Newspaper Page Text
GRIFFIN daily NEWS magazine
DOES THE MEDICINE MAN BRING
£ Mental
. gk\ Health?
■ WO7*k \ vB \Ssa RUsw
g» ow Wt?W3®s vwtMkHhJlw
R m 1 ,? 'X. WW;
®L\ / ' >< V\ Jr/
WMX 7 \ u\ V\ E JMgWK^i^K\
\rx #Z (drawing by
X vSlv f PAUL FREHM
• A unique pairing of one of the oldest “institu
tions" native to North America and some of the
most modem methods in 20th century medicine is
helping to bring better mental health to a south
western corner of the U.S. American Indian medi
cine men and airborne psychiatrists work together
to provide vital health services to a tribe of Navajo
Indians in Arizona.
Dr. Stanley F. Yolles, director of the National In
stitute of Mental Health, singled out the teamwork
of the Indian medicine men and the psychiatrists as
an example of how this agency is developing new
programs to fit the needs of local conditions.
In one of the more innovative phases of the cen-
• Can fear of immunization shots he conquered ?
Medical science hasn't yet advanced
to the point where a person fearful
of an immunization shot can stand
right up there (or bend over) and
face his "firing squad." But hopeful
news is coming out of new tests
that show that the "dreadful" meth
od of needle injection of "flu shots”
may be replaced by a spray tech
nique. Preliminary results indicate
that the spraying method is not only
less painful but nearly three times
as effective as immunization by in
jection.
University of Florida investiga
tors, according to "Medical Tribune,’*
said that field trials in a state prison
hit by an influenza epidemic last
January resulted in only eight cases
of flu (2.6%) among 320 men in
oculated by the spray technique.
There were 23 cases (9%) among
men given flu injections. A nonim
munized control of 1,400 developed
168 cases of the flu (12%).
In addition, said Dr. Robert Wald
man, who wrote the report of the
testa with co-authors Dr. Parker A.
2
ter’s program, a psychiatrist, a cultural anthropolo
gist, another medical specialist and an Indian inter
preter fly twice a month from a mental health cen
ter in Albuquerque, N.M., to Chinle, Ariz., 175 miles
away, where they are joined by tribal medicine
men. The key to the treatment team, say officials
of the community mental health center, is the In
dian medicine man. Many of the Indians distrust or
fear social agencies and are reluctant to seek medi
cal or psychiatric aid. In many cases, only the In
dian medicine man is able to induce the Indians to
accept modem methods of treatment.
Another aspect of the program, which is centered
at the Vista Larga Community Mental Health Cen-
Small Jr., and Dr. John J. Mann,
now at Johns Hopkins University,
the duration of the illness for those
who did contact influenza was sig
nificantly shorter in the spray group
(a mean of 2.2 days) than in the
injection group (5.8 days).
Unwanted side-effect reactions
(fever, muscle aches, arm pains,
sore throat, etc.) were reported
markedly more often by those in
the group receiving vaccine by in
jection than by those receiving the
spray.
The vaccine and the dosage were
the same for all immunization
groups. The spray technique was
accomplished by several squeezes of
a nebulizer aimed into the nose and
the back of the mouth. The subject
simply takes a deep breath.
Wouldn’t it be something if the
fear of injection immunization —
which stops many people from tak
ing their annual flu shots—could
be licked by a technique as simple
and painless as telling the patient
to say "Ah."
<© 1968. King Features Syndicate, IncJ
• Is a foster child better off than an orphan ?
There are about 70,000 orphans
in the U.S.—children who have lost
one or both parents through death.
Unfortunate as they are, these chil
dren may be better off than the
more than 300,000 children in the
foster care programs of public and
private welfare agencies that look
after children whose "parents were
enveloped by a sudden crisis."
In the first place the orphaned
youngster may soon know the secur
ity that comes from being adopted
into a loving home. Not every or
phaned youngster is adopted, of
course, and many of them experience
serious emotional problems. But
the foster child, says Richard Haitch
in "Orphans of the Living: The Fos
ter Care Crisis” (Public Affairs
Pamphlet), may have little or no
hope of rejoining his parents and
may suffer severe personality dam
age as a result.
The foster child may begin his
bout with emotional troubles long
before the "crisis" that puts him
under a foster-care program. No
Sat and Sum, Sept 21-22, 1968
ter in Albuquerque, has won praise for its concept
of the "sustained contact team.” This is a group
of mental health workers providing treatment and
extended follow-up care, including home visits to
patients.
"The center shows that comprehensive community
mental health care is possible even in remote areas,”
Bays Dr. Yolles. Success of the program—which was
started after a survey a few years ago revealed a
higher-than-average incidence of emotional illness
among the population in the area—is illustrated by
declining admissions to the state mental hospital.
The trend is toward better mental health and the
Indian medicine man plays an important role.
matter how serious the crisis or how
hopeless the outcome looks, the fos
ter child is cared for on a "tempor
ary" basis, for it is always assumed
that his parents may one day create
a home for him again. The goal of
the welfare agencies is to place the
youngster with foster parents. Try
ing to provide an emotionally stable
atmosphere for the foster child, the
agency must be sure that the child
will "blend well" with other children
in the family. The agency must also
guard against people who would ex
ploit a foster child, and yet be wary
of placing the youngster with foster
parents who may form such an at
tachment for him that they will re
fuse to surrender him.
It takes a special kind of love to
be a foster parent. One faster moth
er who raised twins—a boy and a
girl—said: "They had come in dia
pers with clouded minds. They
walked out like a prince and prin
cess. Our losing them was my great
sorrow, but their return to their
parents was my great victory.**