Advocacy Project: Online Peer Environmental Health Learning Activity

Name That Phobia
Purpose: To educate people on the different types of phobias documented.

But first, some information on the subject.

• A Phobia is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. (Wikipedia.com)
  
• Phobias are the most common mental disorder in the U.S. (About.com)
• 18 million U.S. citizens have mental disorders. (MentalHealth.com)
• A quote from Wikipedia - "Phobias are more often that not linked to the amygdala, an area of the brain located behind the pituitary gland in the limbic system. The amygdala secretes hormones that control fear and aggression."

Phobias can be treated and cured thankfully. This is usually accomplished by different types of therapy: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Visual Therapy, and the Emotional Freedom Technique.

But now, on to the game. There are two sections. Section 1, I will list 10 phobia names, and you have to tell me what it is a fear of. Section 2, I will list 10 fears, and you have to tell me what phobia it is. The phobias from section 1 don't carry into section 2. Now you can either guess the answers, or go here to see the list of phobias, and use it to help you out. Let the games begin!

SECTION 1

1. Pteromerhanophobia - The fear of ________
   
2. Tachophobia - The fear of _______
   
3. Wiccaphobia - The fear of _______
   
4. Autophobia - The fear of _______
   
5. Bathmophobia - The fear of _______
   
6. Glossophobia - The fear of ________
   
7. Chronomentrophobia - The fear of ________
   
8. Cacophobia - The fear of ________
   
9. Leukophobia - The fear of ________
10. Mysophobia - The fear of ________

SECTION 2

1. ____________ - The fear of cooking
2. ____________ - The fear of birds
   
3. ____________ - The fear of houses
   
4. ____________ - The fear of needles or pointed objects
   
5. ____________ - The fear of clowns
   
6. ____________ - The fear of cats
   
7. ____________ - The fear of the sun
   
8. ____________ - The fear of gaining weight
   
9. ____________ - The fear of strangers or foreigners
   
10. ____________ - The fear of large things
    

Advocacy Project: Letter to a Public Official

(Yes I photo shopped the above photo to make it look like Oberstar is holding a letter)

Steve Anderson
1894 Legendary Lane
Awesomeville, MN 56789
----------------------------------------------------------
April 28, 2009

Congressman James L. Oberstar
Duluth Federal Building
Room 231
Duluth, Minnesota 55802

Dear Congressman Oberstar,

I am writing you today in regards to H.R. Bill 1931, 'The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act', which aims to improve the treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers, and for other purposes.

I feel that 'The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act' would greatly improve society. If juveniles are treated better while in a facility, meaning rehabilitating the juveniles so they are able to go back into society, everyone would benefit. The juveniles would be able to live a normal life, the families of the juveniles would get their kid's back, and the rest of society would gain more members.

Another set of people who would benefit from this Bill being passed would be the employees at the facility. With the increased training they would receive, they would acquire new skills that will help them with jobs throughout their life.

Your support of Bill HR 1931 would help ensure that the juveniles and employees at the mental health facilities would have a better life. So to support these people, I urge you to vote YES on Bill HR 1931: The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act.

Should you need any other information, feel free to contact me at 1-800-AWE-SOME (293-7663). Thank you very much for your time. Have a good day.


Sincerely,

Steven A.

Advocacy Project: Issue Overiview

Introduction
The goal of my program is to ensure better screening for Mental Health and Mental Disorders in Juvenile Facilities. But the bill I am focusing on is set out to improve treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers.

Who’s Affected?
I would say the people affected most are the juveniles and the employees at the juvenile facilities. Both of these sets of people will benefit. The juveniles will be treated better, while the employees will learn a new skill in their increased training. But another set of people who are affected, who may be opposed, are taxpayers. Most of the money put into grants comes from taxpayer’s money. So people may say ‘I don’t know any juveniles in treatment centers, so why should I give them my tax money?’

Consequences?
Well the consequences for the taxpayers would be simply the fact that they lose money. But the families who have juveniles in the treatment center would have only positive consequences. Their son/daughter would be treated better, making everyone happier. Society should theoretically improve because of this too. If the juveniles are treated better, and are able to function normally sooner, they will be able to go back into society with a seamless transition.

Economic Impact?
The economic costs of the issue are simply the taxpayers are paying more for this. While the cost per taxpayer would be minimal, people would still be opposed. People who benefit economically I guess would be the juveniles themselves. If after treatment, they are able to go back into the business world, they should be able to get jobs.

Social Impact?
Kind of along the same lines, the people who benefit socially would be the juveniles and the families themselves. Once they get out of treatment, life should theoretically be better for them.

Barriers?
Taxpayers. Whenever anyone here’s they may have to pay a tax on something new, they are automatically opposed until they find out what it is going towards. People will especially be opposed because of the state of the economy right now. People don’t want to just throw around money anymore unless they directly see the effect of it. But they can be overcome by getting the word out about the bill. Put ads in newspapers, commercials on TV, anything to get people to take notice.

Resources?
Resources that will be needed to address the issue are basically just money. But resources that WILL be affected if the bill goes through would be first and foremost, the employees. The money would go directly to training the employees. But another resource affected would maybe be the devices and tools used to measure Mental Health. By this I mean money may go to a new computer, which has programs on it designed specifically for this purpose.

History of the issue?
This is a section where I searched and searched and found literally nothing on bills like this. So unfortunately, I cannot comment on this section just yet. But I will keep looking into it, and when I do find something, I will put it in this post.

Allies and Opponents?
People who would support this issue would be the various Juvenile Mental Health Facilities. Also, such organizations such as the Minnesota State Advisory Council on Mental Health, as well as Minnesota Mental Health Clinics. Opponents would simply be taxpayers. I don’t see any other people who would oppose, (Any ideas???) mainly because it seems like a good cause. If juveniles are treated and cured or mental disorders, it really benefits everyone.

My Recommendation?
Please vote YES on HR 1931 – The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act!

Advocacy Project: HealthyPeople and THOMAS

Hello everyone. It feels like a really long time since my last post. Been kind of busy with Methods stuff I guess. Anywho. The goal I chose to look into was Focus Area 18: Mental Health and Mental Disorders. I've always taken an interest in Mental Disorders, so I figured this would be a good topic to look at.

GOAL
The goal of this topic is to improve mental health and ensure access to appropriate, quality mental health services.

OBJECTIVE 18-8
Juvenile justice residential facilities that provide mental health screening

BASELINE: 50% in the year 2000

TARGET: 55%

PQC - The Progress Quotient Chart has shown that now 60% of Juvenile Facilities provide mental health screening.

PROGRESS: The Baseline was at 50% in the year 2000. It then moved to 53% in the year 2002. And it is now at 60%, still trending up.

DISPARITIES: According to the disparities charts, the data for this particular section are unavailable. Mainly because the topic is about Juvenile facilities, not race or gender or anything.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES:
Cost is a big one here. They can't screen if they don't have any money. Lack of availability of services is another problem. Odds are, they would have to hire more people to be able to do the screening.

EMERGING ISSUES:
The main issue coming up is co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders and the outcomes resulting from this combination. About 50% of adults who have a mental disorder, will also at some point have a substance abuse problem.

H.R.1931 - Juvenile Crime Reduction Act
•TITLE - To improve the treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers, and for other purposes.
•SPONSOR - Rep Kennedy, Patrick J.
•LATEST MAJOR ACTION: 4/2/2009 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.


Alright so there was a little bit of information I couldn't find because every time I clicked, it would say 'Temporary File Open Error'

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

Hows it hanging everybody? Here are my findings for all of the politicians. (Click names for link's to websites)


El Presidente - Barack Obama - DFL
Couple of ways to contact him...
•You can email him at www.whitehouse.gov
•Or send a letter to...
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500



Governor(Or as Schwarzenegger would say, Gubernator) - Tim Pawlenty - RNC
•Phone - (651) 296-3391
•Address - Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
St Paul, MN 55155


State Senator - Yvonne Prettner - DFL
•(651) 296 -4188
•75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
St Paul, MN 55155


US Senator - Amy Klobuchar - DFL
•(202) 224-3244
•302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510


US House Representative - Jim Oberstar - DFL
•(202) 225-6211
•2365 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20510


St Louis County Commissioner - Dennis Fink - DFL
•(218) 726-2458
•Room 208
100 N the Ave. W
Duluth, MN 55802
Mayor of Duluth - Donnie Ness - DFL
•(218) 730-5230
•Mayor's Office, Room 402
411 W 2st St
Duluth, MN 55802

First post

Hello everybody! My name is Steve Anderson, and I am a super senior here at UMD! After switching majors a couple of times, I have finally settled on Community Health, and am liking it alot. I am writing this blog for Hlth 3305, Environmental Health.
There are 5 different types of posts for this blog...

1. Advocacy Project
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5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The Members of my Web Group are...

1. Shar
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3. Heather
4. Kathy
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