Haven't you been reading about all those X-prize teams? By 2010 commercial space travel will be a reality. It will also be so much cheaper than the Space Shuttle, that it will be an embarrassment to that program.
Re:Two things you can't say
on
What You Can't Say
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Scary thing about what you just said is that many people will lable you a racist for simply saying it. If you held an academic position, even tenured, you could be terminated for simply pointing out these differences. Never mind the fact that your statement was not racist in nature.
Racism (n) - the belief that any one particular race, as a whole, is superior to another race.
The problem isn't GTA but rather the parents who allow their kids to play this game. I've got a little story that may interest some of you.
Before I became totally fed up with the state sponsored BHRS psychological services in Pennsylvania, I worked with children and their families doing therapy and consulting with respect to parenting skills and behavioral issues. Some of the children I worked with were diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). About a half dozen of these children were exceptionally violent. Each of these six children had been previously hospitalized or placed in the juvenile justice system because they regularly assaulted others. At home, each of these children had access to GTA and played it regularly. In every case, I sat down with the family and outlined why it was a bad idea for Tommy/Suzy to play GTA. I sat the parents down with the child and had them watch the child play GTA. After watching their son/daughter shoot cops, steal cars, and pick up prostitutes, the parents, without exception, still decided not to take this game away from their child.
Why? Because in each and every case the parents had been corrupted by the social security disability benefits their child was receiving. These parents knew that they stood to lose some $900.00 per month per child, once their child responded to treatment and no longer required services. Therefore, these parents did everything in their power to make sure their children didn't respond to treatment.
The following is off-topic as hell, but this whole situation pisses me off so much I don't care anymore.
Just for those of you who are interested, let me me break down for you the approximate total yearly cost of services for one family including a mother, live-in boyfriend, and three children diagnosed with ADHD/ODD.
Standard welfare package:
a. Basic Welfare Assistance: ~$900 per month, $10800 per year
b. Foodstamps: ~$200 per month, $2400 per year
c. Section 8 Housing Assistance for a mother and three children: ~$700 per month $8400 per year
d. Basic medical insurance for three children and mother: ~$1000 per month, $12,000 per year.
Total standard welfare costs for this family (not including administrative overhead): ~$2800 per month, ~$33,600 per year
The factor in the costs of BHRS (wraparound) services for each child, figuring 2 hours Behavior Specialist Consultant (BSC) per week at $49.00 per hour, 3 hours Mobile therapy (MT) per week at $49.00 per hour, and 20 hours of Therapeutic Support Staff (TSS) per week at $22.50 per hour (hourly costs billed to the Commonwealth of PA NOT how much each counselor makes per hour).
For each child this works out to cost: ((49*2)+(49*3)+(22.5*20))*52= $695 per week $3012 per month, and $36140 per year per child.
For three ADHD children this works out to be $108420 and does not include cost of psychological assessments (every three months), monthly medication checks with a psychiatrist, and the cost of psychotropic medications. These additional services and medications are not inexpensive, figure another ~$100,000 per year.
Factor in social security disability benefits for three children at ~$900 per month: per child: ~$2700 per month, ~$32400 per year.
Total cost to taxpayers of services for one family (mother, boyfriend, three children) on welfare: $33,600+108,000+$100,000+$32400 = approximately $270,000 per year, per family.
This makes me sick. I hope it made you sick too.
I enjoyed reading about your project. I think what the NZ government is doing to you is a grave injustice. Is there anything (petition, donation, etc) I can do to help out?
Support Microsoft over Mandrake? Why, just because the French are percieved as snobby? Setting the merits of their respective products aside for the moment, which company would you say is more honest and a better corporate citizen? As far as their products go, which OS is more secure? If you can't see past your hatred of the French, why not support Red Hat instead of Microsoft? After all, choosing Microsoft over Linux is like choosing slavery over freedom.
Re:Please be respectful on this topic
on
Working with ADHD?
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· Score: 1
Good points, if I was attempting to assert this statement as fact instead of as my opinion. But I was not; I was merely stating my opinion. Notice the IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) and lighten up.
Re:Please be respectful on this topic
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
"Was that course of study demanding? Just wondering... I'm sure it was just as tough as an M.D. from Penn."
nope, never claimed it was.
Re:Please be respectful on this topic
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
Resentment? Definately, I resent a public mental health system that malicously enslaves the ignorant masses with lies and drugs for the sake profit. Ignorance? If so, it is informed ignorance.
I'm glad that a psychologist helped you. I truly am. But for every person like you that a psychologist actually helps there are 10 (or more in the case of ADHD) that he/she does not. I see children like this day in and day out. Children that I know I can't help because a doctor diagnosed the child with an Axis I disorder like ADHD simply becasue they can.
Children face a tremendous uphill battle to overcome the ADHD label. Children are diagosed with ADHD simply so that the psychologist can get reimbursed for his services. Ethically these doctors should instead simply note parent/child relational problems (source of > 80% of ADHD, IMHO) on AXIS IV and let us work with that. The problem lies in the fact that insurance companies won't pay for services and pills unless a child is diagnosed with an AXIS I disorder.
IMHO, the fields of psychology and psychiatry have debased themselves to the point of being quackery.
As for my education and title, you are correct that I am neither a psychologist or psychiatrist. As a therapist working in wraparound services with children and families, my actual "trendy" job titles are that of Behavior Specialist Consultant (BSC) and Mobile Therapist (MT). The minimum educational requirement for working in both of these positions is a Master's degree in either psychology, counseling, or social work with training in behavior modification. I earned a Master of Arts in psychology (Duquesne University) and have no desire to pursue further education in this field; I simply no longer have faith in the mental health system. I'm actually considering leaving the field to go back to school to study something useful, like Electrical Engineering.
Re:Please be respectful on this topic
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 1
As a therapist looking to get out of the field, I may be able to answer the question of what causes ADHD.
A. Nothing. ADHD does not exist.
This is not a troll. Healthcare professionals created this disorder to decribe persons not comporting themselves like a "normal" person in terms of "on-task" behavior and attentiveness. The degree to which a particular individual is attentive can be directly and quanitatively compared to other persons and the general population. Like intelligence, attentiveness or the lack thereof can be attributed to multiple factors not the least of which is heredity.
Of course, healthcare providers make an enormous amount of money every year diagnosing and treating ADHD. Funny thing is, mental health diagoses tend to be faddish; in the 50s and 60s (at least in the US) the trend was to diagnose patients with was schizophrenia. In the 80s it was depression. In the 90s it was ADHD. The current up and coming trend is to to diagnose patients, particulary children, with Asperger's Disorder.
Again, ADHD as such does NOT exist. It is simply a diagnostic category that attempts to lable those with poor attentional skills. It is nothing more.
Psychologists and psychiatrists, proximally and for the most part, are engaging the general population in a scam of an unthinkable magnitude. I've worked in the field and trust me, its not about helping you; its about getting wealthy by taking your money.
So does this mean I should seriously consider switching careers to become a software developer?
I've been kicking around the idea of going back to college and getting a second Master's degree, this time in something useful like Computer Science. Anybody think it would do me any good in this job market? Or will it be just as useless as my MA in psychology?
Slashdot Mirror
Haven't you been reading about all those X-prize teams? By 2010 commercial space travel will be a reality. It will also be so much cheaper than the Space Shuttle, that it will be an embarrassment to that program.
Scary thing about what you just said is that many people will lable you a racist for simply saying it. If you held an academic position, even tenured, you could be terminated for simply pointing out these differences. Never mind the fact that your statement was not racist in nature.
Racism (n) - the belief that any one particular race, as a whole, is superior to another race.
The problem isn't GTA but rather the parents who allow their kids to play this game. I've got a little story that may interest some of you. Before I became totally fed up with the state sponsored BHRS psychological services in Pennsylvania, I worked with children and their families doing therapy and consulting with respect to parenting skills and behavioral issues. Some of the children I worked with were diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). About a half dozen of these children were exceptionally violent. Each of these six children had been previously hospitalized or placed in the juvenile justice system because they regularly assaulted others. At home, each of these children had access to GTA and played it regularly. In every case, I sat down with the family and outlined why it was a bad idea for Tommy/Suzy to play GTA. I sat the parents down with the child and had them watch the child play GTA. After watching their son/daughter shoot cops, steal cars, and pick up prostitutes, the parents, without exception, still decided not to take this game away from their child. Why? Because in each and every case the parents had been corrupted by the social security disability benefits their child was receiving. These parents knew that they stood to lose some $900.00 per month per child, once their child responded to treatment and no longer required services. Therefore, these parents did everything in their power to make sure their children didn't respond to treatment. The following is off-topic as hell, but this whole situation pisses me off so much I don't care anymore. Just for those of you who are interested, let me me break down for you the approximate total yearly cost of services for one family including a mother, live-in boyfriend, and three children diagnosed with ADHD/ODD. Standard welfare package: a. Basic Welfare Assistance: ~$900 per month, $10800 per year b. Foodstamps: ~$200 per month, $2400 per year c. Section 8 Housing Assistance for a mother and three children: ~$700 per month $8400 per year d. Basic medical insurance for three children and mother: ~$1000 per month, $12,000 per year. Total standard welfare costs for this family (not including administrative overhead): ~$2800 per month, ~$33,600 per year The factor in the costs of BHRS (wraparound) services for each child, figuring 2 hours Behavior Specialist Consultant (BSC) per week at $49.00 per hour, 3 hours Mobile therapy (MT) per week at $49.00 per hour, and 20 hours of Therapeutic Support Staff (TSS) per week at $22.50 per hour (hourly costs billed to the Commonwealth of PA NOT how much each counselor makes per hour). For each child this works out to cost: ((49*2)+(49*3)+(22.5*20))*52= $695 per week $3012 per month, and $36140 per year per child. For three ADHD children this works out to be $108420 and does not include cost of psychological assessments (every three months), monthly medication checks with a psychiatrist, and the cost of psychotropic medications. These additional services and medications are not inexpensive, figure another ~$100,000 per year. Factor in social security disability benefits for three children at ~$900 per month: per child: ~$2700 per month, ~$32400 per year. Total cost to taxpayers of services for one family (mother, boyfriend, three children) on welfare: $33,600+108,000+$100,000+$32400 = approximately $270,000 per year, per family. This makes me sick. I hope it made you sick too.
thanks
I enjoyed reading about your project. I think what the NZ government is doing to you is a grave injustice. Is there anything (petition, donation, etc) I can do to help out?
Support Microsoft over Mandrake? Why, just because the French are percieved as snobby? Setting the merits of their respective products aside for the moment, which company would you say is more honest and a better corporate citizen? As far as their products go, which OS is more secure? If you can't see past your hatred of the French, why not support Red Hat instead of Microsoft? After all, choosing Microsoft over Linux is like choosing slavery over freedom.
Good points, if I was attempting to assert this statement as fact instead of as my opinion. But I was not; I was merely stating my opinion. Notice the IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) and lighten up.
"Was that course of study demanding? Just wondering... I'm sure it was just as tough as an M.D. from Penn." nope, never claimed it was.
Resentment? Definately, I resent a public mental health system that malicously enslaves the ignorant masses with lies and drugs for the sake profit. Ignorance? If so, it is informed ignorance. I'm glad that a psychologist helped you. I truly am. But for every person like you that a psychologist actually helps there are 10 (or more in the case of ADHD) that he/she does not. I see children like this day in and day out. Children that I know I can't help because a doctor diagnosed the child with an Axis I disorder like ADHD simply becasue they can. Children face a tremendous uphill battle to overcome the ADHD label. Children are diagosed with ADHD simply so that the psychologist can get reimbursed for his services. Ethically these doctors should instead simply note parent/child relational problems (source of > 80% of ADHD, IMHO) on AXIS IV and let us work with that. The problem lies in the fact that insurance companies won't pay for services and pills unless a child is diagnosed with an AXIS I disorder. IMHO, the fields of psychology and psychiatry have debased themselves to the point of being quackery. As for my education and title, you are correct that I am neither a psychologist or psychiatrist. As a therapist working in wraparound services with children and families, my actual "trendy" job titles are that of Behavior Specialist Consultant (BSC) and Mobile Therapist (MT). The minimum educational requirement for working in both of these positions is a Master's degree in either psychology, counseling, or social work with training in behavior modification. I earned a Master of Arts in psychology (Duquesne University) and have no desire to pursue further education in this field; I simply no longer have faith in the mental health system. I'm actually considering leaving the field to go back to school to study something useful, like Electrical Engineering.
As a therapist looking to get out of the field, I may be able to answer the question of what causes ADHD.
A. Nothing. ADHD does not exist.
This is not a troll. Healthcare professionals created this disorder to decribe persons not comporting themselves like a "normal" person in terms of "on-task" behavior and attentiveness. The degree to which a particular individual is attentive can be directly and quanitatively compared to other persons and the general population. Like intelligence, attentiveness or the lack thereof can be attributed to multiple factors not the least of which is heredity.
Of course, healthcare providers make an enormous amount of money every year diagnosing and treating ADHD. Funny thing is, mental health diagoses tend to be faddish; in the 50s and 60s (at least in the US) the trend was to diagnose patients with was schizophrenia. In the 80s it was depression. In the 90s it was ADHD. The current up and coming trend is to to diagnose patients, particulary children, with Asperger's Disorder.
Again, ADHD as such does NOT exist. It is simply a diagnostic category that attempts to lable those with poor attentional skills. It is nothing more.
Psychologists and psychiatrists, proximally and for the most part, are engaging the general population in a scam of an unthinkable magnitude. I've worked in the field and trust me, its not about helping you; its about getting wealthy by taking your money.
So does this mean I should seriously consider switching careers to become a software developer?
I've been kicking around the idea of going back to college and getting a second Master's degree, this time in something useful like Computer Science. Anybody think it would do me any good in this job market? Or will it be just as useless as my MA in psychology?