Alisha764

Moving Day!

2009-04-21T22:44:00.004-04:00

I’ve moved! Alisha764 blog is now located on Wordpress: http://alisha764.wordpress.com. Over the last few weeks, after being dissatisfied with blogger’s lack of features, I decided to move my blog before I published too many postings. After trying several blog sites, wordpress’s widgets & features won me over. Look for several posts in the next few weeks. Lots of good ideas stored away and ready to post! Starting with: Too fast & way too furious: Web 2.0 overload.

Bibliometrics: A place for everything

2009-03-25T22:19:00.006-04:00

While “80% of journals have increase in impact factor over the last eleven years,” it seems lately journals have lost some of their influence (Althouse, 2009 p. 2). Several journals have had instances of falsified data which IMO has diminished the journals credibility (Bell Labs Fires Physicist For Faking Data; Doctor accused of falsifying link between vaccines and autism; Fraud Case Rocks Anesthesiology Community). Some reviewers have stated journals should have reviewed their submissions closer. I have also heard some physicians say they are disappointed with the quality of research in many journals.

After seeing the recent scandals, financial crisis, new ways to access articles, changes in physicians’ opinions about journals, and new ways to review/rate an article, it is important to evaluate the reputation and impact factor of journals/articles but also to review the processes used to evaluate journals/articles. “The journal impact factor "is probably the most well-established metric that's out there," according to Susan King” (Rovner, S. 2008). So what is journal impact factor?

The impact factor of a journal is calculated by first counting the number of citations received in a given year by items the journal published in the previous two years. That quantity is then divided by the number of articles published in the journal in those two years. (Rovner, S. 2008).

Granted some say a journal's impact factor is not completely accurate since many journals, especially in science and medicine, are quoted far past the two year mark. Consider the amount of time it takes to complete a study and publish the information. Many studies rely on previous studies which cite previous studies conducted well before the two year mark. And while it is always better to review the actual work and not rely on statistics . . . who has time to read 1,000’s of articles published weekly? . “However, some questions—such as the bibliometric analysis of the relative influence of the full contents of a journal—can only be answered by a large-scale quantitative approach” (Bergstrom 2007).

So how can you get an accurate measure? Where can you find journal impact factor ratings, or the h index? More importantly, where can you get this information for free?

Our library does not have the Journal Citation reports, instead I took a look at two free resources: Scimago (http://www.scimagojr.com/ ) and Eigenfactor (http://www.eigenfactor.org/ ).

A few quick notes:

Eigenfactor:

o Eigenfactor scores are scaled so that the sum of the Eigenfactor scores of all journals listed in Thomson's Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is 100.

o Measures first 5 years of article influence after publication.

o Eigenfactor^TM scores and Article Influence^TM scores rank journals much as Google ranks websites.

o Eigenfactor.org not only ranks scholarly journals in the natural and social sciences, but also lists newsprint, PhD theses, popular magazines and more.

o The JCR provides detailed information about the nearly 7,000 journals in the sciences and social sciences which are indexed in Thomson's Web of Science citation database. ournals in the sciences and social sciences. In addition, we are able to assign Eigenfactor scores to more than 100,000 reference items that are cited by the JCR-listed journals.

Scimago:

o This indicator shows the visibility of the journals contained in the Scopus® (http://www.scopus.com/) database from 1996

o Uses the widely known algorithm Google PageRank™. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank)

o covering over 16,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4,000 publishers (according to the Scopus website, which Scimago pulls its data from)

I have tried out both of these websites. I really like Eigenfactor.com various display options and mapping options. It creates a great visual. I also appreciate the extra effort in explaining all of their methods, etc. The problem with eigenfactor.com is the last update was 2006. I would like to see the data at least from 2007. A lot has changed in the last few years with the recent falsified data; therefore, ratings for journals could have drastically changed. I will say that eigenfactor.com has a nice interface and is easy to search.

Added bonus, Eigenfactor.com has cost effectiveness search that ranks journals according to the value-per-dollar they provide. Plus Eigenfactor.com also rates other items such as: theses, news print and popular magazines. The problem with Eigenfactor is it is limited to the journals in Thomas Reuters Web of Science.

While Eigenfactor.com is easier to search, has nice visuals, etc.; scimago.com offers a few other content features. For instance, you can obtain information about different countries journal impact. You can also obtain journal h index rankings. Granted the h index is best used for evaluating journals or authors who have published items for several years. The h index should not be used for evaluating a new journal or author.

Scimago.com covers 16,000 peer reviewed journals compared to Eigenfactor’s 7,000; although, Eigenfactor is using the JCR (Journal Citation reports).

I must say overall, I prefer Eigenfactor.com’s visual, but I still really like receiving the h index on scimago.com. I am very pleased to see that Eigenfactor.com reviews articles citations over 5 years. Scimago only reviews the last 3 years.

I must point out here that Eigenfactor and Scimago measure journals in different ways. Eigenfactor uses its own algorithm to measure the influence of a journal (By this approach, journals are considered to be influential if they are cited often by other influential journals). Scimago lists several rankings such as the h Index, SJR, etc. (http://www.scimagojr.com/help.php).

After reviewing both sites and attempting to wrap my mind around the statistics of the situation (I am impressed with llordllama(http://tinyurl.com/cw2yoj) post and statistical abilities!), I am left with a few questions. Scimago, Eigenfactor, h index, and impact factor are all based on the number of times an article is cited by another article. What about those who just read the article, bookmark it (either on delicious, digg, etc.), or download the article? How can you track this information outside of your library? Basically, you are looking more at the usage statistics of the journal/article than the influence/impact factor.

There is a vendor that will do this for you: http://www.projectcounter.org/. However, it cost money to be a member.

During these tough economic times, we have to cut subscriptions; therefore, we need to ensure the continuing and new subscriptions are valuable:

“As librarians work to meet increasing subscription prices with increasingly constrained subscription budgets, powerful measures of journal influence and journal value may usefully supplement expert opinion and other sources of information in making difficult decisions about journal holdings.” (Bergstrom 2007)

So do you know of any resources which measure the usage statistics for an article or journal and include the impact factor & h index ratings? It would be great to have several ways to measure journal/article rankings within one resource. Am I dreaming?

References:

Althouse, J. D. West, T. C. Bergstrom, and C. T. Bergstrom (2009) Differences in impact factor across fields and over time Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60: 27-34 http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publications/working/AlthouseEtAl08.pdf
Bergstrom (2007) Eigenfactor: Measuring the value and prestige of scholarly journals C&RL News 68(5) http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/backissues2007/may07/eigenfactor.cfm
Bergstrom, J. D. West, M. A. Wiseman (2008) The Eigenfactor Metrics, Journal of Neuroscience 28(45): 11433-11434 http://www.eigenfactor.org/BergstromEtAl08.pdf
Rosvall and C. T. Bergstrom (2007) Maps of information flow reveal community structure in complex networks Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 105:1118-1123 Also arXiv physics.soc-ph/0707.0609v3 http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publications/RosvallAndBergstrom08.pdf
Rovner, S. (2008). The Import Of Impact. Science Technology 86(20): 39-42. Retrieved from http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/86/8621sci1.html on 18 March 2009.

Rinse and Repeat

2009-03-19T23:26:00.001-04:00

Yes I have been in a never ending process of rinse and repeat, more like continuously talk about RSS. I apologize for not posting recently but I have been trying to remove all the confusion about RSS.

After presenting to residents and discussing RSS with staff members, I have come to some conclusions. Large presentations are not working. Instead of presenting to a group, I now do individual discussions. After talking to them about RSS, I then set-up an RSS account for the staff member and sign them up for several journals’ TOC and news sites.

The problem is time. I am a solo librarian with limited time; however, helping staff stay up-to-date is very important to me so I will do everything I can to achieve this task. To save time, I tried to use TicTocs but it has been down lately and also crashed my computer several times. So instead, I have created word documents with the RSS links for each specialty (ex. Pediatrics, Family Practice, etc.).

When I talk to a staff member about RSS I offer to set-up an account and sign them up for some subscriptions. I pull the feeds off the word document and set up a reader account. I then go a step further. I use Jing to create a tutorial video specific to their reader subscriptions. I do a quick 5 minute video describing the items I set-up for them and how to use their reader.

An email is sent with the reader subscription information and Jing video. Finally, I follow up with them a week later to see if they have any questions. Sometimes it is a phone call, but I normally try to stop by their office. At this point, most people do have a few questions. It is also a good time to gauge if they have actually been using their reader. If they have not have been using their reader then I take extra time to answer any questions and reintroduce the importance of a reader.

I then start the process all over again with the next patron.

I have found just in the last week that the value of having a reader has spread to other staff members very slowly. I will continue to rinse and repeat as necessary until all confusion has been removed and I have helped staff learn how to easily stay up-to-date even if it is using something other than RSS.

Opportunity to be published in a leading journal in medical librarianship

2009-03-19T23:08:00.002-04:00

***Message from Hope Leman***

Articles needed for the Journal of Hospital Librarianship’s Technology Column—opportunity to be published in a leading journal in medical librarianship

Hello, everyone. I am one of the section editors for the Journal of Hospital Librarianship’s Technology Column. I am looking for articles slated to appear in the 9 (4) November 2009 issue.

I need to get to my editor by July 1, 2009 one article on the topic, “My Favorite Web 2.0 Tools: Why I Love Them and How I Use Them.” Ideally, the articles should relate to tools likely to be used in hospital library settings. Think firewall concerns.

This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase to your peers in our field what you know and to gain experience in writing for publication. And it never hurts to have a published article or two on your resume. There is no payment for the articles, but the visibility is well worth the effort and so is the gratitude you will receive from readers who will benefit from the know-how you will exhibit in your article.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES ONLY. Submission of a manuscript to this Journal represents a certification on the part of the author(s) that this is an original work and that neither this manuscript nor a version of it has been published elsewhere.

Columns should be 8-10 pages in length, 12 point type, double spaced.

Please submit article proposals as soon as possible to me.

Thank you for your trouble.

Hope Leman
Library Technical Specialist
Murray Memorial Library
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center
3600 NW Samaritan Drive
Corvallis OR 97330
Telephone (541) 768-6337
Fax (541) 768-5087
hleman@samhealth.org

Introducing staff to web2.0

2009-03-07T23:45:00.008-05:00

Starting the web2.0 conversation. Last week I posted about patient education, a missing link in healthcare reform. Then I picked up a journal I do not usually read and an article really hit home: Gen Y in the Workforce from the Harvard Business Review.

In short, the article was about two different generations colliding in the workplace. An eager Gen Y worker wanted to expand a marketing project using new web2.0 tools; however, his ideas were not well received by upper management. While the Gen Y workers ideas were solid and would have added value, he did overstep by going above his boss. While the Gen Y was a little too over eager, the part which really struck me was his ideas were not even considered. They were dismissed due to lack of time and knowledge.

The Krafty Librarian did a great presentation that summarized the issue: Promises and Perils of Web 2.0 in Special Libraries. She’s right, librarians encounter several barriers when trying to introduce new technologies and these are barriers I have been working on constantly.

I have tried to introduce new web2.0 technologies but they have not been accepted very well. A few staff members have started using RSS but most just cannot find the time. As a millennial I tend to accept changes and I am flexible to new technology, albeit sometimes a little too eagerly, but I am having trouble getting through to others. I’ve done everything from an open house, presentations, individual training sessions, and posters.

Marketing the library in the last year has tripled usage in every area and more in some. Granted, the library went from almost no use to some use, but I still have several barriers to overcome and one of them is resistance to change. So how do you encourage staff to use web2.0 technologies?

I have even applied for a grant to do a ‘mobile information station.’ I am hoping using a mobile station throughout the hospital will help with marketing the library and encouraging staff to use more web2.0 tools. Right now I am focusing on promoting RSS and PubMed. So if anyone has any tools or ideas please share!

I considered setting up a generic ticotocs, which will be a great assistance when staff members ask me to help them set-up a new RSS reader account. The problem I run into is time, I am a solo librarian; although, this would jump start the usage of RSS. I’m just not sure if this is the right way to introduce new technologies or if there is a better way. Anyone have any suggestions? Or do you just have to keep trying and continuing to introduce new technologies until they are accepted?

Healthcare Reform & the missing link: Patient Education

2009-02-24T21:12:00.013-05:00

Discussions abound about reforming the healthcare industry, whether it is financial or quality reform, or improving staff education. Health Spending Projections Reinforce Need For Change; yet, one item that is sometimes overlooked or not linked to these reforms is patient education. Informing patients before, during, and after procedures will help reduce costs and improve quality. Granted you cannot inform a gunshot victim before he comes in the hospital what to expect! But the point is you can in many cases implement ways to inform patients throughout the entire process.

The AHRQ recently supported a study on educating patients before they leave the hospital. The result was a reduction in emergency visits, improvement in care, better records maintained, etc.: “Educating Patients Before They Leave the Hospital Reduces Readmissions, Emergency Department Visits and Saves Money.” The problem is finding the funding to implement this type of program; “However, the growing importance to hospitals of demonstrating their quality performance could spur added interest in this type of program” (AHRQ).

Another event that is at the forefront of all hospitals is ‘never events.’ These are events that Medicare will no longer reimburse for preventable hospital acquired conditions (Stokowski 2009). This new rule went into affect in October of 2008 and many hospitals are still scrambling to comply in order to reduce their costs.

One common ‘never event’ is CAUTI (catheter-associated urinary tract infections). CAUTI accounts for 40% of hospital acquired infections (Stokowski 2009). These infections increase costs, prolong length of stay, complicate recovery, and are just plain uncomfortable. Several articles, including Stokowski’s discuss the causes of CAUTI and how healthcare workers can prevent the infection, but not many link preventing CAUTI to educating patients. Even Stokowski’s only mentions it a few times.

For instance, the article discusses educating staff to ensure full bags are emptied and bags are kept at a certain level below the patient but do not touch the floor. All of these are items that patients and family members who are well educated can help. If a family member knows what constitutes as a full bag, then they can alert nurses, who may be short staffed. Also, the catheter should not be restricted/blocked by anything, which includes a patient sitting on the tube. Simply educating patients & their visitors about these items can help with reducing CAUTI and help when hospitals are short staffed.

“Approximately 25% of all healthcare-associated infections could be eliminated if nurse-to-patient ratios were maintained at adequate levels” (Stokowski 2009); however, situations do occur when nurses are under staffed: emergencies, harsh economic times!

If nurses are short staffed, then it increases the risk of unnecessary catheters and it makes it difficult for them to remind doctors about removing catheters. Educated patients & visitors can assist in reminding physicians/nurses about removing or cleaning catheters.

Another study recently implemented a reminder system that informed patients about colon cancer screening: Reminders Help Patients Get Better Care

“A little information and guidance can prompt patients to play a much greater role in improving their own health care” (Preidt, 2009). This study demonstrates by educating patients they will take a more active role in their healthcare. The study also demonstrated the need to educate patients prior to procedures.

"that patients can take a more active role in their health care. We often don't give enough credit to patients for their ability to own their own health care. But here's some evidence that patients can better manage their health care if we arm them with the right information," (Sequist, 2009)

Based on AHRQ’s study educating patients after a visit reduces costs and improves care, and Preidt’s study shows educating patients prior to procedures improves patient care and encourages patients to seek medical advice. The missing link is educating patients during their hospital stay. Educate a patient before to encourage them to have regular screenings & doctors visits. Make sure they are sent home with information after a procedure, test, surgery. But also make sure that during the hospital or office visit, the patient is educated about how to improve their safety. By combining all three of these, then patients will have a chance to make a major impact on their quality of life.

So how do we ensure patients are educated at all times? Any suggestions?

Most hospitals I see still just hand out pamphlets is there a new or better way to educate patients?

REFERENCES

Penner, R. (2009). Health Spending Projections Reinforce Need For Change. via Health Affairs Blog Retrieved from http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2009/02/24/health-spending-projections-reinforce-need-for-change/ on 2/24/09
Preidt (2009). Reminders Help Patients Get Better Care. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_80932.html on 2/24/09
Sequist , et al (2009). Patient and Physician Reminders to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Archives of Internal Medicine 169(4):364-371.
Stokowski, L. (2009). Preventing Catheter-Associated urinary Tract Infections. Retrieved from http://www.medscapre.com/viewarticle/587464 on 2/20/09

To Drink or not to Drink, that is the question

2009-02-18T22:22:00.003-05:00

Over the last few weeks, the internet & medical community has been swamped with reports on coffee consumption:

Coffee Consumption and the Risk of Oral, Pharyngeal, and Esophageal Cancers in Japan: The Miyagi Cohort Study Is coffee consumption associated with a risk of oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancers?
High Coffee Consumption Linked to Lower Stroke Risk for Women
Coffee Drinking Lowers Women's Stroke Risk
Two or more cups a day boosts protection for nonsmokers, study finds.
Middle-aged adults who regularly drink a cup of coffee may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life http://tinyurl.com/c3r32l
Previous studies: Coffee drinkers may have a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, certain cancers and diabetes http://tinyurl.com/c3r32l
Coffee may help prevent Alzheimer’s, according to InsureBlog. After downing a cup, resist the urge to clean up your breath with mouthwash, an activity that may send your oral cancer risk skyrocketing, writes Raw Chef Dan.
Coffee Strong Enough to Ward Off Dementia?
Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

A lot of people drink it:

Most caffeinated U.S. cities? Tampa, Seattle, Chicago - in that order. New York and Los Angeles rounded out the 5 http://tinyurl.com/7ppehg
49% of all people drink caffeinated coffee daily, with cola and tea tied at a 20% daily consumption rate http://tinyurl.com/7ppehg

Even a 97 year old doctor drinks coffee everyday before starting work; yes he still works, at the hospital: The Japanese Dr. Koop “His breakfast is coffee, a glass of milk and orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it.”

After all it can wake the dead: Coffee 'wakes the dead'

Even EagleDawg likes her new coffee maker: Friday Foolery #19: Bacon Bunn

One thing I do know, make sure you leave the cash & jewelry at home when you make a coffee run: Man loses $300,000 in Starbucks heist. Man, that was an expensive cup of coffee. More expensive than a cup of Kopi Luwak, if you are really daring & have some extra cash lying around try some of this coffee.

Or you could be daring and try Starbucks instant coffee: Starbucks to sell instant coffee

All of this is plain & simple, information overload. Just think of patients reviewing this information and then going to the doctor’s office with a million questions. I hear about this all the time, especially from doctors in the clinic.

Perhaps seeing all of this information will move some medical staff members away from print and towards web2.0 tools (one doctor has an office, and no computer! No email... sighs). At least some are starting to adapt.

A resident came into the library last week asking about how to keep up with all of the new medical information. In the clinic, patients come all the time that ask her about a new drug, adverse affect of a drug, something they saw on CNN, etc. I showed her how to use RSS, showed her again. I did a presentation about RSS a month ago to the residents. I actually signed her up for an RSS account & TOC’s, news, blogs, podcast, etc.

The same resident returned to my office this week and said thank you. She was in the clinic with a patient and was able to give her advice on the latest medical news because she had just reviewed it on RSS!

It is a slow process, but eventually I hope to get more physicians, nurses, residents, students, staff, etc. to use RSS. How do you get other medical staff members to use web2.0 tools? Is it just repeat, repeat, and repeat? Or do you have a special trick/tool?

While you ponder that thought, I’m going to grab a cup of coffee. Despite all the news, moderation is the key and I will continue to drink a little coffee with my cream & sugar.

~ Alisha

Silos within silos: Information is Power

2009-02-13T22:36:00.002-05:00

We see it in every field—Information is Power. The only way to keep the power is to horde the information which creates an information silo, but nowhere is this more dangerous than in the medical field. Sadly, it is also, in my opinion, more prevalent in the medical field.

Let me start with a disclaimer: I know sometimes it is not hording but it is people who will not accept information or new ideas. Also, I know that in order to keep a profit and edge hospitals have to keep business strategies secret, which includes ‘best practices.’ We may not agree with this practice, but it is the lay of the land (Any ideas on how to change this? Please post them!!!!). I am not claiming all hospitals are this way. I know some hospitals do share their information, but I have encountered some that will not, or if they will share it, it’s very hard to get to that information. Why not post practices online somewhere?

Speaking of ‘best practices’, how many librarians get requests to research the ‘best practice’ on wound care, or something else? I must admit, I get at least 4 of these a month. I spend hours researching data to compile a list of articles to read, websites, textbook examples, etc. to find they really want to know what other hospitals are doing right now. Normally they want to know what several hospitals are doing to compare the ‘best practices’ and then choose what will work best for the current situation. It makes sense. If another hospital has tried a method that didn’t work & possibly caused injury/death then why not share this with others? I know, it means admitting error. But with the new reporting systems (here, here, here, and here) the errors/issues are already out there.

Just the other week I had a request for specific ‘best practice’ in level III neonatal units. After compiling information, the requestor said “I really wanted to know what other hospitals have in place.” Well it was like pulling teeth to get this information! I actually never did get everything because most hospitals do not post their best practices online and will not give it out. I agree with Paul Levy (Running a Hospital Blog), who points out how hospitals do not share information which costs patients’ lives . . . we are putting our patients at risk.

Everyone wants to be the best, and the biggest, so within each hospital’s mega silo are smaller silos. Check out this NYT article: Doctor and Patient: When Doctors and Nurses Can’t Do the Right Thing . It mentions a nurse who stopped giving her advice even when she knew her patients would suffer, because no one would listen to her & she was constantly reprimanded for ‘speaking out.’ Granted, there are larger issues at work here (the being reprimanded part just for speaking up for her patient) but there is also the issue of trying to keep the power and be the ‘go to’ person.

So doesn’t the hording of information violate the #1 rule in medicine “Do no harm”? What is next? More hospitals like the one in the news today: U of Chicago ER accused of refusing mauled child on Medicaid. It is a stretch, but isn’t withholding information on what works best the same as refusing to treat?

I’m curious what others think about this subject. Please post responses. If you disagree let me know why, if you know a solution or think one is already in place then let me know.

~Alisha

Laika’s breadcrumbs of encouragement

2009-02-13T20:40:00.004-05:00

I must take a moment to apologize for not posting the last few days. Since I am not able to tweet or post from work, all of my posts are done at home. I have not been able to work posting into my nightly routine yet, but I am going to make a firm effort starting today.

Why? Because of encouragement from inspirational librarian’s like Laika. Laika’s recent post (Medlib’s Round, First Edition) was an outstanding tribute to the virtual networking community. Her post was full of links to other blogs, mentions of other people contributing, and words of encouragement. She has started a process of proving information is power that should be shared between all medical professionals. So thank you to Laika for blazing the trail and leaving breadcrumbs of encouragement behind.

I cannot wait to see what develops when I leave some breadcrumbs of my own and hopefully encourage other Georgia medical librarians to be trees in today’s virtual world (Thanks @sandnsurf for the metaphor!).

~Alisha

Google is the Grid

2009-02-10T21:27:00.004-05:00

Google's new prototype: Google Powermeter. Basically, according to the NYT article, Google is working on a tool that can measure your energy output in an attempt to save. Is this similar to the reasoning behind implementing Blackle? Is this an attempt to save energy or earn money?

"And of course, Google, which excels at making money from the data it collects about users’ online activities, could probably figure out novel ways to make money based on detailed information about their energy use" (NYT 2009).

Of course Google could earn a great deal and sale the data to several companies. Advertising different products based on their use, when they are used, etc. The possibilities are endless.

So my question... Is this a good thing? Or is having Google on the grid, in the grid, reading the grid, and just all over a little terrifying? I have seen some posts lately about taking back your data from Google. Also Phil Bradley has offered tips on his blog on how to back-up your web2.0 tools. What do you think? Google Powermeter good, bad, mix of both, or just wait and see?

~Alisha

References

Bradley, Phil. Phil Bradley's weblog

Helft, Miguel (2009). Googling Your Home Electricity Usage. Retrieved from
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/googling-your-home-electricity-usage/ on 2/10/09

Schroeder, Stan (2009). HOW TO: Take Your Data Back From Google’s Claws. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/02/02/google-backup on 2/3/09

Information Resources to combat rise in army suicides

2009-02-09T22:50:00.009-05:00

Living in a military town, veterans and the army are constantly discussed on the local news, at work, and in the general conversation; however, there are some aspects of military life that are left out of these conversations. One item that has been in the national news lately (here, here, here, and here), the increase in army suicides, has not, to my recollection, been mentioned on the local news.

It astounds me that this has not been mentioned on the local news of a large military town since the suicide rate now matches the civilian rate (Gever, Medscapre 2009). Also, “The number [of suicides] could surpass January combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan” (MSNBC 2009). In 2008 alone there were 128 confirmed suicides and 15 investigations are still pending. MSNBC and Medscape both report that the increase in suicides could be a result of long tours, although only one quarter of the suicides took place while on tour in a war zone.

Despite all of this overwhelming data, the only local person I have heard discuss this issue is the local AHEC Librarian. And then I realize, I haven’t really done any research in this area myself! The army has been proactive and started training its troops to recognize suicidal behaviors and how to react/intervene, which includes a suicide prevention program (MSNBC 2009). So I have started looking for helpful resources to pass on to others in the community. So far I have found: http://communityofveterans.org/

DoD Mental Health Self-Assessment (MHSA) Program

National Military Family Association

I would be interested to know about any resources you might have on this subject.

~Alisha

References:

Gever, John (2009). New Army Suicides Match Civilian Levels. Retrieved from http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/MilitaryMedicine/12788 on February 9, 2009.

Army to report record number of suicides. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/29/army.suicides/ on February 9, 2009.

Army says suicides likely jumped last month (2009). Retrived from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29036515/ on February 6, 2009.

Suicides continue alarming rise in military: Defense conference to tackle troubling persistence of untreated problems. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28895624/ on February 9, 2009.

I am a tree

2009-02-09T21:17:00.002-05:00

I am no longer a mushroom, I am now a tree. Thank you to all of the other librarians' posts & tweets that inspired me to start this blog.

~Alisha