Author: fizur-philip@cooperhealth.edu

Read the full story at GMA.com.

An Illinois couple who canceled their original wedding plans amid the pandemic donated their catering deposit to help provide meals for those in need this Thanksgiving.

Emily Bugg, 33, and Billy Lewis, 34, used their $5,000 nonrefundable deposit to purchase 200 Thanksgiving dinners for clients of Thresholds, a nonprofit mental health provider dedicated to helping people with serious mental illnesses and substance use conditions.

“In the grand scheme of things, canceling a big wedding isn’t the worst thing that could happen,” Bugg, an outreach worker at Thresholds, told “Good Morning America.” ” We’re happy to be married, and we’re so happy that we could help Thresholds’ clients feel the connection of a Thanksgiving meal as a result of the wedding cancellation.”

Bugg and Lewis were married Oct. 1st at City Hall in Chicago. The couple met on the dating app Bumble in 2017.

When COVID-19 disrupted their initial wedding gathering, Bugg and Lewis decided to team up with their with caterer, Big Delicious Planet, to make Thanksgiving dinners for Thresholds clients. The meals included turkey, vegetables and mashed potatoes.

Bugg and Lewis’s venue, Salvage One, agreed to put their deposit toward a future event for the Epilepsy Foundation, which is another cause to which Bugg is connected.

Thresholds’ yearly communal Thanksgiving dinners were canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Emily’s donation is an incredible example of the generosity and creativity that the pandemic has inspired in so many,” said Mark Ishaug, CEO of Thresholds. “I know that Emily’s act of kindness will inspire others to do the same and build love and connection in a difficult time, in any way we can.”

“Thresholds is so grateful for our staff, like Emily, who are so dedicated to their work serving those with mental illnesses,” he added. Thresholds staff boxed the meals with caterers, and then Thresholds staff delivered the meals to clients’ homes ahead of the holiday.

Read the full story at GMA.com.

Below is an excerpt from the story “A Garden Is The Frontline In The Fight Against Racial Inequality And Disease”

There is a garden growing on the frontline in the fight against racial inequality and disease in Minneapolis. In a city where there is a significant lack of fresh food in communities primarily inhabited by People of Color (POC) this lack of access became worse after this summers’ protests damaged and shut down the only full-service grocery store within a 3-mile radius of North Minneapolis. There is already evidence that this is compounding chronic health conditions like obesity, hypertension, and diabetes — all linked to a poor diet —putting people at higher risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19.

A group called Appetite for Change is trying to lead the community down a different path, teaching others to grow their way to healthy food. Co-founder Princess Haley, a teacher, says the mission is to improve the local diet. During the pandemic, the group has been harvesting artichokes and leafy greens to supply boxes of free produce every week to 300 local families from a community garden the size of a soccer field.

One of Haley’s converts is 17-year-old Carl Childs, who shows me how to properly pluck fronds of Dino kale so as not to damage the plant. Childs says he wants to become a dental hygienist one day. He discovered a love of snap peas working after school with Appetite for Change, and lately feels huge satisfaction providing produce to those who otherwise can’t access it.

His story is not unique. Read the full story about the many lives being changed and that will be changed by this and similar efforts at NPR.org.

Read the full article at PsychologyToday.

Toni Bernhard, J.D., a former law professor at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Bernhard discusses being aware on an intellectual level of the many blessings in her life, but just not “feeling it” as the expression goes. For example, you can remind oneself that they are fortunate despite all the Covid-19 restrictions, but still not being able to feel particularly grateful. Or, calling to mind all the people in the world who have it so much worse in an effort to make oneself feel grateful for what you have and having that not move you toward thankfulness. To that end, instead of trying to talk oneself into big gratitude—a lecture that is always packed with judgmental “shoulds” and “musts”—she recommends thinking small and offers these examples:

• Thinking big: “I must be grateful every single day that, because my husband and I have been so strict about taking precautions against getting the virus, that I feel safe.”
• Thinking small: “I’m grateful that, even though I’m stuck at home, the leaves on the tree outside my window have turned a pretty yellow color.”
  
  
• Thinking big: “I should never forget to be grateful to my supportive family even though they can’t come here for Thanksgiving Dinner this year.”
• Thinking small: “That was thoughtful of my daughter to text me today.”
  
  
• Thinking big: “I should be appreciating all the things I can still do even though I’m sheltering-in-place.”
• Thinking small: “I’m grateful I’ve discovered that doing jigsaw puzzles is fun and relaxing.”
  
  
• Thinking big: “I need to feel blessed every day that my health problems are not life threatening.”
• Thinking small: “I’m grateful that my pain levels aren’t very high today.”
  
  
• Thinking big: “I should spend this Thanksgiving Day remembering everything I’m grateful for in this life.”
• Thinking small: “I’m grateful that I have someone to eat with this Thanksgiving.”

Thinking small doesn’t mean trying to talk yourself out of my unappreciative mood by giving yourself a lecture about everything you have to be grateful for. Instead, it means, first, acknowledging that you feel pretty thankless sometimes, and then looking around for some little thing to be grateful for, but always acknowledging that feeling down, anxious, or angry sometimes that, too, is alright. These steps are just meant to help you get through these tougher moments.

Read the full article at PsychologyToday.

Read the full story at APNews.com

In a small, brightly-colored backstreet house in Belgrade a teenage girl is drying her hair, while two others eat lunch in the kitchen. A group of boys are having their temperatures checked at the entrance as a precaution against coronavirus.

It’s another busy day for Svratiste, or Roadhouse, Belgrade’s first daily drop-in center for street kids that for years has been a rare oasis of warmth and comfort for the Serbian capital’s most vulnerable inhabitants.

Since opening in 2007, Svratiste has welcomed hundreds of children — some as young as five — who have come here to warm up, wash or eat. With social isolation growing and the economic situation worsening in the pandemic, the center’s role has become even more significant.

While Serbia has a nationwide network of social care centers and institutions for the underprivileged, Lukic said the street kids often slip under the radar.

”They are a separate (social) group and should be treated as such,” she insisted.

Funded by donors and people who regularly bring in clothes and other aid, the group recently set up another center in a new part of town and has cared for 1,400 children over the years.

Apart from providing food and clothes, the Svratiste team has also sought to help the children socialize and get to know their town by visiting playgrounds, cinemas and theaters. A key effort has been to include them in the education system and make sure they stay. During the pandemic, the center helped with online classes that most children have no means of following.

One of their success stories has been Bosko Markovic, now 18, who first came to Svratiste five years ago. With the center’s help, Markovic has finished high school and now has his eyes set on becoming a policeman, he told the Associated Press.

Read the full story at APNews.com

From the folks at Northern Light Health, we find the story of Jasper and the “This Is Good” (TIG) moment.

“Sometimes the good stuff is right there in front of you and sometimes you need a shovel to dig for it, but calling it out makes it real and gives it power,” says Pam from Palm (as in Palm Street), ever at-the-ready to chase the good stuff down. Like Jasper.

Jasper is a jail-break kind of dog that slips his leash or digs his way to freedom, however the opportunity may present itself. But Pam is an “I’m-on-it” sort of woman who drops her bike on the sidewalk to chase down neighborhood dogs on the run no matter how many backyards they lead her through. She sees a situation; she goes for it. In fact, Jasper’s owner didn’t even know she was missing a dog until Pam showed up at the door with the Husky/Shephard rascal by the collar.

“Hi, I’m Pam from Palm,” Pam announced when Anita Crane, a Northern Light graphics designer opened the door. “I was told this runner is yours?” Anita looked down at her panting and quite happy dog.

After Jasper trotted through the door, Pam-from-Palm and Anita got to talking which is how Anita found out about TIG. It stands for “This Is Good.” If Pam gets her way, TIG is what we’ll all be calling out when we come across something good. For instance, say someone shows up at your door with your escaped dog. That’s a TIG moment. Or say you happen to see a newborn baby do some of those newborn baby moves. That’s a big TIG.

A TIG can be anything. It can be as tiny as a Tic Tac you didn’t know you were going to be offered or it can be as big as a vaccine for COVID. The point is to call it out when you see something good going on in your world. Especially now.

The whole TIG thing came about when one of Pam’s friends randomly commented, “This is good.” Something about the moment made them realize there was concept potential here. It could be big. They could see it. In that moment TIG was born and now they are trying to get it going.

“We’re trying to make this into a movement so pass it on,” Pam told Anita, as if Pam-from-Palm wasn’t adorable enough with her spontaneous, self-appointed dog-catching. (Talk about a TIG.)

So call it out and pass it on! We’ve got a movement here to spread so make it your family’s thing! Wouldn’t that be so TIG?

Read the full story at northernlighthealth.org.

The ways in which humans connect had already begun to evolve prior to the pandemic thanks to advances in technology, and many would argue the constraints put in place since the advent of COVID-19 have accelerated that process. For many, this has led to an increased sense of isolation. Enter Belgian artist Elke Lemmens, who is using her extraordinary artistic skills to increase connectedness by bringing to life the remarkable stories of the people of Antwerp, out in the open, giving so-called “boot-scrapers” a second act. She will be using a newly acquired grant to install 50 miniature scenes in the old niches outside homes that families once used to clean off their shoes.

As described by journalist Virginia Mayo, these dusty architectural remnants of an age when muddy roads and the absence of sidewalks made rubbing one’s footwear over metal a prerequisite for going indoors blend into cityscapes from Europe to the United States, failing to attract notice since doormats replaced them.

“So many people have so many stories behind their doors,” Lemmens said as she uses tweezers to move miniature figures into cigar boxes. “Every one of these stories fits into one of these wooden cigar cases, and then I write the names of the (property) owners in chalk on the front.”

She plans to put her creations in various neighborhoods around Antwerp. One such home she has already completed, on a residential street lined with colorful houses, a white door has a message scratched onto it: “Here lived and played Tia — April 11, 2006-September 12, 2015.”

“This boot scraper scene is for this 9-year-old girl who used to sit on the doorstep,” Lemmens explained. “She unfortunately died in 2015. When I spoke with Tia’s mother, she mentioned that her daughter never stopped dreaming of another world. Her dream was to ride a horse on a beach. So, I created this scene in her boot scraper with the little girl riding a horse on the seaside surrounded by other children. The story was an inspiration to me that this little girl had the freedom in her mind to create her own ideal world.”

Read the full story at APNews.com

To read the full article visit Mental Health America.

For many, the stressors continue to mount as the weeks go by. For many, distress about the election remains, and is now being compounded by rising COVID numbers as we prepare for the holiday season. This may very well lead to increased since of frustration, if not significant mental health challenges, for everyone and especially health care workers. To address this, President of the American Public Health Association Lisa Carlson and Past Chair of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Johanna Hinman have summarized their advice to manage any concerns that arise. They start by outlining some unique contributors:

• Making the same recommendations over and over
• ”Shouting evidence-based advice into a political void”
• The advent of “armchair experts from unrelated fields” as trusted sources
• Working under a nationally disjointed response
• Seeing the missed opportunities
• Feeling “the wrath of a nation on the edge”
• Experiencing multiple crises at once
• Exhaustion

This can often lead to symptoms including:

• Feelings of fear, worry, numbness, or disbelief
• Changes in appetite
• Difficulty sleeping, concentrating or remembering
• Being easily frustrated
• Physical reactions such as increased tension and pain in the body, or headache
• Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or substances

So, what do we do?

• Ask for help
• Take breaks from the news
• Take care of ourselves by focusing on the basics (sleep, healthy food, exercise)
• Create structure and maintain routines
• Wind down and rest
• Take reasonable steps to protect ourselves, such as washing our hands often
• Connect with our community to stay grounded
• Get out into nature

Read the full article at Mental Health America.