I was employed as a tour guide when the new headquarters of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. (now Bank of America) opened in Hartford, CT. in June, 1963. My boss, Mrs. Griggs, considered me to be "most conscientious". I took my job seriously, probably too seriously, but since it was the first job I had ever had, I was determined to be a crackerjack at it.
Sometimes the groups we guided were too large to fit into one elevator when we went from the mezzanine up to the sixth floor (the Trust department) so we were told to split up such groups and tell the other half to "join us on the sixth floor".
I split up a group about lunchtime one day, arrived at the sixth floor and found that the other half had not arrived. I waited around a bit, hoping they would appear but they didn't. I was a wreck for the rest of the tour and when it was over, I searched a couple of the other floors. I never again saw the second half of my group and no one reported seeing them.
Absolutely dejected, I reported back to the basement area where our lounge was situated and told Mrs. Griggs, "I'm sorry. I lost one half of my tour. I don't know where they are!"
She looked at me in disbelief and then started to laugh as I told her what happened. Then, giving me a big hug, she said, "Well, we'll just have to call them 'the ghost tour' and be on the watch for them." I finally began to relax. After that, every once in a while, after a long day, Mrs. Griggs would ask me, "So have you found that 'ghost tour' yet?" And everyone in the room would laugh.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Medicated Soldiers
It seems that the general population is not the only place where people are taking far too much medication to get through the day.
In the military, a situation has developed where recruitment officers are so hungry for breathing bodies that virtually no medication will disqualify one for deployment even after multiple tours of duty. Approximately 15% of those on active duty serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are now on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Some soldiers take a combination of all of these as well as pain killers and alcohol. A combination of Klonopin for anxiety, Zoloft for depression and Ambien for sleep is not unusual. It has been reported that Seroquel is being used to help with nightmares although that is not an approved use for the drug. Seroquel is used to treat bi-polar disease and schizophrenia and some side effects include dizziness and paranoia.
Frankly, the idea of so many heavily armed soldiers with these amounts of medication in them scares the living hell out of me. I would suspect that all horrible incidents of murder and suicide have not been reported. An army which is drugged to this extent cannot be effective in the long run.
In the military, a situation has developed where recruitment officers are so hungry for breathing bodies that virtually no medication will disqualify one for deployment even after multiple tours of duty. Approximately 15% of those on active duty serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are now on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Some soldiers take a combination of all of these as well as pain killers and alcohol. A combination of Klonopin for anxiety, Zoloft for depression and Ambien for sleep is not unusual. It has been reported that Seroquel is being used to help with nightmares although that is not an approved use for the drug. Seroquel is used to treat bi-polar disease and schizophrenia and some side effects include dizziness and paranoia.
Frankly, the idea of so many heavily armed soldiers with these amounts of medication in them scares the living hell out of me. I would suspect that all horrible incidents of murder and suicide have not been reported. An army which is drugged to this extent cannot be effective in the long run.
Friday, May 8, 2009
How Many Millions are Sick?
I find it appalling that the number of supposedly mentally ill children and cost for "needed care" in the US seems to climbing at an astronomical rate.
In 2006, 4.6 million children under the age of 18 were treated for some kind of mental illness at $193 a child, or $8.9 billion dollars for total treatment. Now in 2009, there are approximately 74 million children in the US and most "experts" will tell you that 20% of them need psychiatric treatment of one sort or another. So that would be 14.8 million children needing treatment. Using the 2006 rate of $193 a child for treatment, the cost will be $28.7 billion for total treatment in 2009.
President Obama has just suggested that the budget should be cut by $17 billion, or .o5% of the federal budget. It seems that psychiatric care for our children will be 52% of that budget cut as computed in 2006 dollars.
My financial sense tells me that the actual cost will be far higher as health care costs have escalated. Using a figure of $225 per child, the total cost might be closer to $33.3 billion or almost twice (1.96%) the amount of the President's proposed cut in the budget.
What a fabulous windfall for those in the psychiatric and pharmaceutical businesses! Do we really have that many sick kids? And if so, do we really need to spend that amount of money to get them well?
I believe there are lots of different kinds of people who smell a pot of money that makes their noses wrinkle up and their mouths water. With that kind of money at stake, there's apt to be at least a few bad actors lurking around. $33 billion is a pretty sweet pot.
In 2006, 4.6 million children under the age of 18 were treated for some kind of mental illness at $193 a child, or $8.9 billion dollars for total treatment. Now in 2009, there are approximately 74 million children in the US and most "experts" will tell you that 20% of them need psychiatric treatment of one sort or another. So that would be 14.8 million children needing treatment. Using the 2006 rate of $193 a child for treatment, the cost will be $28.7 billion for total treatment in 2009.
President Obama has just suggested that the budget should be cut by $17 billion, or .o5% of the federal budget. It seems that psychiatric care for our children will be 52% of that budget cut as computed in 2006 dollars.
My financial sense tells me that the actual cost will be far higher as health care costs have escalated. Using a figure of $225 per child, the total cost might be closer to $33.3 billion or almost twice (1.96%) the amount of the President's proposed cut in the budget.
What a fabulous windfall for those in the psychiatric and pharmaceutical businesses! Do we really have that many sick kids? And if so, do we really need to spend that amount of money to get them well?
I believe there are lots of different kinds of people who smell a pot of money that makes their noses wrinkle up and their mouths water. With that kind of money at stake, there's apt to be at least a few bad actors lurking around. $33 billion is a pretty sweet pot.
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