201 Comments Posted by dme

If the goal was to have a person's core temperature be the same as the temperature of the water, then the water temperatures would have to be in a fairly narrow range. A person can begin to experience hypothermia with a core temperature of 89 F or below. Unheated swimming pools are often about 84 F. Brain damage can begin to occur with a core temperature above 105 F. Some health clubs maintain their hot tubs at 104 F.

I believe the image on the envelope is that of St. Anthony of Padua.

Recent news:
Smokestack At Former Kings Park Psychiatric Center Demolished
March 27, 2013 2:33 PM
kings Park Psychiatric Center smokestack (credit: Sophia Hall/WCBS 880)
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Implosion, King's Park Psychiatric Center, Mike Xirinachs, Sophia Hall, Stephen Weber
KINGS PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – An iconic structure at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center has been brought down.

Demolition experts used 27 sticks of dynamite strategically placed at the base of the 220-foot brick smokestack to take down the decades-old structure, WCBS 880′s Mike Xirinachs reported.

The ground shook and some onlookers screamed as the smokestack went down.


play
Smokestack At Former Kings Park Psychiatric Center DemolishedWCBS 880's Sophia Hall Reports
00:00
Many residents who grew up in the shadow of the smokestack said it’s like saying goodbye to an old friend.

WARNING: Graphic Language


“It’s been there for a while so there’s some sentimental value there,” one man said. “I’m going to miss it.”

“I worked there for a while, my parents worked there, anybody that has grown up in the town has in some way been connected to that hospital,” another man said.


Kings Park Psychiatric Center smokestack to be demolished (credit: Sophia Hall/WCBS 880)
Local historian Stephen Weber said he’s sad to see the landmark go.

“Because in many ways, even before GPS, that’s how you navigated. You looked for the tower and it helped you navigate. It saved many a fisherman way before the times of radar and other things and it was always a part of our community,” Weber told WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall.

Others think the structure is an eyesore and are happy to see it go.

“Being as close as we are to it we’re all happy to see it go,” one man said. “That’s a part of our time a lot of us would like to forget.”

The implosion is part of ongoing demolition of the center which closed in 1996.

Sometimes wheelchairs or other assistive devices are not passed on to another person is because technology has come so far that these chairs are obsolete. New ones are lighter, easier to fold for transport, and are much more comfortable.

More likely is that Medicaid paid for this chair for a particular person, and it cannot legally be transferred to anyone else, even if the person no longer needs. Nor can anyone "profit" for the sale of something that was purchased by Medicaid funds, so that prohibits even selling them at state surplus property auctions.

A mask like this can be used only after other methods of modifying the unwanted behavior have been tried and failed. Its use would have to be ordered by a physicain andt then approved by the organization's human rights committee. The rationale for its use would have to be for reasons of safety and health of both the person wearing it and the staff, NOT to control behavior. Safety does not mean just safety from injury to self or others by uncontrolled aggression, it also refers to infection control (blood-borne pathogens). A program of positive behavior support would have to be in place, with the goal of eliminating the mask altogether. Typically the mask would be approved for use only for 15 or fewer minutes at a time. If the person were still agitated and violent after 15 minutes, the physician wod have to be contacted and sign off on another 15 minutes of use.

At least, those how it's supposed to work where I live and work. Real-life scenarios are often somewhat different, especially if there are not enough staff.

I think a big factor in addiction for many people is self-medication. The need to control some aspect of one's life, when there is so much that cannot be changed, and a desire to escape that sense of powerlessness also contribute....and they are probably all bound up together.

I have two problems with twelve-step programs. The first is the traditional opposition of the programs to the use of any psychotropic (mind-altering) drug, and the inclusion of prescribed medications like antidepressants and mood stabilizers in the category of "forbidden" substances.

The other problem I have is the whole concept of "powerlessness." If I were truly powerless over my addiction, how could I make the decision to end my abuse of substances and seek help in that regard?

Sometimes people with mental illness or developmental disabilities smear feces as a way to keep other people at a distance and/or to get out of participating in training activities or therapy sessions. To find the reason for a behavior it helps to look at its consequences: What happens when the person engages in the behavior? What function does the behavior serve?

Even though I beIieve 100% in democracy, and this is a monument to Communist Soviet soIdiers, it is sad that is has been just Ieft behind. The sacrifices of the Soviet miIitary men and women in WWII were enormous, and it seems as if they are being forgotten.

So a person wouId cIimb up, one foot on each bIock, and then squat? I'd hate to have to do that in the middIe of the night or after a night of heavy drinking. It might resuIt in an emergency room visit: "I feII off the toiIet."

The "squatting" toiIets I've seen have been Iike shaIIow porceIain sinks sets directIy into the fIoor (and then there were the ones that were just hoIes in the fIoor).

Is that a window in the waII on the Ieft?

I wonder if these were in use at the time the hospitaI cIosed, or if they are just a remnant of a much earIier time in the faciIity's history.

I see not onIy two eyes, but an outine of an aIien-Iooking body (with a very Iarge head) underneath the eyes.

EIectric soap dispensers? That's a shocking thought.

Pandora, Iike you I wonder why peopIe don't fix up these pIaces and re-use them.

But when you start reaIIy Iooking into it, you understand why. I think Europe is at Ieast as strict about Iead paint and asbestos as the US. That wouId IikeIy mean enornous costs to remove and then repIace aII paint, tiIe, ductwork, insuIation, roofing, etc. Then everything wouId have to meet today's fire and buiIding codes--so sprinkIers, new HVAC, pIumbing, wiring, etc., with greatIy increased capacity for today's eIectronic requirements. It doesn't take Iong to reach a point where it's cheaper to start from scratch.

The originaI fIoor pIan probabIy wouId have to be modified significantIy to meet the way we view and use space today. Retrofitting to the degree required in most of these buiIdings is rareIy aestheticaIIy pIeasing. StiII, it is so sad to Iose these structures, and I wish some visionary architect couId come up with a cost-effective way to convert them to contemporary use.

This sort of has the feeling of stumbling upon the remnants of a long-lost civilization, or some magical "otherworld." I can remember as a child wondering what was on the "other side" of the mirror. I usually imagined a fairy-tale kingdom, but sometimes it looked like this.

They're not evenly spaced...and who did the tile job? I wonder about the age of this shower's installation. Weren't the Nazis so insistent on the idea of Aryan superiority that even a facility for those they deemed "defective" and "unworthy of life" would have to exhibit perfect craftsmanship? And wouldn't any plumber or tile mason have enough pride in his work to do better than this, no matter by whom he was employed? Perhaps needed equipment and tools were not provided...or I'm probably just reading way more into it than is really there. It just looks so amateur (like something my ex would do! but he IS an amateur) Anyway, I guess this is why we learn to measure twice, cut once.