Here are – in reverse order of difficulty – the seven addictions people find hardest to quit.  You might be surprised…

By Dr. Stanton Peele

7. Cocaine. Cocaine is an episodic-use drug. It is one moreover associated with certain lifestyles – at one time (if not now) people in the financial industry and entertainment fields – and more often younger people. Studying long-term users of cocaine, Ronald Siegel found most moderated, controlled, or quit their use over time. Patricia Erickson and Bruce Alexander surveyed the research and found that fewer than 10 percent of cocaine addicts continued their addictions for substantial periods. After cocaine use peaked in the 1980s, most middle-class users quit (although use in inner cities continued some time longer). Remarking on this phenomenon, David Musto concluded: "The question we must ask ourselves is not why people take drugs, but why do people stop." He surmised that people with fewer resources had less to counterbalance their addictions.

6. Alcohol. Alcohol is the addiction most written about, both in scientific literature and as recounted in personal memoirs. Alcoholics Anonymous members swear AA is the only way to recover; treatment experts claim alcoholism is inescapable without treatment. But epidemiological research does not find this is true. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2005 published the results of its National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. NESARC conducted 43,000 face-to-face interviews with a sample of Americans about their lifetime alcohol and drug use. Among these, 4,422 were classifiable at some point in their lives as alcohol dependent (or alcoholic). Somewhat more than a quarter had received any kind of treatment (including in an emergency room, attending AA, etc.). Among the large majority who went untreated, fewer than a quarter drank alcoholically at the time of the interview. Most (about two-thirds) of this group continued drinking non-alcoholically.

5. Valium. In general, drugs used for pacifying purposes (which are usually depressants), taken regularly over long periods of time, are hard to quit. This holds for sedatives, sleeping pills, barbiturates, and tranquilizers. Several best-sellers have been written about the difficulty in quitting Valium (benzodiazepine tranquilizers): Barbara Gordon’s I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can and Betty Ford’s The Times of My Life. A prominent New York City newscaster, Jim Jensen, recounted in People how he readily quit cocaine but couldn’t get off Valium: "Valium withdrawal soon plunged him into a massive depression that left him unable to eat or sleep. It took two more months in two hospitals for him to regain his mental and physical health." Ah, but Americans love these drugs, need them to survive – although in good part they have been supplanted by antidepressants.

4. Heroin. Powerful analgesics, taken regularly, are difficult for many (but not most) people to quit. After all, most of us have had intravenous supplies of narcotics in the hospital, followed by prescriptions for powerful analgesics when we went home. What is remarkable is not so much that heroin can produce serious withdrawal for some, but how variable this syndrome is and how comparable it is to other depressant and painkiller drugs and analgesics (like Vicodin and OxyContin), which are the fastest growing drugs of abuse and today are taken by the majority of illicit narcotics users and overdose victims. So much has been written about heroin withdrawal, it is mainly worth noting that when people quit the drug with little difficulty (as the major league ballplayer Ron LeFlore did when he entered prison and took up baseball) it is simply considered impermissible to describe or portray this aspect of their stories.

3. Cigarettes. In ratings by cocaine and alcohol addicts, smoking is regularly cited as the more difficult drug to quit, generally on par with or more difficult than heroin. Nonetheless, more than 40 million living Americans have quit smoking. While impressive, this still only represents about half of all of those ever addicted to cigarettes – although a higher percentage of those in higher socioeconomic groups have quit. When I speak to recovering people at addiction conferences I ask, "What is the toughest drug to quit?" By acclimation, the audience shouts out, "cigarettes" or "smoking." I then ask, "How many people in this room have been addicted to cigarettes but are now off them?" Half to two-thirds – often hundreds of people – in the room raise their hands. "Wow," I enthuse. "And how many have used any kind of therapy – medical or a support group – to quit?" Never have more than a small handful done so.

2. Potato chips. I use potato chips, of course, to stand for all kinds of alluring but fattening foods. These comfort foods, which deprive more Americans of life years than any other substance, are inextricably integrated with our own lives, and with the lives of all Americans. Although overweight is disapproved and regularly lectured against, it still doesn’t have the stigma of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, so that hidden (and not so hidden) food addictions are more readily tolerated. That gastric bypass surgery is growing so rapidly shows that this is the substance addiction people find hardest to quit, even those for whom it causes serious, life-threatening health conditions. In fact, we will never resolve our massive food addictions in the United States, but we hope to come up with medical cures to prevent their negative effects, as if we would succeed by simply deciding to let smokers continue to smoke noncancerous cigarettes.

1. Love. Ah, love is the hardest addiction to quit. It certainly causes more murders and suicides than any other addiction. And if you think people miss smoking, consider what people are like when they break up with long-time lovers or get divorced – even when they hate their spouses! (See the response to this post, "My divorce has left me . . .") On the other hand, we read frequently about people who totally sacrificed their lives to a lover who betrayed them or otherwise destroyed their psyches, yet who still didn’t quit the relationship – what is the answer, after all, when an abuse victim is asked why they simply don’t leave an abusive spouse? "Because I love him, and can’t live without him." I regularly counsel spouses of substance abusers about this.

Don’t despair, however, no matter what your addiction is. The large majority of addicts give up every kind of addiction. So can you. That most people do it, one way or another, tells you that it lies within your power.

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Stanton Peele has been investigating, thinking, and writing about addiction since 1969. His first bombshell book, “Love and Addiction”, appeared in 1975. Its experiential and environmental approach to addiction revolutionized thinking on the subject by indicating that addiction is not limited to narcotics, or to drugs at all, and that addiction is a pattern of behavior and experience which is best understood by examining an individual’s relationship with his/her world. This is a distinctly nonmedical approach. It views addiction as a general pattern of behavior that nearly everyone experiences in varying degrees at one time or another.

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Get this and other drug rehab and addiction information from http://www.stgregorycrt.com if you or a loved one is suffering from chemical addiction, my heart goes out to you. PLEASE take a moment to watch this short video, it just might save a life. http://www.stgregoryctr.com/help.php

(non 12 step, alternative to 12 step programs, non religious treatment center)

The Cycle of Addiction

No one intends to become a drug addict or alcoholic. Our experiences show that the drug addict or alcoholic was usually an intelligent and often creative person with much hope for the future.

However, they were unable to deal effectively with life’s problems and turned to drugs or alcohol as a means of dealing with unwanted situations.

The person usually takes drugs because they attempt to compensate for some personal deficiency or life situation. They may be depressed, in pain or incapable of dealing with a loss of a loved one or extreme circumstance. It could also be as simple as a need to fit in and make friends, or a way to lose weight. Regardless of the reason, the person begins to seek "help" in the form of drugs or alcohol.

Drugs are essentially a pain-killer. They lessen emotional and physical pain and provide the user with a temporary escape from problems. When a person is unable to cope with something in life and take drugs as a result, they feel they have found a way to deal with the problem.

The more a person uses drugs or excessive alcohol, the worse the problem becomes. So they continue the “solution” for their problems, more drugs. Soon new problems are created by drug use. The person feels the need to use consistently, and will do anything to get high.

They are now addicted. They become difficult to communicate with, withdrawn and begin to exhibit the strange behavior associated with being on drugs. The more the person uses to try to counter this effect, the more desperate he becomes.

Their use begins to affect their personal relationships, their job, their bank account, and anything of previous value to the addict. Now the person’s entire focus becomes centered on using drugs and getting more drugs, regardless of the cost. They sacrifice everything to avoid the pain of withdrawal, the guilt of what they have done and the problems they have been running from.

At this point, the average drug user does one of three things:

1. Continues using drugs and becomes more and more lost, unhealthy and degraded until he eventually becomes homeless or dead.

 

2. Gets arrested for some drug-related activity and goes to jail or prison.

 

3. Attempt to quit drugs in any one of a variety of ways. He may try to stop on his own, or go to a drug addiction treatment center or program. Sadly, the success rate of traditional treatment is not high and most addicts continue to relapse. This destroys the addict’s confidence and leads him to feel he will remain a slave to drugs forever.

HOWEVER, there is a way out…..

Once you have made the decision to get help for you or a loved ones addiction, please contact us at http://www.stgregoryctr.com/help.php for FAST, Confidential drug rehabilitation.

Please remember, 12 step programs do not work, they never have, by their own admission they have a 0% recovery rate because they believe every alcoholic is an alcoholic for the rest of their lives, how is THAT recovery?

St. Gregory’s is a NON 12 step program and we are one of the only drug & alcohol treatment center that continues to contact EVERY member even after they have left our clinics, this is one reason for our fantastic success rate in treating alcohol and drug addictions! 

Think drug rehab is just for movie stars and politicians?  think again, we offer competitive rates,  we accept most insurance, female only and male only treatment centers, onsite and offsite locations and a confidential safe environment with highly trained, confidential staff members.

PLEASE visit us today, it just might save a life. http://www.stgregorycrt.com

In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects, impaired control over the use of a drug (compulsive behavior), and preocupation with a drug’s use for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e. craving the drug). Addiction is often accompanied the presence of deviant behaviors (for instance stealing money and forging prescriptions) that are used to obtain a drug.

Tolerance to a drug and physical dependence are not defining characteristics of addiction, although they typically accompany addiction to certain drugs. Tolerance is a pharmacologic phenomenon where the dose of a medication needs to be continually increase in order to maintain its desired effects. For instance, individuals with severe chronic pain taking opiate medications (like morphine) will need to continually increase the dose in order to maintain the drug’s analgesic (pain-relieving) effects. Physical dependence is also a pharmacologic property and means that if a certain drug is abruptly discontinued, an individual will experience certain characteristic withdrawal signs and symptoms. Many drugs used for therapeutic purposes produce withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopped, for instance oral steroids, certain antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opiates.

However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.

The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his or her

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Obama Blows His Presidency — Top Ten Health Care Reforms He Won’t Do

For the first time in memory, Bill O’Reilly, arch Fox conservative, and Chris Matthews, arch MSNBC liberal, reacted the same to an event — both found that Barack Obama failed entirely to explain his plans for health care reform in his televised press conference.

And virtually all commentators noted the same flaw in the Obama presentation and explanation — he’s afraid to tell Americans that — well, remember that old sign: "You can have it cheaper, better, and more of it — but not all at the same time"?

I watched the sacrificial Democrat (you know, the one labeled "Democratic strategist" sandwiched between two nuts like the host himself on one of those Hannity panels) who intoned: "Health care reform will maintain current coverages, give access to everyone, and save money." You can see why Hannity selected her — to make the nuts look reasonable!

But Obama, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel — and the entire Republican leadership — are just as bad. Ask them what will have to be sacrificed, and they (the Dems) indicate "Nothing — just a few millionaires will pay more taxes." And, oh, there is one health care player Obama is willing to punish — insurers (even pharmaceutical manufacturers escape his opprobrium).

Republicans, as usual, are living in some other time and place. Their claim? "American health care is the best in the world. We’ll reduce the costs with tort reform, and give everyone greater access by incentivizing (a popular Obama term) private coverage."

Oh, and both sides will eliminate waste, duplication, and fraud. That should save a trillion or two right there!

Here are the top ten health care reforms neither side will propose:

1. Means test Social Security and Medicare
2. Pay only for effective treatments
3. Channel patients to providers who accept a prix-fixe pay schedule
4. "Incentivize" individual care choices (i.e., make people pay for more of what they use)
5. Tax employer health care benefits as income
6. Make managed care de rigeur
7. Mandate that every American must have health care coverage
8. Favor treatment for the young and fixable over the old and incurable
9. Eliminate private insurance
10. Put Obama’s birth certificate on the back of the one dollar bill (oops, wrong post!)

Failing to do these things will not produce better care for more people at lower prices. Rather, it will mean a diminishing group will receive unlimited (but but not necessarily effective) treatment costing everyone more.

And Barack Obama is just too nice a guy, too good a politician, and too reluctant to give people bad news to blow the whistle on this three-card monte — or, better, Ponzi — scheme. You know, the kind of deal where you collect more and more money for an unsustainable and unproductive enterprise until the entire house of cards collapses?

Get this and other drug rehab and addiction information from http://www.stgregorycrt.com if you or a loved one is suffering from chemical addiction, my heart goes out to you. PLEASE take a moment to watch this short video, it just might save a life. http://www.stgregoryctr.com/help.php

(non 12 step, alternative to 12 step programs, non religious treatment center)

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http://www.buffalowasna.com/

What is Wasna?

Usually made with dried meat and crushed berries. There are two varieties of wasna: buffalo wasna is made with dried buffalo meat, and cornmeal wasna is made with cornmeal as a substitute to dried meat.

http://www.geocities.com/redroadcollective/SacredTobacco.html

GARDEN MARKET at WOLVES DEN
EVERY THURSDAY THROUGH AUGUST 21
Dream of Wild Health will be selling fresh, organic produce at the
Wolves Den, 1201 E. Franklin Avenue, Mpls, on Thursday, July 31, from 10
am to noon. This week Native teens from the Twin Cities will be selling
at low cost freshly picked produce including green beans, carrots, kale,
onion bunches, zucchini (summer squash), cabbage, radishes, flowers, and
more. These teens are part of the Garden Warriors program, a four-week
garden apprenticeship that teaches teens about healthy food, organic
gardening, diabetes prevention, and job skills.

/Dream of Wild Health is a 10-acre Native owned and run farm in Hugo,
MN. For more information, visit www.petawakantipi.org./

COMPOST NEWS!

Garden legend Will Allen is coming to Dream of Wild Health on Sunday,
August 17, for a working demonstration of setting up a compost site. A
former professional basketball player, Will Allen transformed a farm in
downtown Milwaukee into an intensively farmed greenhouse and
vermicompost site where youth from the city can work and sell produce.
For more information on Will Allen’s “Growing Power” business &
organization:
http://www.growingpower.org

DATE: Sunday, August 17th, approximately 10am-2pm.
LOCATION: Dream of Wild Health Farm, 16085 Jefferey Avenue, Hugo MN,
55038; 651-439-3840

WHAT: Set up the compost site and enjoy a healthy lunch.

WHAT TO BRING: Sunscreen, water, garden clothes, gloves, & several
dollars donation for Potluck.

My name is Diane Archambault, I’m a Patient Advocate at the Native American Community Clinic and one of our patients asked me to post this.  Here is her story………

My name is Brenda Reyes.  I started kidney dialysis on Valentines Day 2001.  I need dialysis to live.  I am raising three children, ages 6, 8 and 11.  I have always been skeptical of kidney transplant, but am now considering exploring it.  I do not have any candidates for donation.  If anyone is interested in being a kidney transplant donor for me, call HCMC transplant  clinic at 1-888-345-0816 and inquire about being a donor for Brenda Reyes.  You can learn more about donation at www.kidney.org or -800-622-9010

Thank you

Diane Archambault

Patient Advocate

Native American Community Clinic

1213 E. Franklin

Minneapolis, MN 55404

PH: 612.872.8086 x 118

FAX: 612.872.8547

New Legislation Threatens American-Indian Women’s Reproductive Health
By Michelle Chen, In These Times
Posted on July 21, 2008, Printed on July 21, 2008
http://www.alternet .org/story/ 92227/
When it comes to their health, American Indian women face extraordinary barriers — from high disease risks to increased incidents of sexual violence. They now face another obstacle, rooted in the political battleground of abortion.

The Senate’s recent passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act was a breakthrough for advocacy groups that have long pushed for the bill’s provisions — new programs, improved facilities and funding for the Indian Health Services (IHS) system, which serves about 1.9 million people nationwide.

But the victory is dampened by a poison pill provision slipped in by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that explicitly restricts abortions under IHS programs. The amendment was approved along with the bill in February. As In These Times went to press, it was unclear whether the House would vote on companion legislation carrying a similar amendment.

Speaking at a Right to Life rally in January, Vitter boasted that his amendment put “clear, strong, pro-life language in that Indian health-care bill.”

In fact, the amendment mostly replicates an older, more general ban on abortion funding under federal health programs, known as the Hyde Amendment. IHS is already subject to those restrictions, which allow federal financing for abortion only in cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the pregnant woman’s life.

Still, Vitter’s initiative entrenches Hyde’s strictures more firmly by directly changing IHS’s long-term governing statute. Enacted in the late 1970s, Hyde is subject to annual revision when renewed through the appropriations process. It mainly applies to Medicaid, but anti-abortion groups have lobbied to expand its reach in other areas, such as the military and federal prison health systems.

Opponents say Vitter has tethered crucial health programs to an anti-abortion agenda and brazenly targeted Native women’s reproductive rights.

“It’s a race-based amendment, because it’s trying to reduce our right to access abortion more than any other race of women in this country,” says Charon Asetoyer of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC), a research and advocacy organization.

Critics point to slight differences in the wording of the Vitter amendment that could tighten existing restrictions — for instance, the limitation of the incest exception to women under 18.

Although some states offer separate funding for abortions deemed medically necessary for overall health, Hyde has generally succeeded in raising barriers to abortion for poor women. By making abortion prohibitively costly, the funding restrictions have historically led many women to have abortions later, at greater medical risk, or not at all, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive- health policy group.

The consequences of abortion funding restrictions are uniquely dire in Native communities, where women are disproportionately poor, more likely to be sexually assaulted, and acutely limited in their options for dealing with unplanned pregnancy.

“Native women are so much more vulnerable on so many levels,” says Sarah Deer, a Minnesota-based victim advocacy legal specialist with the Tribal Law & Policy Institute, “from health problems, to being victims of violence, to housing. We’re the ones suffering the most on a lot of different issues.”

According to research by NAWHERC, IHS facilities performed only a handful of abortions over a two-decade period. But the Center has also found that IHS staff routinely failed to properly enforce the Hyde Amendment’s protections for assault survivors. Meanwhile, state health records indicate that Native women in North and South Dakota and Alaska are over-represented among abortion cases compared to their overall state populations, suggesting that many are resorting to private abortion providers.

This isn’t the first time the abortion issue has ensnared Indian Country. In South Dakota, which has an especially high Native population, Asetoyer and other activists campaigned successfully in 2006 against a proposal for a statewide ban on abortions. A similar initiative is up for a referendum vote this November.

But since the Vitter amendment would not dramatically change current abortion policies at IHS, the bigger concern is that it will sink the Native health bill altogether, killing prospects for a much needed funding infusion.That would still be a victory for Vitter, who voted against the bill even with his amendment.

To Kitty Marx, legislative director of the National Indian Health Board, an advocacy group representing Native communities, the health of nearly 2 million American Indians and Alaskan Natives is being subsumed in a political proxy battle.

“[This] is an Indian health-care bill — written by Indians for Indians,” she says. “If Congress wants to have a national debate on abortion, then have it on a national bill.”

Asetoyer says Vitter’s initiative creates a cruel dilemma for activists focused on the intersection between reproductive rights and Native health issues. She continues to support the bill despite the amendment: “We just may have to eat this one, because we cannot use this to stop the bill from going through. Otherwise, we’d end up with no health care at all.”

Michelle Chen’s work has appeared in Extra!, Legal Affairs, City Limits and Alternet, along with her self-published zine, cain.

JULY 24 FARMERS’ MARKET at WOLVES Den
Dream of Wild Health will be selling fresh, organic produce at the
Wolves Den, 1201 E. Franklin Avenue, Mpls, on Thursday, July 24, from 10
am to noon. This week Native teens from the Twin Cities will be selling
at low cost freshly picked beans, carrots, mint, spinach, kale, onion
bunches, lettuce mix, sage, cilantro, parsley, basil, cabbage, broccoli,
and zucchini (summer squash). These teens are part of the Garden
Warriors program, a four-week garden apprenticeship that teaches teens
about healthy food, organic gardening, diabetes prevention, and job skills.

/Dream of Wild Health is a 10-acre Native owned and run farm in Hugo,
MN. For more information, visit www.petawakantipi.org./

A Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource

Center Workshop

Title:

“Therapeutic Approaches for Clients Affected by Historical Trauma”

When:

Thursday, August 7^th, 2008

9:30 am   – 4:00 pm

Cost:  $40.00

Lunch will be provided

This workshop will take place ‘RAIN or SHINE ‘

Presenters:

Steven M. Smith, Psy.D., L.P.

Rebecca Quintela-Smith, M.A., L.P.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Description:

A Workshop for Therapists, Social Workers, Parent Educators and other Service Providers working with clients affected by recurring trauma and loss in their lives who cannot seem to overcome self-defeating behavior patterns.

This is a day long workshop that will utilize activities with horses to accomplish the learning objectives listed below.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define Historical Trauma and identify its psychological effects

2. Recognize the signs of Historical Trauma in individuals

3. Identify the Cycle of Recurring Trauma & Loss

4. Learn skills to help clients restructure faulty perceptions and cognitions

5. Learn non-verbal techniques for helping clients to stop the Cycle of Recurring Trauma

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is a workshop; it is not designed to be a focus group or support group.  We will not be providing any follow-up support for workshop participants.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Endorsement: Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College

Location: Spirit Ranch

13105 177^th St. N.

Marine on the St. Croix , MN. 55047

Contact:

Jo Lightfeather @ 612.728.2031 or email: jlightfeather@miwrc.org

Oskiniigikwe Journey

A Support Group for Young

American Indian Women

(ages 15-21)

The Oskinigiikwe Program focuses on encouraging young       American Indian women to make healthy choices regarding their          mental, physical, emotional and spiritual selves through                    conversations and activities, including:

Beading/Outfit Making,

Crafts,

Healthy Eating & Cooking Classes,

Body Awareness thru yoga/pilates/exercise/self defense

Talking Circles and much, much more….

Group meets Wednesdays from 12-4pm

Referrals and Walk-Ins are welcome

For more information contact Natasha Hilt @ 612.728.2000

Minnesota Indian Womens Resource Center

MIWRC 2300 15th Avenue South , Minneapolis , Minnesota   55404

(Attachments successfully scanned for viruses.)

Chucho Garcia is speaking on Sacred Plants and Migration–

What: Presentation and Feast*

*
Where: Minnehaha Park Pavilion

When: Tuesday, July 8th 5pm

**Please bring food to share!
And please spread the word!

COLUMNIST DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Hospital’s ‘smudging room’ shows sensitivity
Dorreen Yellow Bird
Grand Forks Herald – 07/02/2008

After traveling across western North Dakota and Montana last year, I was getting used to the brown and sparse landscape. On my trip to Montana last week, I couldn’t take my eyes off the land, particularly the Yellowstone River .

She and her tributaries were running full out — in, places over their banks. Trees were so lush and green that you might have thought it was the Carolinas after a rainy season.

My sister, Gerilyn, and I took turns driving to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Momument in Montana . When it was her turn to drive, I stared at the grassy land rolling by the Toyota . I would catch myself thinking about the days when I rode horseback in grasslands like these. I could almost feel the horse stepping high with the smell of fresh green grass in its nose.

I tried to pick out plants and birds I knew, but it was hard because I intoxicated by the beauty of the grasslands.

And coming back by way of Bismarck , I found something even more surprising, something that said North Dakotans are a caring and sensitive people. It was a smudging room at St. Alexius Medical Center.

Of all of the American Indian ceremonies, one of the most serious deals with illness, dying and death — and that smudging room makes such ceremonies possible in the hospital.

I saw the room when I went to visit my sister, Kaye. She’d had a knee replaced at St. Alexius, a painful but relatively common surgery. She was — as the doctors had told her she would be — in pain after the surgery.

Amazingly, however, she started walking soon after they brought her back to her room. The nurses kept her moving that knee for the rest of her stay in the hospital.

While I was with her, we watched endless “M*A*S*H” episodes and at times while she slept, I dozed, too. And in one of our conversations, she told me about something St. Alexius had added to their hospital and suggested I take a look.

On the first floor as you enter the hospital, there is a large solarium with a tree canopy and plenty of green plants. The room is filled with comfortable chairs; it’s a nice place to come and enjoy solitude.

On the walls are some pictures of famous American Indians. In a tall glass case is a full-length war bonnet — in excellent condition and beautiful. A plaque says the bonnet was donated by a nun.

And off of that big room is a “meditation room,” also called the “smudging room” by locals and American Indians. The room is for smudging and other ceremonies for Indian people at the hospital, my sister said.

How does the hospital handle the ceremonies’ smoke?

The doors to the room seal tightly, and in the center of the room is a big “outtake” fan for the smudge and pipe smoke.

By the way, the doors are made with an Indian design in stained glass by Butch Thunder Hawk, a Standing Rock Lakota man, I was told.

Why have a special room for Indian people? Because many Indian people believe there are special ways to help those who are sick and need healing. Praying is done with the sacred pipe, and smudging is part of it.

The Rev. Julian Nix, chaplain of the St. Alexius Medical Center, is Assiniboine Sioux and has a good understanding of Indian culture. He, along with several other spiritual leaders in the community, worked together get a smudging room for patients at the hospital, my sister told me.

I know how important that room is because when my brother, who had lung cancer, was in need of prayers and ceremony, his hospital made the family take him outside in his wheelchair for smudging. Fortunately, it was warm enough — but a room for ceremony would have helped.

Many of the hospitals in the area accommodate some of the needs of Indian people. When someone is ill, the hospital’s waiting rooms and the patient’s room are filled. When I was in Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis , my doctor and the hospital staff were amazed at the number of people who stayed with me during my procedure.

It is our strong belief that we give strength and healing to the ill person with our prayers and good thoughts. We also try to cheer them with laughter and good feelings.

It seems to work, so special thanks should go out to the people at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck .

DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN WORKS DIABETES FAIR  -  ST PAUL AREA COUNCIL OF
CHURCHES
1671 Summit Ave
St paul, MN 55105 (Two blocks west of Snelling Ave at Summit and Pierce
Sts)

JULY 10 –  Thursday

2:30 – 6:30 pm

Diabetes Screenings
Medical providers on hand
Healthy and nutritious snacks
Enter a drawing for prizes

A perfect place to start your goal of controlling your diabetes and also
preventing the onset for family members

Tell your neighbors, friends, and anyone you care about that needs to
be healthy

EVERYONE WELCOME

Fore more information contact:  Mitzie Belliveau at 651 646-8805 ext: 32

FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE  FREE

Action Alert today!  See below.

Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH
Chair, Awakening the Spirit Team
American Diabetes Association

From: American Diabetes Association MakingNoise@diabetes.org
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 1:32 PM
To: Lisa Foster
Subject: Next Step for Special Diabetes Programs

Read the rest of this entry »

Action Alert today!  See below.

Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH
Chair, Awakening the Spirit Team
American Diabetes Association

From: American Diabetes Association [mailto:MakingNoise@diabetes.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 1:32 PM
To: Lisa Foster
Subject: Next Step for Special Diabetes Programs

Dear ,

Good news! Thanks to the ongoing support of Diabetes Advocates like you,
yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted 355-59 in support of a
Medicare package that included a two-year extension of the Special
Diabetes
Programs. This is a great step, but we’re not done yet!

The Medicare package will be voted on in the Senate tomorrow, so we
need to keep
up the pressure. Please send a letter to your Senators asking them to
vote in
favor of the Medicare package that includes a two-year extension of the
Special
Diabetes Programs at the National Institutes of Health and the Indian
Health
Service.

Thank you for your tireless efforts this week asking Congress to help
us change
the future of diabetes. Please ask your Senators to fight diabetes by
letting
this vote happen and supporting the Medicare package that includes a
two-year
extension of the Special Diabetes Programs. Click on Take Action Now to
send
your letter.

To Take action, go to this link:

https://secure2.convio.net/adap/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr009=9k3zy2m
yd1.app10b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1282

Quoting Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH <yvetter@email.arizona.edu:

SDPI Reauthorization Update

While those of you at the meeting are hearing this in person, I
wanted to make
sure those of you not at the meeting know that today is an important
day for
SDPI Reauthorization – see below

Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH, Chair, Awakening the Spirit Team
American Diabetes Association

From: American Diabetes Association [mailto:MakingNoise@diabetes.org]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 2:18 PM
To: Lisa Foster
Subject: The vote on the Special Diabetes Programs is happening
tomorrow!

Forward to a Friend

Dear  ,

We mentioned this would be a busy week and we have just found out that
the House
of Representatives is expected to vote on the extension of the Special
Diabetes
Programs tomorrow, June 24th, as part of the Medicare package.

As you know, this legislation will extend vitally important funding
for
research
on type 1 diabetes and funding for research, treatment and prevention
programs
for Native Americans populations who are affected by diabetes in
disproportionate numbers. The bill will come up under a “suspension of
the
rules”, a procedure intended to speed up the process and move the
legislation
forward.  It also means that two-thirds of the Members need to vote
for
the bill
for it to pass.

Many of you have already written your Members of Congress on this
issue, but
your voice needs to be heard again!

Help us get closer to a cure! Click on Take Action Now to urge Del.
Norton to
vote in favor of the two year extension of the Special Diabetes
Programs.

Take Action Now!

Quoting Alisa.Katai@UCHSC.edu:

Please forward this information to all program staff attending the
June
Grantee Meeting next week!

Dear Grantees:

We are really looking forward to spending some time with you next
week
at the SDPI Demonstration Projects Grantee Meeting, Year 4 Meeting 2.
Here are a few quick miscellaneous notes to assist you in being
prepared
before you get here.

*    An updated agenda is attached.  Please note that though the
content of the meeting hasn’t changed much, the schedule is different
than previous drafts of the agenda.  Please plan accordingly.

*    In order to get the most out of the Semi-Annual Progress Report
presentation, please review the progress report in detail in the days
prior to the meeting.  Also, please print your own copy of the
General
Progress Report to bring to the meeting so you can easily follow
along
with the presentation.  You can download it from the CC website,
under
Publications on the left navigation bar.  You can also find your
Grantee-Specific Progress Report at the same location.  There will be
ample time for questions and comments following the presentation, so
please make a note of anything you want answered.

*    The continuation application and carry-over issues will be
discussed at this meeting.  Please come prepared with your questions
on
these two issues.

*    Meals reminder: A hot lunch will be provided on Thursday.  On
Wednesday, you are on your own for lunch before the meeting and only
beverages will be provided during the afternoon break.  The bus
leaves
the hotel at 12:00 p.m., so please plan to eat before then.  Please
also
plan to bring your own morning and afternoon snacks for both days if
desired.

*    Gamma grantees’ regular Tuesday data submission is still due the
week of the grantee meeting; however you can send in your electronic
submission on any day of that week.

*    Weather for the week is predicted to be in the mid-to-high 80s,
dry and sunny.

*    Though there is no special evening bus to an area mall just for
grantees this meeting, the hotel runs a free shuttle to the nearby
Northfield Mall.  A shuttle schedule will be provided by the hotel at
check-in.

Safe travels, and we look forward to seeing you next week!

Alisa

__________________________________________________

Alisa D. Katai, MHA

Project Coordinator, Diabetes Prevention Program

IHS SDPI Demonstration Projects Coordinating Center

Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Bldg/MS F800

delivery: 13055 E 17th Ave, First Floor, Aurora CO 80045

mail: PO Box 6508, Aurora CO 80045

p: 303-724-0288  f: 303-724-0332  Alisa.Katai@uchsc.edu

For general questions or when I’m unavailable, please contact

Meghan Berrier  303-724-0426  meghan.berrier@uchsc.edu

For questions on data and forms, please contact:

Jenn Russell  303-724-1422  Jenn.Russell@uchsc.edu

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