Hospital without walls
0 Comments | New Straits Times, Mar 28, 2010 | by Michael Sun
THE Mahadevan Travelling Fellowship for psychiatrists is in its second year. MICHAEL SUN speaks to the founder and recipients.
YOU have to be an incurable optimist when dealing with psychiatric patients because relapses are common, learns Dr Gayathri K Suriar.
The senior medical officer in Psychiatry at Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani, Kedah was awarded the 2010 Mahadevan Travelling Fellowship to train for one month at the Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University for General Practitioners and Psychiatrists.
The award was announced at the recent first international meeting between Harvard University, London College of Clinical Hypnosis (LCCH) and Malaysia’s psychiatrists and mental healthcare personnel in Petaling Jaya.
“It is not a specialisation per se. I am just going there to learn their ways of handling things so that I can bring these back to incorporate into our health system.”
On attaining her level of proficiency through hard work, she says: “You have to be dedicated as a medical officer. I enjoy my work and for me, it is something to give back to humanity.”
Dr Gayathri is altruistic and performs charity to highlight the problems of schizophrenia. “At least one per cent of the population suffers from it and it is increasing.”
Dr Sharifah Elizah Jamalullial – the First Mahadevan Fellow at Harvard University and who was there last year – says: “I am honoured to be the first recipient and that Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan had picked me for the scholarship.”
And to apply, you have to be a doctor and a member of the LCCH, obtained the Diploma which is a requirement and have a keen interest in Psychiatry. “It does not matter if you are not a psychiatrist as long as you are passionate about Psychiatry.”
Dr Sharifah Elizah is a family physician by training. “By coincidence I changed to Psychiatry. I graduated in 2005 in the United Kingdom. Then I worked there for a year before coming back to work at Universiti Hospital for three years and before working as a family physician at Twin Towers Medical Centre.”
Dr Mahadevan had intended for Dr Sharifah Elizah to return with whatever knowledge gained in the United States and to apply it in Malaysia. “He was always interested in Community Psychiatry and I told the Harvard committee that I was interested in that.
“It arranged lots of visits through a team. It is a community team that goes to visit people in their homes, so it is a hospital without walls.”
On hypnotherapy, she adds: “Lots of people think that anyone can be hypnotised, but the participant has to be willing. There are lots of programmes that are run here such as stopping smoking but the patient must want to do so.”
Part of it is the patient’s belief system and encouragement. “The therapist would put you into a deep state of trance and would give you the self-belief that you can overcome smoking.”
The fellowship was created to provide an exchange of ideas and learning between Malaysia and the US and United Kingdom. One student from Malaysia each year will attend Harvard University for a month and a student from Harvard University will attend a local tertiary institution. Harvard University and LCCH will hold joint talks and discussion in Malaysia
Dr Mahadevan, creator of the fellowship to Harvard, explains the selection process. “First of all, applicants must be a psychiatrist, if possible. They must have used (LCCH) as the beat while they are undergoing training in hypnotic care.
“Then we assess their ability and aptitude, and whether they are interested in the communities.”
On what it takes to be a good psychiatrist or a good hypno- therapist, Dr Mahadevan says: “In anything, what you need is interest
hypnosis training
I know that if you’re nursing, you’re not
supposed to diet. I have been eating healthy foods high in
nutrients, and I have lost a little weight. Would it be
harmful to the baby if I started taking apple cider vinegar
pills to help with weight loss?
Answer: A few vinegar pills probably won’t hurt you or your
baby, but they won’t do one bit of good in helping you lose
weight either. This old diet fad dates back to the 1970s,
when a combination of apple cider, kelp, vitamin B-6, and
lecithin was touted as the miracle cure for weight loss. The
rationale for this concoction was that it tricked your
body’s metabolism.
According to the claims, lecithin emulsified body fat, B-6
metabolized the loosened fat, kelp supplied iodine to
stimulate the thyroid gland to manufacture more thyroxin to
speed metabolism, and vinegar supplied potassium.
protein
Siteseeing
0 Comments | Winnipeg Free Press, Jul 22, 2010 | by Augustine, Anthony
Mix Turtle
mixturtle.com
META-MUSIC search engines are nothing new. Pulling streaming music content from across the web, Mix Turtle makes it easy to locate and listen to music from your favourite artists. Although you can’t download the songs you find, you can setup a custom playlist and be your own DJ.
Netflix To Launch Canadian Service
http://www.netflix.ca
After a couple years of rumours and growing frustration from Canadians not able to access Netflix, the largest movie- and TV-streaming service in the United States, the company recently announced it would be rolling out a Canadian version this fall. While there is no word yet on if it will also offer home movie delivery service as it does in the U.S., the instant on-demand streaming of TV shows and movies is what consumers really want.
For a monthly fee, subscribers will be able to stream video content to their computers and iPads, or their TVs through devices like the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3. Already around for a few years in the U.S. (with over 13 million subscribers), Netflix was a game changer when it began offering on-demand video streaming as part of a subscription.
While movie stores won’t disappear over night, the company will instantly grab a huge share of the video rental market and make a major impact when it launches this fall. Canada is the first country outside the U.S. that Netflix will be operating in.
The Social Network
yhoo.it/the_social_network_trailer
CAN a movie about social-networking giant Facebook actually be worth watching? Judging by this trailer, the answer is yes. Directed by David Fincher and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake, The Social Network hits theatres Oct. 1
Chatroulette Expands
http://www.chatroulette.com
WHEN Russian teen Andrey Ternovskiy launched Chatroulette last November on a shoe-string budget, nobody really knew how much impact it would have on web culture. Bringing together random strangers via web cam, Chatroulette went against the grain of the social nature of the web and sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Instead of connecting people who already knew each other, Chatroulette was the Wild West of the web. You never really knew what you were going to get: a woman with a guitar, a man wearing a Mexican wrestling mask, a group of giggling teenage girls or some naked guy.
With over 1.5 million users and 35,000 on the site at any given time, Chatroulette quickly established itself as a major player on the Internet. As of last week, the site rolled out two new features. Along with offering a localized version where you can randomly connect with people in your area, the site is also offering channels that let you meet people based on mutual interests.
It’s no surprise that the sex channel is No
search engine services