Local Recovery Walk shines a light on substance abuse treatment and the Recovery High School

The Recovery High School
334 Franklin St., Springfield, MA 

The Mason Square Health Task Force and the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction and Recovery will recognize September as National Alcohol and Substance Abuse Recovery Month with a Recovery Walk on Sept. 24, kicking off at 11 a.m. from the steps of City Hall to Recovery High School at 334 Franklin St. A ceremony at the school will be held from noon to 3 p.m. A bus is available for individuals unable to walk.

The MSHTF team and Board of Directors ask that each of you show your support by taking this walk with us. Many people are unaware that Springfield has a high school whose mission is to educate and to reduce the high rates of relapse associated with teens in recovery by providing a safe, sober and supportive school environment where students and their recovery efforts are understood, valued and fostered.

Recovery High School Administrator Michael Ellis said they are devoted to helping young people by providing them with a high quality education experience in a safe, therapeutically supportive school setting. Studies indicate that without intense support, an extremely high percentage of teens in recovery relapse. 


"We offer a lot of compassion, integrity and respect to help them become acceptable, responsible adults who are an asset to society," Ellis said. "We're smaller and we focus on the kids and their needs. We're proactive in our efforts."

Substance abuse counseling
helps teens achieve success

I consider the city's Recovery High School to be one of our best kept secrets. The school is within the alternative school structure in Springfield, collectively known as Springfield Academy for Excellence (SAFE). SAFE currently includes seven programs located at six different campuses in Springfield and one at Holyoke Community College. Springfield's Recovery School, launched five years ago, is a small highly structured program for 30 to 50 students in recovery from alcohol or other drug abuse dependence.

In an attempt to shine a light on National Alcohol and Substance Abuse Recovery Month activities, our Recovery Walk will conclude with a ceremony at the school. A parent of a teen who is attending Recovery High School will share her story; Springfield Director of Health and Human Services Helen Caulton-Harris will read her powerful poem "Everybody is Recovering from Something," Ellis will talk about the work of the school and Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno will issue a proclamation recognizing September as Recovery Month in the city.

For more information on the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction and Recovery visit their website here. 

For more information on National Substance Abuse and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month activities visit www.recoverymonth.org.

We hope that you will come see that recovery is possible, that Springfield offers options for our teens and that we can collectively make a difference to improve the lives of all people no matter the circumstance.

Teatro V!da brings arts and culture to Greater Springfield and offers resources to youth and adults

Teatro V!da presents "Rumors of a New Day" on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.,
affords arts and culture opportunities to youth and adults.

When we think of societal plagues like substance abuse, depression, violence and assorted health ailments as a result of diet and stress, the cures we most often reach for are medicinal, believing it provides a quick fix. Though medicines are  important treatments in many cases, we should not overlook the role of intervention and prevention strategies, especially when it comes to our youth.

Intervention means attacking a problem at the first sign of trouble by changing mindsets and behaviors. Prevention seeks to stop the issue in advance prior to becoming a health disparity. So how do we do that?

• Get our youth involved in positive activities to steer them away from the trouble zones.
• Help our adults overcome the daily challenges of life by balancing the struggle with hope and compassion.

Greater Springfield is fortunate to have a wealth of organizations in our backyard who espouse the same beliefs as the Mason Square Health Task Force; agencies that consider whole health and intervention as necessary goals in serving the people in our community. We need to do more to support them and help them flourish and grow.

Teatro V!da, the city's first Latino theater group is one such agency. Teatro V!da is the brainchild of Magdalena Gomez, a teaching artist for more than 35 years. In 2006, Gomez rallied the support of key leaders in Springfield's Latino community. One year later, Teatro V!da was born with funding from the Latino Breakfast Club, Hispanic Resources Inc., MassMutual Financial Group, Baystate Health and other community supporters. Since its founding, Teatro V!da has produced over 20 events, including four original full productions with music composed by artist, musician Heshima Moja, the theater's current Music Director.

"We offer the community an opportunity to build up our young people, and fill in the gap that's left vacant as a result to cuts in public education in the area of arts and culture," said Moja, an independent artist whose recent cd release has been getting national airplay. "We give them a chance to discover theater, acting, dance, but we also focus on issues like literacy, and health, and wellness and compassion. We take a whole health, holistic approach using artistic expression."

 

Their latest production, "Rumors of a New Day," is a  multi-media performance celebrating Springfield and the arts. It will be held  Monday, September 13 at 7 p.m., at City Stage. The performance was written and directed by Gomez. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of the show. For more information call the City Stage box office at (413) 788-7033.

"This performance piece is about the issues we face right here in Springfield, the criticisms, the stereotypes, the 'isms, the things we care about and face in our everyday lives in Springfield," said Moja, noting the theme of "Rumors." The production uses a variety of artistic mediums including acting, dance and music.

The production has more than 100 people involved, including cast and crew. At least two dozen youth are tied to the play, either as performers or as apprentices under Daniel Jaquez, an acclaimed choreographer from New York City, Moja said.

"This show offers solutions woven throughout the fabric of the piece offering steps to emotional wellness, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion," Moja said.

The Mason Square Health Task Force encourages you to support the show, and support Teatro V!da in its efforts to keep our city culturally diverse, artistically rich, healthy and well.

With sports related concussions rising, parents should be aware of issues, signs and risks

File photo from The Republican

Football season has arrived and New England has a rich history of  fans who embrace the sport, cheering at little league games for Mason Square's 5A players to braving rain and cold to support  area high school and college teams.

So how does football and health care news relate? In recent weeks, the spotlight has been placed on the safety of football, particularly for our young people, with breaking news on the rising rate of sports-related concussions.

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and a study that appears in the September issue of Pediatrics examining sports-related concussions in children and adolescents revealed that the number of young children treated in hospital ERs for concussions occurred while playing on sports teams has doubled within the past decade.If that's not alarming enough, researchers say the rate among younger athletes, as early as 8-years-old, is significant and rising.The study represents the first attempt to document the national incidence of sports-related concussions among children in elementary and middle school, according to national news reports.

The study looked at an analysis of data from hospital emergency departments across the nation and revealed that:

• Roughly half a million ER visits for concussions occurred among 8- to 19-year-olds between 2001 and 2005.
• About half were sports-related, and 40% of sports-related concussions involved children between the ages of 8 and 13.
• Football and ice hockey were the organized sports with the most concussion injuries, and snow skiing, bicycling, and playground iinjuries accounted for the most concussions occurring from non-team-related activities.

So exactly what is a concussion and what are its symptoms? A concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury that is caused by an impact or jolt to the head. The symptoms include:

• Confusion
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Ringing in the ears
• Nausea
• Slurred speech
• Fatigue
• Memory or concentration problems

While many of us in this area are big football fans and want to support our young athletes, we have to be mindful that their health and well-being take precedent over the game.Parents and caregivers need to be proactive about making sure their child has the right sports gear, from helmet to cleats. Equally as important, parents need to make sure their child's coach has our youth's best interest at heart, on and off the field.

A new study says that one of our favorite goodies is actually OK to eat – in moderation!

It seems that every new health study that comes out gives us contradictory information. One of the latest studies tells us that chocolate in moderation can be good for our heart health.
What?

• Does this mean that we can finally pour the chocolate syrup on our ice cream sundae?
• Can we eat an entire chocolate bar at the movies without worries?
• That heavily frosted four-level chocolate cake is good for us?

The answers to all the questions, is, unfortunately, a resounding No!
The chocolate-heart study (click here to read it) posted by the American Heart Association, is clear that only a moderate amount of chocolate is OK.

As an official from the American Heart Association warns:

“Those tempted to use these data as their rationale for eating large amounts of chocolate or engaging in more frequent chocolate consumption are not interpreting this study appropriately,” said Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., immediate past chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee and professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “This is not an ‘eat all you want’ take-home message, rather it’s that eating a little dark chocolate can be healthful, as long as other adverse behaviors do not occur, such as weight gain or excessive intake of non-nutrient dense ‘empty’ calories.”

Here are Basic Facts about Your Heart:

The normal human heart is a strong, muscular pump a little larger than a fist. Each day an average heart “beats” (expands and contracts) 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.
The heart has four chambers through which blood is pumped. The upper two are the right and left atria. The lower two are the right and left ventricles. Four valves open and close to let blood flow in only one direction when the heart beats.

Click here to read about the warning signs of a heart attacks, courtesy of the American Heart Association.

Access to resources makes a world of difference

One name, two fates.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan

This quote reminds me of the story of Wes Moore, a Rhodes scholar, a White House fellow and a business leader who overcame the odds to succeed.

Moore wrote a biography, "The Other Wes Moore," released in April, about his experiences growing up in inner city Baltimore, raised by a single mom who worked tirelessly to use the resources around her to give him greater access to education and opportunity.

That's one side to the story. The book is also about the other Wes Moore, a man who grew up in the same neighborhood, around the same time, with the name name, who ultimately was convicted of murdering a police officer during a robbery attempt. He is in prison for life without parole. This Wes Moore had a strong mother too, but while she was working to support the family, her sons - ages 11 and 12 at the time - began dealing drugs. This mother has publicly said she didn't know where to go for help, didn't know what resources were available to her sons, and she wished she had done things differently.

This story is not entirely unique.  Here in Springfield, we have youth who grow up in the same community, under similar circumstances, yet make extremely different choices. Often, the reason behind their divergent paths is one person having access to community programs, resources, opportunities and support programs, while the other one does not.

The Mason Square Health Task Force is an agency working alongside so many others to improve the quality of life for our youth and adults here. We want our youth to lead productive lives like the first Wes Moore, whose book became an instant New York Times best-seller. 

In our efforts to continue to inform you about the array of services provided to residents in our community, we are putting together the Mason Square Resource Initiative, a comprehensive directory for substance abuse, prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support for youth, families and adults.

We are seeking submissions about your programs with your name, contact information, location, and other relevant material for placement in the guide. The guide will be posted on the Mason Square Health Task Force website and updated routinely. Please send information to Govan@mlkjrfamilyservices.org.

To learn more or to purchase a copy of the book visit the author's website at http://theotherwesmoore.com.)

An extraordinary blogger you should read

Adia Colar

The Internet provides us with many opportunities to better health. Not only are there hundreds of thousands of health-related web site that report on the latest medical research, treatments, discoveries and controversies, there are also bloggers who bravely share their health issues.
Adia Colar is one such blogger. A publicist who promotes psychology, self-help and health books, Adia is also a freelance writer who has written about many subjects, including her own recovery from an eating disorder.
Her essays are posted on her own blog and other places, such as the multi-million hit site Psychology Today and  Huffington Post
Her blog entries are engaging and informative. She has strongly-held beliefs and shares them with humor, anger, pain, always honestly, giving courage to a lot of women who feel similarly but haven't had the words to express themselves. For them, Adia provides a bridge between what they feel and how to describe their feelings.


Sample quote from a blog entry by Adia on the television show, "The Price of Beauty," which shows the extremely painful -- physically and emotionally -- lengths some woman go to fill in mainstream media's definition of what a beautiful woman should look like:

"The optimal way for me to be with someone like that is to accept myself, curves, lumps, bumps, aunties, and all and not settle for anyone who didn't feel the same way." 

When NBC decided to produce yet another show that ultimately serves to make people feel bad about their bodies, "Thintervention with Jackie Warner," Adia wrote a pointed letter to the network:

"Dear NBC,

Sigh. You're doing it again. First it was The Biggest Loser, then Losing It with Jillian, then Bravo planned a SkinnyGirl show before Bethenny Frankel got pregnant, and now you've created Thintervention with Jackie Warner.

I already know about the dangers of The Biggest Loser. Third season's Kai Hibbard has recounted her experiences, including:

• trainers encouraging contestants to dehydrate before weigh-ins,
• overexercising,
• contestants being pushed to work out despite being injured,
• producers overriding doctors' orders

...and more. Kai has shared how she ended up developing an eating disorder that she still struggles with as a result of her experiences on the show.

But simply having a weight-, eating-, and workout-dysfunctional show wasn't enough for you. To reward The Biggest Loser's high ratings, you gave the main trainer, Jillian Michaels, her own show to further spread this dangerous, deceptive message."

One of the greatest things about Internet is the many web sites that offer free blogging templates -- essentially, a blog is a web site where you write short essays about whatever subject you want --  so that people can share their experiences and thoughts. And sometimes, there are bloggers who share information that benefits a world of people. Adia is among those bloggers.
For more information on how to set up your own blog, here is a short list of free blogging sites that provide a range of templates -- or designs -- for you to choose from. They also show you step-by-step how to set up your blog so that you, too, can share information that, like Adia, can be helpful to untold millions of people.

• www.blogger.com
• www.wordpress.com
• Blog.com

The 2010 Presidential Citizen's Medal

President Barack Obama presented the 2010 Citizens Medal at the White House on Aug. 4, a honor bestowed on citizens who give back to the community because they know that what makes a community strong is the strength of its members to work together to make it a better place for everyone.

This video is "good news"  television - no spotlight on what goes wrong in society, just a simple recognition of what goes right. You won't see this on the network or cable news, unfortunately. But you can know about it here!

As President Obama said, "What unites these citizens, what makes them special, is the determination they share -- to right a wrong; to see a need and then meet it; to recognize when others are suffering and take it upon themselves to make a difference.
When they saw a veteran in need of proper care, or a teenage mom who could use a helping hand, they didn’t just shake their heads and keep on walking.  They didn’t write it off as another example of life not being fair.  Instead, they saw it as a problem to solve, a challenge to meet, a call to action that they could not ignore.
So, just to give a few examples here.  When Jorge Muñoz saw homeless men gathered on a street corner with nothing to eat, he could have rolled up his window and driven away.  Instead he came home from his job as a school bus driver and started cooking hot meals for anyone who was hungry.  These days, the “Angel of Queens” feeds over 100 people every night, rain or shine.  And Jorge says, ”You have to see their smile.  That’s what I get paid.”

If you know of someone who merits presidential recognition for community service, click here to find out how to tell the White House about her or him!