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) has joined the Sound the Alarm For Kids campaign, which aims to raise awareness and provide resources to address this crisis. “Providers everywhere are calling for changes […]
The post Psychologist discusses mental crisis affecting children | Messages first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:10137:"In December 2021, the US Surgeon General issued a recommendation on the mental health crisis in children caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) has joined the Sound the Alarm For Kids campaign, which aims to raise awareness and provide resources to address this crisis.
“Providers everywhere are calling for changes in access to children’s mental health services,” said Scottie B. Day, MD, chief physician, Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “But first we need to work together to reduce stigma and have conversations about mental health.”
UK child psychologist Alissa Briggs, Ph.D., of HealthCare answers frequently asked questions about the unprecedented crisis facing children and adolescents today.
You know: What are providers seeing in the KCH and in the children’s clinics?
Briggs: As a provider of mental illness for adolescents, I see the same psychological concerns as before the pandemic. However, the new psychological concerns of several patients are directly related to the pandemic. In addition, many patients who struggled with their mental health prior to the pandemic are either doing worse or having difficulty healing. Most teens cite persistent peer isolation, broken relationships with peers, and the lack of organized activities outside the home as factors contributing to their mental health deterioration. We’ve definitely seen an increase in eating disorders and self-harm, and unstructured time at home is likely a contributing factor to that increase. When school and activities resumed, mental health improved for some, but some remained stuck with depression, anxiety, and self-harming behaviors.
You know: What has contributed to the increase in suicide attempts and suicidal ideation?
Briggs: Hopelessness, financial stress, feelings of burden and loss of relationship are driving factors for suicide. The pandemic has certainly increased feelings of hopelessness, financial stress and changes in relationships in many. Since many parents struggled to reconcile distance learning, quarantine and work, it can be assumed that this could make some children and adolescents feel uncomfortable.
You know: How do factors such as socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation and gender identity play a role?
Briggs: Many young people who do not fall into the cisgender and straight category rely on the support of their peer group. You can be at school and not at home. In these teens, lack of access to affirmative peers and / or a positive environment could contribute to stress and suicidal behavior. On the other hand, adolescents who were discriminated against and harassed in school because of their sexual orientation and / or gender identity may have found it a relief to be at home with their parents. If at least one parent affirms the young person’s gender identity and sexual orientation, the young person’s risk of suicide is significantly reduced.
You know: Do you think the social stigma surrounding mental health prevents parents from talking to their children or taking their children’s mental health concerns seriously?
Briggs: In fact, I think that the inability to see the signs that an adolescent is struggling with mental health and limited emotional communication skills prevent parents from dealing with their adolescent’s mental health. When people are in a stress reaction, they can react with fighting (an increase in arguments, outbursts, and irritability), fleeing (avoiding people and situations), or freezing (shutting down, crying, and noncommunication). These can be interpreted as behavioral problems and addressed with a more punitive approach than as signs that an adolescent is having difficulty. Young people can demonstrate their need for support in such a way that they crowd out precisely those people who need them.
Also, many parents haven’t learned to really listen. Listening is much more than just listening. It involves making eye contact, positioning your body towards someone, making a supportive expression, reflecting on emotions you sense in the other person, and rewriting what you hear say. Looking at a phone is a major obstacle to beginning communication because of the non-verbal behavior required. Have phone-free time at home. In addition, many parents try to solve problems instead of focusing first on the emotions and worries that the adolescent is trying to express. Many teenagers I visit for therapy say they don’t feel that their parents really understand what they are feeling or what they are trying to tell them. I recommend the ?How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk? series by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish to all parents.
You know: How has the pandemic affected the mental health of children and adolescents?
Briggs: It made things worse for teens who were already struggling and made things difficult for teens who were fine.
In addition, many teenagers have experienced trauma-related infections from family members. Trauma activates the stress response system, and when that system is activated frequently or continuously it becomes difficult to turn it off. When the stress response system persists, we get depression, anxiety, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
You know: What are the signs that a child is struggling with their mental health?
Briggs: Think of “fight, flight, or freeze” – our automatic responses to activation of our stress response system.
I think it’s also important to remember that we cannot choose our own stress response style. Teens can learn strategies to counteract and prevent the stress response, but the overall response is not controlled. There was a time when a quick, automatic response was adaptive (i.e., when faced with death from a tiger or a member of another tribe). Our society has evolved faster than our stress response system, and the way we automatically react doesn’t always make sense.
An adolescent who becomes irritable and argumentative has no more control over this reaction than an adolescent who becomes tearful and withdrawn. Unfortunately, teenagers who have a tendency to “fight” receive more punitive reactions and more guilt for their behavior, which deteriorates their overall mental health.
You know: What can parents, carers, and teachers do if they are concerned about a child’s mental health?
Briggs: Contact your pediatrician who can provide recommendations and resources. Also, contact a supportive teacher, career counselor, or administrator at the school. Most schools have increased the availability of mental health professionals in the school and your teen may have access to therapy during the school day. If the school does not have resources, they may know the resources that are available in the community.
You know: What resources are available to parents and carers? How can we continue to support you?
Briggs: There are plenty of parenting books to choose from that can be overwhelming. There are some gems out there, however. Everything from Ross Greene is worth reading, and he has a website with a wealth of resources, including ways to connect with other parents. As I mentioned earlier, the How to Talk series can improve your relationship and communication with your teen.
There is a lot that employers can do to support parents and carers. In our culture we are very focused on what the individual can do, but sometimes the individual needs the systems in which they participate in order to change. Parents, especially parents of elementary school age children and younger, have been burning at both ends of the candle for the past two years to provide for their families and keep their jobs going. Employers can allow parents time to get therapy and take their children to therapy. Employers can increase flexibility so that parents can work remotely outside of normal business hours if necessary, in order to reconcile work and family. Additionally, employers can find ways to increase pay to attract and retain workers to allow this flexibility. Given the challenges many industries face in recruiting, employees are able to bargain. I think these are reasonable requests from parents that can lead to some helpful changes.
The post Psychologist discusses mental crisis affecting children | Messages first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1198:"In December 2021, the US Surgeon General issued a recommendation on the mental health crisis in children caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) has joined the Sound the Alarm For Kids campaign, which aims to raise awareness and provide resources to address this crisis. “Providers everywhere are calling for changes […]
The post Psychologist discusses mental crisis affecting children | Messages first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:10137:"In December 2021, the US Surgeon General issued a recommendation on the mental health crisis in children caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) has joined the Sound the Alarm For Kids campaign, which aims to raise awareness and provide resources to address this crisis.
“Providers everywhere are calling for changes in access to children’s mental health services,” said Scottie B. Day, MD, chief physician, Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “But first we need to work together to reduce stigma and have conversations about mental health.”
UK child psychologist Alissa Briggs, Ph.D., of HealthCare answers frequently asked questions about the unprecedented crisis facing children and adolescents today.
You know: What are providers seeing in the KCH and in the children’s clinics?
Briggs: As a provider of mental illness for adolescents, I see the same psychological concerns as before the pandemic. However, the new psychological concerns of several patients are directly related to the pandemic. In addition, many patients who struggled with their mental health prior to the pandemic are either doing worse or having difficulty healing. Most teens cite persistent peer isolation, broken relationships with peers, and the lack of organized activities outside the home as factors contributing to their mental health deterioration. We’ve definitely seen an increase in eating disorders and self-harm, and unstructured time at home is likely a contributing factor to that increase. When school and activities resumed, mental health improved for some, but some remained stuck with depression, anxiety, and self-harming behaviors.
You know: What has contributed to the increase in suicide attempts and suicidal ideation?
Briggs: Hopelessness, financial stress, feelings of burden and loss of relationship are driving factors for suicide. The pandemic has certainly increased feelings of hopelessness, financial stress and changes in relationships in many. Since many parents struggled to reconcile distance learning, quarantine and work, it can be assumed that this could make some children and adolescents feel uncomfortable.
You know: How do factors such as socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation and gender identity play a role?
Briggs: Many young people who do not fall into the cisgender and straight category rely on the support of their peer group. You can be at school and not at home. In these teens, lack of access to affirmative peers and / or a positive environment could contribute to stress and suicidal behavior. On the other hand, adolescents who were discriminated against and harassed in school because of their sexual orientation and / or gender identity may have found it a relief to be at home with their parents. If at least one parent affirms the young person’s gender identity and sexual orientation, the young person’s risk of suicide is significantly reduced.
You know: Do you think the social stigma surrounding mental health prevents parents from talking to their children or taking their children’s mental health concerns seriously?
Briggs: In fact, I think that the inability to see the signs that an adolescent is struggling with mental health and limited emotional communication skills prevent parents from dealing with their adolescent’s mental health. When people are in a stress reaction, they can react with fighting (an increase in arguments, outbursts, and irritability), fleeing (avoiding people and situations), or freezing (shutting down, crying, and noncommunication). These can be interpreted as behavioral problems and addressed with a more punitive approach than as signs that an adolescent is having difficulty. Young people can demonstrate their need for support in such a way that they crowd out precisely those people who need them.
Also, many parents haven’t learned to really listen. Listening is much more than just listening. It involves making eye contact, positioning your body towards someone, making a supportive expression, reflecting on emotions you sense in the other person, and rewriting what you hear say. Looking at a phone is a major obstacle to beginning communication because of the non-verbal behavior required. Have phone-free time at home. In addition, many parents try to solve problems instead of focusing first on the emotions and worries that the adolescent is trying to express. Many teenagers I visit for therapy say they don’t feel that their parents really understand what they are feeling or what they are trying to tell them. I recommend the ?How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk? series by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish to all parents.
You know: How has the pandemic affected the mental health of children and adolescents?
Briggs: It made things worse for teens who were already struggling and made things difficult for teens who were fine.
In addition, many teenagers have experienced trauma-related infections from family members. Trauma activates the stress response system, and when that system is activated frequently or continuously it becomes difficult to turn it off. When the stress response system persists, we get depression, anxiety, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
You know: What are the signs that a child is struggling with their mental health?
Briggs: Think of “fight, flight, or freeze” – our automatic responses to activation of our stress response system.
I think it’s also important to remember that we cannot choose our own stress response style. Teens can learn strategies to counteract and prevent the stress response, but the overall response is not controlled. There was a time when a quick, automatic response was adaptive (i.e., when faced with death from a tiger or a member of another tribe). Our society has evolved faster than our stress response system, and the way we automatically react doesn’t always make sense.
An adolescent who becomes irritable and argumentative has no more control over this reaction than an adolescent who becomes tearful and withdrawn. Unfortunately, teenagers who have a tendency to “fight” receive more punitive reactions and more guilt for their behavior, which deteriorates their overall mental health.
You know: What can parents, carers, and teachers do if they are concerned about a child’s mental health?
Briggs: Contact your pediatrician who can provide recommendations and resources. Also, contact a supportive teacher, career counselor, or administrator at the school. Most schools have increased the availability of mental health professionals in the school and your teen may have access to therapy during the school day. If the school does not have resources, they may know the resources that are available in the community.
You know: What resources are available to parents and carers? How can we continue to support you?
Briggs: There are plenty of parenting books to choose from that can be overwhelming. There are some gems out there, however. Everything from Ross Greene is worth reading, and he has a website with a wealth of resources, including ways to connect with other parents. As I mentioned earlier, the How to Talk series can improve your relationship and communication with your teen.
There is a lot that employers can do to support parents and carers. In our culture we are very focused on what the individual can do, but sometimes the individual needs the systems in which they participate in order to change. Parents, especially parents of elementary school age children and younger, have been burning at both ends of the candle for the past two years to provide for their families and keep their jobs going. Employers can allow parents time to get therapy and take their children to therapy. Employers can increase flexibility so that parents can work remotely outside of normal business hours if necessary, in order to reconcile work and family. Additionally, employers can find ways to increase pay to attract and retain workers to allow this flexibility. Given the challenges many industries face in recruiting, employees are able to bargain. I think these are reasonable requests from parents that can lead to some helpful changes.
The post Psychologist discusses mental crisis affecting children | Messages first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641630933;}i:8;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:58:"UW researchers say a vaccine against addiction is possible";s:4:"link";s:88:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/uw-researchers-say-a-vaccine-against-addiction-is-possible/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Samuel Tuck";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sat, 08 Jan 2022 04:40:27 +0000";s:8:"category";s:9:"Addiction";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9940";s:11:"description";s:1481:"
Experts believe that a vaccine could change the way we fight the opioid epidemic. SEATTLE – What if there was a vaccine that prevented addiction, just like the flu? Researchers at the University of Washington are investigating this possibility. Addiction is seen as a disease by medical professionals everywhere. Promising new research should now go […]
The post UW researchers say a vaccine against addiction is possible first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:4530:"Experts believe that a vaccine could change the way we fight the opioid epidemic.
SEATTLE – What if there was a vaccine that prevented addiction, just like the flu? Researchers at the University of Washington are investigating this possibility.
Addiction is seen as a disease by medical professionals everywhere. Promising new research should now go one step further.
In 2020 there were 70,000 overdose deaths in America, the vast majority of them from opioids. In Washington state alone, there were more than 1,800 deaths. That is 33% more than in the previous year. In Seattle, almost ten times as much fentanyl was seized in 2021 compared to 2020.
“If we are to treat addiction like any other disease, we should treat it like any other disease,” said Marco Pravetoni, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington.
Pravetoni is part of a project aimed at developing a vaccine to stop the addiction.
?Patients will develop antibodies that are selective for the target drug. For example, we can immunize against fentanyl, ?says Pravetoni.
The vaccine would effectively prevent the drug from getting into the brain.
The ability to immunize against opioids like we do against COVID-19 would lead to fewer accidental overdoses, especially given the explosion of deadly fentanyl pills masquerading as oxycontin on the streets.
“Something like a vaccine would provide an expanded safety net,” said Pravetoni.
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John Stephens is the former CEO of the groundbreaking Didgwalic Wellness Center on the Swinomish Indian Reservation.
Since opening in 2017, the center has more than doubled its capacity to 500 patients, which is still not meeting the needs of the community.
According to Stephens, many people find it difficult to get treatment.
Many more simply refuse to leave, so a vaccine could be a game changer.
“A vaccine could fill a huge niche in the public health epidemic and would be a very, very good thing for a lot of people,” said Stephens. “My thumbs are crossed.”
UW is now partnering with New York’s Columbia University on clinical trials in the hopes that an opioid vaccine like the COVID-19 vaccine could be accelerated.
However, a vaccine is not a quick fix.
Even if it’s fast-tracked, it would likely take at least 5 years to get to market.
Still, Pravetoni is hopeful.
“Ten years ago I never thought I would take part in a clinical trial,” said Pravetoni. “If that is possible, anything is possible.”
The post UW researchers say a vaccine against addiction is possible first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1481:"Experts believe that a vaccine could change the way we fight the opioid epidemic. SEATTLE – What if there was a vaccine that prevented addiction, just like the flu? Researchers at the University of Washington are investigating this possibility. Addiction is seen as a disease by medical professionals everywhere. Promising new research should now go […]
The post UW researchers say a vaccine against addiction is possible first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:4530:"Experts believe that a vaccine could change the way we fight the opioid epidemic.
SEATTLE – What if there was a vaccine that prevented addiction, just like the flu? Researchers at the University of Washington are investigating this possibility.
Addiction is seen as a disease by medical professionals everywhere. Promising new research should now go one step further.
In 2020 there were 70,000 overdose deaths in America, the vast majority of them from opioids. In Washington state alone, there were more than 1,800 deaths. That is 33% more than in the previous year. In Seattle, almost ten times as much fentanyl was seized in 2021 compared to 2020.
“If we are to treat addiction like any other disease, we should treat it like any other disease,” said Marco Pravetoni, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington.
Pravetoni is part of a project aimed at developing a vaccine to stop the addiction.
?Patients will develop antibodies that are selective for the target drug. For example, we can immunize against fentanyl, ?says Pravetoni.
The vaccine would effectively prevent the drug from getting into the brain.
The ability to immunize against opioids like we do against COVID-19 would lead to fewer accidental overdoses, especially given the explosion of deadly fentanyl pills masquerading as oxycontin on the streets.
“Something like a vaccine would provide an expanded safety net,” said Pravetoni.
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John Stephens is the former CEO of the groundbreaking Didgwalic Wellness Center on the Swinomish Indian Reservation.
Since opening in 2017, the center has more than doubled its capacity to 500 patients, which is still not meeting the needs of the community.
According to Stephens, many people find it difficult to get treatment.
Many more simply refuse to leave, so a vaccine could be a game changer.
“A vaccine could fill a huge niche in the public health epidemic and would be a very, very good thing for a lot of people,” said Stephens. “My thumbs are crossed.”
UW is now partnering with New York’s Columbia University on clinical trials in the hopes that an opioid vaccine like the COVID-19 vaccine could be accelerated.
However, a vaccine is not a quick fix.
Even if it’s fast-tracked, it would likely take at least 5 years to get to market.
Still, Pravetoni is hopeful.
“Ten years ago I never thought I would take part in a clinical trial,” said Pravetoni. “If that is possible, anything is possible.”
The post UW researchers say a vaccine against addiction is possible first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1641616827;}i:9;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:65:"Study finds a sharp drop in opioid scripts among most specialties";s:4:"link";s:95:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/study-finds-a-sharp-drop-in-opioid-scripts-among-most-specialties/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:12:"Carla Fowler";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Sat, 08 Jan 2022 00:25:42 +0000";s:8:"category";s:13:"Opioid Crisis";s:4:"guid";s:36:"https://addictionnewsnow.com/?p=9937";s:11:"description";s:1283:"
The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in retail pharmacies in the United States has declined 21% in recent years as attempts have been made to reduce unnecessary pain reliever use, but the rate of decline has varied widely by patient type and species of the doctor, according to a study. In a brief report published […]
The post Study finds a sharp drop in opioid scripts among most specialties first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:9280:"
The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in retail pharmacies in the United States has declined 21% in recent years as attempts have been made to reduce unnecessary pain reliever use, but the rate of decline has varied widely by patient type and species of the doctor, according to a study.
In a brief report published December 28 by the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers with the nonprofit RAND Corp reported an analysis of opioid prescriptions for two periods, 2008?2009 and 2017?2018.
Dr. Bradley Stone
The researchers tried to rate total opioid use rather than just tracking the number of pills dispensed. Therefore, they used the daily requirement and total daily dose to calculate morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per capita for opioid prescriptions, write Bradley D. Stein, MD, PhD, MPH, the study’s lead author and senior medical researcher at RAND Corp, and its co-authors in their work.
For the study, the researchers used data from the consulting firm IQVIA, which they claim to cover around 90% of US prescriptions. Total opioid volume per capita based on prescriptions redeemed at retail pharmacies decreased from 951.4 million
(In 2020, IQVIA separately said that prescription opioid use per adult in this country rose from an average of 16 pills, or 134 MME, in 1992 to a high of about 55 pills per person, or 790 MME, in 2011. By 2019 the Opioid use per adult had decreased to 29 tablets and 366 MME per capita.)
The RAND report found significant differences in opioid volumes across insurance types, including a 41.5% decrease (636.5 MME to 372.6 MME) for those covered by commercial health insurance. This exceeded the 27.7% decrease seen in Medicaid members (646.8 MME to 467.7 MME). The decrease was smaller (17.5%; 2780.2 MME to 2294.2 MME) for those on Medicare who used the most opioids as the group.
The causes of the decline are easy to guess, although definitive conclusions are impossible, Stein told Medscape Medical News.
Considerable work has been done in recent years to change the mindset of doctors, researchers, and lawmakers about opioid prescribing. The aggressive promotion of prescription pain relievers, particularly OxyContin from Purdue Pharma, in the 1990s is often cited as the trigger for the national opioid crisis.
In response, states created databases known as prescription drug surveillance programs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines in 2016 aimed at reducing the unnecessary use of opioids. The guidelines identified how other medicines could treat chronic pain without increasing the risk of addiction. The Choosing Wisely campaign, run by a foundation of the American Board of Internal Medicine, also offered recommendations on how to limit opioid use. And insurers have limited access to opioids due to the prior approval process. As a result, based on their own experience and research interests, researchers will make their own guesses about the causes of the decline in opioid prescriptions, Stein said.
“It works almost like a Rorschach test,” he said.
Stein’s group also looked at trends in medical specialties. They found the greatest reduction between 2008?2009 and 2017?2018 among emergency doctors (70.5% decrease from 99,254.5 MME to 29,234.3 MME) and psychiatrists (67.2% decrease from 50,464.3 MME to 16,533.0 MME) ) and oncologists (59.5% decrease from 51,731.2 MME.). 20,941.4).
In terms of surgeons, the RAND researchers found a decrease of 49.3% from 220,764.6 to 111,904.4. For dentists, they found a decrease of 41.3% from 22,345.3 to 13,126.1.
Among pain specialists, they found a decrease of 15.4% from 1,020,808.4 MME to 863,140.7 MME.
Among adult primary care clinicians, Stein and his colleagues found a 40% decrease from 651,489.4 MME in 2008?2009 to 390,841.0 MME in 2017?2018.
However, one of the groups tracked in the study increased the volume of opioid prescriptions issued: Advanced practice providers that included scripts for the drugs increased 22.7% from 112,873.9 MME to 138,459.3 MME.
Stein said he suspects this increase reflects a shift in the nature of primary care practice, with nurses and medical assistants taking a more active role in treating patients. Some of the decline seen among primary care doctors treating adults may reflect a shift in how medical staff at a practice issue opioid prescriptions.
Still, the trends generally seen by Stein and co-authors are encouraging, even if further study of these patterns is needed, he said.
“This is one of those papers that I think raises as many questions as it offers answers,” he said.
Nobody takes less opioids. I can safely say that. You only get them from other sources.
Maya Hambright, MD, a family doctor in New York’s Hudson Valley who was primarily addictive in response to the opioid overdose crisis, observed that the decrease in the total amount of prescription pain medication prescribed does not necessarily translate into a decrease in opioid use
“Nobody is taking less opioids,” Hambright told Medscape Medical News. “It’s easy to say. You only get it from other sources.”
CDC data supports Hambright’s view.
An estimated 100,306 people in the US died of drug overdoses in the 12 months ended April 2021, a 28.5% increase from the 78,056 deaths for the same period last year, according to the CDC.
Hambright said more doctors need to be involved in prescribing drug-assisted treatment (MAT).
The federal government last year relaxed restrictions on a requirement known as an X-Waiver. Certain clinicians have been exempted from training requirements, as explained on the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service (SAMHSA) website.
(SAMHSA says laws are needed to abolish the waiver. By December 30, 2021, more than half of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives were listed as sponsors of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act (HR 1384), which concluded X waiver. The bill is backed by 187 Democrats and 43 Republicans.)
Too many doctors right now are shy of offering MAT, Hambright said.
“People are still scared of it,” she said. “People don’t want to deal with addicts.”
But Hambright said the initial time is well worth investing in having the necessary conversations with patients about MAT.
“After that, it’s so easy. People feel better. They are healthier. It’s amazing,” she said. “You change life.”
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Stein and co-authors reported no relevant financial relationships.
Anna Intern Med. Published online December 28, 2021. Summary
Kerry Dooley Young is a freelance journalist based in Washington, DC. She is the key topic leader on patient safety issues for the Association of Health Journalists. Young previously covered health policy and federal budget for the Congressional quarterly / CQ call and the pharmaceutical industry and food and drug administration for Bloomberg. Follow her on Twitter at @kdooleyyoung.
For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The post Study finds a sharp drop in opioid scripts among most specialties first appeared on Addiction News Now.";}s:7:"summary";s:1283:"The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in retail pharmacies in the United States has declined 21% in recent years as attempts have been made to reduce unnecessary pain reliever use, but the rate of decline has varied widely by patient type and species of the doctor, according to a study. In a brief report published […]
The post Study finds a sharp drop in opioid scripts among most specialties first appeared on Addiction News Now.";s:12:"atom_content";s:9280:"
The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in retail pharmacies in the United States has declined 21% in recent years as attempts have been made to reduce unnecessary pain reliever use, but the rate of decline has varied widely by patient type and species of the doctor, according to a study.
In a brief report published December 28 by the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers with the nonprofit RAND Corp reported an analysis of opioid prescriptions for two periods, 2008?2009 and 2017?2018.
Dr. Bradley Stone
The researchers tried to rate total opioid use rather than just tracking the number of pills dispensed. Therefore, they used the daily requirement and total daily dose to calculate morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per capita for opioid prescriptions, write Bradley D. Stein, MD, PhD, MPH, the study’s lead author and senior medical researcher at RAND Corp, and its co-authors in their work.
For the study, the researchers used data from the consulting firm IQVIA, which they claim to cover around 90% of US prescriptions. Total opioid volume per capita based on prescriptions redeemed at retail pharmacies decreased from 951.4 million
(In 2020, IQVIA separately said that prescription opioid use per adult in this country rose from an average of 16 pills, or 134 MME, in 1992 to a high of about 55 pills per person, or 790 MME, in 2011. By 2019 the Opioid use per adult had decreased to 29 tablets and 366 MME per capita.)
The RAND report found significant differences in opioid volumes across insurance types, including a 41.5% decrease (636.5 MME to 372.6 MME) for those covered by commercial health insurance. This exceeded the 27.7% decrease seen in Medicaid members (646.8 MME to 467.7 MME). The decrease was smaller (17.5%; 2780.2 MME to 2294.2 MME) for those on Medicare who used the most opioids as the group.
The causes of the decline are easy to guess, although definitive conclusions are impossible, Stein told Medscape Medical News.
Considerable work has been done in recent years to change the mindset of doctors, researchers, and lawmakers about opioid prescribing. The aggressive promotion of prescription pain relievers, particularly OxyContin from Purdue Pharma, in the 1990s is often cited as the trigger for the national opioid crisis.
In response, states created databases known as prescription drug surveillance programs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines in 2016 aimed at reducing the unnecessary use of opioids. The guidelines identified how other medicines could treat chronic pain without increasing the risk of addiction. The Choosing Wisely campaign, run by a foundation of the American Board of Internal Medicine, also offered recommendations on how to limit opioid use. And insurers have limited access to opioids due to the prior approval process. As a result, based on their own experience and research interests, researchers will make their own guesses about the causes of the decline in opioid prescriptions, Stein said.
“It works almost like a Rorschach test,” he said.
Stein’s group also looked at trends in medical specialties. They found the greatest reduction between 2008?2009 and 2017?2018 among emergency doctors (70.5% decrease from 99,254.5 MME to 29,234.3 MME) and psychiatrists (67.2% decrease from 50,464.3 MME to 16,533.0 MME) ) and oncologists (59.5% decrease from 51,731.2 MME.). 20,941.4).
In terms of surgeons, the RAND researchers found a decrease of 49.3% from 220,764.6 to 111,904.4. For dentists, they found a decrease of 41.3% from 22,345.3 to 13,126.1.
Among pain specialists, they found a decrease of 15.4% from 1,020,808.4 MME to 863,140.7 MME.
Among adult primary care clinicians, Stein and his colleagues found a 40% decrease from 651,489.4 MME in 2008?2009 to 390,841.0 MME in 2017?2018.
However, one of the groups tracked in the study increased the volume of opioid prescriptions issued: Advanced practice providers that included scripts for the drugs increased 22.7% from 112,873.9 MME to 138,459.3 MME.
Stein said he suspects this increase reflects a shift in the nature of primary care practice, with nurses and medical assistants taking a more active role in treating patients. Some of the decline seen among primary care doctors treating adults may reflect a shift in how medical staff at a practice issue opioid prescriptions.
Still, the trends generally seen by Stein and co-authors are encouraging, even if further study of these patterns is needed, he said.
“This is one of those papers that I think raises as many questions as it offers answers,” he said.
Nobody takes less opioids. I can safely say that. You only get them from other sources.
Maya Hambright, MD, a family doctor in New York’s Hudson Valley who was primarily addictive in response to the opioid overdose crisis, observed that the decrease in the total amount of prescription pain medication prescribed does not necessarily translate into a decrease in opioid use
“Nobody is taking less opioids,” Hambright told Medscape Medical News. “It’s easy to say. You only get it from other sources.”
CDC data supports Hambright’s view.
An estimated 100,306 people in the US died of drug overdoses in the 12 months ended April 2021, a 28.5% increase from the 78,056 deaths for the same period last year, according to the CDC.
Hambright said more doctors need to be involved in prescribing drug-assisted treatment (MAT).
The federal government last year relaxed restrictions on a requirement known as an X-Waiver. Certain clinicians have been exempted from training requirements, as explained on the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service (SAMHSA) website.
(SAMHSA says laws are needed to abolish the waiver. By December 30, 2021, more than half of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives were listed as sponsors of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act (HR 1384), which concluded X waiver. The bill is backed by 187 Democrats and 43 Republicans.)
Too many doctors right now are shy of offering MAT, Hambright said.
“People are still scared of it,” she said. “People don’t want to deal with addicts.”
But Hambright said the initial time is well worth investing in having the necessary conversations with patients about MAT.
“After that, it’s so easy. People feel better. They are healthier. It’s amazing,” she said. “You change life.”
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Stein and co-authors reported no relevant financial relationships.
Anna Intern Med. Published online December 28, 2021. Summary
Kerry Dooley Young is a freelance journalist based in Washington, DC. She is the key topic leader on patient safety issues for the Association of Health Journalists. Young previously covered health policy and federal budget for the Congressional quarterly / CQ call and the pharmaceutical industry and food and drug administration for Bloomberg. Follow her on Twitter at @kdooleyyoung.
For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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