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National accreditation for
CenterPoint Human Services
Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation
Facilities (CARF) has granted CenterPoint Human
Services national accreditation.
CenterPoint was granted a full three-year accredi
tation and received "exemplary" marks for two
CenterPoint-driven programs. The two programs
receiving accolades were the Patient Assistance
Program, which provided $2.7 million in free pharma
ceuticals ast fiscal year, and CenterPoint's employ
ment and involvement of Peer Support Specialists,
trained consumers of services who offer a consumer
perspective.
"This the culmination of eighteen months of
and implementation efforts. Everyone at
int should be proud of themselves," says
[Betty Taylor, CenterPoint Area Director/CEO.
Taylor adds, "CARF accreditation sends a clear
message that CenterPoint is committed to the people
and communities we serve.
This accomplishment validates collaborative efforts
toward high quality services."
CARF is one of four national accreditation agen
jcies for Local Management Entities approved by the
?Division of Mental Health, Developmental
Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.
CenterPoint and selected providers were reviewed by
CARF surveyors in November.
Lischke inducted in to
esteemed medical organization
Michael P. Lischke, Ed.D., M.P.H., administrator
land educator at Wake Forest University School of
I Medicine, has been inducted as a fellow in the
(College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He currently
?holds the positions of director of Northwest AHEC,
?executive director of the Office of Continuing
I Medical Education, assistant professor of Family and
ICcHnmunity Medicine, adjunct
faculty of the Maya Angelou
alter for Health Equity and
(associate faculty at the
Women's Health Center of
Excellence.
"To be inducted into such a
prestigious organization is an
honor," said Lischke. "The
tent of medical history and
| assets the College of
[Physicians of Philadelphia
otters is unparalleled. -
The College of Physicians
of Philadelphia is the oldest professional medical
organization in the country and includes one of the
world's finest medical libraries and an unrivaled med
ical museum. The participation of the fellowship is
instrumental to all college activities and programs ?
from identifying the pathological specimens in the
IsfiMer Museum, writing public health articles for
Philly Health Info, and presenting lectures in various
fields of expertise .
Lischke earned his bachelor of arts in sociology
and master of public health degrees from Emory
University and his doctorate in educational adminis
tration from Temple University.
Baptist Medical Center
receives the gift of music
Patients and employees of Wake Forest
University Baptist Medical Center are receiving
Mannheim Steamroller holiday CDs as part of a mas
sive giveaway to American troops and hospitals
nationwide.
Chip Davis, the creator and producer of
iim Steamroller, has donated 50,000 CDs to
Forest Baptist as part of his "A Million
to be Thankful" giveaway.
"We are very appreciative of this gift from Chip
and we know that his music will add to the hol
experience for many of our patients and staff,"
Donny Lambeth, president of North Carolina
plospital.
Steamroller can best be described as
Century classical rock," according to Davis. In
year career, more than 20 million albums of
music from the group have been sold.
applications increase
WASHINGTON (AP) - That day in July was
that Tammy Morse won't soon forget. Five
earlier, her husband lost his job as a recruiter
financial' services industry. Once the family
were gone, the mother of two from Stratford,
, saw no way to get health insurance coverage
family other than to apply for Medicaid.
"It was humbling," she said of her visit to the
i's Department of Social Services office. "For
lack of a better way to put it, that was for other peo
ple. It wasn't for me."
Around the country, similar stories are playing
out for thousands of families.
the recession began a year ago, many states
increases in the Medicaid rolls just as tax
are falling below projections. Governors
ied President-elect Barack Obama and
to help them weather the downturn by
the federal government's share of
spending for at least two years,
unemployment rate has jumped from about
last December, when the recession began.
t today. Economists estimated in a
ily Foundation report that each 1 percent
the unemployment rate adds 1 million people
Medicaid and State Children's Health
Program .
Heart condition claiming
lives of many young athletes
FROM THE ST LOUIS AMERICAN
ST. LOUIS (NNPA)
Among cardiologists, it's known as the
most common cause of sudden death in
young athletes. It occurs in one in 500
individuals and is the most common
genetic cardiovascular condition.
However, most people haven't heard of
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or
HCM, and not knowing could prove
fatal.
"It can be difficult to diagnose if
you're not familiar with the condition,"
says Dr. K.eitn
Mankowitz,
director of the
hypertrophic car
diomyopathy
clinic at the
Washington
University Heart
Care Institute at
Barnes-Jewish
Hospital in St.
? : LOUIS. 11 puis
Dr. Mankowitz patients at
increased risk of
sudden death and they need specific
management guidelines and treatment
protocols in order to help these patients
live a fruitful and long life."
HCM is an inherited condition that
causes the heart to thicken abnormally.
In some families, HCM is passed on as
an "autosomal dominant" trait, which
means that if the gene for HCM is
inherited from a single parent, the child
will0have the disease. However, in
almost half the patients with HCM, the
genetic problem is not inherited at all,
but occurs as a spontaneous mutation -
in which case parents and siblings of
the patient will not be at risk for this
condition.
Several prominent young athletes
are known to have died from HCM,
including basketball players Hank
Gathers, Reggie Lewis and Jason
Collier, the NFL's Thomas Herrion, the
Blue Jays Joe Kennedy and the NHL's
Sergei Zholtok. In addition, St.
See Deaths on A9
The late Hank Gathers.
Getty Images Photo
Drunk drivers beware!
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
The North Carolina State
Highway Patrol and other law
enforcement agencies will be on
high alert this holiday season.
Traditionally, the Christmas
and New Year holidays have
been deadly on North Carolina
roads. Last year during the
Christmas and New Year holiday
week, 27 people were killed and
1,118 people were injured in
traffic collisions. The leading
cause of those collisions was
speed.
"Holiday travel can be very
dangerous on our highways if
people don't obey the laws and
use common sense when they
travel, said N.C. Mate Highway
Patrol Colonel Walter J. Wilson Jr. "Drinking and
driving do not mix; make the right choice - don't
_ drink and drive."
Troopers will be conducting DWI checkpoints
? and strictly enforcing the state's
DWI laws. The Patrol will be
increasing the number of troop
ers on the interstates and heavily
traveled corridors. Additionally,
troopers will crackdown on
motorists who are driving reck
lessly or traveling at excessive
speeds.
During the holidays, the
patrol will also be participating
in the state's "Booze It and Lose
It" anti-drunk driving campaign
and the national Combined
Accident Reduction Effort,
(C.A.R.E). Sobriety check
points are being held throughout
the state during the entire week.
The 2008 Christmas holiday
period began on Wednesday, Dec. 24 and ends at
midnight on Thursday, Jan. 1 .
Dr. Glenna Batson
WSSU PT
professor is
going around
the world
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
A Winston-Salem State
University professor will
teach in cities around the
world through a well
respected international edu
cational exchange program.
Dr. Glenna Batson, asso
ciate professor of Physical
Therapy (PT), has been
admitted to the U.S.
Fulbright Commission
Roster of Senior Specialists.
She has been awarded a
five-year post as a guest aca
demic lecturer and cultural
ambassador in academic
institutions. She will first
visit London's Trinity Laban
Conservatoire of Music and
Dance, beginning in January.
Batson leads the neuro?
muscular curriculum in the
PT Program at WSSU and
has been instrumental in the
founding and evolution of
dance science since the early
1980s.
Over the last three
decades, she has integrated
principles from kinesiology,
neuroscience, motor learn
ing, and mind-body disci
plines into dance pedagogy.
Another Fulbright lectur
er, Professor Ann Maureen
Phoya, Director of Nursing
in the Ministry of Health in
Lilongwe, Malawi, is coming
to WSSU next year. She will
serve as a scholar-in-resi
dence in WSSU's School of
Health Sciences, where she
will lecture on the globaliza
tion of nursing education.
The Fulbright Program,
America's flagship interna
tional educational exchange
program, is sponsored by the
United States Department of
State, Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs.
Current HIV Treatments
HH IMM iUlM StSli&C* IWti
We've come a long way
since the early 1980s when
patients were dying of AIDS
because the medical communi
ty had no effective treatments.
The development of a three
drug combination of HIV Medi
cines called a "cocktail" in the
mid-1990s has saved many
lives and allowed people with
HIV to live longer and healthi
er. However, the old cocktails
were difficult to take due the
high number of pills necessary
and common side effects, such
as nausea and diarrhea. For
example, anyone who was pre
scribed Crixivan knows exactly
how these treatments could
affect one's quality of life in a
negative way. This medicine
had to be taken every eight
hours, on an empty stomach,
and with two full glasses of
water at each dose. Not only
could you not sleep more than
eight consecutive hours, but
finding the best times to take
Crixivan throughout the day
was difficult. Today's cocktail
is a much improved' version,
but the basics of treatment are
still the same.
Basics of treating HIV
infection
Medications used to treat
HIV work to prevent the virus
from making copies of itself
(also called replicating); the
more copies of the virus,
the more damage it can do to
the body's immune system. The
standard care in treating HIV is
still the combination of three
medicines; this is what makes
up the cocktail. Two of these
medicines belong to a family of
medicines called NRTI's or
nucleoside reverse transcriptase
inhibitors. Sometimes, clini
cians will refer to these as
"nukes". The third medicine in
the cocktail is either a protease
inhibitor (PI) or a non-nucleo
side reverse transcriptase
inhibitor (NNRTI or non-nuke).
The decision to use a PI or a
non-nuke is usually made based
on an individual patient. For
example, Sustiva is one corn
See IVeatment on All