and pls tell me abt any factors that lead to ur answer(s)! v curious

heads up, there are trans users on hockeyblr who respectfully disagree with your post. I hope you don't receive any hate from anyone because your voice is as valid in this discussion, just as their's is. this is a period of time for everyone to learn together and to be respectful about the process. the transphobes can still fuck off though :P

Thank you for letting me know! I haven’t seen or heard of any responses to the post, so I don’t think I will be receiving any hate (not in the least because it did not gain much traction). I also do not intend to bash anyone’s opinions or feelings because certainly all feelings are valid. If anybody has links to me of people discussing this, I would love to see them, and if anybody disagrees with me, feel free to engage in (civilized) discussion because I 100% agree on people needing to learn together. I have definitely been reflecting a lot on the situation and my own perceptions and assumptions. 

Most of why I wrote the post is that I feel like currently a lot of the ongoing discussion is very one-sided. I 100% understand being trans is difficult and that any gender, sexual or romantic identity which deviates from the norm means you’re more often excluded from media that should be inclusive. In other words: yes, absolutely I think trans people deserve the self-insert fics they want to read, and I personally don’t read self-insert at all so I really don’t know how big this issue is. Obviously it is good for authors to know that assuming a pairing is cis straight isn’t the only option (and of course, this also extends to assumptions re: other types of marginalized bodies). 

However, I do think trans men have a unique type of responsibility in this situation. It is a complex identity--on the one hand, being transgender does come with marginalization, but on the other hand, and this goes for trans men specifically--especially those who socially and medically transition--do need to be aware of their male privilege and constantly check themselves on that. A trans man cannot act to women the way another woman would (whether she is trans or cis). 

I personally also find it difficult to break free from the established gender binary, particularly when it comes to people calling themselves “trans.” To me, that does signal male-or-female, which I am aware is untrue and I realized after writing that I failed to include more diverse gender identities. In other words: my post was specifically about binary trans men. 

Anyway, to reiterate: I do think fandom ought to be inclusive to anybody, particularly people belonging to marginalized groups. However, with that also comes a complex mix of identities and different methods of feeling safe. Women face struggles which are different from what trans men face; I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with female-only or female-focused communities. I do think Tumblr has an issue with their perception of men, and with generalizations, which I reckon is at work here. 

The way I interpreted the initial post, and perhaps this is my fault, I don’t know, was a trans man demanding access to a female space (and I suspect several people who agitated against OP did too). After reading subsequent messages I realize that the situation is more complex than that, and some women are claiming fandom should only be open to women, which I absolutely 100% disagree with. Personally I have never been made to feel like this fandom is only for women, although mlm ships do tend to attract a different audience, which must also relate to the types of posts people make. Personally, I also stay out of spaces that feel like they are “not for me” (e.g. I do follow some people who write or reblog self-insert fic because of their other content, but as that is not a type of fic I enjoy reading or writing, I skip past them). Discussions of inclusivity are always important and necessary. Yet, a man has to be aware that demanding change to cater to him within a safe space for women does give off a certain message. For me, that was what, paired with what felt like the demand on cis female authors to write a certain type of content, left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Ideally, to me, people read up on the extant issues in fandom. Authors reflect on why they write what they write--those who feel comfortable to do so will hopefully change some of the assumptions enclosed in much self-insert fic. I do think that experimentally writing marginalized POVs in fics like that is a great idea (and ought to include but extend beyond gender to also include a variety of body types and skin colours, cultural backgrounds, etc.). And hopefully the list of trans blogs going around makes clear that there is an audience for non-cishet self-insert stories, inspiring all kinds of authors to write more diversely. In fact, I would love to see people expand this type of creativity beyond the reader-insert, but write the hockey players they are paired up with as bisexual, trans, etc.  

Finally--There is a constant call to have “trans voices” be heard. I put that term in quotation marks, because to me it is a problematic notion--not because trans voices are inherently problematic, but because it means that only people who are openly transgender have a voice. I do not want to claim that there are no issues in cisgender people speaking for transgender people (particularly cisgender heterosexual white people), because there are, but I do want to stress that dismissing someone’s opinion as “worthless” and assuming they are cisgender--often because they disagree with the loudest trans voices--is also limiting. Yes, cisgender people exist, but trans people should not be forced to disclose their identity lest they be excluded from the discussion. 

Actor Michael D. Cohen Has Something to Share: ‘I Transitioned’

Actor Michael D. Cohen in Burbank, Calif. on April 16, 2019.

“We need more sweat!”

On that command, a production assistant takes a spray bottle filled with glycerin and scurries over to actor Michael D. Cohen, making his bald head glisten as a crew stands by at a studio in Burbank, Calif. They’re filming the fifth season of Henry Danger, a farcical superhero saga that is Nickelodeon’s longest running live-action sitcom. In it, Cohen plays a character named Schwoz, a quirky genius who aids the show’s good guys much as Q aids James Bond. In this scene, as a goof, Schwoz is leading some of the show’s younger actors through an aerobic workout. Cameras roll as Cohen, clad in spandex and now suitably sweaty, breaks into action. “Your life begins where your comfort zone ends!” he barks while huffing through the routine.

It’s just a line that Cohen is delivering in his character’s silly accent. But it also expresses an idea that the actor has come to understand intimately, one he is ready to embrace again, whatever it might mean for his future. Spurred in part by the political climate — which in recent years has seen fraught public reckonings around issues related to gender — Cohen wants to publicly disclose a private fact that he has been sharing with colleagues on the set of Henry Danger: Nearly twenty years ago, he transitioned from female to male.

“I was misgendered at birth,” Cohen says. “I identify as male, and I am proud that I have had a transgender experience — a transgender journey.”

Today, there are more actors than ever who are open about having had, as Cohen puts it, a transgender journey. This is in part because there is a proliferation of shows, including Pose and Transparent, that are portraying nuanced transgender characters. But Cohen is rare in that he worked in the entertainment industry for more than two decades before he chose to make this disclosure.

In many ways, the environment is far more welcoming than it was when Cohen first transitioned, back when issues of gender identity were largely relegated to spectacles like The Jerry Springer Show. In Hollywood, figures like Laverne Cox and Asia Kate Dillon have nabbed major roles, helping to shift mindsets among producers and audiences alike. More broadly, there is unprecedented awareness about LGBTQ issues, in courts and legislatures as well as the cultural zeitgeist. Yet that visibility has also spurred backlash from conservatives who cast transgender and gender nonconforming people as a threat to societal norms.

Cohen does not use the word transgender to describe himself, but he does view himself as part of a community that typically embraces that label, and he didn’t feel he could be an outspoken advocate until he made his history known. The actor has grown restless while watching the Trump administration roll back protections for transgender people in schools and the military, as Republicans have fought bills that would protect them from discrimination in public spaces.

“This crazy backlash and oppression of rights is happening right in front of me. I can’t stay silent,” Cohen says. “The level of — let’s be polite — misunderstanding around trans issues is so profound and so destructive. When you disempower one population, you disempower everybody.”

It’s a chilly April evening in L.A., and I’m sitting with Cohen on the otherwise empty patio of a sleek restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. One of the first things you notice about him is the same thing casting directors do: he’s short, just over five feet tall. Tonight, his big eyes are framed under a flat cap and he’s sporting salt-and-pepper stubble that will be shaved before filming starts the next day. As we talk, Cohen has a tendency to fiddle with the cuff of his blue blazer. The Canadian-born actor also has a tendency to crack jokes, displaying the comedic talents that have propelled his career. When asked about how it’s been having the name Michael Cohen lately, for instance, he says that he’s had it: “I’m thinking of changing my name to Paul Manafort.”

Today, a central struggle for openly transgender actors is combatting the expectation that they should play transgender characters. If Cohen has been hemmed in, it’s only by the perception that he’s a character actor — a type of thespian he defines as “not good looking enough to sleep with a leading woman.”

He recalls watching The Carol Burnett Show as a kid in Winnipeg, marveling at the way that television can be unifying for people laughing together on a couch “regardless of whatever else is happening in that family unit.” Though Cohen always wanted to be an actor, there was a time early in his career when he focused on behind-the-scenes work and voice acting instead. “I think I loved acting so much,” he says, “that I didn’t want to do it as a woman.” Eventually, his love of acting won out. Cohen played female roles until he transitioned in 2000, a process that, in his case, involved medical treatment as well as changes in how he presented himself socially.

Some years later, Cohen left the studios of Toronto for Hollywood and started landing roles at a greater clip. In 2014, he began appearing on Henry Danger. Today, more than 750,000 kids tune in to watch the sitcom each week. According to Nickelodeon — which, along with parent company Viacom, shares wholehearted support for Cohen and “diversity in all its forms” — it’s the number one live-action kids’ show on basic cable. Adults may have seen Cohen elsewhere, on sitcoms like Powerless, in films or commercials like a Wendy’s “Biggie Bag” spot that has been airing recently.

Actor Michael D. Cohen on the set of Henry Danger in Burbank, Calif. on April 16, 2019.

Actor Michael D. Cohen on the set of Henry Danger in Burbank, Calif. on April 16, 2019.

Ryan Pfluger for TIME

Another reason Cohen wants to publicly talk about his history now is that he is preparing to put on a new production, a play about his life that has been in the making for the past fifteen years. In the one-man show that he wrote and stars in — called “4 Cubits Make a Man,” a reference to Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian specimen — he chronicles how he came to grips with his identity, as well as how he navigated family, romantic relationships and widespread ideas about what makes someone a man.

“It is not random, it is not arbitrary, it is not chosen,” he says of gender identity. “It’s like trying to negotiate with gravity.”

The play, funny enough to get the audience through the raw pain of many scenes, centers on this tension. “In my experience, I was born male. What my body said about it was irrelevant,” Cohen says. “No matter how hard I tried, it was not up for negotiation. Believe me, it would have been so convenient if I was actually a woman.”

People like him are not, as some social conservatives have suggested in fiery debates about LGBTQ rights, the product of “radical ideology” spreading around the Internet or a figment of anyone’s imagination, he says. “My chromosomes do not dictate my gender. I’m a man,” Cohen says. “It’s not that hard.”

In the play, Cohen also explains why he does not describe himself as transgender.

He understands that this word is commonly used by people who identify with a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth. Many people “feel that does reflect their identity and they’re very comfortable with that, and that’s completely valid,” he says. But, for him, the term feels off, and he does not want to make compromises about how he describes himself at this point in his life. “I have worked so hard to get to the truth and I’ve taken on labels in the past that didn’t feel true for the sake of convenience at that moment,” he says. While the word transgender may describe his past or his transition, he says, he has always felt his “core being” was male, and so that is the language he uses.

Cohen knows that may seem complicated. But that comes with the territory. He believes that animus toward people like him — however they identify — comes in part from the fact that their existence complicates simple maxims about gender. That is part of what has made transgender people a target in political battles over issues like the sports, religious freedom and civil rights. And Cohen wants to stand with them. “These are my people. I belong to this group,” he says of Americans who have been affected by policies like the Trump Administration’s guidance on Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Though Nickelodeon has been supportive, Cohen knows this is a complicated time to be making this disclosure in Hollywood, too. The entertainment industry continues to grapple with what it means to be inclusive, and while LGBTQ issues are intermingling with kids’ programming more than in the past, sensitivities remain. Cohen is hopeful about the message that his continued presence on the show — which has filmed more than 100 episodes and was recently picked up for 10 more — will send to young viewers who are attuned to issues of gender identity. Yet he is also prepared for backlash from parents.

“People don’t understand. They think this has to do with sexuality and it doesn’t. They think this has to do with pushing an agenda on kids and it doesn’t,” he says. “What it does is send a message to kids that whoever they are, however they identify, that’s celebrated and valued and okay.”

There’s something about Cohen that kids respond to, the producers of Henry Danger say. Maybe it’s his small stature. Maybe it’s his talent for physical comedy. Maybe it’s the feeling that Schwoz is a fantastical bridge between the grownup and kid worlds.

Chris Nowak, the showrunner for Henry Danger, says that colleagues respect what Cohen has told them but continue to see him as they always have: “Just a guy who’s real good at his job.” Jace Norman, a teen heartthrob who plays the show’s protagonist, Henry Hart, says in an email that the news “didn’t change anything about the high level of respect and admiration I have for the guy,” and thinks “it’s in the best interest of the entire world to have every type of person represented on TV.”

On set, Cohen’s news seems to have been processed with little hubbub. Of far more concern is the timing for delivering jokes as he flees, still in his spandex getup, from a frazzled woman who has traveled back from the future to warn everyone that humanity will be enslaved by robots. As she pursues him, Schwoz zips frantically around the show’s secret superhero lair like he’s in a Benny Hill chase scene. In between takes, he jokes that, for this particular episode, he has been drawing inspiration from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

However frivolous it is, when the episode airs, it will reflect a serious reality back to the actor: that the world sees him as he sees himself, a guy who plays another guy on TV. And he hopes that sharing the fuller picture might make the idea of disclosure less uncomfortable for others. “If I tell my truth,” Cohen says, “that gives other people permission to tell theirs too.”

Write to Katy Steinmetz at [email protected].

Family Surveillance by Algorithm: The Rapidly Spreading Tools Few Have Heard Of

Last month, police took American Idol finalist Syesha Mercado’s days-old newborn Ast away because she had not reported her daughter’s birth to authorities, while she was still fighting to regain custody of her son from the state. In February 2021, Syesha had taken her 13-month-old son Amen’Ra to a hospital because he had difficulty transitioning from breast milk to formula and was refusing to eat. What should have been an ordinary medical visit for a new mom prompted a state-contracted child abuse pediatrician with a known history of wrongfully reporting medical conditions as child abuse to call child welfare. Authorities took custody of Amen’Ra on the grounds that Syesha had neglected him. Syesha has been reunited with Ast after substantial media attention and public outrage, but continues to fight for the return of Amen’Ra.

Meanwhile, it took over a year and a half for Erin Yellow Robe, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, to be reunited with her children. Based on an unsubstantiated rumor that Erin was misusing prescription pills, authorities took custody of her children and placed them with white foster parents — despite the federal Indian Child Welfare Act’s requirements and the willingness of relatives and tribal members to care for the children.

For white families, these scenarios typically do not lead to child welfare involvement. For Black and Indigenous families, they often lead to years — potentially a lifetime — of ensnarement in the child welfare system or, as some are now more appropriately calling it, the family regulation system.

Child Welfare as Disparate Policing

Our country’s latest reckoning with structural racism has involved critical reflection on the role of the criminal justice system, education policy, and housing practices in perpetuating racial inequity. The family regulation system needs to be added to this list, along with the algorithms working behind the scenes. That’s why the ACLU has conducted a nationwide survey to learn more about these tools.

Women and children who are Indigenous, Black, or experiencing poverty are disproportionately placed under child welfare’s scrutiny. Once there, Indigenous and Black families fare worse than their white counterparts at nearly every critical step. These disparities are partly the legacy of past social practices and government policies that sought to tear apart Indigenous and Black families. But the disparities are also the result of the continued policing of women in recent years through child welfare practices, public benefits laws, the failed war on drugs, and other criminal justice policies that punish women who fail to conform to particular conceptions of “fit mothers.”

Turning to Predictive Analytics for Solutions

Many child welfare agencies have begun turning to risk assessment tools for reasons ranging from wanting the ability to predict which children are at higher risk for maltreatment to improving agency operations. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania has been using the Allegheny Family Screening Tool (AFST) since 2016. The AFST generates a risk score for complaints received through the county’s child maltreatment hotline by looking at whether certain characteristics of the agency’s past cases are also present in the complaint allegations. Key among these characteristics are family member demographics and prior involvement with the county’s child welfare, jail, juvenile probation, and behavioral health systems. Intake staff then use this risk score as an aide in deciding whether or not to follow up on a complaint with a home study or a formal investigation, or to dismiss it outright.

Like their criminal justice analogues, however, child welfare risk assessment tools do not predict the future. For instance, a recidivism risk assessment tool measures the odds that a person will be arrested in the future, not the odds that they will actually commit a crime. Just as being under arrest doesn’t necessarily mean you did something illegal, a child’s removal from the home, often the target of a prediction model, doesn’t necessarily mean a child was in fact maltreated.

We examined how many jurisdictions across the 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories are using one category of predictive analytics tools: models that systematically use data collected by jurisdictions’ public agencies to attempt to predict the likelihood that a child in a given situation or location will be maltreated. Here’s what we found:

Local or state child welfare agencies in at least 26 states plus D.C. have considered using such predictive tools. Of these, jurisdictions in at least 11 states are currently using them.

Large jurisdictions like New York City, Oregon, and Allegheny County have been using predictive analytics for several years now.

Some tools currently in use, such as the AFST, are used when deciding whether to refer a complaint for further agency action, while others are used to flag open cases for closer review because the tool deems them to be higher-risk scenarios.

The Flaws of Predictive Analytics

Despite the growing popularity of these tools, few families or advocates have heard about them, much less provided meaningful input into their development and use. Yet countless policy choices and value judgments are made in the course of creating and using the tool, any or all of which can impact whether the tool promotes “fairness” or reduces racial disproportionality in agency action.

Moreover, like the tools we have seen in the criminal legal system, any tool built from a jurisdiction’s historical data runs the risk of continuing and increasing existing bias. Historically over-regulated and over-separated communities may get caught in a feedback loop that quickly magnifies the biases in these systems. Who decides what “high risk” means? When a caseworker sees a “high” risk score for a Black person, do they respond in the same way as they would for a white person?

Ultimately, we must ask whether these tools are the best way to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, when such funds are urgently needed to help families avoid the crises that lead to abuse and neglect allegations.

What the ACLU is Doing

It’s critical that we interrogate these tools before they become entrenched, as they have in the criminal justice system. Information about the data used to create a predictive algorithm, the policy choices embedded in the tool, and the tool’s impact both system-wide and in individual cases are some of the things that should be disclosed to the public before a tool is adopted and throughout its use. In addition to such transparency, jurisdictions need to make available opportunities to question and contest a tool’s implementation or application in a specific instance if our policymakers and elected officials are to be held accountable for the rules and penalties enforced through such tools.

In this vein, the ACLU has requested data from Allegheny County and other jurisdictions to independently evaluate the design and impact of their predictive analytics tools and any measures they may be taking to address fairness, due process, and civil liberty concerns.

It’s time that all of us ask our local policymakers to end the unnecessary and harmful policing of families through the family regulation system.

Read the full white paper:

https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/family-surveillance-algorithm

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247012 https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/family-surveillance-by-algorithm-the-rapidly-spreading-tools-few-have-heard-of via http://www.rssmix.com/

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Budget office expects $2.3T deficit before Biden relief plan (AP) The Congressional Budget Office says the federal government is on track for a $2.3 trillion deficit this year. The deficit could soon be revised upward if President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package becomes law. The additional aid—coming after roughly $4 trillion was approved last year—would add more red ink once enacted, but isn’t included in Thursday’s CBO projections. Several decades of deficit spending has meant that the total federal debt held by the public is slightly larger than GDP. That figure is projected to rise to 107% of GDP by 2031 as spending on Medicare and Social Security increases.

Hard-hit restaurants feed COVID doctors, nurses to survive (AP) It was the week after Christmas and coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations were soaring in Portland, Oregon. At Oregon Health & Science University, the state’s largest hospital, morale was low. Doctors and nurses caring for the most critically ill were burning out just when they were needed the most. Then, the food started coming: hot and delicious individually wrapped meals from some of the city’s trendiest restaurants, a buffet of cuisines from Chinese to Italian to Lebanese to Southern comfort food. For staffers who only took off their N95 masks once to eat during a 12-hour shift, the meals were more than just food—they were emotional sustenance. “It’s almost like having a weight lifted. It’s like getting a surprise dozen roses or something,” nurse Alice Clark said. “We’re so grateful.” But the meals, paid for by a wellness grant from the Oregon-based insurance fund SAIF, also served another purpose: They kept struggling restaurants afloat. As fall and then winter set in, eateries were folding under the strain of a monthslong indoor dining ban. The hospital orders—sometimes 150 or 160 meals at a time—were a financial lifeline. “It’s kept the doors open and a small workforce employed. It’s been the most heartfelt catering we’ve ever done,” said Kiauna Floyd, third-generation owner of Amalfi’s, a Portland institution that’s been serving up Italian cuisine for 62 years.

Trump defense wraps up case in three hours (AP) The defense attorneys for Donald Trump have wrapped up their presentation in the former president’s impeachment trial. Lawyers argued for three hours Friday that Trump didn’t incite the Jan. 6 rally crowd to riot at the U.S. Capitol and that his words were merely figures of speech. They say the case against Trump was a political witch hunt by Democrats and was not valid because he is no longer in office. Their truncated defense barely used the full time allotted, 16 hours over two days. Many senators minds appear already made up.

Trump Was Sicker Than Acknowledged With Covid-19 (NYT) President Donald J. Trump was sicker with Covid-19 in October than publicly acknowledged at the time, with extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus, according to four people familiar with his condition. His prognosis became so worrisome before he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator, two of the people familiar with his condition said. Mr. Trump’s blood oxygen level alone was cause for extreme concern, dipping into the 80s, according to the people familiar with his evaluation. The disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s. The new revelations about Mr. Trump’s struggle with the virus underscore the limited and sometimes misleading nature of the information disclosed at the time about his condition.

Powering through appendicitis for perfect score on Chile’s national exam (Las Ultimas Noticias/Chile) The two-day, standardized exam that Chilean high school students must take to gain entry into university is grueling enough to make anyone a bit sick to their stomach. Antonia Schmohol, 18, was no exception, although in her case, the abdominal aches that began bothering her on the eve of the dreaded PTU, as the test is called, turned out to be more than just a case of nerves, the Chilean daily Las Ultimas Notícias reports. Despite her discomfort, the teenager—who hails from Chiguayante, a small city about 500 km south of Santiago—soldiered through the long, first day of the exam. That night, the pain only worsened, but still, Schmohol’s family kept insisting that she was probably just anxious. Having barely slept, the bleary-eyed young woman returned to the testing center the next day, Jan. 9, doubled over in pain at times, nonetheless completed the final portion of the test, the mathematics section. Relieved to finally have the PTU behind her, Schmohol knew at that point that something was seriously wrong in her stomach area, and soon after went to a nearby hospital, where she was diagnosed with appendicitis and operated on right away. The determined young Chilena has since made a full recovery. But this week—just over a month after her gut-wrenching ordeal—she received a call from the Education Ministry informing her that she was one of just 218 students nationwide to earn a perfect score on the PTU’s math section. Talk about grace under pressure.

Money moving out of London (Financial Times) In January, an average of €9.2 billion shares per day were traded in Amsterdam on the Euronext Amsterdam and CBOE Europe and Turquoise exchanges, up from just north of €2 billion worth of shares a day in December 2020. Also in January, trade volumes in London were €8.6 billion, an enormous €6.5 billion fall from December. Both Paris and Dublin also saw slight increases in their trade volumes, as seemingly overnight the financial capital of Europe crossed the English Channel on to the continent following the conclusion of the Brexit transition period.

The Pandemic Emptied Europe’s Cities. What Will Bring People Back? (NYT) When the coronavirus exploded across Europe in March, it realigned city life, shifting office workers to their homes, shuttering the hospitality sector and reshuffling life for millions. Unshackled from offices—many for the first time in their working lives—city dwellers throughout Europe began to leave, some to avoid the virus but others to escape cramped and pricey apartments and to connect more with the natural world. Now, nearly a year after the first lockdowns and with months more of restrictions looming, the easy assumption that most of the coronavirus exiles would naturally return once the virus was tamed is being questioned. In the reverse of the old song, the question now is not how you keep them down on the farm, but how you dissuade them from moving there for good. For city planners and urban design experts, that means beginning to grapple with problems that have long plagued many of these cities—housing affordability, safe transportation and access to green space—but that have grown more urgent because of the pandemic. More broadly, cities will have to address new desires about connecting with nature and “reconnecting with life,” said Philipp Rode, the executive director of LSE Cities, a research center at the London School of Economics.

Urban Arrivederci (Worldcrunch) An increasing number of young Italians are leaving cities and offices to rediscover a love for the countryside. The biggest farmer’s association in Italy reports a 14% rise in the number of young farmers over the last five year. The group said the rise was partly propelled by the coronavirus crisis. Many of these young farmers came from different professional backgrounds, looking to reconnect with nature and a more genuine lifestyle.

China and India pull back (Foreign Policy) China and India have begun pulling back troops along their disputed Himalayan border, months after a deadly clash between the two sides. On Thursday, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said troops would be removed in a “phased, coordinated and verified manner,” while China’s defense ministry said it had begun a “synchronized and organized” disengagement. Military officials from both countries have been in de-escalation talks for months following a June 15 skirmish that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, along with an unknown number of Chinese.

Myanmar coup leader: ‘Join hands’ with army for democracy (AP) Myanmar’s coup leader used the country’s Union Day holiday on Friday to call on people to work with the military if they want democracy, a request likely to be met with derision by protesters who are pushing for the release from detention of their country’s elected leaders. “I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw for the successful realization of democracy,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said using the local term for the military. “Historical lessons have taught us that only national unity can ensure the non-disintegration of the Union and the perpetuation of sovereignty,” he added. Min Aung Hlaing’s Feb. 1 coup ousted the civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. It reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests in cities around the country. The rallies against the coup—now daily occurrences in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay—have drawn people from all walks of life, despite an official ban on gatherings of more than five people.

Australian city Melbourne begins 3rd lockdown due to cluster (AP) Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will begin its third lockdown on Friday due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine. The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said. Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport. Schools and many businesses will be closed. Residents are ordered to stay at home except to exercise and for essential purposes. A population of 6.5 million will be locked down from 11:59 p.m. until the same time on Wednesday because of a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport hotel that has infected 13 people.

Is Biden ghosting Bibi? (Washington Post) Since President Biden took office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bibi as he is known here, has been waiting for the traditional courtesy call from the Oval Office. After all, both Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama reached the prime minister within days of taking their oaths of office. But three weeks into his term, as Biden has worked deep into his Rolodex of world leaders without dialing Netanyahu’s Balfour Street office, much of Israel’s political class is ready to declare it a full-blown diplomatic snub.

Despite Biden’s push, a difficult road to peace in Yemen (AP) Buthaina al-Raimi was five years old when a Saudi airstrike destroyed her home in the Yemeni capital and killed her parents and all five of her siblings in August 2017. Ever since, she still breaks into tears for seemingly no reason. When planes fly overhead, she shouts to her uncle, “They’re going to hit us!” For her uncle, Khalid Mohammed Saleh, the U.S. decision last month to stop backing the Saudi coalition and push for an end to the war can do nothing to end her suffering. “It’s a wise decision, but it’s too late,” he said. It’s also too early, he said—too early to say whether President Joe Biden’s move will bring peace to Yemen. Reaching peace will be a difficult path. The warring parties have not held substantive negotiations since 2019. Fighting on the ground and coalition airstrikes continue. The Houthis’ grip on the north of the country has only grown stronger, and they have captured new territory from pro-government forces over the past year. Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, said Biden’s policy shift was “really welcome news” but “won’t automatically mean an end to the war.”

The pandemic has left a huge cache of dinosaur bones stuck in the Sahara (Washington Post) In secret patches of the south-central Sahara, blankets of sand hide 20 tons of dinosaur bones. There are flying reptiles. A creature that resembles an armored dog. Eleven species yet to be identified—all with long necks. They roamed the desert when it was still green, scientists concluded. This is one of Africa’s biggest fossil caches, a prehistoric graveyard that sparked dreams of a world-class exhibition in Niger. The rare discovery is vulnerable to looters and collapsing dunes. But excavation must wait as the nation confronts a second wave of the coronavirus on top of escalating Islamist insurgencies. Niger, about twice the size of France and two-thirds desert, has long boasted dinosaur riches. Countless bones poke through the sand. Paleontologists face a sweltering trek through bandit territory to reach what researchers call the continent’s most diverse mix of extinct giants.

Answers so far

1.As a trans person, what is the #1 thing you want cis people to know about you?

The first thing I want people to know about me is that I'm a person, just like everybody else. I'm not always straight up telling people I'm trans, even though I usually don't try to hide it (I do have this privilege since I live in East Frisia in Northern Germany, very close to a small city with a CSD / pride, most people here are rather open). If it comes up, it comes up, if it doesn't, I will probably drop a thing casually at some point in some conversation and have people find out that way. I do however get wearier around men with this topic. This is why I want people to know me as a human being before letting them know about my history. I very rarely disclose that I am non-binary and just masc-leaning though, simply because I don't feel like explaining it to people who shouldn't be concerned about it.

Trans people are not just made up of the fact they're trans. We're regular people with regular lives that do not usually revolve around us being trans. It's different in times when dysphoria hits you, but especially once you get older and you sort of "finish" transitioning (which, mind you, can be any state of transition! Social, body, anything YOU feel comfortable with) it will sort of fade into the background. That doesn't mean it's not an important part of my identity, it simply means that it's not the first thing people should know about me. I'm less of a trans person (for the sake of being a trans person) and more of a person that just so happens to be trans. Sorry for the long explanation, I hope I cleared everything up. If not, shoot another message!

2. I am just learning about trans people and what it means to be trans, and as such I'm unused to using the singular they and other pronouns. How can I make it clear to my trans friends that I'm not trying to be disrespectful if I mess up their pronouns?

My partner happens to use they/them pronouns and I'm not gonna lie, it was incredibly hard for me to get used to that! I did my best by correcting myself immediately whenever I messed up and either consciously using the right pronouns in the next sentence or immediately phrasing three to five sentences in my head using the right pronouns. (Example: "They said they worked a lot today.", "They have curly hair", "They are a great person and I'm glad to be their friend")

I always also used that moment to think about a quality I liked especially about them. Unfortunately, because I have ADHD and am not currently medicated, I sometimes forgot to tell them about said quality, but it might be something that really can strengthen a bond!

Point is, show them that you're making an effort. Try to talk positively about them and use their correct pronouns. Practice a lot, even if it's just in your head, that's gonna make it a lot easier over time. At some point, it won't really happen anymore, at least not in a more frequent way than it does with every other person. I mean, I regularly accidentally refer to my brothers as "she" or "her" and they're cis. It's normal to goof up. The most important thing: Don't beat yourself up too much over it. As long as you show them that you try your best, everything will be okay, I promise.

3. If I think I might be trans (FTM) but don't want to make any permanent decisions (like taking hormones) what can I do to help me make a decision?

Talk about it to people you trust. Depending on how accessible therapy is where you live, I would definitely try to see if there is a specialist for gender identity you could see. Otherwise, find a safe space to explore and just try things out.

I had a bit of misfortune when it came to my medical transition and had to wait for several years to be allowed to start hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is a long time considering I come from Germany (you usually only need 12-18 months of therapy, some doctors even prescribe it earlier, though it is not recommended for Testosterone because of how irreversible the changes are).

Try looking at tutorials about contouring and faking stubble, practice a deeper speaking voice and maybe see if you can get a (safe!) binder (gc2b was recommended to me as the best on the market at the moment, I personally always had the tri top binders from Underworks) to wear for a couple of hours a day. Always make sure to practice safe binding! If you feel any sort of bodily discomfort, immediately take off the binder and take a break. Always move your chest up and to the side, not down, that makes it easier to preserve healthy tissue, which in turn will come in handy for top surgery and your general health!

But most importantly: Take your time. Take one step at a time. See if hormone blockers might already help you, if you have too many issues with your period. Don't rush. You have your entire life ahead of you. You probably won't know some things until you finished other things. Up until I had top surgery, I always thought I needed bottom surgery to feel like myself. I woke up in hospital and I knew I didn't need bottom surgery. I actually stopped taking testosterone because I achieved all the changes that I needed to feel happy (deeper voice, slight stubble, my proportions went back to pre-medicated state because my body still produces it's own hormones).

A transition is something deeply personal and you have to find your own way through it. Feel free to drop messages if you need more advice or if this was not enough!

4. I'm not trans but I'm very curious about trans people, only because it's something I don't understand at all and have no experience with. Is it okay to be curious about trans issues and ask about them, just out of curiosity? I want to be an ally of course and I support my trans friends, but is it okay to just be curious?

It is only natural to be curious. It's normal to be curious. You should be curious! You're a human being and you can only truly understand something, if you're curious enough to ask.

You already took the first right step. Seek out ressources like this or ask in forums. Always ask if it's something you may ask about since every trans person handles things differently. Remember that trans people are not obligated to give you an answer and respect their decisions on whether or not they want to tell you things, but I do absolutely encourage curiosity. This is actually why we started up this project, because I am super comfortable talking about my personal trans experience and the things I learned through my trans counselling seminars. Not everyone is as open as I am, so I do want to share my experiences. I would also suggest that with every question you ask, be prepared for a "no" and always add that it's okay if the person doesn't want to answer that question. Make sure to be respectful and everything is gonna be alright. Also, feel free to drop me any questions you might have!

5. I am a trans man that gets really depressed around my period. Do you have any advice on how to cope with that time of the month?

I definitely get where you come from. Be aware that a lot of it can be caused by hormonal imbalances so none of the advice I can give is an absolute guarantee to feel better. I can only share my own experiences.

What's very important to know is that having a period does not make you any less of a man. Having a period is not something that is inherently tied to women.

I personally try to make periods more bearable by making those times my "feel good" time of the month. This means that I will actually make a conscious effort to treat myself well during this time, be more lenient with my work and allow myself pleasures without giving in to my depression. For me that means I'm allowing myself my comfort foods, spend more time with the horses (riding actually helps with periods) and just spend some cuddly times with my partner. Something that I really recommend is getting reusable period products, such as reusable cloth pads (you can get them online, my partner gets ours from Ecoimpakt) and menstrual cups. I personally use a menstrual cup and a light pad and I very often even forget that I'm actually bleeding until my alarm to empty the cup goes off.

Using reusable period products means that you don't have to go to a store to get them. The menstrual cup makes me feel very very clean and I mostly use the pad as a back-up. You practically don't feel the cup at all. Just make sure you get the right size, sizing can be looked up online as well. I got a pretty cheap one from a German store brand, so unfortunately I can't recommend mine to you, but there's a lot of information on good cups out there and you can get them as cheap as 10€.

Talking about what specifically makes you feel depressed can also be a good help. Try to be aware of triggers for negative feelings and actively fight that bully brain. If you need help with that, don't be shy to ask a friend for help if you don't have a therapist on hand. There is also some free online and anonymous counselling for when bully brain gets too strong for you to handle it on your own. Don't feel ashamed to ask for help.

Teens are getting queerer. According to a recent trend-forecasting report by J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group, 13- to 20-year-olds (known as Generation Z) are even more sexually fluid than millennials—while 65 percent of millennials identify as exclusively heterosexual, only 48 percent of Generation Z does. The "trend" is unsurprising—increased legal protection, social acceptance, and media visibility of the LGBTQ community have afforded more opportunities for queer people to love in the open. That being said, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a national advocacy group for local LGBTQ communities, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for LGBTQ folks, and that's not counting the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre.

As the purview of queerness expands and the need for political solidarity and resistance against LGBTQ violence becomes all the more necessary, how can we think critically and compassionately about desire, identity, and labels? I talked to Suzy Exposito, Ales Kot, McKenzie Wark, Whitney Mallet, Davey Davis, and Javier Nunez Cespedes, a group of individuals who deal with issues of identity in their personal and professional lives, about love with or without labels.

Ana Cecilia Alvarez: What's your relationship to questions of desire and identity?

Suzy: I am a bisexual woman in a long-term relationship with a bisexual man. At this point in my life, I refuse to date straight people. In my experience, they just don't understand certain fundamental things about my friends and me. That said, I could generally say the same about monosexual people. I have been on dates with cis lesbians and felt a similar lack of common ground. Because I wouldn't "pick a side," my sexual identity was always in flux to them and not to be trusted. I don't think my sexual orientation is in flux at all!

Ales: Before people used the word "queer" to describe me, they called me "weird." But when I moved to Prague and lived on my own for the first time, I slept with girls and boys, and had threesomes and group sex. I realized that people would have these impositions on what it means to be queer for them. I didn't want to narrow it down too much. If someone asked, I'd tell them I'm bisexual. Of course, I could see many people judging the shit out of me. But, even though I pass as a straight dude, the fact of the matter is that I am a fluid sex monster.

McKenzie: I am somebody who passes for a straight person. I am reluctant to be a spokesperson for queerness because I get to avoid all of the difficulties that are involved in that. I don't advertise, but if people ask, I'll them that I've had sex with men, and I will again.

Javier: I'm a transgender mixed-race Latino who identifies as bisexual. I like to joke that I've identified with literally every letter in LGBTQ at some point.

Ana: Has identifying—or not—as queer resolved anything for you? Or how has it complicated things?

Javier: Part of the beauty of "queer" is that it doesn't have a real definition and that it's open-ended, but that also can be a major drawback to it. By not having a concrete definition, people can use it any way they want, and it can and definitely has been co-opted. Also "queer" doesn't really say anything about someone's sexuality. When someone tells me they identify as either gay, lesbian, or bisexual, I have a better idea of who they date. To me, "queer" has always had radical anti-oppression trans-inclusive meaning behind it, but it's clearly not the definition everyone uses.

Whitney: I guess I would reluctantly identify as queer. I don't think of queer as an essentialist identity. It's about identifying with certain politics. It is a decision of what community I want to call my community. People still ask me if I am gay or straight. Sometimes I think, maybe it's on the way, maybe by the time I'm 30 I'll be gay. Or I'll always be slutty. In life, we're always becoming, so it's fine.

Davey: The amazing thing about being able to come out and find a name for yourself as a queer person is that you feel like you fought for it. My partner and I have both had family members who completely rejected us. So it's this thing that I've fought for, it's my identity, it's who I am—you get defensive and protective with it. And so I can see people's kneejerk reaction, Oh, are they really [queer]?The more compassionate me, and the part of me that has been in that position, knows that's bullshit, to be like, Oh, they're not really [queer]. And as much as we fought for our identities, at the same time, identity is fluid, and fluidity is challenging for most people. Even if you are gender fluid or your sexuality is fluid, labels are, by definition, rigid.

Ana: To me, labels seem imperfect, at times flattening, but politically necessary. Sometimes we need solidarity and shared identities. What do you think?

McKenzie: It's crucial to remember that there are a lot of men who sleep with other men that do not think they are gay. They aren't in the closet or in denial. They just have different categories. Some people don't think having sex with men is an identity. It's an act, and you might have other acts you do and other identities.

Davey: When I had just come out, I had an instinct to taxonomize: "I am a femme boy." But I've moved away from that because I've lived in the world long enough as a gender-nonconforming woman that visibility isn't exciting anymore. I've realized that being visible isn't that great. It's pretty scary, and most people outside of your community think you're gross, and it affects your chances of getting a job. Foucault said that visibility is a trap. We all want to be seen and understood and be known for what we are, but unfortunately, if what you are is queer or bisexual, they will hate you.

Ana: Visibility is a trap! Either you're legible in mainstream culture—you pass—yet you aren't seen as queer in queer communities, or you're visibly queer, and thereby a target for homophobic and transphobic violence.

Suzy: Visibility makes all the difference in how you experience queerness. Visibility makes you more vulnerable to attack. And it's a threat that not all queer people face equally. I'm a cis femme woman with long hair, and men harass me all day for being a woman, but absolutely no one knows I'm queer unless I'm with someone who more visibly is. On the other hand, my partner is a drag performer and very gender fluid, but on most days he presents masculine for his safety. On days when we're both femme, we're much more prone to harassment. Not everyone's queer presentation is so conditional, though, so we have to be mindful about how much space our voices take up and which experiences are simply not ours to claim.

Javier: Disclosing being trans or bi is a choice I can make every day. What I can't choose is walking out of the house every day as a Latino man. I experience way more gender-based violence (mostly from the NYPD) in that way than I ever did before I started medically transitioning. It's something I wish I'd been prepared for. It seems like the people wrapped up with visibility around their sexuality are cis white people. It feels like a luxury that people of color and a lot of trans people do not have. I just want to go out in the world and not be worried about being attacked or killed. I don't care about the rest.

Ana: One way I've been trying to think about this is by shifting questions of queer authenticity—is someone really queer or not?—to queer accountability. Are there certain actions or values we can hold one another accountable for as members of a community?

Ales: I ask, How can I encourage a sense of safety around myself and my home? How can I contribute my own energy? On the most immediate level, I think about just listening. I think just listening to people and not comparing or trying to place them is crucial.

There is a level of performative allyship and people trying to ride on the wave of a higher social consciousness more than they actually care for others. I don't know what to do with that except to be sure that I don't do it.

Whitney: I think there are moments when checking is important. I was at my next-door neighbor's New Year's party, and there was a moment where I noticed there were a lot of straight people there. It's a predominantly gay and trans space, and I think it's worth thinking about how you literally are taking up space at parties. There was a line, and at a certain point, other people couldn't get in, and for some of the people, that's the only party that's welcoming for them.

Davey: This reminds me of who gets to be at pride. I do think straight people need to think three or four or five times about whether they should go to some queer event, even if other queers are bringing them. But, if the ultimate goal is liberation of some kind from white cis hetero imperialist Western patriarchy, it can't come down to "make sure there are no heteros at the party." Probably, straight people shouldn't be at pride, but if you're the kind of straight person who's going to march with us, and protect us, and work with us, we can work together on the larger political goal of liberation.

McKenzie: When you get to middle age, it's just not that big of a deal anymore. I'm into this or that, and I'm going to go and get it with whoever is up for it. It's so much easier. I get why it was important in my 20s and 30s, but now I am not worried about if I am or am not this or that queer being now. I'll just go find my friends.

My favorite quotes from this that I just want to emphasize:

Davey: And as much as we fought for our identities, at the same time, identity is fluid, and fluidity is challenging for most people. Even if you are gender fluid or your sexuality is fluid, labels are, by definition, rigid.

Javier: Disclosing being trans or bi is a choice I can make every day. What I can't choose is walking out of the house every day as a Latino man. I experience way more gender-based violence (mostly from the NYPD) in that way than I ever did before I started medically transitioning. It's something I wish I'd been prepared for. It seems like the people wrapped up with visibility around their sexuality are cis white people. It feels like a luxury that people of color and a lot of trans people do not have. I just want to go out in the world and not be worried about being attacked or killed. I don't care about the rest.

Coronavirus May Change Patient Appointments to Videoconference Permanently

The coronavirus has prompted many medical centers to switch from in-person appointments to video visits. A new study from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals suggests that for some hospitals, video visits may become a permanent feature of the patient-provider landscape.

Prior to March 2020, all patients at the UCSF Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic received medical care through in-person visits. By the end of March, 97 percent of visits – approximately 80 appointments per week – were done via videoconferencing with physicians or nurse practitioners, according to the study publishing May 14, 2020, in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“This has been a complex transition because we have had to navigate the uncertain waters of parent and adolescent/young adult involvement and confidentiality,” said senior author Marissa Raymond-Flesch, MD, of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. “However, after the current coronavirus crisis, we expect to maintain telehealth in many areas.

“Patients will be able to complete video visits from school or work, or any setting that they identify as adequately private,” Raymond-Flesch said. “This is a new domain in our field, and we are excited about reducing disparities in care in underserved areas such as rural communities.”

The clinic serves patients ages 12 to 25, of whom three-quarters are female, from a catchment area spanning 400 miles north to the Oregon border and roughly 100 miles east to the Central Valley. Service includes both general health care and specialty care in attention and mood disorders, sexual and reproductive health, eating disorders and addictions.

Virtual Waiting Rooms Protect Patient Privacy

In their study, the UCSF researchers used a videoconferencing platform that was compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects the privacy of health information and security of electronic records. To prevent third-party access, they created a virtual waiting room, requiring a doctor to authorize entrance for each visitor. The visits were streamed – like FaceTime or Google Hangouts – rather than recorded. They also identified ways for patients to share information without risking disclosure to people within earshot, such as by using headphones and responding to sensitive questions with “yes” or “no,” as well as using the chat function to type responses.

“The telehealth visit is a new reality and one that presents unique challenges,” said Raymond-Flesch. “While you can see the patient’s face, you cannot make direct eye-contact and you cannot demonstrate compassion by offering a tissue or a gentle pat on the arm. I found it meant that I had to exaggerate facial expressions or offer more verbal assurance than I would have done in actual visits.”

The researchers reported that virtual visits did not present a barrier in screening patients for depression, substance use or psycho-social development. Additionally, clinicians were able to provide contraceptive counselling and appropriate follow-up for established diagnoses like headache, acne and back pain; and they reported that they were comfortable managing mood disorders and medication maintenance for attention deficit hyperactivity, with referrals made to psychiatrists for some conditions.

More challenging were appointments that required exams and procedures. Patients needing vaccines or tests for pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, urinary-tract infections or high cholesterol required an in-person visit with a nurse or phlebotomist. While the researchers have not considered using devices such as electronic stethoscopes, which enable providers from a second clinic to stream data directly to the consulting site, they said patient-owned devices such as an Apple watch or blood pressure monitor and upper-arm cuff may be used in the future, pending tests for accuracy.

Weight Checks a Challenge for Patients with Eating Disorders

Virtual care for patients with eating disorders, who make up about a third of the clinic’s patients, required significant workarounds to provide regular monitoring of weight, vital signs and electrolytes. Weight checks, in particular, can be very stressful for these patients and many prefer to not know their weight. In some cases, primary care providers or therapists were able to weigh patients and take vital signs, which they shared with the clinic. In other cases, a parent or trusted adult was tasked with weighing the patient and relaying that information in private to the clinician.

“There were concerns that patients would overhear their weight or learn of nutritional interventions that normally parents would discuss confidentially with the physician during an in-person appointment,” said Raymond-Flesch. “But on the upside, many families travel significant distances to reach us. Telemedicine may have allowed for increased parental participation,” she said noting that patients with eating disorders were referred from a much broader geographic range than primary-care patients.

In addition to improved accessibility, telemedicine also opened the door to collaboration with primary-care providers. “It’s something that has been considered before but never implemented,” said first author and clinical fellow Angela Barney, MD, of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.

“There’s a sense that many of the changes are not just temporary responses, but rather the new normal,” she said. “We are not proposing that telemedicine for adolescents and young adults will replace in-person visits, but we can look at this quick shift as an opportunity to reach our patient population in new ways, both in this time of crisis and beyond.”

Co-Authors: Sara Buckelew, MD, and Veronika Mesheriakova, MD, of the UCSF Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.

Funding and Disclosures: The study was supported by funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, National Institute of Child Health and Development, UCSF Watson Scholars Program, National Institutes of Health, UCSF Youth Outpatient Substance Use Program and the California Department of Health Care Services. There are no conflicts of interests to disclose.

source https://scienceblog.com/516395/coronavirus-may-change-patient-appointments-to-videoconference-permanently/

newsletters here. Here’s the story:

Top Shelf

Ethereum’s Inroads

Data shows the total value transferred on the Ethereum network, including ether and ERC-20 stablecoins, now matches that of the Bitcoin network, according to Messari research. “Ethereum is becoming the dominant value transfer layer in crypto,” Ryan Watkins, research analyst at Messari, said.

DappRadar found Ethereum saw a 64 percent increase in dapp usage in the first three months of 2020, outpacing other “layer-one” blockchains like Tron and EOS. (Decrypt)

Chainlink’s link token, which funds a system of oracles built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, is outperforming Bitcoin by leaps and bounds as the oracle network’s various use cases garner investor attention, leading to a self-feeding bullish cycle. “Link has a strong fan base that constantly promotes or ‘shills’ the project to potential buyers. This often creates a positive reinforcement cycle, further driving up the price,” Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data, said. 

Libra’s Concession In a major concession to global regulators, the Libra Association is pulling back from its original vision of a digital currency backed by a basket of national currencies. The Facebook-led consortium now plans to develop a handful of stablecoins each representing a different national currency, which will back their multi-currency stablecoin, rather than holding fiat currencies directly in a bank. The new model limits libra’s flexibility, since adding (or removing) a currency from the basket requires issuing (or retiring) another digital token, but still maintains its blockchain-based tech stack.

Institutional Investors The crypto-focused investment firm Grayscale raised a total of $503.7 million in the first quarter, primarily from institutional investors looking to take advantage of market turbulence. While bitcoin-weighted trusts continue to be the company’s most popular product, the report noted that ether trusts also received record inflows in the same quarter as investors added multiple Grayscale products to their portfolios.

Original image by Trevor Jones

UBI-light Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang argues the one-time $1,200 federal stimulus paid to American citizens is not enough to curtail the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 crisis. An advocate for universal basic income, Yang is instead throwing his support behind continuing payments of $2,000 monthly checks until the crisis is well and truly over. 

Hermit Kingdom The United States government has outlined an aggressive set of countermeasures it said could stymie North Korea’s highly lucrative and often cryptocurrency-dependent global cybercrime campaigns. This includes implementing tough anti-money-laundering frameworks for digital currency, expelling North Korean IT workers, following best cyber practices, and communicating with law enforcement. The Hermit Kingdom is thought to have accrued a $1.5 billion cryptocurrency warchest, which could fund the regime’s development of weapons of mass destruction.

Stable Partners

Solana, a blockchain that aims to function at “web-scale,” is partnering with Terra to launch its first stablecoin to facilitate a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. “By bringing stablecoins onto our network, we aim to dramatically expand the design space for developers, opening the door to novel applications that require price-stable payments,” the Solana team wrote in a draft blog post.

Crypto custodian BitGo has acquired Lumina to increase its cryptocurrency offerings as it transitions to its role as a “full service” crypto firm. (Fortune)

Series B Swiss holding company Crypto Finance AG has closed a $14.5 million Series B funding round co-led by Swiss investor Rainer-Marc Frey, Beijing-based private equity firm Lingfeng Capital and joined by Hong Kong’s QBN Capital. The funds will go towards fulfilling capital requirements for obtaining a broker-dealer license from the Swiss financial regulator FINMA.

Wallet Mimicker An unknown hacker is exploiting trust in well-known brands by creating fake cryptocurrency wallet extensions for Google Chrome that trick victims into disclosing sensitive information. As originally reported by ZDNet, Google has so far removed 49 extensions that mimic Ledger, Trezor, Jaxx, Electrum, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Exodus, and KeepKey from its Chrome Web Store.

A mock-up of the app

‘Infectious’ Giving IntellectEU, a New York software startup, has created a blockchain-based charity app that replicates viral transmission to spread the act of giving. The #SpreadLoveNotCorona web app encourages users to share a link to donate widely, recording each donation on the Corda blockchain, so a verifiable chain of giving can track who recruited whom.

Beta Prognosis  ConsenSys spin-off Gnosis launches decentralized exchange with focus on best-price execution, already processed $2 million in value transfers while in private beta. (The Block)

Crypto’s State Wyoming’s recently passed legislation allowing domestic insurance companies to invest in cryptocurrencies will go into effect July 1. (The Block)

BSV/CSW

Modern Consensus’ Brendan Sullivan sat down with “Elon Moist,” CEO of Twetch, to discuss why the social media app uses the controversial bitcoin fork BSV, the future of micropayments and why using “free” applications offered by Google and Facebook come with a cost. (Modern Consensus)

A Florida judge said Craig Wright’s objection to handing over crucial evidence regarding billions in bitcoin left her “puzzled,” as he seemed to argue the court should “blindly accept” everything he says. Wright claims to have access to 1.1 million bitcoin but has told the court he couldn’t prove this as it would infringe on the privilege he has with a mysterious Kenyan lawyer known as Denis Mayaka, who is supposedly counsel for the Tulip Trust that holds the fortune. 

3D Printing CoinDesk columnist Cathy Barrera thinks patent and intellectual property law is holding back the possibility of 3D printing to address a mismatch between supply and demand in vital protective and medical equipment.

CoinDesk Live

CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition CoinDesk Live is back! Twice a week, the Lockdown Edition will feature timely discussions and public AMAs via Zoom – and shared on your favorite social platform, Twitter – with key speakers from the Consensus: Distributed agenda. Here you’ll get a preview of the content we have planned for our first fully virtual, fully free conference happening May 11-15.

Register to join the first CoinDesk Live with Alex McDougall, co-founder and chief investment officer at Bicameral Ventures, as we discuss data trails and how to clean them up on Thursday, April 16, at 4 p.m. EST / 1 p.m. PST. Then join us at Consensus: Distributed May 11-15, where there are more than 200 sessions and tons of interactive networking opportunities.

Market Intel

Quick Liquidation Bitcoin’s nearly $500 price jump early on Thursday, triggered liquidations worth millions on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, according to data provider Skew. The top cryptocurrency by market value picked up a bid around $6,650 and rose to a high of $7,145 in the 90 minutes to 08:30 UTC, forcing liquidations of futures worth $23 million on BitMEX.

CoinDesk Research March 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read the full report.

The Breakdown

The Road Ahead Messari’s Ryan Selkis, an early harbinger of the coronavirus crisis, joins Nathaniel Whittemore to discuss what the economy could look like six months down the line. 

Who Won #CryptoTwitter?

blockchain Bites is CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from this site and around the web. You can subscribe here.

Disclosure strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Read More

The post Blockchain Bites: Ethereum’s Inroads and Libra’s Concessions appeared first on Future Money Matters.

werewolftrial said: I liked your point about religious celibacy. On the other hand, I feel like in many (most? all?) cultures there’s a strong historical expectation that marriage=PIV sex for procreative reasons. So… I would say that most types of “traditional marriage” are not friendly to people who prefer to not have sex, assuming that people in had experiences we call “asexual” today.

Yeah, 100% - it's odd, and im not enough of a theologian to really comment on it. The major religions all seem to have both a call to celebacy strand, *and* a call to procreate strand, and somehow they don't cancel out. Certainly, both our pop culture and people in specific religious contexts, there's a pressure to have {the right kind of} sex.

I guess my argument is something like...the root cause of homophobia is "god says it's really wrong, a profound sin, under all circumstances". Whereas with celibacy, it's actively approved of and encouraged in some situations, and criticised in others. Which makes me feel like there's common ground to build on. Instead of going all in with "we are just like the people who commit mortal sin". Which feels like, taking a massive backwards step in the hope that the queer community will have a great leap forward all together. But that's not really how it works: these things take time. Being grouped in with the gays is beneficial in contexts which are queer-friendly and detrimental where they're not. I guess I feel like it increases, rather than decreases, the odds of discriminatory treatment and attitudes. I feel like it's a pretty common form of dismissive/insulting reply to asexual people saying they don't like sex, for someone to respond with "are you gay???", and the broader non-tumblr community might have real need to give a clear and unambiguous "no" to that question.

(I feel like most homophobia is, ultimately, religious in origin - even for the irreligious - because it's shaped our culture. I wonder what the root of hostility towards asexual people is? Because there *is* hostility. But where does it come from? Possibly religion as well, but there clearly hasn't been the same sort of unambiguous religious prohibition and related religious lawmaking as against lgbt people. So - where does it come from? I wonder if there's more of an overlap with disability rights, people being viewed as inherently defective in some kind of medical/psychological sense. Or patriarchy, and patriarchal ideas about sex, real men and controlling women? Questions I have no idea about, but would like to consider further)

A lot of early lesbians got away a with cohabiting by kinda trading off this narrative, that two women living together chastely was kinda Biblical and virtuous. In the Victorian period, the pressure to marry and be a mother was intense, and yet these ideas existed in the culture for these women to deploy successfully, and be admired for. Similarly, the concept of being a bookish bachelor. I feel like this route is still super open for asexual people from religious backgrounds who choose to be open, or as middle grounds to communicate with religious-flavoured bigotry, or even non-religious contexts which are still underpinned by religious value systems. The potential is there. There are *some* equivalent tactics for LGB people, like talking about David and Jonathan or Ruth and Naomi, as examples of same sex committed relationships, but it's a bit weak compared to the strong and violent prohibitions elsewhere in the book. But you've got Jesus and the Pope, and a fair few apostles and disciples, and the tradition of monks and nuns as a baseline of non-sexuality being ok (perhaps asexuality doesn't count, and it's only virtuous if you have a libido to repress?)

(Perhaps it's just uncomfortable to sort of step into the argument zone of, my asexuality is in fact spiritually perfect, if that isn't your experience or religious belief. That's reasonable. My instinct is that actually growing up in a purity culture is probably a mixed bag for questioning it aces. Making it harder to articulate your own asexuality as something personal and innate and permanent, and not made of batshit religious baggage. But perhaps, also creating an environment where it is easier to say no, and be non-sexual, and to feel part of a norm. I'm not from a religious background, but as someone who has floated in and out of identifying as asexual more often than I can count, I am personally greatful to have come from as socially conservative background, where it was safe and encouraged to keep all that off the table. I would not have done well in a more mainstream environment.)

& like with traditional marriage, within my marriage, what I do and what I disclose about what I do is up to me. Back in the day, non-sexual marriages were a gotcha for people arguing against same sex marriage, because they were non procreative: the church doesn't actively prevent or end non-sexual marriages. I do not wish to diminish the reality or damage done by social pressure, and lack of education that asexuality is even an option. It is not to be sniffed at or dismissed lightly. But...There is a meaningful difference between this, and people who break the rules of traditional marriage in ways which are highly visible or against the law. Like, I try and talk my husband into visiting America with me, and he feels too unsafe to do so (the entirety of America!). I'm very pre transition, we can go anywhere, it'll be fine. He still feels too visible and on edge to even consider it.

So, yeah. More of a wall of thoughts than an argument or perspective. The tldr is, I think, that religions tend to be unambiguously homophobic, seeing gayness as some kind of mortal sin (even if some strands or groups have reinterpreted doctrine in a more progressive way). Religions tend to be messed up & controlling about sex, but with narratives of both celibacy and appropriate sexual behaviour, in which non-sexuality is not a sin, and is often praiseworthy. It's a place to start - not an easy one - but maybe a better place to start than hitching your wagon to the hell-bent. The worst outcome, IMO, is not an asexual college student in a liberal metropolis feeling bad because they aren't percieved as queer, but an asexual person of any age experiencing distress because they are. If there is any chance of us writing an alternative narrative about asexuality which means when yr asshole parents google it they don't find a bunch of rainbow shit that will cause them to flip.

The counter argument, I would imagine, is this was *already* happening, hence the identification with queerness. Which makes sense. Still, there are going to be people out there who can't wave a rainbow flag, but can perhaps be out and open, provided they find a different framework to explain themselves. There have been lots of times in history where it's been safe to be non-sexual but dangerous to be gay, and those times & places aren't far enough away. If there's a context where non-sexual is safe, let's celebrate and build on that? It's a start.

asking to work from home when it’s really hot out, happy hour hurt feelings, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Can I ask to work from home when it’s really hot outside?

I have a question about asking to work from home in extreme heat. I live in a very pedestrian-friendly city and do not have a car. I have a 15-minute walk to work, which is a huge perk, except during the summer, when the weather in my city is very hot and humid all season long. We are in a particularly hot patch — temperatures in the high 80s/low 90s by 9 a.m., with 70-80% humidity, and a heat index of 100+. I’m not asthmatic, but I find the air hard to breathe. My morning commute is miserable; even if I take the nearby bus, I still have to walk a couple blocks to get to the office, and just those few blocks leave me so drained and in a bad mood. There is virtually no parking near our office, so everyone commutes by public transit or on foot or a combination of both. Taking an Uber or cab every morning would add up to over $200 a month, at a conservative estimate.

Is it fair to ask to work from home on days when the heat index is over 100 degrees? The management team allows everyone to work from home on Fridays in the summer because it’s such a slow season. I made a joke about this to our number two person and she didn’t respond at all — it was like she pretended not to hear me. Was I overstepping the line?

Well, maybe. There are so frequently so many hot days during the summer that in a lot of offices in hot areas, this would be like asking to work from home every time it rains. That said, this kind of thing can be office-dependent. If you’re in an office that’s really flexible about working from home, and if you’re in an area that doesn’t have a ton of days with a 100+ heat index, then maybe. But if you’re somewhere where extreme heat is just a normal thing that happens during summer, then yeah, it’s probably not really a thing you can do very often, lest you look like you’re making too big a deal of relatively normal weather. (That obviously changes if there are health conditions in play.)

2. Avoiding hurt feelings over happy hour

My coworkers and I enjoy getting together for drinks/dinner every now and then, usually once a month. Typically it’s just a small group of the same six or seven people (out of a team of a dozen) and it’s never a formal thing, usually just happens spontaneously like “oh hey it’s payday on Friday, let’s go for beers!” e’ve never excluded anyone from joining us and usually make our plans known to the whole team. However, there’s this one guy, I’ll call him Fergus, who is very difficult to work with but seems totally oblivious to this fact. He spends all day complaining about his boss and his job to anyone who will listen, makes a lot of casually racist comments (one recent example: assuming that a coworker from X ethnicity knew everyone else of X ethnicity in our small city), and is generally not a fun person to be around.

The problem is, he doesn’t seem to get that his behaviour is problematic (despite being told this by nearly everyone at one point or another), and he’s REALLY eager to hang out with the rest of us after work, to the point where he sulked for a couple days after finding out a few of us had gone out for drinks the previous Friday without explicitly inviting him. He’s overly sensitive and gets frustrated easily, so even the most mild criticism or pointing out a minor mistake will send him into a tailspin of cursing under his breath and griping to everyone within earshot. It’s exhausting and makes the rest of us uncomfortable.

I don’t want to be a part of clique-ish behaviour, because I know how much it hurts to be excluded, but at the same time I’m constantly cringing at the stuff Fergus says and does. My coworkers feel the same way, but we don’t want to be jerks because at the end of the day, we still have to work with this guy. Despite how annoying he can be, his work is solid and he’s a key part of our team. We all WANT to get along with Fergus but he makes it very difficult.

We don’t want to exclude Fergus from our after-work socializing, but his presence makes it a lot less enjoyable. Is there a kind, gentle way to approach the guy and explain why we don’t want to hang out with him, or should I just be blunt and honest about his behaviour? Being frank with him has worked for me in the past (he hasn’t gone off and complained about me to others), but this might cause a meltdown if I’m not careful.

You’d be doing him and everyone else a favor if you were blunt with him and said something like, “We don’t want to exclude you but we don’t want to listen to complaints about work the whole time either — and you also need to lay off the weird racial comments.” (I worry that with the last part you’re going to invite debate from him about whether what he’s saying is racist or not, but if that happens, it’s okay to say, “I don’t want to debate this with you. I’m just telling you how it’s coming across. If you don’t want it to come across that way, lay off those comments.”)

Beyond that, a good rule of thumb is that you can hang out with coworkers outside of work without inviting everyone as long as the number of people assembling is smaller than the number of people on your team who aren’t invited. In other words, it’s fine to hang out with people you’re personally close with without inviting everyone. But once it’s open to a majority of team members, it does become cliquish and hurtful to exclude others. At that point, it becomes a situation of “tolerating annoying coworkers is part of the package if you’re doing a work happy hour.” This guy is a little different because of the casual racism, though, which is why I think your best bet is to talk to him.

3. Teased about last name

My wife and I occasionally encounter a problem with our last name. It’s the kind of name that was much longer back in the old country but was shortened in America, and now is identical to a word you would use to describe a certain kind of unpleasant person. Most people are nice enough and don’t say anything, but too often we get comments like “Oh, that doesn’t describe you at all” or “You should change it to something nicer.” Lately, a woman in my wife’s office building has taken to commenting on our name every single time they see each other. How do you tell someone to drop it?

To some extent, this is just people being people — being weird and thoughtless and awkward, often at the exact time that they’re attempting to reach out for human connection! It’s similar to what’s behind the obvious “you’re really tall” comments that tall people get.

So I don’t think you can stamp it out entirely, but certainly when someone won’t let it drop, that’s tiresome and you can say something like, “Hey, it’s time for us to have a new joke” or “okay, I think we need to retire that comment at this point” or “objections registered, let’s move on.”

4. I have IBS and my manager is hassling me about my bathroom use

I have IBS, specifically the kind that makes you have frequent diarrhea. My manager (shift supervisor so there are three tiers above her) today told me if I take another bathroom break, she would send me home and write me up. I’m not comfortable telling people as it’s a rather embarrassing issue. Can I just say I have digestive health problems? Are they even allowed to ask me about my health condition? Are they allowed to discipline me for using the bathroom once an hour when I bust my butt working so hard? I just feel like it’s a little ridiculous for me to have to tell them about it. I maybe go once an hour on bad days, every three or so hours on the good ones. I never go if the rest of the staff needs me, or if we’re busy. I make sure everyone and everything is fine before I go and I never take more than 10 minutes. I just don’t feel like I need to disclose private medical information just to avoid getting in trouble for using the bathroom.

It’s ridiculous that they’re policing your bathroom usage, based on the frequency and duration you’ve described here. But they are legally allowed to tell you that you need to be at your desk more, if they don’t realize that there’s a medical issue involved. Because of that, you’re likely to get the best outcome by explaining that. You don’t need to give details, though; it’s enough to just say, “I have a medical issue that on some days means I need to use the bathroom more frequently. Should I make an official request for formal accommodations?” Actually, you might want to skip that last part and just go ahead and make the official request, since your manager is already taking about sending you home (!) and writing you up, and it’s smart to protect yourself formally.

5. At what point do I ask to be paid for off-the-clock phone calls?

I am a manager at a company I really do love. The job is enjoyable, I like my coworkers, no complaints there. I also would say that I take myself seriously when it comes to doing my job. However, I am non-exempt and I have reached a point in my career where I feel this is interfering with my actual duties and professionalism. Since I’m collecting my pay by the hour, how do I professionally handle all the calls that come my way? I don’t mind answering a few quick off-the-clock calls, but the past few months have had my fires-put-out whilst off-the-clock at several hours a week. There are days here and there where I avoid making plans because I predict I will found myself on the phone. I have made my own personal goals of claiming I’ll avoid my work phone, but the effort never lasts. Is this ever appropriate for a non-exempt worker? If not, at what point do I demand payment, quietly clock in, or even have a discussion about moving to a salary?

The point where you expect payment is whenever you do any work. That’s what the law requires for non-exempt workers, and right now you’re putting your company in legal jeopardy by not logging that time.

Start logging it, immediately (as well as any past time that you can credibly reconstruct). And go talk to your boss and say this: “I’ve realized that I haven’t been logging the time I spent answering calls outside of work, and legally we need to. In the past month, I’ve spent X hours on calls outside of my normal work hours, so I’m adding those to my timesheet and just wanted to flag it for you.” If your boss objects to that, the solution needs to be that people stop calling you outside of your normal hours, not that you work it unpaid.

Also, it’s not necessarily to your advantage to move to salary, since it may just mean working more hours for the same pay (or close to the same point). The big issue here is just getting you and your company in compliance with the law.

You may also like:

ask the readers: should I band together with coworkers to request a different work-from-home policy?

can I ask my manager to tell sick people to stay at home?

should I invite my lonely intern over for dinner?

asking to work from home when it’s really hot out, happy hour hurt feelings, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

from Ask a Manager https://ift.tt/2N6n64X

When Will People Get Better at Talking About Suicide?

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=5914

If you are having thoughts of suicide, please know that you are not alone. If you are in danger of acting on suicidal thoughts, call 911. For support and resources, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line.

Suicide is on the rise in the United States, but people still don’t know quite how to talk about it.

According to data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide has risen by 30 percent in the United States between 1999 and 2016. It is the tenth leading cause of death in the country. This news happened to come out the same week that two high-profile figures—the fashion designer Kate Spade, and the chef and food journalist Anthony Bourdain—died, apparently of suicide.

Any celebrity death, regardless of cause, leads to a predictable pattern of behavior on social media, a unique and uncomfortable blend of public mourning, attention seeking, and “grief policing.” When a famous person’s death is a suicide, there are more layers—distribution of resources and hotlines, speculation about the deceased’s mental state, the sharing of personal struggles with mental illness, along with calls for destigmatization.

Much of this is well intentioned, just people processing the news together on the platforms we’ve grown accustomed to using for the processing of all things. But inevitably there are crass responses, too.

When it comes to suicide, the perverse incentives of the internet combined with human callousness can sometimes lead to incidents like a YouTube star posting a joking video about the dead body of an apparent suicide victim, or to publications responding to the suicide of a celebrity not with responsible journalism or thoughtful remembrances but shameless attempts for clicks. In the latest such case, Newsweek responded to Bourdain’s death on Friday with a series of stories with headlines like “Who Is Anthony Bourdain’s Daughter, Ariane? Celebrity Chef Found Dead at 61” (which appears to have been later changed to “What Anthony Bourdain’s Daughter Ariane Said About His Cooking”), seemingly intended to wring traffic from search engines.

Death is always messy and hard to understand, suicide even more so. It’s a broad (and increasing) public-health problem with a million different faces, affected by many factors. Mental illness is one of them, but the CDC also found that experiences such as relationship problems, financial problems, loss of housing, and substance use, among others, contributed to some suicide deaths. The traumas and losses of people’s lives and the ways they respond to them are infinitely varied and context-dependent. And that makes suicide hard to talk about.

“We use the heart-disease analogy a lot, because in a lot of ways it fits suicide beautifully,” says Christine Moutier, the chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “In addition to biological risk factors, life stressors, the environment, smoking, obesity, stress, and relationship conflict play into heart-disease outcomes. That is the same with suicide. It’s just that because it is a behavioral manifestation of a complex set of variables, it’s harder for people to get their head around.”

There’s also a reasonable fear of the damage that can be done by discussing it in the wrong way. Research has shown that portrayals of suicide in the media can lead to imitative attempts by others. The Netflix show 13 Reasons Why came under fire in 2017 for its graphic and, some said, glamorizing depiction of a teen character’s suicide, and indeed, a study later found that suicide-related searches on Google rose in the days after the show’s release. For this reason, journalists typically abide by careful guidelines when reporting on suicide, which include recommendations like avoiding detailed descriptions of methods, not oversimplifying the causes that lead to a person taking their life, and avoiding photos of grieving loved ones, so as not to sensationalize the death.

“People worry about talking about [suicide] because it provides people with a script,” says Bernice Pescosolido, a professor of sociology at Indiana University who studies suicide and the stigma of mental illness. But when people hear each other’s stories of struggling with mental illness, or with suicidal thoughts, it reduces stigma and helps people to know they’re not alone, she says. And social media provides an opportunity for these helpful conversations, as well as harmful ones.

“I think we’re definitely in a transition phase right now,” Moutier says, “where there’s both a huge progression of improvement, and a mixture of some of the old assumptions and judgements still floating around. I’m referring to blaming the person for being cowardly, or assuming that suicide is a sudden and unpredictable fluky moment of losing their head. That really goes against the science.”

This cultural transition may be awkward, because as stigma slowly recedes and people become more willing to have these conversations, that doesn’t mean they know how to have them. For example, Pescosolido says she sees among her students more openness to sharing their experiences with mental illness, but they still “don’t know how and when to disclose it.”

Resources like suicide hotlines are important tools, but they are not the only forums for people to talk about what they’re going through, and may not be attractive to everyone in need. On Friday, the day Anthony Bourdain died, many people on Twitter were emphasizing the importance of reaching out to loved ones who seem at risk for suicide, or simply those who are struggling. The model Chrissy Teigen wrote, “In my deepest, darkest postpartum depression, I would have personally never called a phone number.”

In my deepest, darkest post-partum depression, I would have personally never called a phone number. If John or my doctor never reached out, I would have never even known. It really can be a lonely hole. Watch the people you love and don’t be afraid to speak up.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 8, 2018

Check on your strong friends. Check on your quiet friends. Check on your "happy" friends. Check on your creative friends. Check on each other.

— lauren warren (@iamlaurenp) June 8, 2018

Pescosolido has a theory, based on some of the sociologist Émile Durkheim’s late-19th-century writings on suicide. People are quick to blame loneliness and a lack of social integration for suicide, she says. “The other dimension that we tend to forget about is how much people guide you, and oversee what you do, and tell you when you screw up and help you right your path—the regulation that social networks accomplish in your life,” she says, wondering whether “the ability of your family, friends, or society to guide you is what’s been going away, not so much the lack of connectedness.”

Sometimes a restricting sort of politeness, the desire not to bother each other, can build walls between people, especially in a time when we’re hyperaware of how many other texts and emails and Facebook notifications our friends are probably getting. Pescosolido posits that society has come to focus on the rights of individuals, to the detriment of people’s obligations to each other. “I think that comes at a social cost,” she says. Formerly taboo subjects like suicide have become less off-limits as stigmas have eased, but these shifts take time.

“In the 1950s, you never told anybody you had cancer,” she says. “Many problems have gone through this, and we’ve made progress on others. Issues with the mind, and the brain, and personal relationships are the last frontier. They’re the last thing we need to learn how to talk about.”

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2018/06/AP_070125045487/lead_960.jpg Credits: Original Content Source

When Will People Get Better at Talking About Suicide?

If you are having thoughts of suicide, please know that you are not alone. If you are in danger of acting on suicidal thoughts, call 911. For support and resources, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line.

Suicide is on the rise in the United States, but people still don’t know quite how to talk about it.

According to data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide has risen by 30 percent in the United States between 1999 and 2016. It is the tenth leading cause of death in the country. This news happened to come out the same week that two high-profile figures—the fashion designer Kate Spade, and the chef and food journalist Anthony Bourdain—died, apparently of suicide.

Any celebrity death, regardless of cause, leads to a predictable pattern of behavior on social media, a unique and uncomfortable blend of public mourning, attention seeking, and “grief policing.” When a famous person’s death is a suicide, there are more layers—distribution of resources and hotlines, speculation about the deceased’s mental state, the sharing of personal struggles with mental illness, along with calls for destigmatization.

Much of this is well intentioned, just people processing the news together on the platforms we’ve grown accustomed to using for the processing of all things. But inevitably there are crass responses, too.

When it comes to suicide, the perverse incentives of the internet combined with human callousness can sometimes lead to incidents like a YouTube star posting a joking video about the dead body of an apparent suicide victim, or to publications responding to the suicide of a celebrity not with responsible journalism or thoughtful remembrances but shameless attempts for clicks. In the latest such case, Newsweek responded to Bourdain’s death on Friday with a series of stories with headlines like “Who Is Anthony Bourdain’s Daughter, Ariane? Celebrity Chef Found Dead at 61” (which appears to have been later changed to “What Anthony Bourdain’s Daughter Ariane Said About His Cooking”), seemingly intended to wring traffic from search engines.

Death is always messy and hard to understand, suicide even more so. It’s a broad (and increasing) public-health problem with a million different faces, affected by many factors. Mental illness is one of them, but the CDC also found that experiences such as relationship problems, financial problems, loss of housing, and substance use, among others, contributed to some suicide deaths. The traumas and losses of people’s lives and the ways they respond to them are infinitely varied and context-dependent. And that makes suicide hard to talk about.

“We use the heart-disease analogy a lot, because in a lot of ways it fits suicide beautifully,” says Christine Moutier, the chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “In addition to biological risk factors, life stressors, the environment, smoking, obesity, stress, and relationship conflict play into heart-disease outcomes. That is the same with suicide. It’s just that because it is a behavioral manifestation of a complex set of variables, it’s harder for people to get their head around.”

There’s also a reasonable fear of the damage that can be done by discussing it in the wrong way. Research has shown that portrayals of suicide in the media can lead to imitative attempts by others. The Netflix show 13 Reasons Why came under fire in 2017 for its graphic and, some said, glamorizing depiction of a teen character’s suicide, and indeed, a study later found that suicide-related searches on Google rose in the days after the show’s release. For this reason, journalists typically abide by careful guidelines when reporting on suicide, which include recommendations like avoiding detailed descriptions of methods, not oversimplifying the causes that lead to a person taking their life, and avoiding photos of grieving loved ones, so as not to sensationalize the death.

“People worry about talking about [suicide] because it provides people with a script,” says Bernice Pescosolido, a professor of sociology at Indiana University who studies suicide and the stigma of mental illness. But when people hear each other’s stories of struggling with mental illness, or with suicidal thoughts, it reduces stigma and helps people to know they’re not alone, she says. And social media provides an opportunity for these helpful conversations, as well as harmful ones.

“I think we’re definitely in a transition phase right now,” Moutier says, “where there’s both a huge progression of improvement, and a mixture of some of the old assumptions and judgements still floating around. I’m referring to blaming the person for being cowardly, or assuming that suicide is a sudden and unpredictable fluky moment of losing their head. That really goes against the science.”

This cultural transition may be awkward, because as stigma slowly recedes and people become more willing to have these conversations, that doesn’t mean they know how to have them. For example, Pescosolido says she sees among her students more openness to sharing their experiences with mental illness, but they still “don’t know how and when to disclose it.”

Resources like suicide hotlines are important tools, but they are not the only forums for people to talk about what they’re going through, and may not be attractive to everyone in need. On Friday, the day Anthony Bourdain died, many people on Twitter were emphasizing the importance of reaching out to loved ones who seem at risk for suicide, or simply those who are struggling. The model Chrissy Teigen wrote, “In my deepest, darkest postpartum depression, I would have personally never called a phone number.”

In my deepest, darkest post-partum depression, I would have personally never called a phone number. If John or my doctor never reached out, I would have never even known. It really can be a lonely hole. Watch the people you love and don’t be afraid to speak up.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 8, 2018

Check on your strong friends. Check on your quiet friends. Check on your "happy" friends. Check on your creative friends. Check on each other.

— lauren warren (@iamlaurenp) June 8, 2018

Pescosolido has a theory, based on some of the sociologist Émile Durkheim’s late-19th-century writings on suicide. People are quick to blame loneliness and a lack of social integration for suicide, she says. “The other dimension that we tend to forget about is how much people guide you, and oversee what you do, and tell you when you screw up and help you right your path—the regulation that social networks accomplish in your life,” she says, wondering whether “the ability of your family, friends, or society to guide you is what’s been going away, not so much the lack of connectedness.”

Sometimes a restricting sort of politeness, the desire not to bother each other, can build walls between people, especially in a time when we’re hyperaware of how many other texts and emails and Facebook notifications our friends are probably getting. Pescosolido posits that society has come to focus on the rights of individuals, to the detriment of people’s obligations to each other. “I think that comes at a social cost,” she says. Formerly taboo subjects like suicide have become less off-limits as stigmas have eased, but these shifts take time.

“In the 1950s, you never told anybody you had cancer,” she says. “Many problems have gone through this, and we’ve made progress on others. Issues with the mind, and the brain, and personal relationships are the last frontier. They’re the last thing we need to learn how to talk about.”

Article source here:The Atlantic

Physician Assistant Primary Care with Department of Veterans Affairs

The position listed below is not with South Carolina Interviews but with Department of Veterans AffairsSouth Carolina Interviews is a private organization that works in collaboration with government agencies to promote emerging careers. Our goal is to connect you with supportive resources to supplement your skills in order to attain your dream career. California Interviews has also partnered with industry leading consultants & training providers that can assist during your career transition. We look forward to helping you reach your career goals! If you any questions please visit our contact page to connect with us directlySummary OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise - "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan" - by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate care to Veterans? Founded in 1670, Charleston, SC is the oldest city and one of the fastest growing communities in southeastern South Carolina. The rich history, distinguished architecture, and the multitude of cultural, educational, recreational and culinary offerings of Charleston put this city consistently among the most desirable cities to live in in the United States. The Physician Assistant position in the Primary Care Service Line offers variable work assignments at the Primary Care Clinics at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC, and the Goose Creek and Trident Community Based Outpatient Clinics. These clinics are staffed by a total of 28 primary care teams organized according to the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model that represents the Patient Centered Medical Home principle. They care for a total of over 25,000 Veteran patients. The clinics are directly supported by mental health, laboratory, radiology, social work, dietary and several different specialty services. As the parent facility, the RH Johnson VAMC in Charleston offers the full range of specialty care services according to its designation as a 1a VAMC. The "gap" provider will function in the outpatient primary care clinics when planned or urgent need arises (covering for the regular team provider in case of leave, vacancy etc.). Regular working hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday with the option of work assignment for weekend and extended clinic hours. The successful candidate will have a high level of medical knowledge and possesses all the qualities for providing comprehensive and compassionate care for "those who served". The position offers the opportunity to care for a diverse patient population with a wide variety of disease conditions. It calls for excellent interpersonal and leadership skills and offers input into projects pertaining to the development of the Primary Care Service Line. It is designed for a long-term and full-time professional relationship with the Primary Care Service Line at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC Charleston. Duties As the Primary Care Physician Assistant, you will function as a member of a medical team and serve as a highly skilled expert who provides medical management of patients with a variety of medical problems/conditions. You will assist physicians in the clinic by evaluating new and follow-up patients, performing histories and physical exams, ordering ancillary tests, providing new patient education, making telephone calls, writing prescriptions, interpreting and managing lab results, and coordinating operating room schedules. Major duties and responsibilities include: * Perform preventive medicine examinations, treatments, tests or modalities to include physical examinations and the administration or supervision of immunizations. * Manage common medical problems encountered in Primary Care settings, including all age-specific medical problems. * Perform patient education, preoperative and postoperative teaching, obtain medical clearance, and provide long-term follow-up care. * Manage stable, chronic medical conditions (asthma, CAD, COPD, diabetes mellitus types I and II, etc.). * Unstable conditions warrant notification of the MD. * Prescribe all necessary medications within the pharmacy guidelines, excluding narcotics. * Manage patients who are receiving short or long term anticoagulant treatment. * Initiate consultations with medical specialists (surgeons, internists, psychiatrists and other specialties). * Education individuals or groups about appropriate health maintenance topics (danger of self-harm in a patient, diabetic foot care, smoking cessation, etc.) * Provide initial emergency care as appropriate for life-threatening emergencies (BLS, trauma management) * Collect specimens for pathologic examination. * Analyze and interpret data, diagnoses, create problem lists and establish plans for the management of health care You may be eligible to apply for the Education Debt Reduction Program. Please contact Human Resources at this medical center and speak with the Education Debt Reduction Program Coordinator for additional information. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00AM to 4:30PM Financial Discloser Report: Not Required $50,598 $113,428 Job Details Application Open Date 2/1/2018 Application Close Date 2/15/2018 Organization Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Who May Apply United States Citizens Status Full-Time * More About VA * This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. United States Citizenship Required; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members. If you are unable to apply online view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application. * Qualifications * Basic Requirements: * United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. * Graduate of a PA training program, or of a surgical assistant program which is accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) or one of its predecessor organizations * A Bachelor's degree from an accredited PA training program or in another health sciences related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. * Certification t(1) Current and continuous certification by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) is required for employment in VHA. t(2) Recent PA graduates who are eligible to take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) may be employed by VA on a temporary basis (38 U.S.C. 7405), for a period not to exceed two years, as provided in VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section G, Paragraph 5. t(3) If a PA's NCCPA certification is suspended, revoked or expires, the PA must be removed from the occupation which may result in termination of employment. * Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Grade Determinations: Full Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, individuals appointed to this grade must meet all the following requirements: (1) Experience / Education. None beyond the basic requirements. Intermediate Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Full Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Intermediate Grade will have demonstrated the ability to analyze and solve more complex medical problems and meet the following requirements: Experience / Education (a) 1 year of professional practice as a PA; or (b) Successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) A Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Senior Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Intermediate Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Senior Grade will have demonstrated the behaviors or responsibilities listed in one or more of the following categories: Clinical Proficiency, Education, Professional Development, Management/Administrative, and Research, as applicable to the assignment Experience / Education (a) 3 years of professional practice as a PA; or (b) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and a Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; or (d) A Doctoral degree in a health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U. S. Department of Education. Chief Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Senior Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Appointment or promotion to Chief Grade is based on the individual's demonstrated high level of clinical expertise, leadership ability, and the ability to function with a high degree of autonomy. Further, the PA candidate for Chief Grade will have demonstrated all the requirements of one or more of the following categories: Management/Administrative, Clinical Proficiency, Professional Development and Research. xperience / Education (a) Generally, an individual in this grade is able to demonstrate the behaviors listed in the areas below after 5 years of professional practice as a PA; and, (b) The minimum education for this grade is a Master's Degree from a PA training program accredited by ARC-PA or in a health-related field of study. However, experience as a PA may be substituted for the Master's degree where the individual has an equivalent knowledge of the profession and has successfully undertaken a combination of difficult or complex assignments in several clinical, administrative, research and educational arenas which required a high degree of competence. References: VA Handbook 5005 Part II, Appendix G8, Physician Assistant Qualification Standard. * Benefits *SDL2017 Associated topics: care, clinic, family medicine, family medicine physician, hospitalist, outpatient, physician md, physician md do, practice physician, primary  PhysicianAssistant(PrimaryCare)withDepartmentofVeteransAffairs from Job Portal http://www.jobisite.com/extrJobView.htm?id=95685

Physician Assistant Primary Care with Department of Veterans Affairs

The position listed below is not with South Carolina Interviews but with Department of Veterans AffairsSouth Carolina Interviews is a private organization that works in collaboration with government agencies to promote emerging careers. Our goal is to connect you with supportive resources to supplement your skills in order to attain your dream career. California Interviews has also partnered with industry leading consultants & training providers that can assist during your career transition. We look forward to helping you reach your career goals! If you any questions please visit our contact page to connect with us directlySummary OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise - "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan" - by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate care to Veterans? Founded in 1670, Charleston, SC is the oldest city and one of the fastest growing communities in southeastern South Carolina. The rich history, distinguished architecture, and the multitude of cultural, educational, recreational and culinary offerings of Charleston put this city consistently among the most desirable cities to live in in the United States. The Physician Assistant position in the Primary Care Service Line offers variable work assignments at the Primary Care Clinics at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC, and the Goose Creek and Trident Community Based Outpatient Clinics. These clinics are staffed by a total of 28 primary care teams organized according to the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model that represents the Patient Centered Medical Home principle. They care for a total of over 25,000 Veteran patients. The clinics are directly supported by mental health, laboratory, radiology, social work, dietary and several different specialty services. As the parent facility, the RH Johnson VAMC in Charleston offers the full range of specialty care services according to its designation as a 1a VAMC. The "gap" provider will function in the outpatient primary care clinics when planned or urgent need arises (covering for the regular team provider in case of leave, vacancy etc.). Regular working hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday with the option of work assignment for weekend and extended clinic hours. The successful candidate will have a high level of medical knowledge and possesses all the qualities for providing comprehensive and compassionate care for "those who served". The position offers the opportunity to care for a diverse patient population with a wide variety of disease conditions. It calls for excellent interpersonal and leadership skills and offers input into projects pertaining to the development of the Primary Care Service Line. It is designed for a long-term and full-time professional relationship with the Primary Care Service Line at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC Charleston. Duties As the Primary Care Physician Assistant, you will function as a member of a medical team and serve as a highly skilled expert who provides medical management of patients with a variety of medical problems/conditions. You will assist physicians in the clinic by evaluating new and follow-up patients, performing histories and physical exams, ordering ancillary tests, providing new patient education, making telephone calls, writing prescriptions, interpreting and managing lab results, and coordinating operating room schedules. Major duties and responsibilities include: * Perform preventive medicine examinations, treatments, tests or modalities to include physical examinations and the administration or supervision of immunizations. * Manage common medical problems encountered in Primary Care settings, including all age-specific medical problems. * Perform patient education, preoperative and postoperative teaching, obtain medical clearance, and provide long-term follow-up care. * Manage stable, chronic medical conditions (asthma, CAD, COPD, diabetes mellitus types I and II, etc.). * Unstable conditions warrant notification of the MD. * Prescribe all necessary medications within the pharmacy guidelines, excluding narcotics. * Manage patients who are receiving short or long term anticoagulant treatment. * Initiate consultations with medical specialists (surgeons, internists, psychiatrists and other specialties). * Education individuals or groups about appropriate health maintenance topics (danger of self-harm in a patient, diabetic foot care, smoking cessation, etc.) * Provide initial emergency care as appropriate for life-threatening emergencies (BLS, trauma management) * Collect specimens for pathologic examination. * Analyze and interpret data, diagnoses, create problem lists and establish plans for the management of health care You may be eligible to apply for the Education Debt Reduction Program. Please contact Human Resources at this medical center and speak with the Education Debt Reduction Program Coordinator for additional information. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00AM to 4:30PM Financial Discloser Report: Not Required $50,598 $113,428 Job Details Application Open Date 2/1/2018 Application Close Date 2/15/2018 Organization Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Who May Apply United States Citizens Status Full-Time * More About VA * This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. United States Citizenship Required; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members. If you are unable to apply online view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application. * Qualifications * Basic Requirements: * United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. * Graduate of a PA training program, or of a surgical assistant program which is accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) or one of its predecessor organizations * A Bachelor's degree from an accredited PA training program or in another health sciences related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. * Certification t(1) Current and continuous certification by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) is required for employment in VHA. t(2) Recent PA graduates who are eligible to take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) may be employed by VA on a temporary basis (38 U.S.C. 7405), for a period not to exceed two years, as provided in VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section G, Paragraph 5. t(3) If a PA's NCCPA certification is suspended, revoked or expires, the PA must be removed from the occupation which may result in termination of employment. * Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Grade Determinations: Full Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, individuals appointed to this grade must meet all the following requirements: (1) Experience / Education. None beyond the basic requirements. Intermediate Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Full Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Intermediate Grade will have demonstrated the ability to analyze and solve more complex medical problems and meet the following requirements: Experience / Education (a) 1 year of professional practice as a PA; or (b) Successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) A Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Senior Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Intermediate Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Senior Grade will have demonstrated the behaviors or responsibilities listed in one or more of the following categories: Clinical Proficiency, Education, Professional Development, Management/Administrative, and Research, as applicable to the assignment Experience / Education (a) 3 years of professional practice as a PA; or (b) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and a Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; or (d) A Doctoral degree in a health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U. S. Department of Education. Chief Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Senior Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Appointment or promotion to Chief Grade is based on the individual's demonstrated high level of clinical expertise, leadership ability, and the ability to function with a high degree of autonomy. Further, the PA candidate for Chief Grade will have demonstrated all the requirements of one or more of the following categories: Management/Administrative, Clinical Proficiency, Professional Development and Research. xperience / Education (a) Generally, an individual in this grade is able to demonstrate the behaviors listed in the areas below after 5 years of professional practice as a PA; and, (b) The minimum education for this grade is a Master's Degree from a PA training program accredited by ARC-PA or in a health-related field of study. However, experience as a PA may be substituted for the Master's degree where the individual has an equivalent knowledge of the profession and has successfully undertaken a combination of difficult or complex assignments in several clinical, administrative, research and educational arenas which required a high degree of competence. References: VA Handbook 5005 Part II, Appendix G8, Physician Assistant Qualification Standard. * Benefits *SDL2017 Associated topics: care, clinic, family medicine, family medicine physician, hospitalist, outpatient, physician md, physician md do, practice physician, primary  PhysicianAssistant(PrimaryCare)withDepartmentofVeteransAffairs from Job Portal http://www.jobisite.com/extrJobView.htm?id=95685

Physician Assistant Primary Care with Department of Veterans Affairs

The position listed below is not with South Carolina Interviews but with Department of Veterans AffairsSouth Carolina Interviews is a private organization that works in collaboration with government agencies to promote emerging careers. Our goal is to connect you with supportive resources to supplement your skills in order to attain your dream career. California Interviews has also partnered with industry leading consultants & training providers that can assist during your career transition. We look forward to helping you reach your career goals! If you any questions please visit our contact page to connect with us directlySummary OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise - "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan" - by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate care to Veterans? Founded in 1670, Charleston, SC is the oldest city and one of the fastest growing communities in southeastern South Carolina. The rich history, distinguished architecture, and the multitude of cultural, educational, recreational and culinary offerings of Charleston put this city consistently among the most desirable cities to live in in the United States. The Physician Assistant position in the Primary Care Service Line offers variable work assignments at the Primary Care Clinics at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC, and the Goose Creek and Trident Community Based Outpatient Clinics. These clinics are staffed by a total of 28 primary care teams organized according to the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model that represents the Patient Centered Medical Home principle. They care for a total of over 25,000 Veteran patients. The clinics are directly supported by mental health, laboratory, radiology, social work, dietary and several different specialty services. As the parent facility, the RH Johnson VAMC in Charleston offers the full range of specialty care services according to its designation as a 1a VAMC. The "gap" provider will function in the outpatient primary care clinics when planned or urgent need arises (covering for the regular team provider in case of leave, vacancy etc.). Regular working hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday with the option of work assignment for weekend and extended clinic hours. The successful candidate will have a high level of medical knowledge and possesses all the qualities for providing comprehensive and compassionate care for "those who served". The position offers the opportunity to care for a diverse patient population with a wide variety of disease conditions. It calls for excellent interpersonal and leadership skills and offers input into projects pertaining to the development of the Primary Care Service Line. It is designed for a long-term and full-time professional relationship with the Primary Care Service Line at the Ralph H Johnson VAMC Charleston. Duties As the Primary Care Physician Assistant, you will function as a member of a medical team and serve as a highly skilled expert who provides medical management of patients with a variety of medical problems/conditions. You will assist physicians in the clinic by evaluating new and follow-up patients, performing histories and physical exams, ordering ancillary tests, providing new patient education, making telephone calls, writing prescriptions, interpreting and managing lab results, and coordinating operating room schedules. Major duties and responsibilities include: * Perform preventive medicine examinations, treatments, tests or modalities to include physical examinations and the administration or supervision of immunizations. * Manage common medical problems encountered in Primary Care settings, including all age-specific medical problems. * Perform patient education, preoperative and postoperative teaching, obtain medical clearance, and provide long-term follow-up care. * Manage stable, chronic medical conditions (asthma, CAD, COPD, diabetes mellitus types I and II, etc.). * Unstable conditions warrant notification of the MD. * Prescribe all necessary medications within the pharmacy guidelines, excluding narcotics. * Manage patients who are receiving short or long term anticoagulant treatment. * Initiate consultations with medical specialists (surgeons, internists, psychiatrists and other specialties). * Education individuals or groups about appropriate health maintenance topics (danger of self-harm in a patient, diabetic foot care, smoking cessation, etc.) * Provide initial emergency care as appropriate for life-threatening emergencies (BLS, trauma management) * Collect specimens for pathologic examination. * Analyze and interpret data, diagnoses, create problem lists and establish plans for the management of health care You may be eligible to apply for the Education Debt Reduction Program. Please contact Human Resources at this medical center and speak with the Education Debt Reduction Program Coordinator for additional information. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00AM to 4:30PM Financial Discloser Report: Not Required $50,598 $113,428 Job Details Application Open Date 2/1/2018 Application Close Date 2/15/2018 Organization Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Who May Apply United States Citizens Status Full-Time * More About VA * This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. United States Citizenship Required; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members. If you are unable to apply online view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application. * Qualifications * Basic Requirements: * United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. * Graduate of a PA training program, or of a surgical assistant program which is accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) or one of its predecessor organizations * A Bachelor's degree from an accredited PA training program or in another health sciences related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. * Certification t(1) Current and continuous certification by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) is required for employment in VHA. t(2) Recent PA graduates who are eligible to take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) may be employed by VA on a temporary basis (38 U.S.C. 7405), for a period not to exceed two years, as provided in VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section G, Paragraph 5. t(3) If a PA's NCCPA certification is suspended, revoked or expires, the PA must be removed from the occupation which may result in termination of employment. * Must be proficient in written and spoken English. Grade Determinations: Full Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, individuals appointed to this grade must meet all the following requirements: (1) Experience / Education. None beyond the basic requirements. Intermediate Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Full Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Intermediate Grade will have demonstrated the ability to analyze and solve more complex medical problems and meet the following requirements: Experience / Education (a) 1 year of professional practice as a PA; or (b) Successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) A Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Senior Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Intermediate Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Individuals appointed or advanced to Senior Grade will have demonstrated the behaviors or responsibilities listed in one or more of the following categories: Clinical Proficiency, Education, Professional Development, Management/Administrative, and Research, as applicable to the assignment Experience / Education (a) 3 years of professional practice as a PA; or (b) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and successful completion of a PA post-graduate residency program accredited by ARC-PA or by the U.S. Armed Forces; or (c) 2 years of professional practice as a PA and a Master's degree from a PA training program certified by ARC-PA or in another health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education; or (d) A Doctoral degree in a health-related field from an accredited college or university recognized by the U. S. Department of Education. Chief Grade. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, candidates must meet all requirements described in this standard for Senior Grade through VA employment or non-VA PA positions with equivalent scope and complexity. Appointment or promotion to Chief Grade is based on the individual's demonstrated high level of clinical expertise, leadership ability, and the ability to function with a high degree of autonomy. Further, the PA candidate for Chief Grade will have demonstrated all the requirements of one or more of the following categories: Management/Administrative, Clinical Proficiency, Professional Development and Research. xperience / Education (a) Generally, an individual in this grade is able to demonstrate the behaviors listed in the areas below after 5 years of professional practice as a PA; and, (b) The minimum education for this grade is a Master's Degree from a PA training program accredited by ARC-PA or in a health-related field of study. However, experience as a PA may be substituted for the Master's degree where the individual has an equivalent knowledge of the profession and has successfully undertaken a combination of difficult or complex assignments in several clinical, administrative, research and educational arenas which required a high degree of competence. References: VA Handbook 5005 Part II, Appendix G8, Physician Assistant Qualification Standard. * Benefits *SDL2017 Associated topics: care, clinic, family medicine, family medicine physician, hospitalist, outpatient, physician md, physician md do, practice physician, primary  PhysicianAssistant(PrimaryCare)withDepartmentofVeteransAffairs from Job Portal http://www.jobisite.com/extrJobView.htm?id=95685