| Coalition Says Dental Costs and Wait Times Will Rise Dramatically ...
MORRISVILLE, N.C. -- Many North Carolina residents will find themselves paying significantly more for routine dental care and waiting longer for appointments if proposed regulatory changes by the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners (NCSBDE) are approved, according to TEAM 1500, a non-profit coalition that aims to ensure equal access to health care for all Americans. NCSBDE will hold a public hearing on its proposals this Saturday, June 16 at 10:00 a.m. at the boards offices: 507 Airport Blvd., Suite 105, in Morrisville. TEAM 1500 strongly encourages patients and health care professionals to attend and express their opposition. Specifically, NCSBDE is pushing changes that would drastically raise the educational requirements for North Carolina dentists who cater to the most fearful and anxious patients.
Good care knows no ideology
'THE ONLY good institution is a closed institution" -- that's a common belief among many people working in the disability field. This single-minded commitment to deinstitutionalization is well-intentioned, but it is has developed into a barrier both to reliable care for retarded residents of Massachusetts and creative reuse of vast tracts of state-owned land from Baldwinville to Waltham. The 977 retarded men and women still living in six state-run institutions are known in Department of Mental Retardation circles as "stayers." The "movers" are the roughly 8,500 DMR clients living in privately-operated group homes that often accommodate four to six residents. Another roughly 1,000 men and women with intellectual disabilities live in DMR group homes operated by state workers. All too often, policy disagreements between these groups are resolved not through consensus, but litigation.
Diabetes increases depression risk for elderl
ISLAMABAD: Growing old can be disheartening. But for people with diabetes, the aging process can be downright depressing. A University of Florida study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that older adults diagnosed with the type 2 form of the disease are twice as likely as their peers to suffer from depression. An estimated 21 percent of seniors have the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association, and 1.5 million new cases are diagnosed each year. People with diabetes are at increased risk for developing heart disease and stroke, as well as kidney disease, blindness, dental disease and a host of other conditions. The researchers say depression may be next on the list. Doctors have noticed for some time that it is more common among patients with the disease, but researchers have debated the cause-and-effect relationship for years.
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