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We all learn through play and that great adventure begins in a healthy and active childhood. It is not as common these days for children to be off gallivanting through woodland thickets, paddling in babbling brooks or playing pooh sticks off bridges. As idyllic as the image is, unsupervised wanderings are a thing of the past with growing urbanisation and increased traffic on the roads. Instead, garden and school play equipment is the playground of adventurous and energetic little tykes.

The benefits of having outdoor play equipment are in the health statistics of the children. We have all heard the warnings of children becoming couch potatoes, being glued to the computer or games console. The warnings abound of an increase in childhood obesity and diabetes are in the newspapers daily and are ringing loud bells for health conscious parents. The solution starts at home with adventure equipment to scramble over, under, through and round; and can be carried on at school or playgroup with larger versions of the multi faceted climbing frames available.

Long gone are the cold and painted tubular steel frames over concrete. Play equipment available now is made from warming wood that has a chance of blending in with the surroundings. The variety of activities is amazing too. Scramble nets, slides, tubes and tunnels complement swings and rope bridges. Hidey holes and huts sit like penthouse tree houses above the sandpits and paddling pools. Yes, life for the little ones is definitely looking up.

I remember in my youthful days that playgrounds were few and far between and many of them ended up on an Esther Rantzen programme after some poor child had broken an arm, stuck under a roundabout. Another common cause of childhood breakages was cracked heads from children falling from climbing frames onto concrete. Safety issues such as these have been well and truly addressed and there isn’t even the chance of a trapped finger on today’s frames of fun. Public playgrounds are a costly affair, and one many parishes cannot foot the bill for.

Providing for a local community is a governmental priority and many councils run schemes that help with funding toward community playground projects. Often, in urban regeneration areas, grants are available for adventure playgrounds. Lottery grants are also available to fund projects. For schools, playgroups, hospitals and the like, there is plenty of information out there on fundraising. Information packs for PTA committees are available from suppliers of outdoor adventure equipment.

Learning through Landscapes offers support with research and implementing the promotion of playtime. They provide training and have developed programmes that aide the early years age group. The Playground Partnerships Award is run by the chain store Woolworths. The charity aims to help primary schools give existing play areas a face lift, or to start projects from scratch. Awards for all is part of the lottery heritage fund and are available for projects that promote healthy community living, the environment and education. If you are an employee of the Royal Bank of Scotland than you are able to nominate a school for to receive funding for improvements. There are many other schemes available, and a quick search online will help locate charities or organisations that can help.

On a smaller scale, investing in a hardwearing and safe play area at home is economic sense. A family home that is going to see many children raised there will benefit greatly from a sturdy timber framed kid’s kingdom. Sibling rivalry will become sibling reverie and will last for generations of fun.

Shaun Parker is a leading recreation expert with many years of experience in the childrens playarea industry. Find out more about outdoor play equipment for home, playgroup or community project at Timber Line.

With the powerful and fast changing internet, the use of online social utility networking sites are more becoming popular as ever. To connect and communicate to classmates, friends, coworkers and the people around you is much easier now. Like quizzing your friends and classmates or your guy friends for fun and personal quiz. Some women would be asking does my guy friend like me quiz. There are so many types quizzing such as teen crush, take fun, personality, Christmas and attract guy quizzes.

There is what they call personality quiz. It means a series of questions that usually in multiple choices. This will be intended to reveal something about the person who answers them. The personality quiz is not the same as knowledge quiz because it has no definite set of right or wrong answers. Instead the answers that the respondent provides are compiled and analyzed that are usually according to programmable computer algorithm. This will produce a response that supposedly indicates part of the respondents personality and or characteristics.

There is a recent phenomenon on the internet that has seen large numbers of personality quizzes online. These are originally derived from the concept of the personality test in using a set of question responses to determine something about a persons characteristics or personality. These websites that host most of these quizzes are provided in HTML code for displaying the results of the response on a blog. One has to remember that this type of personality quiz are not necessarily scientific, thus the results may not be correct or right.

Some popular quizzes are titled, are you a slacker mom? Or are you hot? Or are you a natural beauty? Or how romantic are you? All of these are very popular quizzes that you can find online. Some of these can be tried online for free and some are not. Another popular one is the one that ask, are you a right brain thinker?

For most women they are more interested in questions like; how romantic are you? Pink bows, red flowers, red hearts and candies are timeless symbols of romance and love that reminds us that lovers continue to thrive on romance. But compared to the hazardous effects of smoking, it should be package with the Surgeon Generals warning that will state; this state of mind is hazardous to infatuation. Then, romance is indeed a guiding fiction. But then relationships always needs and requires some romance otherwise it will dry up. So your guess could be as good as mine.

With the fast pace spreading of online social utility networking sites, these are perfect platforms to make these quizzes. And for those women who always ask the question; does my guy friend like me quiz, should be part of these online social networks to get a better feel of what others may think. These sites let you connect and communicate with classmates, friends, coworkers and people around you who can give a better answer to your quiz. So keep in touch and find your guy friends if they would like me quiz.

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Health forums have sprung up all over the internet in the last five years. Some are sponsored by drug companies, some by medical provider companies such as WebMD, some are devoted to just a specific illness and some are started by enterprising webmasters hoping to offer a great social networking web site. How can you figure out which health forum would be the one that will actually offer you what you are looking for?

First, give serious thought to what you are looking for. Do you have a chronic disease and are looking for a support group? Do you just want some place to turn to when you have a question about something at that moment? Do you just enjoy keeping up on all things medical? There is some place for all of these and quite often it is all located at the same web site.

If you have a chronic disease and want to discuss only this particular topic, take a look at health forums that either specialize in this topic or have a section devoted to it. See how many posts there are on this site. Almost all forums will allow you to read the posts without actually registering. People with chronic conditions find that these forums offer a place for them to discuss their situation and get emotional support from others who suffer from the same ailment.

Anytime of the night or day you can login and post your thoughts and get a response from a kindred spirit, someone who knows exactly what you are going through. It might not even be a question, but maybe just a request for reassurance that things will get better or maybe just to vent. It is the perfect outlet for those who cannot constantly be dumping these emotions on their spouses or family and serves a great benefit to patients who need to talk to someone who actually can say “I know how you are feeling” and mean it.

On general health forums many of the posts are just a request for information from someone who has always been healthy, has no medical insurance and wants to know if what they are experiencing necessitates a doctor visit. Forums which have a large membership will more likely offer a response. A description of symptoms, followed by some questions from the other users can most times pinpoint what is happening and if an expensive doctor visit is needed or if an over the counter remedy might be tried first.

Sometimes a poster will know someone who is ill and is looking for information from another person who has been through it and can tell them what their friend or family member can expect. I have found that most all the people who frequent these types of social networking sites are kind and polite souls who try to make the poster as comfortable as possible. Harsh tones and sarcastic comments are rarely seen.

Some of the really terrific health forums actually have medical staff who monitor the forums and respond to questions. These qualities are no doubt what you should look for when determining if this might be the place for you. Take a look at all the forum titles offered and see if there is a topic or two that might pique your interest. Check out the staff credentials and read their responses. Are they addressing your concerns? Are their credentials related to your topic of interest?

Forums such as these offer answers to basic health questions that all of us have. Even if we do have health insurance, how many of us remember to ask our doctor these questions when we visit and further more, how many doctors actually have the time to sit and answer all our little questions?

Personally, I visit a number of health forums per week; I do have a special topic on which I consider myself an expert just by virtue of my years of dealing with this particular disease. I am more than willing to share whatever information I can to make someone else’s life a little less stressful. Not only do they feel better, but I do too.

Susan Chadwick writes for Global Health News, covering topics in all areas of health, from weight loss to internal cleansing.

One of the busier health forums online can be found at www.CureYourBody.com

In my memory, the corruption of children has been attributed to everything from books, music, television, movies and the latest scapegoat, video games. At every turn there’s some podium-thumping authority figure crying out for the salvation of our youth and the banning of the entertainment source du jour that, they assure us, is turning our children into drug abusing, amoral, Satan worshipers.

With all too frequent regularity, people buy the sell. Books are removed from schools, ratings are slapped on movies and games are banned from stores (and entire countries). End result? Nothing changes.

Perhaps the problem isn’t that our kids are mindless zombies prone to acting out everything they’re exposed to in video games and movies. Perhaps the issue isn’t that they’re all one bad lyric away from joining a cult. Perhaps the real lemmings in all of this are the parents.

I say this because if you stop looking out at the influences in the world and start looking UP at those podium-thumping leaders, you begin to see where the real problem likely resides. Our children aren’t being led astray by rap culture or Grand Theft Auto. Our children are learning very real lessons from very real people who are setting a very bad example.

Not long ago I was reading the news about yet another politician caught up in yet another scandal (Vito Fossella) and I found myself thinking, “must be a slow news day.” I wasn’t being witty, that’s just the thought that passed, unbidden, through my little brain. But it sort of stuck there and tumbled around and I eventually realized what was bothering me was just how desensitized I’d become to scandal in politics. That got me asking some questions.

1) How can we convince our children that adultery is bad when the people we’ve chosen to lead our nation are adulterers?
2) How can we convince our children that prostitution is wrong when our political leaders frequent prostitutes?
3) How can we tell our children to watch out for pedophiles when people we’ve elected for office prey on children?
4) How can we convince our children that oral sex really is sex and not just a social ice-breaker when a president of the United States didn’t think so?
5) How can we convince our children that lying is wrong when truth in politics is, at best, antiquated - if not extinct?
6) How can we tell a child that bullying and torturing others in the schoolyard is wrong when torture is condoned by our government?
7) How can we instill respect for the law when the people running our country have little or no regard (or accountability) for those very same laws?
How can we teach values when the people we put in office have none?
9) How can our children learn ethics when those who should be role models and who should most embody ethical behavior cast it aside whenever it becomes inconvenient?
10) How can biblical values be passed on to children when they only serve as convenient sound-bites to lure the Right to the voting booth?
11) How can we profess to be a good and virtuous nation when we’ll allow millions to die in foreign countries because they offer no strategic or economic benefit to us?
12) How can we teach our children the value of truth and integrity when lies and hypocrisy plague every branch of US government?
13) How can we tell our children not to drink and drive when our politicians are doing so?

Our children and teens are a little bit naive, a little bit impulsive, a little immature and a little prone to making the occasional bad decision from which they will hopefully learn valuable life lessons. But they do have a higher brain they’re willing to tap into and, with the exception of those already chemically or psychologically prone to problems, they are perfectly capable of distinguishing fantasy from reality.

The problem isn’t a game full of pixilated heroes shooting up pixilated villains. The problem is that the very real people who should be heroes are setting consistently bad examples.

We, as parents, need to stop trying to find the hidden answer to our children’s corruption and need to start looking at the very real causes we’ve been turning a blind eye to; the top-down moral decay so prevalent and unaccountable in American politics.

The next time a podium-thumping “leader” starts waving his right hand in the direction of entertainment media and casting blame their way, try not to fall for that old magician’s trick. Instead, take a close look at their left hand. You’ll likely find it secreting away a bottle, a woman, an intern or a vault full of lies.

Point the finger of blame where it belongs and hold the right people accountable. Our votes put them in office. It is our obligation to insist they set the right example for our youth and to send a potent message. The wholesale disregard for truth, justice, values and integrity in US politics is no longer acceptable.

David manages ToxicKindness.com, a blog devoted to encouraging honesty, kindness and ethical behavior in business, politics, entertainment and personal life.

We can and not khan but shall begin and end this oriental discussion with a matter that passed, in it’s way, before me and again after this story. And it involves the involuntary reflex action that most experience at sea due to the motion of the bobbin and weaving of the waves in storms. I won that sea sick battle and I want to share with you how. You know why. So more on that, which as I say precedes this series of events in war stricken Berlin weeks later. It does not take much out there to experience your American antiques freize, or freeze into destiny.

I found that even to be thought of as American, as seems a Canadian destiny, is to invite the wrath of God. Well, more Genghis. And it stirs your soul in ways that cause you to seek out a washroom. We were at the Berlin Wall and a Mongol soldier was looming over me while we awaited entry into West Berlin. We on the train. On the track. West of West Berlin. At this place, you are not in any control of your destiny, as we had been warned.

I was not sitting right and he wanted to shoot me for it. Or that perhaps my very existance was to him not intended by his gods, nor in the pony love of his fondest dreams. That is a ridiculous aside I throw in, no offence to the ponies of Mongolia. Well, and as an afterthought perhaps but still of import to the gentlemen named Genghis who ride ponies. I have no knowledge of such modern behavior. Alexander kissed his Generals. If you can please allow your swords and my tongue to remain as is all will be green and as pleasing under the skies of our allah and your God.

Or which way as applies. At that moment, and I think likely now if we should bump into each other on the streets of Ulan Bator - that man I saw who spoke to me of all mystery could be as old buddies. Mates. Fellow soldiers in the great clashes of life. My younger new friend Genghis may now perhaps own a trailer park now, some ghurts, with some Canadian mining crews there now. It seems Mongolia so far only trusts capitalism from Canada. The capitalist help they are constantly offered from nearby friends Russia and China apparently leaves them cold.

Can you believe neighbors can be that untrusting of the neighbors? Yes you can. And your name is Genghis? What a corner of the earth. Yes well, there is that nutball of North Korea nearby, and Japan. Paradise all around you can’t you see? No? Never mind the winters. They have minerals and Canada knows how to turn that into more than ponypiss. So, meanwhile, back in October 1961 near a newly minted Berlin Wall was not ever going to spawn someone like a friendfrom this clay. Sure, we could try to hang out at the ghurt.

Here, you may make love to my pony, you are my friend, she will understand. Where is your your pony, is she pretty? How sweet is her breathe? Meanwhile, as my mind returns back on the ground, I resumed my way too late ways to enlightenment to my next moment. Do you know that when you look inside the open hole at the end of a machine gun that you sense an overarcing urgent wish to get free? simple truths out of the mouths of a Bambi. Or a helpless moth drawn to the bright flashes in the sky? If you could ever evolve wings, this is the moment.

Which of course does not arrive so a fool and a bully continue to inspect the color of the central circle in each others eyes. His were pure black. As coal. And yet now my impulse surged at how divine life is, beautiful.

Can you achieve eternal harmony? Yes. Even you. You too Khan.

Derek Dashwood enjoys noticing positive ways we progress, the combining of science into the humanities to measure politics, wise use and mis use of power and protective love at
American Antiques

When thinking about behavioral and clinical health coverage on a state level, the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NCCBH) uses a simple question and answer tool to help determine the appropriate policy for each state. This tool is intended to help state level agencies as well as health care providers to review and reconfigure state policy appropriately. The tool works to consider state financing and the extent to which a state is providing for the integration of behavioral and clinical healthcare.

The integration of behavior and primary healthcare can be defined in many different ways. One of the most important ways is through financial and structural integration. This requires looking at benefit packages, “cave-ins,” shared risk pools and other incentives used to help those requiring integrated healthcare. Also, structural integration is assessed by looking at the different services offered by one organization and behavioral healthcare services being offered along with primary care. Such structural and financial integration is necessary to achieve clinical integration.

Clinical integration is understood as the goal of integrated healthcare. This is the actual experience between the patient and healthcare providers. It is debated whether behavioral healthcare should be added or subtracted when states make financial policy decisions. The NCCBH’s assessment tool sees both of these options as neutral when making a decision about clinical integration policy. What is important is that the models used must show how the different services are financed through the plan. Using the NCCBH’s assessment tool will allows policy makers to dig deeper into state policy, including finance issues. Doing so gives a more complete picture of the many parts involved in implementing clinical integration.

Before creating integrated clinical and behavioral healthcare programs, it is important to look at the population that will be served by these programs. After the 1998 consensus document for mental health and substance abuse/addiction service integration was created, a Four Quadrant Model was formed for use by state mental health and substance abuse directors building on the principles of the document. This model shows the different level of mental health and substance abuse integration and clinical competencies based on the model

Quadrant I: Low Mental Health (MH)-low Substance Abuse (SA), served in primary care
Quadrant II: High MH-low SA, served in the MH system by staff who have SA competency
Quadrant III: Low MH-high SA, served in the SA system by staff who have MH competency
Quadrant IV: High MH-high SA, served by a fully integrated MH/SA program

The NCCBH’s assessment tool uses the Four Quadrant Model as a basis for showing the different levels of behavioral/primary care integration needed in a given state.

Quadrant I: Low Behavioral Health (BH)-low physical health complexity/risk, served in primary care with BH staff on site; very low/low individuals served by the Primary Care Personnel (PCP), with the BH staff serving those with slightly elevated health or BH risk.
Quadrant II: High BH-low physical health complexity/risk, served in a specialty BH system that coordinates with the PC
Quadrant III: Low BH-high physical health complexity/risk, served in the primary care/medical specialty system with BH staff on site in primary or medical specialty care, coordinating with all medical care providers including disease managers.
Quadrant IV: High BH-high physical health complexity/risk, served in both the specialty BH and primary care/medical specialty systems; in addition to the BH case manager, there may be a disease manager, in which case the two managers work at a high level of coordination with one another and other members of the team.

In order to find more information about the assessment tool as well as information on the different populations found in the Four Quadrant Model, visit the NCCBH Behavioral Health/Primary Care Integration Background Paper, found on the NCCBH website.

The author is the Director of Marketing and Communications at The National Council. The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) association. For more information, visit http://www.thenationalcouncil.org.