#patient review

[dentalimplanthisar]

🌟 A beautiful smile starts with the right care! 🦷 We’re proud to share this 5-star review from one of our happy patients. 💬 Trust us with your smile journey! #HappyPatients #DentalCare

[reallyimpossibledetective]

Standard Criteria For Suicide Risk Assessment

I was ruminating upon an industrial dispute between an Australian private health care provider and its psychology staff, as to how they should respond when a patient in a non-mental health facility was heard to utter suicidal ideations.

I subsequently had a conversation with Copilot as to whether there are any standard criteria against which such a patient might be measured?.

There are standard criteria used in suicide risk assessments to evaluate the level of risk a patient might pose to themselves. These criteria help clinicians make informed decisions about the necessary interventions and support. Here are some common criteria used in suicide risk assessments:

Standard Criteria For Suicide Risk Assessment • Suicidal Ideation: Frequency, intensity, and duration of suicidal thoughts. • Plan: Specific details about how the individual plans to carry out the suicide. • Intent: The level of determination to follow through with the plan. • Means: Access to the tools or methods needed to carry out the plan. • Risk Factors: Presence of factors such as mental illness, substance abuse, history of trauma, or recent life stressors. • Protective Factors: Support systems, coping mechanisms, and reasons for living that might mitigate the risk. • Previous Attempts: History of past suicide attempts or self-harm. • Current Mental Health Status: Assessment of the individual's overall mental health, including any diagnoses of depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions. • Social Support: Availability of family, friends, or community support. • Physical Health: Any chronic or acute physical health issues that might impact the individual's mental state.

These criteria are used to categorise the level of risk into broad categories such as high risk, medium risk, low risk, or no foreseeable risk. The ultimate judgment is made by the attending clinician, based on their professional experience and the clinical presentation of the individual.

Categories of Suicidal Ideation • Attention-Seekers: Individuals who may express suicidal thoughts as a way to seek help or attention, but without a genuine intent to act on those thoughts. • Serious: Individuals with a genuine intent to harm themselves, requiring immediate and intensive intervention.

Regular Reviews Regular reviews, such as every 6 months, can be crucial in managing and supporting individuals with suicidal ideation. This mirrors the practice in secure mental health settings where patients undergo regular psychiatric assessments and reviews, ensuring continuous monitoring and adjustment of treatment plans.

Suicide Risk Assessment Criteria Standard criteria used to evaluate individuals in these reviews might include: • Changes In Suicidal Ideation: Any changes in the frequency, intensity, or specifics of suicidal thoughts. • Adherence To Treatment: How well the individual is following prescribed treatments and therapies. • Social Support: Changes in the support system and social interactions of the individual. • Mental Health Status: Any new diagnoses, changes in existing conditions, or emerging symptoms. • Coping Mechanisms: Evaluation of existing coping strategies and their effectiveness. • Life Changes: Significant events or stressors that might impact the mental health of the individual. • Safety Planning: Updates or changes to existing safety plans.

Regular reviews can ensure that those within the suicidal ideation umbrella receive continuous, appropriate support and intervention. It is a proactive approach to maintaining their well-being and adjusting care as needed.

While someone can be required to undergo a psychiatric assessment, they cannot be forced to cooperate fully, which can limit the effectiveness of the assessment. Cooperation is crucial for an accurate evaluation, but involuntary assessments often face this challenge.

In the context of family law, the dynamics change. The Family Law Act allows for court-ordered assessments when determining the best interests of the child. If the mental health of a parent is in question, especially if they have expressed suicidal ideation, the court can mandate a psychiatric evaluation as part of the litigation process. The pressure of potential impacts on custody and parenting rights can compel parents to cooperate more fully in these assessments than they might in other areas of their lives.

This mechanism aims to ensure the welfare of the child by thoroughly evaluating the mental health of the parent and ensuring they receive appropriate care and support. It is a delicate balance between protecting the best interests of the child and respecting the autonomy of the parent.

In the context of family law, regularly reviewing mental health assessments every 6 months can be beneficial. This approach aligns with the practice of reviewing secure mental health patients and ensures that any changes in the mental state of the individual are promptly addressed. Regular reviews can help maintain the well-being of the parent and, crucially, safeguard the best interests of the child. It provides an ongoing, updated assessment of the capacity of the parent to provide a safe and supportive environment, helping the court make informed decisions about custody and parenting arrangements.

This process underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and support, particularly in complex family law dynamics where mental health issues may significantly impact the welfare of the child.

An uncooperative patient or parent can significantly complicate the assessment process. In family law, where the best interests of the child are paramount, uncooperative behaviour can impede accurate evaluations and appropriate interventions.  Challenges with Uncooperative Individuals • Incomplete Assessments: Lack of cooperation can lead to incomplete or inaccurate psychiatric evaluations. • Inconsistent Monitoring: Regular follow-ups become challenging, if the individual does not engage with the process. • Legal Complications: Ensuring compliance with court-ordered assessments might require additional legal measures.

Possible Solutions • Court-Ordered Compliance: Enforcing compliance through legal orders can ensure that assessments are completed, though it may not guarantee full cooperation. • Use of Incentives: Providing incentives or support to encourage cooperation might be effective. • Alternative Methods: Employing indirect assessment techniques, such as observations and reports from family members and professionals, can help gather necessary information. • Regular Review Process: Implementing a system of regular reviews, similar to secure mental health settings, to continuously monitor and adjust interventions.

Regular reviews every 6 months can provide ongoing insights into the mental state of the individual and their capacity to parent, ensuring that the welfare of the child is consistently prioritised.

Navigating the complexities of uncooperative behaviour in the context of family law requires a balanced approach, leveraging legal tools and supportive measures to ensure comprehensive care and fair decision-making.

[dhyzenmedia]

Gratitude for Dr. Nichole Gansemer, ND

[ducktracy]

🫵 i can smell you

[aponii1]

The silent patient by Alex Michaelides just finished this book honestly i'm speechless. This book is incredibly well written with the gripping plot and characters was well developed. The plot twist at the end caught me completely off guard it honestly left me staring at the wall for a good 20 minutes, honestly glad I have read it my reading slump is cured. If you like psychological thriller this novel is for you. (5/5)

Favourite quotes:

"Remember, love that doesn't include honesty doesn't deserve to be called love."

"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways. SIGMUND FREUD."

"The aim of therapy is not to correct the past, but to enable the patient to confront his own history; and to grieve over it. ALICE MILLER."

[inimitablereel]

so you want to watch a Hallmark Hanukkah Movie

Last year @heliological and I watched all 7 Hallmark Hanukkah Movie that were out at the time (plus the one lifetime hanukkah movie, Menorahs and Mistletoe) to make a cool fanvid. Actually, you don't need to have seen any of these movies to watch that so I'm going to shamelessly stick that in the body of this post

I've just watched the two movies that came out this year, so, below the cut, my personal ranking of every Hallmark Hanukkah Movie (plus mistletoe and menorahs which I'm declaring an honorary hallmark movie)

Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that watching 10 Hallmark* movies set in December means a lot of exposure to that other December holiday. Personally I avoid Christmas as much as possible, but I hear some people love it, so I'll rate each of these movies on 3 axes:

Hallmark: how much christmas is in a movie (higher is worse imo)

Hanukkah: how much this movie knew (or got wrong) about Judaism (according to me, one Jew on the internet)

Movie: okay but was it actually fun to watch (again, according to me)

Round and Round (2023)

Rachel gets stuck in a timeloop on the seventh night of Hanukkah. Hallmark: 1: Christmas barely exists in this movie, and every character we know celebrates a holiday specifically celebrates chanukah. A 1 instead of a 0 because there are a few moments of Christmas existing in the world (true to life in north america in december, unfortunately)

Hanukkah: 8: loses a point for a couple of incorrect props, but generally seems like it knows what it's doing about hanukkah/feels like a reasonable portrayal of Jews

Movie: 10: this is the only one of these that I told people irl to go see: I genuinely liked and would recommend this movie! I love timeloops, I found the romance genuinely very compelling and handled well with the context of the timeloop, it was really charmingly nerdy, so I'm 100% the target audience for this one. Dropout fans may note that one of the leads is played by Vic Michaelis.

Hanukkah on the Rocks (2024)

An old town dive bar turns into a Hanukkah party when just-laid-off lawyer Tory gets pulled into the community.

Hallmark: 0: I just finished this movie and I honestly don't remember there being any Christmas in it at all? It was mentioned as existing once? A real breath of fresh air as compared to the other Hallmark Hanukkah movie from this year

Hanukkah: 9: This gets bonus points for remembering that Jewish holidays other than Hanukkah exist. It was a little hokey at times about shared jewish experiences or whatever, but such is hallmark. Deducted the last point because I am mad about "Hanukkah in July"

Movie: 7: The description of this movie doesn't do it credit - it's surprisingly fun to watch! The main actors are pretty good and it was fun to watch everyone interacting. The pacing was a little wonky and the ending was a little rushed because this was way more focused on figuring out what you want in life/forming community than the actual romance plot. But I love the kind of romance that's actually a late coming of age story and this overall worked pretty well.

Hitched for the Holidays (2012)

Nice Jewish Girl Julie and Catholic boy Rob find each other on Craigslist looking for fake dates for the holidays. Shenanigans ensue when Rob pretends to Julie's family to be Jewish.

Hallmark: 5: this definitely had a fair bit of Christmas in it, since his family celebrates Christmas, but we're grading on a curve here because if I recall correctly this at least doesn't try to explain Christmas to the Jewish girl or do a kiss under a Christmas tree. It's set over pretty much the whole month of December so it's as much a new years movie as a christmas movie in that sense.

Hanukkah: 7: I'm giving this a relatively high rating despite it mostly showing Hanukkah celebration that's messed up on purpose as a joke about how the goyish boyfriend doesn't know anything about Hanukkah. So we get things like him blowing out a menorah, but hey, them including that as a joke means that the creators of this movie know that you're not supposed to blow out a menorah!

Movie: 6: I thought it was a pretty good romcom. It has a real plot arc, and it's doing some fun tropes. I will say that this movie runs on cringe humor, which I don't love but at least it's doing something. This is one of two movies I watched in 2022, so I may be underselling it a bit because I've forgotten, but it was actually pretty memorable.

Holiday Date (2019)

Nice Jewish Boy Ethan is hoping to get an acting gig in a play that involves small town Christmas, so he volunteers to pretend to be Brooke's boyfriend when her real boyfriend dumps her just before going to her parents' for Christmas.

Hallmark: 10: this is a Christmas movie that has a Jewish boyfriend

Hanukkah: 4? this didn't get anything wrong about hanukkah iirc but it's really not a movie about Hanukkah and it doesn't have a ton of screentime. They light some candles and have latkes and soufganiot

Movie: 8: Ethan's actor, Matt Cohen (who imdb tells me was on a few spn episodes back in the day?), made this movie. He was just shockingly charming and enthusiastic about everything in a way that made it somehow work for me even though I simply would not be anything like that level of enthusiasm in his place. And the fake dating plot worked pretty well. It does run into the classic hallmark conservatism, so even grading on a scale that ignores the Christmas of it all I don't want to give it full marks, but it was a notably way better, more cohesive, and more fun to watch movie than a bunch of these. This did make me say oh if I liked Christmas some of these movies would be fun vs many of the hanukkah ones are deeply mediocre in a way that isn't really fun, but that may mean if you have a tolerance for Christmas you have choices that are even better than this one. This one actually has the worst rating on letterboxd of every movie here, which, again, suggests that if you like Christmas there are better movies (with fewer Jews) and if you don't like Christmas this is so much Christmas.

Eight Gifts of Hanukkah (2021)

Who could be leaving Sara all these Hanukkah gifts? Surely not her good friend who used to be the boy next door. How will she choose between the mystery gift giver and the chef she just met online?

Hallmark: 2: I'd forgotten about this one honestly but it's really not about Christmas! They do have a half-Hanukkah-half-Christmas display because Sara's business partner is Christian, but honestly, it's pretty cute! The chef isn't Jewish but he doesn't force Christmas on her and is interested in her family's hanukkah celebration which is honestly very charming, so maybe this movie really deserves bonus points for knowing that Christmas exists but not being obnoxious about it

Hanukkah: 8: detracting some points for the JCC running a "Hanukkah hunt" which I personally hate. Also at one point someone carries a lit menorah? I don't think that's not kosher it just seems dangerous. Gets a bonus point for having a hanukkah song that isn't made up for the movie in it as instrumental background music!

Movie: 6: I have this in my notes as "perfectly functional romcom". Tbh this one may have been a worse watching experience just because I watched too many mediocre movies all at once, I think it was pretty okay. Also gets bonus points from me for not being set in NYC

Hanukkah on Rye (2022)

Jacob and Molly have a meet-complicated when they realize that the delis that they're both inheriting are competing .... but also secretly they've been paired up by a matchmaker at the same time.

Hallmark: 1: Tragically this is our last one that is not about Christmas. a 1 instead of a perfect 0 because the magical matchmaker who wears red and white and has glasses that glint in a particular way felt Christmassy to heliological, the Christmas Movie Knower of the two of us (also there's a Christmas tree in the lobby of the building they live in)

Hanukkah: 9: sure yeah this one knew about Hanukkah and was generally reasonably culturally aware. Detracting a point because their latkes do not actually look good to me (and imo deli latkes aren't really a big hanukkah thing?) but this is just me looking for reasons to mark it down [EDIT: apparently this is in fact an NYC thing, so like this movie reflects A Jewish Experience just not MY Jewish Experience]

Movie: 4: Unfortunately this one wasn't so much bad as boring, which is the worst crime in a movie imo. I wasn't super drawn in by the leads or their romance. Hallmark movies love having family screentime, but there was a little too much family in this one and they didn't really get individual personalities. If you're the kind of person who wants to watch a hallmark hanukkah movie you may still like it? Certainly some folks on the internet thought it was the best one up to that date. The one good part of this movie to me was that there was grandma yuri.

Leah's Perfect Gift (2024)

Nice Jewish Girl Leah loooooves Christmas (because she's been poisoned by living in a hallmark universe) so she's thrilled that her boyfriend has invited her to his family's Christmas celebration. Unfortunately, when she gets there, his mom is... not super welcoming?

Hallmark: 10: this is a Christmas movie

Hanukkah: weirdly, also 10? The problem with this movie is after about the first 15 minutes the fact that Leah is Jewish was almost never addressed again. (I'll get to that more in the movie section, I think it actually let down the plot.) But those first 15 minutes of establishing? They must've gotten some Jews involved with making this movie! In very little time they showed more Jewish culture (and Jewish culture that isn't specifically about Hanukkah) than several of these that were nominally all about Hanukkah. They know about another Jewish holiday! They namedrop Maimonides!!! The mom is PERFECT. Anyways wish this had been visible in Leah in the rest of the movie.

Movie: 6: hallmark is simply too cowardly to follow through on the premise they set up here: how do you navigate a holiday you don't celebrate with a family that really doesn't want you there. This was trying to thread the needle of things are going wrong for her because she's Jewish and doesn't have the right cultural expectations around Christmas ... but also all of the problems are specific to this family and will be dealt with by the individual problem causers realizing they were wrong (on their own) and apologizing. It's doing something as a movie! That's a bold choice! Unfortunately it doesn't pull it off, and the failure to pull it off made me go from liking to hating the boyfriend because he subjects Leah to the gauntlet of his garbage family Christmas and then doesn't really do anything to support or protect her. Leah should've gotten together with Tricia the general store clerk who as far as I can tell is only in this movie to hype Leah up and listen to her problems. Also thematically I would've liked more moments of Leah bringing her own background into this celebration - it didn't really feel like her failures at this family's Christmas were because she's Jewish or even because she doesn't celebrate Christmas - this family's Christmas was just very bad and weird.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! (2020)

Christina is adopted but she gets a DNA test that reveals that she's biologically Jewish and therefore she obviously wants to reconnect with her birth family at the "most magical time of the year"... Hannukah.

Note: I watched this one in 2022 and it did NOT make a big impression so this will be my least accurate review

Hallmark: 6: I think there was a bunch of Christmas

Hanukkah: 7: I don't think this did anything egregiously wrong but it wasn't particularly good about Jewish rep either. There's a fundamental problem with your main character is adopted and her first view of Judaism is going to be all about Hanukkah...

Movie: 4: forgettable :p

Mistletoe and Menorahs (2019)

Christy loooooves Christmas and doesn't know anything about Hannukah but she needs to know about it for work. Nice Jewish Boy Jonathan needs to decorate his apartment for Christmas to impress his goyish girlfriend's father. Surely these are equivalently unknown cultures that they can have a nice time sharing.

Hallmark: 9: not a Full On Christmas Movie but it spends a lot of time Explaining Christmas

Hanukkah: 6: I don't think this is super informative about Hanukkah and doing it as a Teaching Experience when it's super basic stuff to me is kind of annoying. Also some truly garbage looking latkes made by Christy. But it gets the bonus point for knowing that another Jewish holiday exists!

Movie: 3: let's learn about Christmas was never going to be a compelling plot to me, and Christy is also just not very good at coming up with toy ideas for someone whose job that is? My notes say this is "pretty middle of the road for these" which is more damning of the whole Hallmark Hanukkah Movie concept than this movie in particular

Double Holiday (2019)

Nice Jewish Girl Rebecca is tragically forced to throw the office Christmas party with her work rival. At the end of this they do get together, obviously

Hallmark: 9: Sooo much Christmas. Did you know that dinosaur cookies are insufficiently Christmas for Christmas cookies? There is a kiss in front of a Christmas tree

Hanukkah: 5: they get big into spinning dreidels upside-down? Why. And their latkes don't look good. I don't remember them doing anything else Obviously Wrong but it wasn't good.

Movie: 3: I didn't like this one, which was mostly about the Christmas of it all but also it wasn't good

Congrats on making it all the way here Hallmark you should consider making a movie for Any Other Jewish Holiday sometime. My mom tells me that there is at least (and perhaps exactly) one decent Hanukkah romance novel so it's not like the options are so much better book-wise

[augustinewrites]

drinking wine, meal prepping (we will be eating this pasta for every meal for three days straight probably), and listening to one direction

[idontmindifuforgetme]

Can dementia be prevented?

Reducing the risk of it yeah, w a healthy lifestyle. Preventing it no. The first patient I saw w the specific case of dementia I’m studying is a literal heart surgeon 💀 not the average bear at all. Big brain & healthy (according to his wife) & yet started showing symptoms over a course of 6 years.

It’s so fucking scary what dementia does to you. It’s far from just being cognitive stuff/memory loss. Your behavior changes, your cognitive skills are impaired, your motor skills take a hit. The heart surgeon I’m talking about is struggling w mouth function rn, bc his muscles are atrophying as a direct result of his dementia. He legit went from operating cardiovascular surgeries last October to now not being able to speak. It’s different from case to case, but when it’s aggressive it’s fucking aggressive. The neurologist I’m shadowing was talking about how she doubted if he’d “still be here within the year” and I wanted to throw up bc what do you mean if he’ll still be here!!

[sillytriumphdragon]

*the silent patient*

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 4.5 ⭐

From the very beginning of this book, I was hooked. I found myself so wrapped up in the story, invested in unraveling the mystery behind why Alicia murdered her husband.

Michaelides does an excellent job in creating a story filled with things and characters that are meant to keep you guessing.

Written in five parts with very short chapters, this made for one fast read that was hard to put down. It's so easy to burn through a lot of pages when you think,

"Well this chapter has 3 pages, I can keep going." And the twist? That twist? I found myself continuously changing my theories as more and more details surfaced, and I truly didn't see that twist coming until it was right under my nose.

Favorite dialogue:

*“Choosing a lover is a lot like choosing a therapist. We need to ask ourselves, is this someone who will be honest with me, listen to criticism, admit making mistakes, and not promise the impossible?”*

[leporellian]

appointment to (hopefully) get anxiety medication this morning :)

[14dayswithyou]

are you a compsci major :0

✦゜ANSWERED: I wish I had the brains and dedication for that ^^; If anything, Ren would be the compsci major (if he chose to go to university with you)!! As for me though?? I'm currently double majoring in digital media and social working ;v;

[dhyzenmedia]

"Dr. Holland is the most caring, skillful, intelligent, and quick-witted doctor I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” Dr. Holland offers cutting edge, integrative and evidence-based mental health care, proven effective with depression and anxiety, life transitions; relationships, pregnancy, parenting, ageing, loss, and much more. If you are looking for a…

[bookblogblogaboutbooks]

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Spoilers!

Y’all aren’t gonna like this. I strongly disliked this book. I wanted to know what happened just enough to finish the book, but mostly to see if my predictions were correct.

I feel as though the twist was too predictable. I admit, I didn’t know exactly how, but I knew that Theo, the narrator, was going to be involved in the murder somehow. He was uncomfortably adamant to see Alicia as his patient. He was extremely unprofessional. Theo immediately felt like an unreliable narrator to me. I wish that aspect of the book had been more subtle, so that there was a greater element of surprise.

When the element of Theo’s wife’s infidelity came into play, I couldn’t stop thinking of a lesson from my creative writing class. Every element of the story serves to move the plot forward. So where was this plot line going? Was this going to blossom into a weird inappropriate therapist-client relationship? That was my first thought. I didn’t like that idea, though, and hoped for something else. Then, Theo’s inaction in regard to his wife’s infidelity continued, and the unease toward his character grew. I would commend this in another context, I think. But this only served to further confirm what I already believed was obvious, Theo was guilty character.

When Theo’s stalking began, and interspersed we saw Alicia believing she was being watched, I didn’t doubt that it was Theo. Again, I wasn’t sure how, until it was 100% confirmed it was him. Then it was easy to see that the chapters of his wife’s infidelity were just further in the past than I had immediately assumed.

I love when books play with time, but it felt lack luster since I had little doubt that it was Theo to begin with.

Also, how dumb is Theo? After reading the play that inspired Alicia’s self portrait “Alcestis” how could he still question her silence? He is the one that put her in an almost 1:1 scenario of the play. He was there. He, from the beginning, knew the information we the readers did not. The missing element to make sense of her silence was known to him the entire time?? And the gall to provoke her speech only to kill her. Absolutely ridiculous.

Those are my biggest complaints. Although there are more that added to my dislike of the novel.

Him being left alone with a female patient who can’t speak? Immediately after starting? I scoffed. Him not even thinking of her potential discomfort (on multiple levels) baffled me. Honestly, the book being littered with unrealistic psychiatry practices were details that ripped me from any immersion.

I felt that the characters were bland on top of it all. It was like they were caricatures of what they wanted to be. I could see what Michaelides was trying to do with some of them (Max for example), but they fell short of being fully fleshed out, interesting characters.

I would give The Silent Patient a 2.5/5. It’s readable, there is intrigue, but it felt like an idea that would have been wonderful if it had been thought out more. It honestly just aggravated me more than anything else. Not really the feeling I want to be left with when completing a book.

I know this is well loved book. I’d love to hear other opinions. Nicely, if possible.

Thanks for reading!

[theletterboxstuff]

If yes, please tell how it was I am thinking of reading it