kestrell | Entries tagged with health

For your information

from the Library of Congress.

New audio and braille magazines

Two new audio magazines have been added to the NLS collection.

• Title: Harvard Women’s Health Watch
Frequency: Monthly
Description: Harvard Women’s Health Watch offers timely information in the new age of women’s health and medicine. Includes new prevention strategies, new diagnostic techniques, new medications, and treatments.

• Title: Psychology Today
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Description: Psychology Today is an American general-interest psychology magazine. A variety of psychological perspectives and approaches are represented in the magazine’s analyses.

In addition, NLS recently added one new NLS-produced braille magazine:
• Title: Guideposts
Frequency: Monthly
Description: Guideposts shares inspirational stories.

Availability: hardcopy braille and download from BARD

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Kes: Another game which I wish was accessible, but I'm glad others have access to it.g

https://www.fastcompany.com/90666879/the-guardians-innovation-by-design-2021

Excerpt:

There are things we should all do, ranging from managing our finances to reading more books. But let’s be honest: Playing video games is more fun than balancing a checkbook, and more seductive than reading Tolstoy.

That’s why Craig Ferguson, lead platforms engineer at MIT’s Affective Computing group, has combined the two ideas into a groundbreaking app called The Guardians: Unite the Realms. It’s the winner of Fast Company’s 20201 Innovation by Design award in the Wellness category.

The Guardians—available for free download on iOS and Android—is basically a Trojan horse mental health app. At first glance, it’s like any monster-collecting and leveling game you know, filled with cartoonish magical creatures you need to assemble to take down evil. However, the only way to actually advance in the game is to step out of it—and accept real-life, on-your-honor tasks to complete.

Scientists call these tasks “behavioral activation.” Whether it’s exercise like going on a walk, or feeding your artistic side by drawing a picture, these positive experiences are proven therapy for anxiety and depression. Plus, they can help you acquire new skills or hobbies you might always find yourself putting off. So behavioral activation is a means of self-improvement, too.

....Meanwhile, Ferguson is planning to release a more polished sequel later this year, which will usher players from an enchanted forest to a tropical island. What a wonderful opportunity for us all to get hooked on our own mental health.

From the MIT weekly newsletter:

Back by popular demand, the Department of Biology is again hosting
7.00 (Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic),
https://biology.mit.edu/undergraduate/current-students/subject-offerings/covid-19-sars-cov-2-and-the-pandemic/

a special course on the latest Covid-19 science that is open to all MIT students and to the public at large via live-streamed lectures.
Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
spoke with the class on Wednesday.
http://web.mit.edu/webcast/biology/f21/covid-19-sars-cov-2-and-the-pandemic/
In following weeks, professors Facundo Batista and Richard Young will discuss the science of the pandemic with Amy Barczak, Dan Barouch, Arup Chakraborty,
Victoria Clark, Shane Crotty, Britt Glaunsinger, Salim Karim, Shiv Pillai, Rochelle Walensky, Laura Walker, and Andrew Ward. (Bruce Walker spoke last week.)
Learn more
https://biology.mit.edu/undergraduate/current-students/subject-offerings/covid-19-sars-cov-2-and-the-pandemic/

If you haven't receive this year's flu shot yet, now is the time to plan to get it and, if you are eligible to get the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, you can get both at the same time.

Alexx and I went to get our flu shot for me and the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for him, as he had heart surgery in 2020 and is Type 2 diabetes.

When we got to our local Walgreen's, we talked to the first pharmacist, and she said we could get both shots, so we started on the process of answering questions about birthdates and previous reactions. Then a second pharmacist came along and said Alexx didn't qualify according to the guidelines.

In a tone of complete disbelief, I asked, "How is he not qualified? What guidelines are you using?"

The pharmacist started to talk about policy, so I repeated, "Which guidelines are you using?" to which he replied "You can't argue your way into this."

I said, "I'm not trying to argue my way in. As a disability advocate, I'm asking which guidelines you're using so that when I pass this information along to other disabled people, they don't waste a trip."

At this point, both the male pharmacist and Alexx are obviously embarrassed at the out of control blind woman and the pharmacist mutters something which sounded something like he would give us the vaccines.

Ultimately, we both got vaccines, and I received a flu shot, but Alexx didn't get a flu shot because Walgreen's does not accept his version of Mass Health insurance. Also the pharmacist apologized and explained that all of this was brand new policy. He also didn't jab me hard with either needle.

Conclusion: be prepared to ask or even argue about the guidelines being used to qualify/disqualify immune compromised people for the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and also be aware that you can get your flu shot at the same time, although different forms of health insurance pay for each one.

I just called my Walgreen's pharmacy to get a prescription mailed to me, and there was an announcement that they are providing a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to immune-compromise adults and, when I asked the pharmacist about it, she said they are taking walk-ins, and they will fill out the paperwork whenever you arrive.

Also, I asked my GP about flu shots, and yes, flu shots have begun and it is recommended that you get them.

I spent yesterday sitting under a couple of huge maple trees in my back yard, listening to the wind whispering through the trees and reading stories about castaways who had been stranded on desert islands, and I think I will do some more of that today.

Kes: A couple of days ago, I made what I thought was a joke about this when I posted how Facebook and Oculis were going to be delivering advertising to users's XR headset, but it turns out that yes, advertisers are actually planning on delivering ads to people in their sleep.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a36719140/sleep-ads-dream-implantation/

I've been in contact with my care manager at the health care program I belong to and, after I mentioned the frustrations I've had using the websites to get a vaccine appointment and the relative quickness with which I got a vaccine scheduled at my PCP, she has reported having much more success scheduling appointments through clinics and PCP offices, and has stopped using the Massachusetts website.

I am emphasizing that this is just my opinion based on my experience, and I'm putting this out there as a suggestion for other people to try.

EEarly yesterday morning our PCP, the Codman Square Health Center, sent out a text with a phone number to call, which I hadn't noticed, but when Alexx woke up he called, an they were making same-day appointments, so we went right over.

I asked the woman who gave me the vaccine how many people the clinic was vaccinating that day and she said 162. Still, the clinic was not crowded at all.

Accessibility alert: I strongly suspect that the vaccine scheduling websites pose serious accessibility issues not just for visually impaired users using screen reading software, which adds additional time to page refresh times, but is broken in other ways.

My advice would be to use the phone numbers to talk to live humans who can assist in scheduling appointments rather than relying on webpages.

Kes: Sheri Byrne-Haber continues to write the most eloquent and powerful statements on the experience of disability, and this subject in particular is one which able-bodied people cannot seem to comprehend
https://sheribyrnehaber.medium.com/we-dont-all-have-the-same-24-hours-503b09ded9ef

There's a bird riot going on outside my window! They are definitiely awake and active. And probably fighting over some bird babe. Why does the cycle of life have to happen right outside my window.

I've spent the last couple of days decluttering the aerye. It's been on my to do list for the past six months: writing, Zoom meetings, webinars, courses, and virtual Mardi Gras kept me pretty busy.

There are additional benefits to decluttering, aside from a lighter, cleaner personal space:
1. It's very soothing.
2. It gives you an excuse to blast your music (in case you needed one).
3. You find stuff you haven't been able to put your hand on in a while, so it's almost like getting new stuff. Yesterday, I found my favorite pair of
Gingher embroidery scissors that I haven't been able to find for the past six months.
4. It's a chance to say, yes, that was a fun and interesting phase of my life, and I learned a lot from it, but I don't think I need to keep the clothes and the cheap jewelry in order to keep the memories. Btw: does anyone want a PVC dress and a pair of 5-inch heeled Mary Janes?

https://khn.org/news/article/why-the-u-s-is-underestimating-covid-reinfection/

Lots of ideas and alternatives in this article
https://elemental.medium.com/you-need-to-upgrade-your-mask-now-heres-how-58cefef11b3e

from this week's Top Tech Tidbits newsletter

Date: February 12th 2021
Time: 9AM PT, 10AM MT, 11AM CT, 12PM ET, 5PM GMT
Description:
Accessible Pharmacy Services for the Blind and Be My Eyes are hosting a free webinar about talking glucose meters for blind and low vision diabetics. They will be joined by the team from Prodigy Diabetes Care and they will be discussing their products and the role that Accessible Pharmacy and Be My Eyes can play to help support patients. All attendees can get a free talking glucose meter to try. Register here
https://www.bemyeyes.com/diabetes-care-webinar

Kes: I'm just reposting the information, I don't know anything more than what's in the announcement.

Affordable Senior Housing Vaccine Rollout Virtual Information Session
Residents and staff of public and private low income and affordable senior housing are now included in the first tier of Phase Two of vaccine deployment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which we anticipate to begin later in February. Join MassHousing, DHCD, CEDAC, and Elder Affairs for a webinar to learn more about vaccine rollout in these housing properties.

Date: Thursday January 28th
Time: 12PM-1PM
Registration:
• Please register online at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7bU1VzOAS52bpGgVQnf1QA
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Questions: Use the "Questions & Comments" box in the registration to indicate any questions you may have.
For more information: go to https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-vaccinations-for-senior-housing-settings

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/winners-of-greenberg-prize-to-end-blindness-announced/

The MIT Technology Review explains in plain language
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/09/1013538/what-are-the-ingredients-of-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine/

Sneeze physics are strangely fascinating: I'm visualizing something like a space battle, only the droplets are like evil X-wing fighters and your nose and mouth are the targets on the Deathstar. Do you think if we used this kind of actioin-packed visual imagery people would be more careful?
https://scitechdaily.com/covid-face-shields-no-match-for-sneeze-vortex-rings/