A new study carried out by the Department of Psychology at Barnard College in the U.S. used a sniff test to evaluate the ability of dogs to recognize themselves. The results have been published in the journal Behavioural Processes.

The experiment confirms the hypothesis of dog self-cognition proposed last year by Prof. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti of the Biological Institute of the Tomsk State University, Russia. Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, the lead researcher, wrote, "While domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, have been found to be skillful at social cognitive tasks and even some meta-cognitive tasks, they have not passed the test of mirror self-recognition (MSR)."

Prof. Horowitz borrowed the "Sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)" proposed by Prof. Cazzolla Gatti in 2016 to shed light on methods of testing for self-recognition, and applied it to 36 domestic dogs accompanied by their owners.

This study confirmed the previous evidence proposed with the STSR by Dr. Cazzolla Gatti showing that "dogs distinguish between the olfactory 'image' of themselves when modified: Investigating their own odour for longer when it had an additional odour accompanying it than when it did not. Such behaviour implies a recognition of the odour as being of or from 'themselves.'"

Prof. Cazzolla Gatti firstly suggested the hypothesis of self-cognition in dogs in a 2016 pioneering paper entitled after the novel by Lewis Carroll "Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there."

As the Associate Professor of the Tomsk State University anticipated: "this sniff-test could change the way some experiments on animal behaviour are validated." Soon, the study of Dr. Horowitz followed.

"I believe that dogs and other animals, being much less sensitive to visual stimuli than humans and many apes, cannot pass the mirror test because of the sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test self-awareness. This in not necessarily due to the absence of this cognitive ability in some animal species," says Cazzolla Gatti.

Prof. Cazzolla Gatti's idea, as recently confirmed by Dr. Horowitz on a larger samples of dogs, shows that "the sniff test of self-recognition (STSR), even when applied to multiple individuals living in groups and with different ages and sexes, provides significant evidence of self-awareness in dogs, and can play a crucial role in showing that this capacity is not a specific feature of only great apes, humans and a few other animals, but it depends on the way in which researchers try to verify it."

The innovative approach to test the self-awareness highlighted the need to shift the paradigm of the anthropocentric idea of consciousness to a species-specific perspective. As Prof. Cazzolla Gatti anticipated last year in his paper: "We would never expect that a mole or a bat can recognize themselves in a mirror, but now we have strong empirical evidence to suggest that if species other than primates are tested on chemical or auditory perception base we could get really unexpected results."

This new study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, validating the sniff test of self-recognition (STSR) and the hypothesis of a self-awareness in dogs and other animals developed by Prof. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, pushes ethologists to move "beyond the looking-glass to see what other animals can found there."

Explore further: Dogs (and probably many other animals) have a conscience too

More information: Alexandra Horowitz, Smelling themselves: Dogs investigate their own odours longer when modified in an "olfactory mirror" test, Behavioural Processes (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.001

Journal reference: Behavioural Processes

Provided by: National Research Tomsk State University

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MINNEAPOLIS Davis Powell works at Pomps Tire Service outside the Twin Cities, where he inspects and repairs tires. Overall, its a good job with good benefits, said Powell, 33, a two-year employee.

Powell has gone from being a penniless inmate in a Minnesota state prison four years ago to a $14-an-hour employee, plus benefits and ample overtime, a shared apartment, a car and a future.

Powell also represents an untapped national workforce of millions of formerly incarcerated people.

My crime came out of pride and low self-esteem, said Powell, who was released months early in 2013 for good behavior following a robbery conviction. Im not going back to prison.

Powell, while on probation, went through personal-empowerment and job-skills training provided by Twin Cities Rise, the 25-year-old nonprofit that helps unemployed and underemployed folks boost their technical and personal skills and advance in careers through jobs that range from office work to mechanics and bus drivers. While enrolled at Rise, Powell also worked a temp job that required a three-bus commute.

Empowerment training, which Rise teaches to business managers as well as former inmates, involves humility, decisionmaking, communication skills and owning your choices.

Empowerment motivated me, Powell said. Ive gained the skills. To listen and express myself professionally. I took the classes. I went from a low credit score to high credit (score). Despite my background, I felt I deserved a second chance. And I know if I do well, maybe other people and employers will see that. And it will help open the door for others.

One of my goals is to take a vacation. And I want to own a home one day.

Formerly incarcerated people, disproportionately lower-income people of color, have been a tough group to employ, even in a worker-hungry, low-unemployment rate economy. However, theres evidence that employers and society are starting to reconsider.

A groundbreaking report this summer by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Trone Private Sector and Education Advisory Council, provides a road map. Called Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Jobseekers Benefits Your Company, the report has been embraced by the disparate likes of criminal justice reformers, including Google, Total Wine, the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Koch Industries, Walmart and others.

We have hired individuals with criminal records as employees for decades by getting to know them as candidates first and looking into their background only after they have received a conditional offer, Mark Holden, general counsel of Koch Industries, said in a prepared statement. These employees have been humble and diligent contributors, and we encourage other employers to think about hiring differently.

Seventy million Americans one in three adults have a criminal conviction, according to the report authors.

The ACLU report offers practical advice for employers looking to tap into this often overlooked talent pool, providing case studies, compliance recommendations and hiring advice.

The report stresses the importance of not simply creating entry-level positions, but also career pathways that start with prison education and training that continues along the employment ladder.

Large and small businesses alike can reap dividends by providing second-chance opportunities to returning citizens, said Janice Davis, vice president and general counsel of eWaste Tech Systems. Our experience has shown returning citizens to be as reliable, if not more reliable, than citizens without any criminal history.

CEO Tom Streitz and Jeff Williams, director of the Empowerment Institute at Twin Cities Rise, said the retention rate for their graduates who were formerly incarcerated is higher than average.

We have 80 percent retention for one year and 70 percent for two years, Streitz said. Thats double the national average of retention on a (entry-level) job. We not only provide a great employee, but one who will stick.

However, Williams said barriers persist, including concern that hiring former inmates will drive up insurance rates.

Its a myth that anyone who has committed a crime is a bad person who cannot change, he said.

CEO Thomas Adams of Better Futures Minnesota runs a social enterprise that has trained and employed 150 former incarcerates over the last three years. Better Futures generated $5 million in revenue from deconstructing houses, recycling and selling 70 tons of building materials that once were landfilled. Yet, the organization has yet to see a significant uptick in the pace of hiring since Minnesota law was changed to no longer require job applicants to check a box if they are a former prison inmate.

Adams said 70 percent of his trainees were in prison because of drug dependency or sales.

Sixty percent of the men we serve in Hennepin County without intervention go back to prison within six months, Adams said, referring to the Twin Cities-area county.

Better Futures employs a two-year model involving training, support and employment, including housing, personal health and mentor coaching.

When they leave us, in as little as eight months, they have a work history and certifications in forklift operation, construction safety, janitorial-custodial, hazardous-material removal, other certifications, he said.

Those jobs pay $16 to $18 an hour, but criminal convictions mean they usually have to start out in food service or light manufacturing, where pay is more like $10.50 an hour.

We try to keep them motivated that the change they recognize in themselves (will eventually be recognized and rewarded by employers). For us, success is even the guy who gets a full-time job making $11 or $12 an hour and who can pay the rent on time.

We want to help them not be dependent on somebody else or the correction system, but to be self-sufficient.

The fork ratings are based primarily on food quality and preparation, with service and atmosphere factored into the final decision. Reviews are based on one unsolicited, unannounced visit to the restaurant.

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Open Road Films

Hallie Meyers-Shyers Home Again is a fascinating banality, the movie equivalent of a staring at a bucolic motel painting until you start to see skeletons in the haystacks. Its a rom-com about an adrift 40-year-old named Alice (Reese Witherspoon) who introduces herself by introducing her dad, a fictitious 70s auteur who made films you dont have to see to have seen: personal sagas about heartbreak and death starring ingenues in bikinis, most of whom he shagged. Alices mom Lillian (a breezy Candice Bergen) was less than half his age when they got married, and not much older when they divorced atypical only in that she got a ring and baby out of the deal.

Pops was away shooting in Mykonos when Alice was born, and hes long-dead before Home Again begins. But his ghost hides in the shadows of Alices sun-dappled life. Hes there in the selfish record executive (Michael Sheen) she married and had two daughters with, one of whom (Lola Flanery) is begging to go on anti-depressants. His statuettes and scripts clutter the Brentwood mansion she flees to when she and her husband, Austen, separate. And most of all, hes there in the way Alice acts like her own back-up singer, halfheartedly trying on vanity careers like a clothing designer and a photographer while waiting for another loud man to seize her mic. So while it might seem off-kilter when she takes home 27-year-old Harry (Pico Alexander), a cocky director who just moved to LA after his short won SXSW, her therapist, if she had one, would say her terrible mate selection is perfectly in-key. (And her best friend, played by Dolly Wells, cant resist noting that all their male friends are also dating millennials.)

Harry is a tall, handsome nothing, a strutting mannequin whose defining quality is skin as smooth and dense as butterscotch candy. He talks in a tranquilizing Hey Girl coo. Before taking Alice to bed, he purrs, Got anything from IKEA I can assemble? But hes no fantasy man; Meyers-Shyer smartly makes him too selfish for that. Instead, she emphasizes his immaturity: the face that looks airbrushed, the ego thats never taken a hit, the heart thats never dealt with any relationship more complicated than a college fling. Occasionally, he gives a grand speech about his passion for film, which to the movies credit, no one takes seriously. Hes also gloweringly jealous of Austen a beat that the movie considers both foolish and endearing, like a kid sulking over a participation trophy while demanding total devotion from his creative partners, aspiring screenwriter George (SNL escapee Jon Rudnitsky) and his own actor-brother Teddy (Nat Wolff.) To anyone whos survived dating 27-year-old, just-moved-to-town, wannabe directors, Harrys more strung up with red flags than Chinese New Years. During the scene where he talks over his own black-and-white film while showing it to Alice in bed, the theater seats in LA will shudder like a 5.6 earthquake.

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'Home Again' Finds Reese Witherspoon Trying To Resuscitate The Rom-Com - UPROXX

Run The Jewels. Phillipe Callant for NPR hide caption

Run The Jewels.

The story-in-progress of Run The Jewels is one of triumph. El-P and Killer Mike met in 2011, and after a fruitful collaboration joined forces officially in 2013, forming Run The Jewels. Four years and three critically acclaimed albums later, they have become one of the most unlikely success stories of 21st century hip-hop.

Both rappers have had long, bumpy journeys in different scenes: El-P (born Jaime Meline) was an original member of New York City's Company Flow and co-founded a record label, Definitive Jux. Killer Mike (aka Michael Render) is Atlanta born-and-bred he made his debut with a feature on OutKast's Stankonia and, between numerous solo albums, has collaborated with Big Boi, T.I. and the Dungeon Family collective.

Before they met, both rappers were at crossroads in their respective careers, struggling with a lack of recognition and grappling with loss both personal and financial. The emergence of Run The Jewels is, therefore, not just a meteoric rise, but a remarkable career renaissance for these two hip-hop veterans.

On this episode of What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito, El-P and Killer Mike talk about how they turned "run the jewels," originally slang for a robbery, into an empowering slogan, homophobia in hip-hop, emphasizing shared humanity and freedom over political differences and more.

El-P on the origin of the name "Run The Jewels"

Run The Jewels, me and Mike, and our connection and everything, came out of a period of time where I had personally lost everything. Everything I had been working on, including any personal money that I had, you know, the record label I had been working on for 10 years and all, and friends that had passed away a lot of stuff kind of fell out from underneath my feet, completely. And I had a period of time where I was, a couple years where I had been humbled by the world. I'd been humbled by the universe. But I remember, when I started making music and started to feel good again, and I remember I was listening to "Cheesy Rat Blues" off of the Mama Said Knock You Out album [by LL Cool J]. And it's a story about him losing everything, about him being a rap star and losing everything, and the friends that he thought that he had going away, and him getting desperate. And it just connected with me at that time, I'll be honest. And at the end of the song he went, "Throw your hands in the air, wave 'em like you just don't care, keep 'em there run the jewels." All of a sudden it meant something to me, bigger than that. All of a sudden it felt powerful. All of a sudden it felt like, "You know what? I don't have anything, but get ready. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take something."

Killer Mike on seeing past political differences toward shared humanity

What I care about is that people know we're free. The older I get, the more of an anarchist I become. And I don't mean in the punk rock type of way where I just seek to destroy things. I mean, I believe truly we're not going to progress as a species until we feel responsible to educate and to bring every heart, or every person who belongs to this species, up to a point where we don't have a need for culture, religion, or nations to define us. I'm not saying you can't do your culture, religion or your nation, but that can't be the only thing that defines you as a human being, you know? I have to see your humanity before I see you as a Spanish man. I have to see your humanity before I see a white man. Doesn't mean I don't see a Spanish man. Doesn't mean I don't see a white man. It means that I don't let those things interfere with me respecting and loving you as a human being. That is sacred to me.

Killer Mike on people of all races participating in hip-hop

Let's give black people and black music some credit: they are a very inclusive bunch. You know, black people don't really keep people out of their thing. If you say to a black woman on the train, "I've always wanted to go to a black church," she's gonna invite you to her church. If you look at rock 'n' roll, they never tried to keep white artists out. ... Black people are a good people! In terms of culturally sharing with people. So as long as you have love and respect, and prove authentic, there has always been a way for people that have been let in the door that did right by it. Because you grew it. We need allies. That is my pet word. Like, none of us progress without allies. None of us progress. I am happy [about] the amalgamation of people that has taken and pushed this art form forward.

NPR Music news assistant Karen Gwee contributed to this story.

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With even Vladimir Putin now warning of global catastrophe from the recent tensions in Korea, we are in arguably the worst period of nuclear brinkmanship since the end of the Cold War. It is partly thanks to a strand of thinking among the American right that a nuclear attack on Pyongyang would succeed where decades of diplomacy has failed.

Welcome to the cult of the technological fix. It is the conviction that social and political problems can be side-stepped by clever engineering. The same logic finds its way into many recent initiatives. It helps explain why Donald Trump continues to pursue a 1,000 mile wall with Mexico as the answer to Americas problem with illegal immigrants, for example.

Technological fixes are nothing new, of course. Controlling the flow of populations with physical obstructions lay behind the medieval Great Wall of China and Hadrians Wall in England in the second century. The layout of 19th century Paris was transformed with broad avenues to prevent mobs from barricading the streets. In the 1880s, streetcar manufacturers experimented with automatic doors to make joyriding impossible.

In the 20th century, technological fixes were packaged and given the name by one tireless promoter, Alvin M Weinberg. Weinberg was a reactor designer during the wartime Manhattan Project, the Allies bid to be first to create an atomic bomb. He went on to become director of a national laboratory exploring applications of nuclear energy.

Imagining a world transformed by nuclear power, Weinberg became convinced that technological innovation was the best way of dealing with any social issue. Well placed to gain the ear of engineering peers and American policymakers, he invented a durable term for this confident new environment: Big Science.

For Weinberg, conventional problem solving through education, law enforcement and moral guidance was slow and ineffective. Convert such issues into technological problems to be solved by engineers, he argued. The Hiroshima bomb had dodged the need for political negotiation, he claimed, stabilising international relations in the process.

In the wall-building stakes, Weinberg was Trumps fellow traveller. He petitioned the Johnson administration to build a wall between North and South Vietnam, though privately admitted shortly after that his scheme was very amateurish. He also promoted the idea of funding air conditioners in slum districts, arguing they would literally cool down tensions during the hot summer months to avoid urban riots.

This too was left on the drawing board, but other less provocative ideas gained traction. He shared road safety campaigner Ralph Naders observation that car seatbelts were more effective than traffic laws or driver education for reducing fatalities. He claimed that intra-uterine contraceptive devices like the coil meant birth control was no longer a desperately complicated social problem. He pushed cigarette filters as an easier way to reduce the harms of smoking than persuading users to quit.

Weinbergs faith in engineers is even more widespread today. His championing of the likes of cigarette filters anticipated the way we value technological fixes for improving individuals particularly their health and well-being.

To address our cultural preoccupation with weight control, for example, why have diet plans or exercise regimes when there are low-calorie sugar substitutes, over-the-counter appetite suppressants, gastric bands and liposuction? And if you eat healthily and exercise anyway, dont worry: there are wearable technologies to monitor, cajole and regiment us further.

When Apple came up with theres an app for that to promote software-based tech fixes, it epitomised Silicon Valleys reinvention of Weinberg dogma as solutionism. Where Weinberg promoted societal benefits, now it had become about personal empowerment for the me generation.

The message is that if youre deficient in willpower, attention and consistency, its okay a consumer engineering fix is only a few clicks away. And the future promises to be still brighter. Say hello to genetic engineering, nootropics and implantable microchips.

Weinbergs agenda also endures at the policy level. To address terrorism, we have locks on cockpit doors, metal detectors, surveillance monitoring, bomb-sniffing devices and body scanners at airports. We seem to prefer such responses to anything so socio-political as negotiation or education.

Environmental concerns are another favourite. Electric motors promise more cars on the road with less air pollution. Oil-digesting microbes promise to clean up oil spills. Plastic packaging that degrades in sunlight could make litter disappear without clean-up campaigns.

Geo-engineering could even deal with climate change overall limiting temperature rise, carbon dioxide levels or both. Life can continue as usual, we are told again and again.

For all this confidence and hubris, we need to pay more heed to the drawbacks. Critics have long argued that technological fixes overlook deeper problems. Weinberg himself conceded they can look like band-aids, but believed they were still worthwhile while a better solution was being sought.

Yet this risks settling for the band-aid. We might become so pleased with electric cars that we stop worrying about the continued proliferation of roads, sedentary lifestyles and social segregation. If Trumps wall reduces illegal immigration, progressive Americans might lose interest in helping Mexico to become prosperous.

An even deeper concern is with placing problem solving in the hands of narrowly trained technical experts. Take the coil, for example: unlike condoms or the pill, where users make a daily choice, intra-uterine devices are a one-off insertion under a doctors authority. The flip-side of relying on engineering cures may be a passive and powerless public.

Weinberg never used the term technocracy, yet he did acknowledge that some technological solutions were incompatible with liberal democracy. Ironically, of course, it is exactly such frustrations that helped usher the current American president into office.

None of this is to say technological fixes are always wrong; more that they can be overly seductive. We need to recognise when they seem too good to be true, and consider them cautiously. That way we can steal back some of that democratic thunder before its too late starting, one would hope, by avoiding nuclear war in Korea.

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Beware the cult of 'tech fixing' it's why America is eyeing the ... - The Conversation UK

By Monovithya Kem and Samathida Kem By Monovithya Kem and Samathida Kem September 7 at 12:58 PM

The Cambodian government has jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason. Here, his daughter Monovithya Kem of the Cambodia National Rescue Party warns that Prime Minister Hun Sen is testing just how authoritarian he can be ahead of elections. (Gillian Brockell,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Monovithya Kem is the deputy director-general of public affairs at the Cambodia National Rescue Party. Samathida Kem is an international economics consultant.

It was 30 minutes past midnight Sept. 2, 2017, when they came for our father, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha. Dozens of heavily armed policemen converged on his house in Phnom Penh in the darkness. They had no warrant, but they told his guards that they would be destroyed if they didnt open the door. Then the police charged in. They pushed two female housekeepers to the floor, putting guns to their heads and robbing them of their phones and money. Our fathers last words to us over the phone were, Theyre handcuffing me. Then they dragged him away as our mother cried for help.

Everyone in Cambodia has heard stories like this from the 1970s. Our own grandfather was taken from his home by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and never returned. But this is September 2017.

Our fathers dream of democracy was born from the sleepless nights of the Khmer Rouge regime, when a small circle of well-armed men in black robes sold their year zero dogma of destruction to Cambodias youths. The Khmer Rouge nearly succeeded in their mission to erase our history and culture by denying the differences that animate our individual humanity.

Yet despite all the horrors we experienced in the 20th century genocide, war, foreign occupation ordinary Cambodians have clung to the dream of a society in which they can choose their leader and shape their own fates. Tonight, our father dreams that dream from behind bars, accused by Prime Minister Hun Sen of treason for preaching grass-roots democracy. And outside those prison bars a terrified citizenry looks to the outside world to save it once again.

Our father first became involved in politics in the early 1990s, when he was elected as a member of parliament. In the course of his work he came to believe that Cambodians needed to learn more about democracy if they were to participate in it effectively, so he resigned to found the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), a U.S.-funded nonprofit, in 2002.

CCHR was different from other human rights organizations in Cambodia in the sense that not only that it defended human rights and promoted democracy but also effectively encouraged people to defend and demand their own rights within democratic principles. It gave people a platform to voice their opinions through public forums that were broadcast on local radio.

When the first public forum took place the first of its kind since the genocide it was attended by roughly a dozen people. Supporters of the ruling party ridiculed the event, but they underestimated the change that was about to happen. Through years of our fathers tireless traveling to every village in the country, the CCHR forums became popular among rural villagers. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of them showed up at each forum, eager to take hold of the microphone and tell the world what they had kept secret for decades. It was through the CCHR forums that many traumatized Cambodian people first felt the sense of personal pride, empowerment and dignity that comes from having their voices heard, their grievances aired and their views respected.

As soon as the government realized that this was happening, our father became a target. In late 2005, the authorities accused him of defamation for displaying banners with handwritten criticisms of the government by ordinary citizens. He was arrested at his office on New Years Eve. He was released 17 days later.

This time the charge is far more serious. The brutality of his arrest is revealing: His work has become a threat to the ruling party. The government is accusing him of treason based on a video publicly broadcast with his knowledge in 2013. In the video, he explains his willingness to learn from experts from around the world, his effort to effect nonviolent change from the grass roots, and his return to politics to make that happen. The government has produced and distributed a selectively edited version of the video to buttress its claims. Yet what it calls treason is nothing more than an expression of support for grass-roots empowerment and effective opposition in democracy.

Whether they like it or not, Cambodians attitudes towards freedom and democracy have already changed. And the change is here to last. As our father has said, they may detain our bodies, but they may not detain our conscience. Yes, his arrest frightens us. But we will never again be the passive victims the world once saw during the Khmer Rouge regime. The governments crackdowns on the opposition, the media and civil society will not bring the silence it hopes for. Its repression is only contributing to political instability, and that is not in anyones interest.

A politically unstable Cambodia is not good for the world. Those foreign governments who seek favor with the current leadership for political or economic reasons are misguided. It is never a wise policy to ally oneself with a government that is an enemy of the people.

Today we once again call for the international community to take action to reverse the deteriorating political situation in our country. It is too late to save our grandfather and the millions of Cambodians who were murdered and oppressed by the Khmer Rouge. It is not yet too late to help the millions who are craving change now, including my father. But time is running out.

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Why the Cambodian government arrested our father in the middle of the night - Washington Post

And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if they have saved all of humanity.Quran 5:32

While the societal and individual problems of addiction can be universal there is a gigantic range of ways to treat these problems. They can be divided along political, societal, geographical, the personal ethics of individuals, and a host of other factors. World Religion News has focused on religion combined with treatment and the diversity of approaches based on divergent religious doctrines and the success rates of programs. Because the privacy protection of drug programs it can be difficult to exactly measure the effectiveness of support programs.

Use hashtag #FaithInRecovery to follow our multi-part series.

These are four distinct religious communities each having their unique struggles and successes with drug rehabilitation.

Muslim Population in the Middle East

In the Middle East, the conservative, traditional interpretation of Islam has made the penalties draconian. Several laws have the death penalty for drug use and there is a sizable minority of individuals who believe only harsh discipline is the solution. Drug use is considered haram and must not be used in any way. This has created a silencing effect for those afflicted and slowed government intervention for treatment programs.

This is evolving as the number of drug users in some Middle East countries has skyrocketed. In Iran, there are between 1.2 to 2 million addicts (this is a conservative estimate) and Afghanistan has similar numbers. This is due to the increased production of heroin in Afghanistan, the availability of cheap methamphetamine derivatives, and the inability to receive treatment.

Examples of treatment are steadily increasing. Iran has nearly 1,300 addiction treatment centers and the Iranian government has stated it has treated nearly 700,000 people by last March. Treatment is mostly run by non-governmental organizations that emphasize personal empowerment. This is especially true for programs for women, who make up 10% of the addict population in Iran.

Read the previous articles in this series: Faith in Recovery

Based on the principles of Sharia law, there is less emphasis on using prescription drugs to help individuals detox. Afghanistan has treatment centers which mostly subscribe to the cold turkey philosophy, which increases the likelihood of relapse. The fact that the Taliban supports local treatment centers shows the changing mindset around addiction with traditionalist Muslims.

Thai Buddhism

One of the most extreme treatment centers in the world is located in Thailand. The Wat Tham Krabok Monastery includes hard labor and the consumption of a herbal concoction that causes projectile vomiting, meant to rapidly promote detoxing, and is consumed on a daily basis.

Thai Buddhism is part of the Theravada school of Buddhism that focuses on personal liberation. Buddhists believe addiction is a form of attachment, which is the cause of suffering. Therefore addiction is an extreme version of what every Buddhist learns in the Four Noble Truths, the foundation of their religious belief.

Most of the monks at the monastery are former addicts and people come from around the world to be treated for their addictive tendencies. The program begins with incoming patients taking a sacred vow called Sajia that has supposed mystic properties. The Sajia is taken very seriously. There are no repeat visits to the monastery and breaking the Sajia is considered a grave offense. The Sajia represents a lifelong commitment to sobriety.

Patients stay from a week to a month. Treatment includes daily use of the herbal drink, a single meal, and chores beginning at 4:30 AM. Patients pay nothing beyond food costs during their stay.

Does the program work? Although there is little scientific evidence to support the success of the program, patients declare it changed my life. Many people who stay at Wat Tham Krabok are serious drug and alcohol addicts who believe this is their last chance to get clean.

Wat Tham Krabok has treated 110,000 people since 1959. A review of 65 individuals who attended the program found 90 percent complete the program and 60 percent remained sober after 1 year. WRN reported previously in our series that the one-year mark is a significant indicator of long-term sobriety.

Mormons in Utah

Latter-day Saints represent just over half the population in the state of Utah. Historically Utah was settled by Mormons to escape religious persecution and even engaged in an armed conflict with the United States Federal Government for the ability to have substantial self-governance.

Utah is going through another historic period with the rate of opioid addiction and suffering caused by it. From 2000 to 2014 there was a 400 percent increase in opioid overdoses. One person dies each day from opioid overdose. For most users in Utah, the gateway drug toward addiction is prescription painkillers, not recreational drugs. Because Utah leads the nation in per capita use of prescription drugs, the proliferation has created a huge potential for addiction.

Mormon women might have unique difficulty in overcoming addiction. Some interpret Mormonism to mean women should be in charge of the household based on traditional gender roles. This creates two issues. First, the cultural notion of being constantly cheerful as the foundation of the family unit might mask an addiction problem and lead to self-denial. Second, some Mormon women have used stimulants in order to juggle the hectic schedule of a wife and mother. While this is not a universal target, there are been the criticism that treatment centers do not tailor their programs to the issues dealt with by female Mormon addicts.

Some have argued the Mormon church has been slow to act based on denial of the problem. It is unclear if this is linked to the teaching of the Mormon church, referred to as the Words of Wisdom. The Words of Wisdom teach that many adulterants should abstained from including alcohol, drugs, and caffeine. Being addicted to drugs is seen as both an individual struggle and a tactic by Satan for control of the soul.

Mormons have developed a version of the Alcoholics Anonymous program as a specific treatment program. As WRN has reported AA allows individuals autonomy in surrendering to a Higher Power. For Mormons, this Higher Power has to be God as described in their teachings.

As WRN wrote in our article on popular Christian programs, there is a diversity of treatment programs beyond the Mormon version of AA. Most of the popular facilities in Utah that use religious principles combine spiritual guidance with therapeutic and medicinal techniques. A unique advantage Mormons have is that the strong ties of Mormons in Utah create a support group that can be greatly effective in people remaining clean after attending a facility. The fact that the group has an easy self-identification based on religion makes it easier for individuals to both initially and continuously attend support events.

Hasidic Jews

The Hasidic Orthodox Jewish community is considered to be insular. With a very conservative interpretation of Judaism, there are strict rules governing practitioners behavior. Yet this community has not been able to escape the ravages of addiction. There have been noted cases of Hasidic Jews dying of opioid addiction and religious leaders commenting were definitely losing more people to drugs.

A connecting theme to the previous commitments is the lack of openness about addiction. Because of religious teachings that describe addiction as a moral failing, members of communities are less likely to talk about their personal issues. This can influence the lack of quick and appropriate action by community leaders. The increased personal destruction, no longer able to obfuscate itself, has caused Rabbis to begin to learn more about drug treatment and encourage members to speak out about their problems.

Treatment facilities operate the same way as most other religious programs. A mix of religious and secular practices are used as a way to give the most effective treatment. A major difference of a Jewish treatment program is the inclusion of a kosher diet. It is unclear if the diet helps assist in the healing process.

None of these communities rely solely on religion for rehabilitation. Even though each strongly ties addiction, in general, to a religious problem, the intersection of emotional, mental, and physical recovery needed to overcome the dependence on narcotics or alcohol changes the nature of the programs. Interestingly, the program that is most deeply tied to religious teachings, the Tham Krabok Monastery, is also the sole program that includes outsiders and individuals that may not be Buddhist. The fluid dynamism of both Eastern thought and Buddhism in general as a philosophical position, as much as a practiced religion, may be directly responsible for it.

Those who are interested in a program that tied to a specific religion can look at our previous articles in the series that give a list of programs and tips on how to choose the program right for you.

Read the previous articles in this series: Faith in Recovery

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The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of World Religion News.

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Faith In Recovery 7: How Religious Communities Combat Addiction - World Religion News

This summer two female Jaspers traveled over 8,000 miles to uncover what a Lasallian identity meant to them as women.

The 2017 Lasallian Global Womens Symposium (LGWS) took place from July 16 to 19 in Auckland, New Zealand at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and was attended by approximately 120 people. Two of them, senior Alannah Boyle and graduate assistant Jacqueline Martin, were representatives of Manhattan College.

Martin became involved with the Lasallian mission during her time as an undergraduate at Saint Marys College of California. Once Martin later learned of the LGWS, she knew she wanted to attend. Her trip to Auckland was made possible through funding by other Lasallians from various institutions.

I was really surprised at how many different Lasallians whom I had never met before were willing to help sponsor me so I could be a part of this experience, she said.

Boyle, on the other hand, felt that the symposium was relevant to research she was conducting within the Lasallian network regarding womens issues and the Catholic Churchs response to sexual assault and violence. Like Martin, she received funding from numerous sources, including student life and academic offices.

These women from DEMA represent 56 percent of Lasallian membership.Alannah Boyle / Courtesy

Boyle and Martin were two of ten women from the Lasallian Region of North America (RELAN) who elected to attend the symposium, along with female students, faculty, and staff from other Lasallian institutions across America. Within the symposium, over one dozen countries were represented.

The symposium sought to address the evolving role of Lasallian women, largely due to their presence in the order. While Lasallian brothers account for just two percent of the orders entire membership, laywomen make up 56 percent, Martin stated.

Lasallian women are critical to the future of the mission, and it would not exist in the capacity that it does without us, Martin said.

Lois Harr, director of campus ministry and social action, believes that women may be able to offer a unique perspective within the mission itself.

I think, as in any realm, we are all better off if everyones gifts and talents are put in service of the world, she said. Everyones experience can help make organizations run well, bring good balance to decision making.

Despite their continued presence in the mission, laywomen are distinctly underrepresented in leadership roles within the Lasallian order. The LGWS seeked to address that issue, as well as provide its attendees with the necessary tools to become effective church leaders.

Boyle (second from right) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Auckland, New Zealad.Alannah Boyle / Courtesy

The LGWS had several goals, among them to recognize the distinct role and identity of women in the mission, especially as catalysts of change and empower Lasallian women to have a confident collective voice, according to the organizations website.

However, the central outcome of the symposium was to create an international Lasallian womens council to address the issues discussed during the meetings.

The priority was to ensure that women are equally represented and heard at every level of Lasallian leadership, said Martin. It was amazing to be a part of this symposium because we all had a hand in crafting what the future of our shared Lasallian mission can become.

The theme of the symposium was Lasallian women as changemakers. Due to their distinct presence in the ministry, laywomen are beginning to be viewed as powerful and unique voices within the realm of Lasallian leadership.

However, some critics of Catholicism might argue that women have traditionally had more subservient roles within the Church. Citing doctrines such as having only men serve in the priesthood and interpreting a pro-life stance as anti-woman, they may believe that women have no opportunities for self-betterment. To Martin, however, religious devotion and personal empowerment are not necessarily on opposite sides of the moral spectrum.

I dont think those two things are mutually exclusive, but it is very difficult territory to navigate because of the patriarchal structures of the Church, she said. I personally identify as both a Catholic and a feminist.

As a Catholic, I dont agree with all parts of the Catholic doctrine. My beliefs and actions are deeply rooted in Catholic Social Thought, which, in my interpretation does not align with some of the official Church positions on specific issues, said Boyle. If you love something, you hold it accountable.

A group picture of the cohort of DENA (District of North America) that was represented.Alannah Boyle / Courtesy

Personal empowerment remains a topic of discussion among Lasallian women. Similar to the beliefs of Boyle and Martin, the LGSW demonstrated that religious devotion and empowerment can go hand in hand, as opposed to representing the opposite sides of a coin.

I think that women have long been overlooked critical players of the faith. We are doing much of the work on the ground, and we should be represented in positions of leadership, Martin said.

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Jaspers Attend Lasallian Women's Symposium in New Zealand - The Quadrangle

If the NBAs summer of 2017 doesnt underscore that loyalty in sports is pure fiction, then what will? Chris Paul left Los Angeles. Paul George forced his way out of Indiana. The Bulls stunned Jimmy Butler. Gordon Hayward dumped Utah. Kyrie Irving abandoned King LeBron James. The Celtics blindsided Isaiah Thomas. But with players increasingly influential when it comes to their brands, short-term deals, constant speculation, and long-term planning by savvy executives, our ideas about player-to-team loyalty and team-to-player loyalty have been thrown out the window. Everything we think we know about sports tells us that Irving should want to stay in Cleveland, and Boston should want to keep Thomasbut the opposite is true.

Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose and commit myself towhat is best for me, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho wrote in his 2005 novel, The Zahir. That concept of freedom is the operating principle for organizations. But in the rare instances where players are free agents (like Hayward or Durant) or have enough status to control their destiny (like George or Irving), fans often admonish their decisions when they exercise their right to leave. After Thomas was traded, Caron Butler and Ray Allen took to Instagram to call out perceived hypocrisy: When players arent loyal to their teams theres outrage, but theres no similar reaction when, say, a team trades a player who played in a game two days after his sister passed away while recovering from dental surgeries and battling a painful hip injury. Allen would know: He left the Celtics for the Heat in 2012, one month after Miami beat Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals, which earned him a Judas Shuttlesworth nickname. He wrote on Instagram, It is just a business so when the teams do it there should be no difference when the players do it!

The executives and agents Ive chatted with agree; they dont think anything of the choices made by the players and teams this summer. Every team operates pretty much the same way, which is virtually the same way nearly every business on earth operates, said an NBA agent, who requested to be anonymous. Kevin Durants choice to leave the Thunder for the 73-win Warriors birthed the the My Next Chapter meme and a perception that he took the easy way out. Durant went on The Bill Simmons Podcast at the end of August, and had this to say: Guys have been getting traded in their sleep for years. Guys have been getting the shitty end of the stick for years. I mean, some guys have been fucking over organizations, too. Its no loyalty. Its business. Theres money involved.

You can feel however you want to feel if your favorite player gets traded or signs somewhere else. The range of emotions we all feel while watching, rooting, talking, and thinking about our favorite teams is what fuels our love for the game. But as the NBA evolves and grows, there are ways to alter what we expect from teams and players and how we respond to their choices.

One of the common responses to Irvings decision to request a trade from the Cavaliers was, Why would he want to leave LeBron, one of the greatest players ever? Does he not care about winning? Ive read it on Redditand NBA executives Ive texted with have expressed the same sentiment. Irving said during his introductory press conference that his decision was simply about doing what was best for him: going for something bigger than myself and honestly being in an environment thats conducive for my potential. The only way to grow was to escape from LeBron Jamess towering shadow. But LeBron is the one who lay the path for Irving, as well as for the other players who chose their own destinies this summer.

Irving and James were guests on Episode 12 of Richard Jefferson and Channing Fryes Road Trippin With RJ & Channing. On that episode, Irving said, Have you read The Alchemist?Coelhos most famous novelthen asked LeBron to share his takeaways from the book. (Paulo Coelho didnt respond to a request for comment for this story.) LeBron spoke about empowerment, having a vision, and chasing it. Kyrie has effectively done just that, saying in a video message to Cavaliers fans that the moment came and he wanted to take full advantage of it so he could accomplish things that I have dreamt of as a kid.

CP3 also opted for personal empowerment. So did George. So did Hayward. Disloyalty should be the expectation, not the exception. Loyalty is a two-way street where both teams and players are licensed to drive. Ultimately, this is where my mind has changed over the last 10 years or so. Teams stab players in the back all the time. Players do the same. Its reality: The frequency at which it occurs doesn't make it any easier to deal with, but it does mean that there's a level of shock that should be removed from these situations. LeBron could have handled leaving Cleveland for Miami better, but maybe it had to be that way to empower players to make decisions that benefit their lives. Durant mentioned on The Bill Simmons Podcast that its the relationships with the people in the organization that hes still loyal to, not the organization itself. Its hard to be loyal to something that, by its very nature, is ever-changing.

Teams foster the same emotional rhythms in fans that we deal with in life: happiness, angst, disillusionment. But there's a reason why allegiance doesn't usually end when a player is traded or retires: It's all cyclical. Wins and losses, additions and subtractions, all create new opportunities. For sports fans, it might be best to enter into a new relationship with a player knowing the odds are it wont lasteither by the players personal choice or the teams decision.

Front office work requires a certain level of callousness. The Bulls, Celtics, and Rockets reshaped their rosters this offseason with surprising trades. While I dont like the return Chicago got for Butler, it was the right decision to move on. Houston and Boston got considerably better, on paper. You could make the argument that Daryl Morey and Danny Ainge would be lesser general managers had they considered loyalty a good business model.

It was only four short years ago, in the summer of 2013, when Ainge traded two Celtics legends, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, for a bunch of Nets draft picks and replacement-level players. My fiercely loyal Celtics-fan boss didnt like the trade, and neither did a lot of other fans. It wouldve been easy to keep Pierce and let him fade off into the sunset after a year-long farewell tour in a Celtics uniform. Boston took a gamble on the future. No one couldve expected the deal to work out at the level it did. The Nets died. The Celtics ascended. Here we are today.

Bostons long web of trades and signings that started in 2013 culminated last week when Ainge acquired Irving for the 2018 Nets pick, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and, of course, Thomas, who won the hearts of an entire fanbase this past season. Boston fell head over heels for Thomas after he dropped 53 points in the playoffs. I always dream of moments like this, Thomas said after the game. Those are where legends are born. And one day I want to be one of those guys. Thomas meant it, and his love for the fans was not unrequited. But to reach their ultimate goal of winning a championship, the organization had to ignore those fuzzy feelings. The way I imagine it is like this: We were all watching Thomas on one knee, wearing his Brinks truck sandals, ready to propose for a long-term commitment to the team and the city. But Ainge stopped him before he could reach for the ring. It was just a fling all along, nothing more. Ainge dealt Marcus Thornton for Isaiah Thomas, then Thomas for Kyrie Irving. To systematically upgrade assets, you cannot let attachment be an overriding decision-maker.

Ill leave it to your own imaginations to realize how difficult that conversation might have beenfor me and Isaiah, Ainge said after the trade. Isaiah had just an amazing season this year and entertained us allthe whole city of Boston, and everybody fell in love with him. You know, hes such an underdog because of his size and his heart and his spirit in which he plays. It was very challenging to make this decision.

An agent texted me that Danny would trade his son Austin if he had to. I believe it. The Celtics had just won 53 games, earning them the no. 1 seed, and went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Now they have only four returning players: Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier. How many organizations in sports would seriously return only one-quarter of their roster after the season they had? Its so easy to accept the status quo when things are going well. Some owners would love for a nice jog on the playoff treadmill as a six-seed every year. But it was the right choice for Ainge and the Celtics. The team was good and full of overachievers, but it wasnt great like it needed to be for them to achieve their ultimate goal.

Any backlash Boston receives for the choices they made or grief Houston gets for trading away a fan favorite in Patrick Beverley will quickly fade as their reloaded teams surpass the good-but-not-great edition fans fell in love with. Sure, its no guarantee. The failed Lakers superteam still looms. So do the Nets, the spark that put Boston in this position in the first place. But usually when great players join forces, great moments follow.

Still, it can be hard as a fan to fall in love with a team with the realization that no matter how deep that love is, the players who define the team can be cut loose at any moment. But remember what got you here doesnt work against a dominant, paradigm-shifting team like the Warriors. To paraphrase what Morey told ESPN in June, when the juggernaut Warriors present long odds for the rest of the league, you need to up your risk profile and get more aggressive. Drastic measures must be taken. The teams with owners and front offices who allow for that freedom will be the organizations that flourish in this new era of basketball.

Its not easy for players and general managers to make these difficult choices. Oftentimes, they need to cut out the noise. In todays NBA, it seems like no matter how much better a team gets, theres someone who says, They still wont beat the Warriors. Maybe thats true. But teams wont back down. Morey also has expressed that he doesnt believe the Warriors are unbeatable. Other executives Ive chatted with this summer still think the Spurs wouldve made life a living hell for Golden State had Kawhi Leonard stayed healthy for the series.

Ainge expressed similar thoughts in July 2016, days after Durant signed with the Warriors. Listen, they are an outstanding team. And nobody can deny the great talent that they have, Ainge said. But were not going to just lay down and die, Ill tell you that. The Celtics and Rockets have stood their ground. Theyve moved forward as an attempt to transform their teams into worthy nemeses of the juggernaut Warriors. Irving, George, Hayward, and Paul all did the sameLeBron will next summer. Those parties arent worried about what others are saying or how their decisions are perceived; ultimately, its all babble.

After worrying about how the Irving trade with Boston might be judged considering Thomass hip injury, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert might have taken a page out of the Celtics book after moving forward with the decision to accept the trade for Irving. As the Cavs enter a likely post-LeBron era, they need to stick to their forward-thinking plan. Even if it means burning a big LeBron bridge, it could lead to something special down the line. Eventually, maybe the next generation of players will recognize and appreciate it.

Basketball is constantly shifting, and that reality can sometimes be cruel. Jazz fans would find it hard to lose Hayward, as Bulls fans would with Butler. But there are always new fan favorites waiting in the wings. And they, too, will eventually either abandon the team or get forced out. Thats business; thats life.

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Does Loyalty in the NBA Still Exist? - The Ringer (blog)

The use of VR is a novel experience for many of the patients at Packard Childrens, said Veronica Tuss, a child life specialist with the hospitals Child Life and Creative Arts Department. The departments members engage patients in age-appropriate activities to help normalize their time in the hospital. Through providing education and procedural support, they play a key role in helping to decrease patients stress levels prior to procedures. VR is often so unfamiliar that it is instantly engaging and incredibly distracting, Tuss says. If Im preparing a child for their very first IV, and they share with me that they dont want to see whats happening procedurally, I know I need a distraction that is visually engaging. With VR, an often-intimidating setting suddenly becomes this really cool thing or place that they get to explore. It can minimize the experience of getting the IV to the point that we may actually turn a negative experience into a positive one.

The hospitalwide VR rollout is the latest evolution in distraction-therapy techniques pioneered by Rodriguez and fellow anesthesiologist Thomas Caruso, MD, who co-founded CHARIOT with Rodriguez. In 2015, the duo introduced the Bedside Entertainment and Relaxation Theater, which uses video projection to allow patients undergoing surgery to watch movies, music videos and other entertainment on a large screen attached directly to their gurney up to the moment they enter the operating room.

Earlier this year, CHARIOT launched Sevo the Dragon, an interactive video game projected on the BERT screen that takes a necessary part of anesthesia breathing anesthesia medicine through a mask and transforms it into a game. While BERT is great for younger children, the VR experience is becoming a useful tool, especially for older children, said Rodriguez and Caruso, both of whom are clinical assistant professors of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at the School of Medicine. The VR goggles escalate the immersive entertainment experience to a 360-degree view of relaxing scenery and engaging games.

For patients as young as 6, VR distraction therapy is being used in Packard Childrens Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, short stay unit and emergency department; the vascular access, imaging, ambulatory orthopedics and general surgery clinics; and the perioperative unit. It will be rolled out by the end of the year to the hospitals acute care floor units, Stanford Childrens Healths ambulatory surgery clinics and even the labor and delivery unit. The goal is for all of the hospitals 29 child life specialists to be trained on the use of VR goggles by that time. In addition, pediatricians at the Stanford Childrens Health Bayside Medical Group-Berkeley clinic will be implementing VR technology during immunizations for patients who are fearful of needles.

Children shouldnt grow up being afraid to go to the doctor to have a shot, but certain experiences can cause phobias that last into adulthood. Needle phobia is a common example of that, and its the primary reason adults avoid important immunizations like flu shots, Caruso said. Now, when patients get a shot while they are wearing VR goggles, they are reporting only limited levels of pain, if any.

The CHARIOT team has medically customized the VR headsets to better fit kid-sized heads with an easy-to-clean strap and a disposable screen liner for immunocompromised patients. Sound capabilities allow the volume to be adjusted so the care team can communicate with patients during procedures, and each headset is accompanied by a smartphone preloaded with customized content specific to children in the hospital.

The CHARIOT team works carefully to select games that require limited head and arm movement so kids seated in bed can play without turning their bodies or getting tangled in IV lines and other wires, and so patients with arm bandages or casts can still participate. CHARIOT also works with companies to adapt commercially available games for the health care setting, removing themes of injury or death and eliminating game over termination so that the distraction of the game doesnt go away at the moment patients need it the most.

Working with Silicon Valley-based software engineers, Rodriguez and Caruso are also developing original VR content specifically created for the pediatric patient population. Their first game, Spaceburgers, was developed with Juno VR and is specifically designed for children in a hospital setting. It transports patients to outer space and immerses them in relaxing music as they zap space objects including spaceburgers that fly toward them. It allows health care providers to adjust the cognitive load according to the patients needs, meaning they can use a controller to increase the level of distraction during the most stressful parts of a procedure, like right before a needle poke.

Research is underway to further quantify the impact VR has on the levels of pain and anxiety that patients experience during vascular access procedures, including blood draws and port access, by comparing the experiences of patients who have used VR with those who have not. Preliminary results have shown that kids tend to be more cooperative when they are engaged in VR, with less movement, less fear and sometimes even lower pain scores, which can make the experience more positive for the provider and the child, Rodriguez said.

The impact of VR can last beyond the immediacy of a procedure, Caruso added. Having a less terrifying experience when you go to the hospital can change your behavior for weeks after a procedure, he said. Things like sleep regression or acting out during the recovery period are associated with distressing perioperative experiences, but by using VR and reducing the fear and anxiety that kids experience before a procedure, we hope to positively impact their behaviors after the procedure.

Now, the CHARIOT team is researching the impact of passive VR experiences, such as watching fish float by, compared with the impact of active games, such as zapping spaceburgers, to understand whether the content itself impacts patients reported pain and anxiety levels in the clinical setting. Packard Childrens is one of the first hospitals to integrate the use of VR as a potential method of anxiety reduction into patients electronic medical records, which is helping care teams determine which content is most effective for certain populations, according to patient age, procedure and content type.

Among our patients, there is a subgroup who do well during a procedure with or without VR, a subgroup with minor anxiety where VR helps slightly and they enjoy it, and a subgroup where it makes a profound difference, Rodriguez said. These patients sometimes come in for a procedure with a 10-out-of-10 level of anxiety and fear, but when we implement VR during a procedure, they report stress levels of 2-, 1- and in some cases 0-out-of-10. Those are the patients we are really targeting with these VR interventions.

CHARIOTs hospitalwide VR rollout is on track to be fully realized in the new Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford, which is set to open in December, and will continue to expand with additional technologies.

Our ultimate goal is to take a personalized approach to care by adapting and developing technological interventions for each childs needs, Rodriguez said. New content and more VR headsets will be available in the new hospital, including additional headsets specifically for patients with chronic conditions who are using VR as a relaxation technique to escape the hospital environment. For patients who are interested in watching their IV placements and minor procedures as they happen, CHARIOT has recently introduced augmented reality headsets a technology that layers visual enhancements atop existing reality. Their first AR experience shows two avatars demonstrating the process of peripheral IV placement. The goal is to expand the availability of AR programming in the new hospital. A new volunteer program intended to support child life specialists with patient distraction and VR headset setup is being implemented within perioperative services and will expand in the new building to support the broader deployment of distraction-based technologies.

In addition, Rodriguez and Caruso are in discussions with local technology companies about how to share these technologies beyond Packard Childrens. Our overarching mission is to help as many children as we can and make our discoveries available to other people and other hospitals, Caruso said. Having the hardware and software tools at the ready would make this a reality.

Rodriguez hopes that the program will continue to improve patients experiences as it evolves. If you can take someone and alleviate their fear, it makes everything were doing worthwhile, he said.

Juno VR LLC worked with CHARIOT to develop Spaceburgers. GameHearts LLC worked with CHARIOT to develop Sevo the Dragon. MineyMoe worked with CHARIOT to develop the augmented reality IV insertion instructional experience. Headsets, smartphones and funding have been provided by Starlight Childrens Foundation, thanks to support from Star Wars: Force for Change, Google and Niagara Cares. Additional funding came from the Auxiliaries Endowment at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford, Bank of America and The Traverse Foundation.

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Virtual reality alleviates pain, anxiety for pediatric patients - Stanford Medical Center Report