Reducing the Risk of Assault:

It is all but impossible to completely prevent the chance of being a victim of assault regardless of what someone may do to try. There are a few things women can do to reduce their risk as much as possible. 

A couple of important things that women should always keep in mind when in unfamiliar situations:

• Do not ever leave drinks unattended for any amount of time or leave it for someone else to watch. 
• Do not accept a drink from someone unless it is in a sealed un open container.
• When going to a social event, go in a group: arrive together, lookout for one another, stay with each other and leave together.
• Always be aware of your surroundings.
• Don't allow yourself to be isolated with someone you don't know or trust.
• Think about the level of intimacy you want in a relationship, and clearly state your limits whether it be a friend, significant other or stranger.

Remember, if a woman is assaulted, it is NEVER her fault!!

If something does happen:

- Preserve evidence of the attack - don't bathe or brush your teeth. Write down     all the details you can recall about the attack & the attacker.

- Contact the authorities immediately and get medical attention. Even with no physical injuries, it is important to determine the risks of STDs and pregnancy.

Treatment or Jail for addicts...?

When incarcerating a drug adict the decision to place them into prison or into a mandated drug treatment program is a decision that could drastically effect the addicts future. I personally believe that it should not be solely about punishment for a drug addict if their crime was a drug related crime. Of course, in cases of serious violent crimes (rape, murder, assault, etc) criminals should serve their time in prison. But for non-violent offenders, a drug treatment program should be the first place they should be sent. It is there in which a drug addict can hopefully learn the necessary skills to live a successful, drug free life inside and outside prison. After hopefully overcoming their addiction, these addicts can then learn the proper coping skills, social skills, and job/life skills to build a healthy life after prison to hopefully never return. The percentage of prisoners that return to prison multiple times in their lives is staggering as is the number of prisoners with drug and alcohol dependencies. I believe these numbers are so high is because society focusses on punishment rather than rehabilitation. There are certainly situation where rehabilitaion shouldnt or cant be a possibility but there definately times when rehab would help. We are constantly hearing about different states constantly building new prisons and bigger prisons because of the tremendous overcrowding in the current prisons. I wish some of those millions of dollars that are being spent on new prisons would be spent on developing a drug treatment program. With the way things are now, with the ever growing prison population, trying to develop a program like that definately couldnt hurt. We can keep on building new jails until there is no more land left to put them, but unitl we try something new and/or different things wont get any better.

My part in removing the stigma of mental illness

The best thing that people can do today and what I am doing as my part is exactly what this class is doing now, and thats speaking openly about the issue, sharing and exchanging information and most importantly educating those who dont know. Like almost everything else, the majority of the problem is the lack of knowlege/education that the general public has about any particular issue and the subject of mental illness is no different. When most people think of mental illness they get the picture of someone is severely mental ill, having to be put into a straight jacket and placed in a padded room because they are speaking to people who dont exist. That is not a fair or accurate depiction of mental illness. Mental illness is an issue that almost every person will deal with in their lives whether it be directly with themselves or with someone on their immediate family. A more accurate depiction of mental illness today would be someone whos is dealing with depression. Anyone would be hard pressed to find someone who has not been depressed at some point in their lives. But the majority of those people probably wouldnt consider depression a mental illness. Most people arent as fortunate as I am to have the knowledge of many health issues but I do my part to inform as many as I can about the truths about mental illness, the most prevalent types of mental illnesses, what signs to look out for, and where someone can go for support or more information for themselves or their loved ones. As it always has been, knowledge is power and with that power we treat others the way we too would like to be treated, this world would be such a better place to live in.

World Wide Women's Health: Heart Disease, Cultural Differences, & Diets

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States, accounting for more deaths than stroke, lung cancer, and breast cancer. Within the United States, heart disease prevalence is highest among black women, followed by Mexican-American and Caucasian women. Internationally, coronary events among women occur most often in the United Kingdom and least often in Spain and China. The impact of diet on heart health is well established, with the American Heart Association recommending a heart-healthy diet focused on limiting foods high in saturated fats and cholesterol and emphasizing whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, a woman's cultural beliefs, traditions, and ethnic preferences exert a strong influence on her diet. In addition, availability, cost, and convenience, as well as role responsibilities, time constraints, and dietary knowledge, influence food selection and preparation. Some of the adopted practices may be healthful, such as reducing dietary saturated fats. Other adopted practices may not promote a healthy diet, such as increasing consumption of soft-drink beverages and fast food. The fusion of traditional eating habits with Western-style eating habits requires an individualized approach that assesses the dietary practices, language proficiency, level of nutrition knowledge, food availability and accessibility, and the individual's level of affiliation with their ethnicity.

References

American Heart Association. "Women and cardiovascular diseases" http://www.americanheart.org/

Levi F, Lucchini F, Negri E, La Vecchia C. "Trends in mortality from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in Europe and other areas of the world." Heart. 2002;88:119-124. http://www.heartjnl.com/

Lenfant C. Can. "We prevent cardiovascular diseases in low- and middle-income countries?" Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2001;79:980-982. http://www.who.org/.

Making a helthy TWU

TWU, like most schools is a place that can have great potential to educate people on many different issues but the most beneficial can be health. Personal health is important to every type of person, in any type of situation and if it is not, it definitely should be. College campuses should take a more active role in the promotion of disease prevention of their students. There are a few relatively simple ideas for TWU to do that. A wellness symposium would be extremely helpful in advertising all the services that TWU has to offer and local offices or companies could attend to provide information and provide free services. Symposiums, forums, and seminars are a very successful in educating. Education is one of the most important aspects in disease prevention. A lot of people don't know about what can be done to keep themselves healthy, the consequences of unhealthy lifestyles and even what services are offered nearby. This is exactly would this type of thing could accomplish. Other that, advertising could be extremely effective. Possibly making a weekly newsletter that could be distributed with the school newspaper providing suggestions on nutrition, exercise, family life, stopping unhealthy habits, etc. No one is responsible for a students help more than the students themselves and I believe these ideas will promote the importance of patient education and accountability.

How to help your friend with a possible eating disorder... whether they want it or not.

Eating disorders are very complicated issues that many times combined emotional, psychological, as with the more obvious physical effects that make it very hard to do deal with for not only the one suffering from the disorder but the family and loved ones of that person. Due to the nature of the disorder, it is hidden from most people so by the time anyone realizes what is happening, the disorder is usually so far progressed it is hard to recover. For anyone who might suspect that someone they care about might be suffering from any sort of an eating disorder there are a few things that they need to keep in mind. 

- First thing that needs to be done is research. If someone suspects anyone else of an eating disorder that should become very informed on all aspects of the disorder. In order to become more certain of things, it is very important to understand and be able to recognize all the signs and symptoms to keep a close eye on the progression on the disorder.

- When someone is finally able to confront their friend about there concerns it is essential to be be delicate about how to voice the concerns. It is important to ensure that the person is reassured that they are loved and that people are concerned about their well being. When speaking it is important for people to use "I" not "you". For example: "I'm worried" or "I am concerned" but stay away from remarks like "you aren't eating enough" "you are getting to skinny" following the "I" statements it is good to follow up with factual information about side effects or damages in order to keep the person from brushing it off as insignificant. 

-Next, tell your friend that you will help them find someone they trust and feel safe talking to to get help and support. Also reiterate that you will be supportive and they can be confident that you will remain by their side.

-If the friend continues to deny the fact of the problem existing or if the refuse help, inform them that because you are very concerned, you are not going to back down and you will continue to find help. 

-The very last thing that can be done is to contact a health professional for assistance in getting treatment.

Many peoples lives have been saved by concerned loved ones who are in tuned to their observations and have the will to do what is necessary to insure the health and well being of their loved ones.  

My Mother and Menopause

  

Three Generations: My mother, my grandmother, and me

I spoke to my mother about menopause and what things were like for her. My mothers experience going through menopause was a little different then the average woman. My mother had a very difficult delivery of me (sorry mom!). The most major issue my mother had after delivering me was a recessed bladder. My mother had to have a bladder sling after I was born. She continued to have problems with her recessed bladder continuously dropping in spite of the sling. When she was 47 she was told she would have to have the problem surgically corrected and that would include a full hysterectomy. Having a full hysterectomy at 47 threw my mother into full menopause. This was a lot more difficult for my mother then other woman because there was no gradual progression for her or her body. Her and her doctor spoke and later decided that my mother would have hormone replacement therapy to help treat the unpleasant side effects of menopause. My mother followed the doctors orders with the hormones but after a few months decided to stop because the good did not out weigh the bad. The hormone therapy was supposed to help with night sweats and bad dreams but it did not help my mother at all. In fact she didnt get more than a few hours of sleep a night. Shortly after using the hormones my mother noticed additional side effects such as hair loss, dry skin, and weight gain. During the time my mother was taking these hormones was there were, and still are, concerns being voiced by some doctors about the usage of these hormones significantly increasing the development of breast cancer. My mother and I both have extremely bad family histories of cancer in general but mostly breast cancer. My grandmother (my moms mom) just passed away in november from breast cancer. My mothers father passed away in 2006 from colon cancer and his mother (my mothers grandmother) also passed away from breast cancer. So with the prevalence of cancer in our family my mother chose to stop the hormone therapy. Though it was a difficult process (for all of us) my mother went through menopause without the use of any hormones and is happy with her choice to do so today. Luckily menopause is not something I have to be too terribly concerned about any time in the near future so hopefully doctors will come to the conclusion about hormone replacement therapy because as bad as my mothers family history is with cancer, mine is worse because my

fathers mother also had breast cancer, though she survived it. So unless there is concrete evidence proving no link between the usage of hormones and cancer I will make the same choice as my mother not to take part in the replacement therapy. 

Me and Nan(R.I.P)

summer '07

I miss you and love you so much. You still are and always will be my hero

STDs

STDs tend to have a very harsh stigma attached to them and those who may have any one of them. Like most other issues, especially health and medical related issues, a lot of the time people tend to develop these negative connotations because of ignorance or a lack of knowledge.  A lack of responsible sexual behavior can most certainly lead to the development of STDs but many people don’t take into consideration, the number of other ways that can lead to this same result. It is very unfortunate that those who may have developed an STD due to a blood transfusion, unknowing come into contact with infected blood or bodily fluid, a medical worker at a hospital for example, or been transferred an STD by their mother during the birth process. Another type of person who may develop an STD that people may not consider are those who are committed and monogamous to their partner, practice safe sexual practices and uphold high values but, unknowingly to them, their partners have been unfaithful and contracted an STD and infected their partner because they were not honest. This situation is the hardest to deal with. If people would encourage their friends or loved ones to be fully informed about the status of their health. If I were to ever be in that situation and had someone close to me tell me that they thought it was a possibility that they could have an STD I would infatic about encouraging them to get tested. I would tell them some of the many problems that they could be causing if they didn’t. I would tell my friend that, by prolonging getting tested they could very possibly be causing significant and possibly irreversible damage to their body. Many STDs, if left untreated, can cause many side effects and a lot are irreversible and/or can be very serious like infertility or cervical cancer.  If a person is not certain that they do not have an STD they could very possibly be responsible for the spreading of that STD. Honesty is extremely important to me and that includes honesty to your partner about the health risks they might have as well as honesty to themselves by having a complete understanding about their bodies. 

My future children

My personal choices and thoughts about my future family and the children I may or may not have most likely differ from the majority of other women. I am 100% certain I want to have children in the future. My personal wish is, when the time is right, to have 2 children. Now the way things may different to most is that I know for a fact neither of these children will be birthed by me and if things follow my wishes only one of my 2 hopeful children will actually be of blood relation to me. I guess I should explain: I am a lesbian and I plan to have children with my partner of 3 years no when we decide the time is right for us. Now I personally do not want to give birth to children. The pregnancy process is something I can do without if given the option. Now this works out quite well with my girlfriend. She absolutely and without any doubt or questions wants kids and wants to be pregnant them. Now obviously, our children can not, biologically, be BOTH of ours. Our personal plans are for her to give birth to our first child which will biologically be hers. Now the subject of the father is still up in the air. She has a particular donor that she wants to use. I do not know this man and am not particularly comfortable with him being used. I would prefer to use an anonymous donor. Recently my girlfriend brought up the idea of using my brother as a donor for our first child which I havent come to a decision about. As far as our second child, my girlfriend wants to birth our child but with the use of my egg. I am open to this because it would of course allow me to have a biological son or daughter but I dont find it to be a necessity. Both me and my girlfriend will have parental rights of any and all of our children. Whether or not I have a biological connection to my future children will in no way, shape or form have ANY effect on my love and connection to my children. I believe that there are many other and more important aspects other than biology to make a strong family and parent. I am completely confident in mine and my girlfriends ability to be an excellent parent and I have the utmost confidence that we will build a fantastic family regardless of the fact of whether or not it may be the typical or "normal" families that people are used to. 

Cultural Contrception

The issue of contrception varies emmensly over the different cultural and or religious beliefs. On side of the issue is the hispanic/catholic culture and their belief against all forms of contraception. I have a coworker who is currently pregnant with her second child. In casual conversation about the upcoming birth of her child I asked her, how many more children she wanted. She responded by saying "I only want 2 but its not up to me." I asked her what she meant and she explained that "Mexicans dont use condoms." She continued to explain that the Mexican culture doesnt believe that people should do anything to control or prevent pregnancy because it is up to Gods plan whether a woman gets pregnant or not. I also asked my coworker about use of condoms as a form of protection from STDs and she simply answered "no condoms!!" My families views are ass apposing as can be. From the time I was a teenager I was always encouraged to not have sex until I was able to make a mature/adult decision about it but no matter when I do have sex to BE SAFE!!! Safety was taught to me and my brother more than abstinence. When my brother got his first serious girlfriend in highschool, my dad took him to get condoms and my mother took me to get birth control when I was 15 and had my first serious boyfriend. Contraception was an issue of birth control and personal health and saftey in my family. I think the openness and comftability in combination of education and knowledge of the subject of birth control and profalactics is the reason no in my immidiate or extended family ever had any teenage pregnancy or even pregnancy scares.

We need to abstain from teaching abstinence

In a perfect world we would never have to worry about what our children do when we are not around, there would be no temptations, and we would be confident that our children will always make the right decision in various situations. Unfortunately as great as that may sound it is truly a fairy tale. In the real world, kids are bombarded by sexual content and are confronted with situations in which sexual contact can occur many many times more than most parents know or would ever want to know about. Times are different now then in they were in the past. Sex is everywhere: TV, movies, songs, magazines, and sexy clothing is marketed to younger and younger kids every day. This is why schools need to take a realistic approach to teaching sex ed. Children need to be provided with correct and complete information to provide a true understanding of sex, the repercussions, consequences, and effects of choices. Schools need to provide use as many approaches as possible to teach sex ed so kids will be able to make a educated decision in the inevitable situations they will encounter. To teach only abstinence is more harmful than teaching nothing. To say "just dont do it until you are married" provides nothing substantial for children to grasp on to. The abstinence-only approach is idealistic in thinking children will listen to that suggestion without any pertinent information to go along with it. As nice as an idea as that may be, it is incredibly ignorant, and does more harm than good. By strictly teaching abstinence, children have no knowledge of anything pertaining to sex and when in a situation involving sex they will have nothing to base their decision on except an idea that a teacher and/or parent may have told them. Also, it is in an adolescents nature to question, rebel or defy suggetions of their superiors which can lead to severe consequences. A prime example of that is Sara Palin and her youngest daughter. Sara Palin is a strict believer in abstinence and only abstinence to the point where she looks down on those who teach anything else. As most now know her youngest daughter just had a baby at the age of 16. Even more recently, Palin's daughter went on TV to express her feelings about how teaching abstinence doesn't work and that it should not be taught. Her unfortunate situation is proof about how teaching only abstinence is not a logical option for educating adolescents on the subject of sex. As much as I may not agree with the teaching of abstinence, I truly believe we should provide our children with ALL information, including that of abstinence and hope with a true understanding that with proper up bringing they will make smart decisions.

Adolescent Healthy Behaviors

Adolescence is a very delicate time. It is a time for everyone in which things are changing, growing, maturing and this causes a lot of confusion and questions. It is because of this confusion and these questions that make adolescents a very crucial time for teaching and encouraging healthy behaviors. The ignorance and lack of proper knowledge is what causes many issues for maturing children in understanding what is happening to them,what is best for them now and in the future as well as the negative effects of poor choices. The majority of the issues that these kids deal with are based around their self esteem and self worth and this is what has be at the foremost of your plan for talking to adolescents. People have to be extremely careful when address bad, unhealthy, or maybe even just different thoughts, ideas, behaviors, etc then theirs that they dont misunderstand any guidance or suggestions as insults or put downs because adolescents are full of self doubt anyway. My personal thought is that the best idea for parents is that they need to make sure their kids are comfortable. Both parents and kids alike dread that important sit down "talk" because it is so awkward and informal. If parents make sure the lines of communication are left open and you talk freely about yourselves and your children that way if when something comes up they would likely just casually ask you and your initial intent is accomplished without any of that awkwardness for either side. The final point that parents should keep in mind is they really need to keep things on their level or they wont be interested let alone care. If parents talk about the effects of doing or not doing something will have in a few years or even months but their kids cant think past Friday night and who they are gonna go to the school dance with, its going to be near impossible them to look that far ahead to care about what you are discussing. Also along those lines, dont talk over their heads, make sure they understand you. Dont get into too many InfoPath topics or discuss a lot of minor details of things that they are just know beginning to understand within themselves or might not necessarily pertain to them. If they dont understand or dont care about what is being talked about they will loose interest very quickly and eventually tune it all out. So if parents can remember to keep conversations casual and light about things their kids really care about it will significantly help with those "difficult" conversations that have to be had or best of all they are so comfortable with talking to their parents and trust them that whenever issues arise in their lives that they bring them to the attention of their parents by asking questions they have or express interest in further information. Now that seems a little too good to be true but you never know...

Healthcare: A Priveledged Right

I had a really difficult time answering the question of whether I thought healthcare as a right or a privelege. The reason it was so difficult for me was because I didnt see it as either one, in fact I saw it as both. It is the right of every living being to be the best he/she/it can be in every possible. Every person has the right to be as healthy as they can be and be able to use every available resource in order to obtain the highest level of health as they can. No one person has the right to "play god." No one has the right to directly effect, positively or negatively, the well being of another. This is my basis on why I think healthcare is a right. Noone or no group of people have the right to directly effect another if it doesnt effect them in return, whether that be providing or witholding anything from one person over another. It should be equally available to everyone regardless of race, creed, gender, age, socio-economic class, etc. No outside variable should effect the bottom line that everyone has an equal right to be as healthy as they want or choose.
Now looking at Heath care along the lines of a privilege is done on a broader level. No one has the right to withhold or offer any resource that could lead to a persons, health, happiness, success and over all well being, Other themselves. Now that being said it is an absolute privilege to have the options. Many people within this country and many countries in general don't have the same resources, aid, support, information or funding that we as Americans, some more then others, and even within this country are privileged to a higher level of of care and health care then others are by no fault of their own. We could could most definitely have the right to the plethora of medical resources the Americans have because no one is preventing them from being able to use it but many countries dont have has much available period witch makes us so privileged. Though some countries have the ability to access the same resources the U.S does but due to a lack of financs are not privileged to have them readily available. We must not take advantage of our great right to be the best we can be because that it not something that everyone is as priveleged to.

Blog #1

After the different conversations that I had with my mother, 55, and my younger cousin, 21, it was quite surprising to find out that all three of us were most concerned about our physical health over any other major health concern. The similarities that my mother, my cousin and myself shared end with just that, the subject matter or said concern, and that is all. It became quite interesting to see and hear and finally become to understand how significantly different each persons views, thoughts, opinions, and goals were very different from either of the other two of us. I never thought that three different women, spanning across three different generations would have such completely separate and unique thought process to work through their concerns but really enjoyed being able to see that fact occur. My younger cousin explains to me how her weight  and physical health is not only the most import health concern she has but that it is pretty much the only concern she has about health at all. The fact that she is a young female attempting to be a part of the popular scene and be seen a certain by her peers has created the appearance that she cares about her physical well being by eating properly and exercising but in fact that is not the case at all. In fact it the urge for social acceptance that has driven her to be so conscious of her physical fitness and health but even that being driven by a concern of social and emotional health that drives that and not issues of personal well being at all.   Both me and my mothers views were somewhat similar they differed in the fact I strive for physical health and well being to insure a long healthy life, my mother is driven by the fact of, due to her aging she is now seeing the negative effects of poor physical health in the past has had on her has caused her to change her behavior in an attempt to rectify her unhealthy ways of the past.