Welcome to
Science a GoGo's
Discussion Forums
Please keep your postings on-topic or they will be moved to a galaxy far, far away.
Your use of this forum indicates your agreement to our terms of use.
So that we remain spam-free, please note that all posts by new users are moderated.


The Forums
General Science Talk        Not-Quite-Science        Climate Change Discussion        Physics Forum        Science Fiction

Who's Online Now
0 members (), 183 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Latest Posts
Top Posters(30 Days)
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
Megastar
OP Offline
Megastar
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
NATURE & NUTURE + PNEUMA-ture--make for a life that is a WIN/WIN game.

Now about AN IMPORTANT RECENT BOOK:

BEING MORTAL--Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande

http://atulgawande.com/book/being-mortal/

From Atul Gawande, a book that has the potential to change medicine – and lives.

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals

1. The suffering this dynamic has produced.

2. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make.

3. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And

4. Families who go along with all of it.


Last edited by Revlgking; 08/05/15 01:16 AM.

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
.
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
Megastar
OP Offline
Megastar
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
OF COURSE I LOVE CREATING NEO-LOGISMS--so do most writers, especially those who happen to be scientists.

Not long ago, I created PNEUMA-therapy--working with one's own mind, pneuma, spirit, or soul.

For me, it replaces "hypnotherapy". Many people fear it as a form of mind-control.

=========================
For new and possibly great ideas, they are necessary.
====================================================

From Atul Gawande, a book that has the potential to change medicine – and lives.

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.

In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practising surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures – in his own practices as well as others’ – as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better. He follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic, and reformers turning nursing homes upside down. He finds people who show us how to have the hard conversations and how to ensure we never sacrifice what people really care about.

Riveting, honest, and humane, The book, Being Mortal, shows that the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life – all the way to the very end.

Last edited by Revlgking; 08/05/15 01:56 AM. Reason: Always helpful

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
Megastar
OP Offline
Megastar
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
PNEUMA-TURE (The spiritually mature and born-again kind of spirit)--the practical value and use of Pneuma-therapy
=================
HOW I USED PNEUMA-Therapy--the spiritual use of hypnotic technique, similar to CONCEPT-therapy and SELF-hypnosis--to prevent a SUICIDE.

Beginning in July, 1966, for over the next twenty seven years I was the senior minister of a large urban church (then 800 families) in Toronto. There was some help from a retired minister and a student minister. I was called there to preach, teach and do the pastoral counselling, which meant I soon came face to face with what the stress of urban living can do to the lives of church families and members who have to commute, week after week to areas all over Toronto and the GTA (greater Toronto area). Some had to fly to cities all over the world.

One day I got an urgent phone call from a distressed business man (Alec), a husband and father of two young children, with a suicide-prone wife (Pat), then under a doctor's care in the Mental Wing of the major hospital near by: Alec opened the conversation by saying, "Rev King--one of your recent your sermons on the healing miracles of Jesus really got my attention ... Would you be willing to visit my very depressed wife? He added, you have my permission to speak with her doctor, who agreed to talk with you."

Right off the doctor told me, "Pat is suicidal. She just made her third and most serious attempt by using an excessive amount of tranquilizing drugs."

THINGS THAT CAME TO LIGHT OF DAY
Talking to the wife and her doctor I was made aware that there were no economic problems. The husband had a good paying job and all the bills were being paid in good time. Over the next while I got to know this family quite well. They were not regular church attenders, but they did give financial support to the church.

Both made it clear to me, "Sorry, but we have no deep interest in being deeply involved in "organized" religion. While we do take our children to the Christmas and Easter events, we have lost interest in most of the old traditions.

THEN IT OCCURRED TO ME TO ASK:
Pat, "What do you hope to accomplish by taking your own life?

Following my use of my four colours--blue, yellow,red & green Pneuma-therapy technique, I paused and waited to hear her response.

Pat responded: "Peace of mind ... something I do not have as long as I keep on living and breathing--I guess I share the emotions of both my parents--mother was, and still is, a worry wart. Father was filled with emotions of fear, anxiety, worry and depression--of both my parents. Nothing helps, including talking to the psychiatrist. "

Pat went on, "Unlike Alec, I have no fear of death. As a matter of fact I think of death as a friend. Lying in the grave without any physical or mental pain ... what a wonderful relief it will be to just lie there and feel and experience nothing."
" Nothing?"

After another pause I asked: "What makes you certain that after you die you will feel and experience nothing?" NOTICE THE INDIRECT SUGGESTION I GAVE PAT. AND TAKE NOTE OF HOW IT WORKED SO WELL!

"Now that you mentioned it and asked", Pat said, "Rev. King I am not certain ... Do you really mean to say that it is possible that we could die and carry our life memories and our feelings with into life after death?" she asked.

I then responded and said, "Without any real evidence, I wouldn't rule it out".

"If that is true", she declared: "My God, that would be HELL! Hell of the worst kind."
============
As I recall, the story that got back to me is this: Pat finally decided to stop trying to take her own life. Needless to say, Alec, her doctor and other therapists at the hospital were relieved.

Does this mean that Pat, Alec and the family lived happily ever after? Only those close to the story will know how it turned out. All I can say at this point is, I hope so. For now, let us assume that "No news is good news."

FLF--ABOUT HELPING DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES BECOME FUNCTIONAL
Meanwhile, you are invited to check out the FLF www.flfcanada.com (founded in 1973) --a registered charity set up by, for and about volunteers willing to help one another and all families with the goal of helping all individuals become fully functioning members of the family of G O D--that which Generates, Organizes & Delivers all that is Graceful, Outstanding & Dynamic.
========

Last edited by Revlgking; 09/01/15 09:31 PM. Reason: Always helpful

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
Megastar
OP Offline
Megastar
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,311
FROM THE NATIONAL POST, SEPT 15, 2015
http://news.nationalpost.com/health/0914-na-suicide
=============================
Canadian psychiatrists fear patients with severe depression could qualify for assisted suicide
Republish Reprint

Sharon Kirkey | September 9, 2015 | Last Updated: Sep 13 4:49 PM ET
More from Sharon Kirkey | @sharon_kirkey
A pedestrian walks past the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa on July 23.
Sean Kilpatrick / Canadian PressA pedestrian walks past the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa on July 23.

Twitter
Google+
Reddit
Email
Typo?
More

After practising for generations to prevent suicide, psychiatrists across Canada could soon be asked to help some people kill themselves — thrusting the profession into what some of its members are calling the untenable role of “suicide enablers.”

In its historic ruling striking down the Criminal Code provisions prohibiting doctors from “aiding or abetting” suicide, the high court granted adult Canadians suffering a “grievous” and “irremediable” condition the right to die a doctor-hastened death.

The ruling is creating deep discomfort in a field of medicine where “cures” are rare, and where many worry there is every possibility severe depression and other mental illnesses could meet the test for assisted suicide, or even euthanasia — death by lethal injection — as set out by the court, as long as the person is competent and can provide free and informed consent.
Related

Help eligible patients end lives or refer them to someone who will, CMA to urge MDs
Unacceptable to force doctors to participate in assisted dying against their conscience: CMA head
Helping suffering patients die may be doctor’s most humane option, CMA says

“I have been approached by many psychiatrists who have serious concerns about physician assisted death being applied to mental illnesses,” said Dr. Padriac Carr, president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Alberta.

“Legal definitions are extremely important here,” he said. “Remediable” could be defined as treatable, or curable. In psychiatry, he said, “complete cures are quite rare.” Most treatments are directed at relieving symptoms.

“If ‘remediable’ implies a cure, then almost all psychiatric illnesses could be considered ‘irremediable,’” he said.

If, on the other hand, “remediable” is defined as treatable, most psychiatric illnesses wouldn’t meet the standard, “because there are almost always treatment options we can try,” Carr said.

If ‘remediable’ implies a cure, then almost all psychiatric illnesses could be considered ‘irremediable,’

“Intolerable” and “enduring” suffering are also problematic, he said. Symptoms of psychiatric illness can wax and wane over time, Carr said. “For weeks or months, a patient could be suicidal, and yet that situation could change.”

“The big fear for psychiatrists is that they may be participating in physician-assisted death, when there is a chance for treatment.”

While Carr believes psychiatric illnesses likely wouldn’t meet the criteria as currently set out by the court, ethicists have argued competent people struggling with severe depression or other mental disorders should be treated no differently than competent people suffering from incurable, physical ones.

Either way, some psychiatrists want no role whatsoever in assisted suicide or euthanasia, Carr said.

Others are calling for mandatory psychiatric assessments for every person seeking an assisted death, meaning psychiatrists could become the ultimate arbiters.

“After working in end-of-life care a long time, you realize that people have ups and downs in their mood, in their feelings, in how they see their future,” said Dr. Romayne Gallagher, a leading expert in palliative care who is among those calling for a psychiatric referral for every request for hastened death.

“Physicians might just take somebody at face value and say, ‘Oh, okay, I need to honour your autonomy,’ without exploring why they might be thinking this way,” Gallagher said.

“We often miss things like depression and delirium and even coercion,” she said.

“If someone comes to emergency and says, ‘I want to kill myself,’ they’re seen by the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist will always get collateral information from their families in trying to understand what’s going on,” Gallagher added.

“I think we need to use some of the same approaches” with requests for doctor-hastened deaths, she said.

Others say it’s unfair to cast psychiatrists in the role of “gatekeepers,” or to force every person exercising his or her legal right to a doctor-assisted death to undergo a mental evaluation. Mandatory assessments, several prominent U.S. psychiatrists wrote in 2012 in The Hastings Report, would turn the consulting psychiatrist “into a secular priest dressed in the clothes of a medical expert.”

Physicians might just take somebody at face value and say, ‘Oh, okay, I need to honour your autonomy,’ without exploring why they might be thinking this way

One psychiatrist, speaking at the Canadian Medical Association’s recent annual general council meeting in Halifax, said many of the patients in her maximum-security hospital are “competent adults. Their conditions are grievous and irremediable, and they do cause enduring suffering,” she said. “Some of my patients contemplate suicide as a means of escape.”

The Supreme Court ruling, she said, “will, from time to time, put psychiatrists in the untenable position of being suicide enablers,” she said, “at the same time mental health acts require us to protect our patients.”

Others argue the issue is about patient autonomy. “This isn’t about what organized religions, or palliative care doctors or other physicians want,” said Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Derryck Smith, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and physician advisor to Dying with Dignity Canada.

“Psychiatric illness is simply a disorder of the brain — it’s another part of the body,” he said.

If the person is competent, “I would see no reason why we should not go ahead and grant their wishes,” he said.


G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org

Link Copied to Clipboard
Newest Members
debbieevans, bkhj, jackk, Johnmattison, RacerGT
865 Registered Users
Sponsor

Science a GoGo's Home Page | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact UsokÂþ»­¾W
Features | News | Books | Physics | Space | Climate Change | Health | Technology | Natural World

Copyright © 1998 - 2016 Science a GoGo and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5