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Thoughts on Suicide Risk Assessment
I know the term “suicide risk assessment” sounds very clinical. That’s because I did it for many years as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist in the general hospital. The human part of it was using the suicide safety plan, which I got from the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health & Addiction (CARMHA). You can download…
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What Would Make Psychiatry More Fun?
I just read Dr. George Dawson’s post “Happy Labor Day” published August 31, 2022. As usual, he’s right on the mark about what makes it very difficult to enjoy psychiatric practice. And then, I looked on the web for anything on Roger Kathol, MD, FACLP. There’s a YouTube video of my old teacher on the…
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On the Other Hand Thoughts on HBCUs
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are in the news lately. It reminds me of the short time I spent at Huston-Tillotson College. It was renamed Huston-Tillotson University (H-TU) in 2005. I was there in the mid-1970s. A new President and CEO was just named this month, Dr. Melva K. Williams. And H-TU was recently…
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Thoughts on Doctors Going On Strike
I read Dr. H. Steven Moffic’s two articles in Psychiatric Times about the strike by mental health workers at Northern California Kaiser Permanente (August 16 and 26, 2022). So far, no psychiatrists have joined the strike. However, this piqued my interest in whether psychiatrists or general physicians have ever gone on strike. I have a…
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59th Anniversary of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” Speech on August 28, 1963
Sena reminded me that today is the 59th Anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. After she reminded me about it, I found this anniversary mentioned in only a few headlines on the web. But that’s no excuse. It doesn’t matter that I was just a small…
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Memories and Condolences
I was thinking of my hometown, Mason City, for some reason today. Then I just happened to think of my childhood pastor, Reverend Glen Bandel. The last time I looked him up on the web was about a year ago and saw a news item dated in 2019. He was celebrating his 90th birthday. I…
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Iowa State Fair Remembers Chet Randolph
The other day Iowa PBS remembered former Iowa PBS Market to Market host Chet Randolph with a flashback to his 1978 Reflections on the Iowa State Fair. His point about the Iowa farmers and the role of agriculture in this state is well taken. We enjoy the Fair because of Iowa farmers, who may enjoy…
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All About the Potato Salad
I recently got a checkup for my retinal tear surgery about 4 months ago. My surgeon was pleased with the outcome. Partly based on my good outcome, he shared that he was guiding his trainees on the wisdom of not necessarily always going with the new surgical procedures for the disorder, which happens not infrequently…
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Iowa State Fair Musings
We’ve never actually been to the Iowa State Fair, but we really like listening to the Iowa Public Broadcasting TV shows about it. The first show covered a lot of activities. Food at the Fair is always intriguing. We know there are a lot of foods on a stick, but we didn’t know you could…
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Holes in Our Heads
I remember getting a trephination of my fingernail a long time ago when I was working as a surveyor’s assistant. We were out taking elevation shots with a level and a rod measuring the depth of sewer pipes. This required us to remove the manhole covers, which are very heavy. I got one of my…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 