Civility
October 25, 2017
Vivek Murthy, M.D. identified loneliness as a serious health condition when he was the U.S. surgeon general. The human brain is wired to be social. Being social helped protect us from predators and increased our ability to get food. Because of that wiring, loneliness creates stress and stress can elevate the hormone cortisol and inflammation which leads to disease. Chronic stress also reduces pre-frontal cortex brain function that controls abstract thinking, emotional regulation and decision making. A number of variables may have caused the feeling of loneliness to double since the 1980s in America. Several factors have increased – the […]
May 24, 2017
Working in an environment with competing objectives under tight deadlines and fear of punishment is a too common description of work today. A few high stress occupations are challenging whether the results of job stress (i.e. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) qualifies as Worker’s Compensation claims. The British Medical Journal linked job stress to cardio-vascular disease in 2002; American studies recently validated this information. Chronic stress increases cortisol which creates inflammation and is linked to disease. Previously blaming the person’s reaction to stress (i.e. the Type A personality), now findings reveal organizations can make changes to reduce stress. An individual’s response to […]
October 20, 2016
The laws to protect mentally ill employees have been in place for years. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) makes sure group health plans provide as much treatment for mental illness and substance abuse as other medical and surgical benefits. The Americans with Disabilities Act includes the prohibition of discrimination and requires the exploration of accommodations for individuals who have mental impairments that qualify as a disability under the Act. Yet most employers do not know how to provide employees with mental disorders their rights. Employers understand the need for a surgery, but not […]
October 8, 2015
News of the deadly rampage killing ten people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg Oregon joined the mass shooting headlines with the nine killed in a biker brawl and another nine killed in a church earlier this year. The statistics of mass shootings continue to climb with two more recorded by Mass Shooting Tracker as this article is written. Four more people were killed and five more were injured in these two incidents since the Oregon shooting. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines mass killing as four or more victims resulting in a lesser statistic. The FBI investigated 172 […]