North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is thrilled to announce that its Celestial Soirée raised over $485,000 to support the Guidance Center’s mission to bring hope and healing to children and their families who are experiencing mental health and substance use challenges.
The Oct. 24 gala, which honored Louis P. Iglesias, president and chief executive officer at Allied World Assurance Company Holdings Ltd., is the Guidance Center’s biggest fundraising event of the year.
“The Guidance Center provides an essential service to our community,” said Iglesias. “The importance of providing a safe environment to address children’s mental health issues cannot be overestimated. I am proud to be part of such a great cause.”
A dedicated group of Guidance Center supporters made the evening a huge success. They include event co-chairs John Bender and Wesley Dupont both from Allied World; journal co-chairs Nancy and Lew Lane; and emcee Stacey Sager of WABC TV’s Eyewitness News, whose grace and generous spirit made for a fantastic evening. “We are so grateful to Lou Iglesias and co-chairs John Bender and Wes Dupont for helping us raise the funds that support our mission to bring emotional healing to children and families who are struggling with mental health issues,” said Paul Vitale, board president at the Guidance Center. “Each year, we are blessed to have so many dedicated supporters who understand the importance of our work, and who enable us to serve 10,000 individuals each year.” Sager, who emceed the event for the first time this year, said,“I can’t think of anything more critical than the mental health and well-being of our children. Working with a group as dedicated as the Guidance Center assures me that children and their families will always have a place to turn for the lifesaving help they may desperately need.” A former client named John, now 17, spoke about his journey with ADHD, and how the Guidance Center’s unique Wilderness Program — which takes at-risk youth on hikes to nature settings— made all the difference in his success. “The reason the Wilderness Program is so important and helpful to people like me is because it’s a safe space for people to be able to be themselves and learn and improve at their own pace,” John told the audience. “The program made me feel like I could accomplish anything I put my mind to!”
Guidance Center Executive Director Andrew Malekoff expressed his gratitude to the honoree, speaker, emcee, donors, sponsors and all who worked so hard on the gala committee. “For more than 65 years, we have been dedicated to providing mental health services to all children and families, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Malekoff. “And because of the generosity of everyone involved, we will be able to continue to provide the best in care to the community.”
All proceeds will benefit the Guidance Center. To learn more about the organization’s services, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or call (516) 626-1971.
October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month! Although the month is almost at an end, adopting a dog—or cat or other pet, for that matter—is a great thing to do any time of year. You’re not only saving the life of that one pet, but you’re opening up room in the shelter so another pet who is homeless or at risk of being euthanized can be saved.
Just some of the benefits of having a dog for your family, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:Developing positive feelings about pets can contribute to a child’s self-esteem and self-confidence. Positive relationships with pets can aid in the development of trusting relationships with others. And a good relationship with a pet can also help in developing non-verbal communication, compassion and empathy.
Pets can serve different purposes for children:
They can be safe recipients of secrets and private thoughts; children often talk to their pets, like they do to their stuffed animals.
They provide lessons about life, including reproduction, birth, adoption, illnesses, accidents, death and bereavement.
They can help develop responsible behavior in the children who care for them.
They provide a connection to nature.
They can teach respect for other living things.
Once you’ve decided to add a pet to your family, there are many reasons that adoption is the way to go. Shelter pets will love and appreciate you for saving them. While all animals, whether adopted or purchased, give love to their families, shelter pets seem to have an extra-special feeling of gratitude, and you’ll be the beneficiary of all that lovin’!
In addition, many shelter dogs are already house-trained. While most shelters do have puppies (and is there anything better than puppy dog breath?), adopting a somewhat older dog has real advantages. Along with being house-trained, they are past the chewing stage, and since their personality is already in evidence, the shelter worker can help you match the pet’s personality to your family’s needs.
Shelters and rescue groups often have purebred dogs, so if you want a particular breed, you can likely find it. But remember, mixed breeds are often healthier animals, having bypassed the genetic disorders that can be passed down in purebreds.
Want to learn more about pet adoption? Click here for a great source of information.
If your child needed a life-saving chemotherapy drug and you were told that because of a shortage you were out of luck, how would you feel? What would you do about it?
Sadly, this is no fantasy scenario. It is a 21st-century reality for treating childhood cancer. According to a recent New York Times report, “Doctors are warning that they may soon be forced to consider rationing doses” of the drug in question: vincristine. Rationing means making decisions about who gets the drug and who doesn’t.
In other words, although vincristine is an essential part of the best practices treatment regimen for pediatric cancer, some kids would not receive it; some would get it less frequently than called for, and others would be prescribed a poor substitute with more intense side effects.
As a cancer survivor, vincristine was a part of the cocktail of drugs that I received intravenously during my chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
My understanding, though, is that this chemotherapy drug is not used as widely for adults with cancer as for kids. In fact, the American Cancer Society reports that children represent less than 1 percent of all cancer diagnoses.
The bottom line: Apparently there is little profit incentive to produce a greater volume of vincristine, despite the fact that most kids with cancer take it and it helps save their lives, according to a recent Newsday story.
Although chemotherapy is not easy to tolerate as an adult, I cannot imagine being a young child and going through it. What is even harder to fathom is not having access to the most effective drug to treat my disease and then having to settle for a less effective and less tolerable substitute.
At present, only one pharmaceutical company – Pfizer – supplies vincristine, which is an older and more inexpensive drug. Only one other company – Teva – produced the drug but, according to the FDA, Teva “made a business decision to discontinue the product.”
In a May 9, 2018 story, the Financial Times of London explained, “When prices of older, off-patent drugs decline, manufacturers may leave the market, leaving a limited number of suppliers for certain medicines.”
According to New York Times reporter Roni Rabin, 19,000 children and teens develop cancer each year and the cure rate is 85 percent. She added that shortages create disruptions in treatment, citing the New England Journal of Medicine which noted that “in 2013, 83 percent of oncologists said that they were unable to prescribe the chemotherapy agent they wanted to use because of a shortage and that they had to substitute a different drug or delay treatment.”
Dr. Peter Adamson, chair of the Children’s Oncology Group, stated in the New York Times story: “It’s hard enough for any family having a kid with cancer, and having a child with cancer likely to be cured except we can’t give the drug is beyond the imagination. How can we do that to families?”
Perhaps Erin Fox, Director of the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah Health Care in Salt Lake City, has the answer: “We see the most shortages with generics, specifically generic injectable products because they have low-profit margins and are difficult to make.”
To sum up, we’ve come to a place where an FDA-approved chemotherapy drug has been proven to help save children’s lives, but the drug is in short supply because it is not profitable to manufacture; therefore, some children will have to suffer from a taking a substitute drug that causes more severe side effects.
This is not a new story; just a variation on an old one. For example, we know about insulin’s high cost in keeping diabetes patients from taking their medicine. It is available but unaffordable. Vincristine is affordable but is fast becoming unavailable.
I’ve written before in this space about access to mental health care and the role of the health insurance industry in denying and delaying access to care. The story of vincristine adds further evidence of the corporate reality in which profits trump people every time.
Andrew Malekoff is the executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
As young people all across the U.S. reach their 18th birthdays, they will become eligible to vote in their first presidential election in 2020. It’s shaping up to be a record turnout ever since the vote went to 18-year-olds in 1972, after the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.
Although the law was written to prevent government from denying a citizen who is at least 18 years old the right to vote, a number of state governments have found a way to do just that—and not only to 18-year-olds, but anyone who they think might vote against a favored candidate or proposition.
In a June 13, 2019, report for The Atlantic, writer Ron Brownstein cited Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who specializes in voting behavior. McDonald stated that the greatest increase in eligible voters comes from “young people who turn 18 and immigrants who become citizens.”
The increase in eligible voters doesn’t necessarily determine how many of them vote. Who shows up to vote does. And who is turned away doesn’t.
In recent years, there has been a fair amount of political bluster about rampant voter fraud, which has not been substantiated except in a miniscule number of individual instances. What has been well-documented historically, however, is voter suppression to prevent or discourage particular groups of people from voting. Many tactics are used to disenfranchise voters from casting ballots that range from inconveniencing voters to physically intimidating them.
For example, Jim Crow laws were passed in southern states after the Civil War to suppress poor and racial minority voters. Such laws were made illegal after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nevertheless, in 2013 the Supreme Court decided to eliminate Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act; the loss of Section 4, it has been argued, results in voter suppression among African-Americans. In the intervening years more than 1,000 polling places were closed that were in close proximity to where many African-American eligible voters live.
In 2014, attorneys for seven college students argued in a North Carolina case that a voter ID law suppresses the youth vote. According to an ABA Journal report by Debra Cassens Weiss on July 18, 2014, “The North Carolina law at issue eliminated same-day registration, shortened the period for early voting, and eliminated a program that allowed teens to fill out registration forms that took effect on their 18th birthday. A photo ID [would be required] but student IDs won’t be accepted and neither will out-of-state driver’s licenses, in most cases.”
The next presidential election will be held Nov. 3, 2020. If you are a teenager who has or will become eligible to vote before that time, it is important that you register to vote and know your rights.
Depending on where you live, you can become eligible to cast a ballot in all state and federal elections when you reach 18. Check out www.usa.gov/voter-registration-age-requirements for age requirements by state. Another good resource regarding voting rights is the League of Women Voters (www.lwv.org) whose mission is: Empowering voters. Defending democracy.
Your vote counts. Get registered and use it.
Andrew Malekoff is the executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, call 516-626-1971 or visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
Halloween is just around the corner, and kids of all ages are gearing up for the festivities. Before your children go trick or treating, here are some tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to help ensure they have a safe holiday.
Plan costumes that are bright and reflective. Make sure that shoes fit well and that costumes are short enough to prevent tripping, entanglement or contact with flame.
Consider adding reflective tape or striping to costumes and Trick-or-Treat bags for greater visibility.
A parent or responsible adult should always accompany young children on their neighborhood rounds.
Obtain flashlights with fresh batteries for all children and their escorts.
If your older children are going alone, plan and review the route that is acceptable to you. Agree on a specific time when they should return home.
Only go to homes with a porch light on and never enter a home or car for a treat.
Check your child’s bag of candy for any unusual appearance or discoloration; tiny pinholes or tears in wrapper; and spoiled or unwrapped items.
Discard homemade items unless you know and trust the person who handed them out.
Click here for ideas on how to donate leftover or an overabundance of candy.
Because pedestrian injuries are the most common injuries to children on Halloween, remind trick-or-treaters:
Stay in a group and communicate where they will be going.
Remember reflective tape for costumes and trick-or-treat bags.
Remain on well-lit streets and always use the sidewalk.
If no sidewalk is available, walk at the far edge of the roadway facing traffic.
Never cut across yards or use alleys.
Only cross the street as a group in established crosswalks. Never cross between parked cars or out of driveways.
Don’t assume the right of way. Motorists may have trouble seeing trick-or-treaters. Just because one car stops, doesn’t mean others will!
And finally, keep your fur-babies safe on this holiday by keeping them indoors and away from the front door. It’s especially important to bring your black cat inside, since they are at an even greater risk of harm.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Take the Terror Out of Halloween
Is your youngster frightened of all the scary things associated with Halloween? Here’s a great idea to help: Make a visit to your local library and ask the librarian for books that help children see that Halloween is full of pretend things—some scary and lots of them just plain fun! Click here for some great choices.
