REPOST: James Patterson urges more dads to read to children

Thriller novelist James Patterson encourages fathers to spend more time reading to their children. He believes that reading can open up a whole new world of possibility to them. The full story can be read on BBC's website.

Bestselling author James Patterson has joined the Duchess of Cornwall at the launch of a campaign to encourage more fathers to read to their children.

A poll, on behalf of reading charity Booktrust, revealed that only one in eight dads are the main family reader.

"If I can help dads to understand their role in making books and reading more important in children's lives, I'll be a happy man," said Patterson.

Reading, he added can "open up a whole world of possibility to them".

"I believe that dads have a huge role to play in encouraging their children to read," he said at the launch of Booktrust's Get Dads Reading campaign, at a library in London.



The US author, who regularly tops library lending in the UK, is a founding partner of a fund run by the Booktrust to get disadvantaged children reading.

Arguably best known for his thrillers featuring detective Alex Cross, Patterson has been writing children's books since 2005 - prompted by the desire to get his own son interested in reading.

His Maximum Ride and Daniel X series have proved bestseller with children and adults alike. His most recent book in the teenage-focused Middle School series is released in the US next month.

"We are here to save lives - that's my role - because if you cannot read your life will be severely disadvantaged," he told a fathers' reading group in Greenwich, London.

"This is not about reading Charles Dickens or Shakespeare, but learning to read with confidence - if you can do that you can make your way through school, college and work.

"America is ahead in getting kids to read, the UK is behind America - something's going wrong here."

The Booktrust poll reveals that only 13% of fathers in the UK take the lead with reading to their children. A quarter of fathers blame working late for not reading to their children.

Further research, commissioned by the charity from the Institute of Education, suggests many fathers see reading as a female domain. When they do read to their children, fathers favour their daughters over their sons, reading to them for longer, and more often.

"The most crucial thing for dads to understand is that if kids see their dads reading they're more likely to enjoy it themselves," said Viv Bird, chief executive of Booktrust.

"There is evidence that boys are slipping further behind girls in reading - and this emphasises how important it is that dads are positive role models to their sons as well as their daughters when it comes to reading."

Patterson, who was named Children's Choice Book Award Author of the Year in 2010, has sold an estimated 260 million copies of his books worldwide.

The 65-year-old novelist has created the website ReadKiddoRead to help fathers find interesting books to read to their children.

Family- and relationships-oriented, Terry Lambert served as the hospital administrator at Walnut Ridge. There he also sat on the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and in the Rotary Club. This Twitter page provides more updates on his latest undertakings.

There's an app for that: Finding the Facebook friend who gave you the flu

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When they called it the “common cold,” they certainly weren’t kidding. The new year brings about drastic temperature changes nationwide and, along with it, the flu season. Preventing a subscription to the recent bout of influenza requires more than just getting a flu shot. Now that we’re in the mobile age, flu prevention has got its own app, too.


Part of preventing illness is staying away from the causes. A new Facebook app called "Help, I have the flu" determines which friends in one’s social network are likely sources of flu contamination. Then the app warns users to stay away from these friends to prevent them from catching the flu themselves.

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Contrary to Facebook’s reputation for violating user privacy, this information is not obtained in an invasive manner. Instead, the app’s algorithms scan friends’ recent posts for evidence of flu-like symptoms. If any friends have reported sneezing, coughing, or generally feeling ill, they will appear on the app’s watch list, which serves as a warning to the user. True to what friends are for, the app allows users to send potentially infected friends discounts for flu medication. Should the user still contract the flu, there’s a handy list of sources (or people) to blame.



Apps for the flu season
 

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Flu prevention is no new precautionary measure, but an increasing number of mobile apps are aiming to expand its clout. Cross-country travelers can check The Center for Disease Control and Prevention app for the flu situation at their destination and bring medication, if necessary. Those who suffer symptoms but don’t appear to have the flu can consult Cures A-Z for some home diagnosis. While the best flu prevention is still medication and immediate consultation, mobile apps make it easier for individuals to detect potential risk and take the initiative to prevent further infection.



Mobile apps have helped the healthcare industry reach people in need at incredible speed. Former hospital administrator Terry Lambert, formerly of (Emporia), has insights on the advances in the healthcare industry that may be found on this website.

Taboo medicine: The clinical uses of medical cannabis

Medical cannabis is an herb evidenced to have been used for medical purposes as far back as 2737 BC. Though its production, distribution, and consumption is illegal in most countries, it has recently been approved for use in therapy and is one of the “fifty fundamental” herbs of traditional Chinese medicine.

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The FDA has not approved smoking cannabis as the solution to any condition or disease in the United States. It claims this is largely due to the lack of “good quality scientific evidence” for its use. However, several well-documented and known studies have proven the healing effects of medical cannabis. For starters, medical cannabis is a general analgesic. Specific doses are documented to relieve chronic pain that traditional pain medication has been unsuccessful in alleviating. In cancer patients, it is used to stimulate hunger after chemotherapy treatments curb the need to eat. Medical cannabis has also been proven to remove the nausea and vomiting that comes with various cancer and AIDS treatments. More recently, it has been proven to lower intraocular eye pressure, an effective treatment for glaucoma–-an eye disease in which the optic nerve is damaged, permanently damaging vision and causing blindness if left untreated.

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In 2012, the use of cannabis and “medical marijuana” for medical treatment was put to a vote. To date, 18 states have legalized cannabis for medical use. The usage is limited to prescriptions and is highly regulated, with 16 of the 18 states requiring proof of residency before being considered for cannabis treatments.

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In the 2012 elections, the state of Arkansas voted against making medical cannabis legal. See updates on former Hospital Administrator Terry Lambert alongside the state of healthcare in AR on this website.

Code green: Building sustainable and patient-friendly hospitals

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This latest blog article on Terry Lambert takes an in-depth look at the movement toward safer, greener, and more patient-friendly hospitals which has been gaining ground amid the impending fiscal scare.


Healthcare construction kicks into high gear amid the fiscal cliff with a combination of environmentally friendly products, services, and practices. For instance, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has joined the green architecture bandwagon with its waste management program that includes sending 1.5 tons of food to the compost pile every week, eliminating the delivery of tons of medical journals sent to doctors who are no longer affiliated with BIDMC, and switching to reusable and washable containers. Reportedly, the hospital has been able to save $308,ooo during the first half of 2012.

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Green architecture isn’t all about fancy and aesthetic additions. For the healthcare sector, expanding the definition of design is hinged on the need to address the crises being faced by providers which include medical errors. These crises are better solved systematically -- by looking at failures holistically, rather than focusing on a specific problematic area.


A critical part of leadership is forging a collective responsibility. Through green architecture, the hospitals would be able to implement a mandate that would have the whole organization accountable for its actions. Actions like proper waste disposal, use of environment-friendly utensils, and lowering noise levels could go a long way in a hospital’s green and sustainable efforts.

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For more information on hospital management, visit this Twitter page.

Strengthening physician-hospital management communication

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It has been said that every hospital needs physicians but not all physicians need to serve at the hospitals. If that were the case, then the healthcare sector is in for another hard grind.


With the current state of the economy, it’s so easy to tell that medical care has enough on its plate. Sadly, the front needs more prodding in the issue of physician-administrator relationships which have long been wobbled by the market forces at play.

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From structural integration to ideological integration, many efforts have been done to address the unsteady relationship of physicians and hospitals. But the overarching issue remains, baffling policymakers and healthcare practitioners alike. To elucidate on that matter, the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) advises the healthcare sector to start focusing on the physician groups which comprise the whole of organization. ACPE parses that in order to unite the organization’s incompatible groups, they must be strengthened separately.


The strength of ACPE’s recommendation lies on the sociological notion that people are able to understand themselves better based on the similarities they share with the groups to which they are affiliated with and the differences they see from the groups from which they don’t belong. As a result, the negative reactions of turfism and tribalism are likely avoided.

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When the separate groups begin to manifest cohesiveness and unity, then it’s time for leaders to begin shifting the perception of ‘them’ to ‘us’ – an organization with a uniting set of values and beliefs.


For more information about health care, hospital management, and Terry Lambert, visit this Facebook page.