Archive for December, 2009
Many Rite Aid stores offer swine flu shots
Still need a dose of protection against the H1N1 flu virus? Rite Aid stores announced Wednesday that many of its stores in California are making shots available for purchase.
Health officials have urged people to be vaccinated against the so-called swine flu. County health departments also offer shots.
To see which Rite Aid stores are offering the service, at a cost of $15 per shot, visit www.riteaid.com/H1N1.
– Bobby Caina Calvan
Hand washing is the new normal, but does it stop H1N1?
Hands-down, it was the most repeated health tip of 2009: Wash your hands.
Everywhere we turn, a sign commands us to lather up, or else. Hand sanitizer pumps and stations have mushroomed in offices and stores. President Barack Obama endorsed hand washing. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention touts it as the “single most important thing” for infection prevention.
Here’s a disclaimer: While scientists know good hand hygiene prevents a number of diseases, they do not know if it wards off the flu, H1N1 or otherwise.
“There is a debate as to whether the flu virus is spread by hands,” said John Swartzberg, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. “There’s a lack of data. We just don’t know.”
To infect a human, the flu virus has to get inside the respiratory system. Hand washing prevents germs from landing on the face through the hand-to-face contact that occurs around 15 times an hour. But it’s unclear if the virus can travel to the respiratory system via scratching the nose or rubbing the eyes.
On the other hand (so to speak), diseases known to spread by hand contact are transmitted in places that hands touch, such as ingestion through the mouth.
The flu is most likely spread by flying droplets, some large and some microscopic, experts said. That’s why we cover our coughs and sneezes. But we also leave ourselves vulnerable by simply standing near people and inhaling after they speak, sing or shout.
Public health officials, tending to look at the bigger picture, emphasized hand-washing’s overall benefits.
“There’s no question you’re more likely to get sick if people are coughing in your face than if you touch a doorknob, but there’s plenty of evidence that washing your hands stops a variety of respiratory illnesses,” said Dr. Glennah Trochet, Sacramento County’s public health officer.
Though everybody knows hand washing is right, most aren’t aware of the science behind it, Swartzberg said.
Soap does not kill germs, he said.
Soap merely makes the hands slippery, and the mechanical process of rubbing the hands together unsticks germs. Then rinsing flushes the microbes down the sink. That’s why we need to wash our hands for 15 to 20 seconds – we need that much time for the germs to slide off.
Hand sanitizer companies have benefited from the hand hygiene hype. Consumer appetite for the clear gel went through the roof this year. Between April and October, hand sanitizer sales were $118.4 million, up 70.5 percent over the same period a year ago, according to the Nielsen Co..
New hand-hygiene products have flooded the market.
• Disney is marketing “Musical Hand Wash Timers” that play music and light up for 20 seconds so children know how long to wash their hands.
• Ultracept antiseptic hand wash claims to “provide antimicrobial effects for up to six hours.”
• StaSAFE hand sanitizer is sold as an alcohol-free alternative. Creators of staSAFE, founded this year, say they have sold more than 2 million bottles, far more than expected. They’re having a hard time finding two-ounce bottles for their product.
Swartzberg said hand sanitizers can be just as effective as hand washing, as long as there’s no visible dirt on the hands, and the sanitizer has at least 60 percent alcohol concentration.
Dennice Robinson of Sacramento said she has mini bottles of sanitizer in her purse and car, and at the office.
“I’m scared of catching something,” said the 50-year-old insurance company employee, eyeing rows of soap at Target. “I’ve always been conscious, but this year especially. I’ll use it when I leave this store, I sure will.”
H1N1 vaccination clinics
Some area counties are offering free H1N1 vaccination clinics. The clinics below are open to all county residents.
Sacramento County
• Today: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., St. Anthony’s Church, 14012 Second Ave., Walnut Grove.
• Monday: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., First Baptist Church, 4401 San Juan Ave., Fair Oaks.
• Tuesday: 4:30-8 p.m., Elk Grove High School, 9800 Elk Grove-Florin Road, Elk Grove.
• Jan. 6: 3-7 p.m., Grant Union High School, 1400 Grand Ave., Sacramento.
• Jan. 7: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunrise Mall drive-through, 6041 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights (no walk-ins, vehicles only).
• Jan. 8: 3-7 p.m., Inderkum High School, 2500 New Market Drive, Sacramento.
• Jan. 11: 4-8 p.m., Valley High School, 6300 Ehrhardt Ave., Sacramento.
• Jan. 12: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church, 6929 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento.
• Jan. 13: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Christ Community Church, 5025 Manzanita Ave., Carmichael.
• Jan. 14: 1-5 p.m., Chabolla Center, 610 Chabolla Ave., Galt.
• Jan. 15: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., County Administrative Center, 700 H St., Sacramento.
El Dorado County
• Tuesday: 3-6 p.m., Divide Wellness Center, 6065 Highway 193, Georgetown.
• Jan. 10: 12-3 p.m., El Dorado Hill Community Services District gymnasium, 1021 Harvard Way, El Dorado Hills.
• Jan. 14: 1-3 p.m., Pioneer Bible Church, 6851 Mount Aukum Road, Somerset.
H1N1 vaccination clinics
Some area counties are offering free H1N1 vaccination clinics. The clinics below are open to all county residents.
SACRAMENTO COUNTY
• Today: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sears-Florin Mall drive-through, 5901 Florin Road, Sacramento (no walk-ins, vehicles only).
• Wednesday: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., St. Anthony’s Church, 14012 Second Ave., Walnut Grove.
• Monday: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., First Baptist Church, 4401 San Juan Ave., Fair Oaks.
• Jan. 5: 4:30-8 p.m., Elk Grove High School, 9800 Elk Grove-Florin Road, Elk Grove.
• Jan. 6: 3-7 p.m., Grant Union High School, 1400 Grand Ave., Sacramento.
• Jan. 7: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunrise Mall drive-through, 6041 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights (no walk-ins, vehicles only).
• Jan. 8: 3-7 p.m., Inderkum High School, 2500 New Market Drive, Sacramento.
• Jan. 11: 4-8 p.m., Valley High School, 6300 Ehrhardt Ave., Sacramento.
• Jan. 12: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church, 6929 Franklin Blvd., Sacramento.
• Jan. 13: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Christ Community Church, 5025 Manzanita Ave., Carmichael.
• Jan. 14: 1-5 p.m., Chabolla Center, 610 Chabolla Ave., Galt.
• Jan. 15: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., County Administrative Center, 700 H St., Sacramento.
EL DORADO COUNTY
• Jan. 5: 3-6 p.m., Divide Wellness Center, 6065 Highway 193, Georgetown.
• Jan. 10: 12-3 p.m., El Dorado Hill Community Services District gymnasium, 1021 Harvard Way, El Dorado Hills.
• Jan. 14: 1-3 p.m., Pioneer Bible Church, 6851 Mount Aukum Road, Somerset.
Deaths renew debate about police response to the mentally ill in Sacramento region
The mother of Bieu “Billy” Van Truong and Giat Van Truong, left, is shaken by the morning’s events. Giat Van Truong, 35, with whom she lived, was killed by a sheriff’s sergeant as the officer tried to subdue him. When her other son arrived, distraught, he was hit with Taser guns.
Before he called the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department to his 50th Avenue apartment for a tenant dispute that ended with his death Tuesday, Giat Van Truong had been arrested on a mental-health hold several times in his life, according to authorities.
He had been violent with deputies before and, according to his brother, sometimes didn’t take his medication for schizophrenia.
The sheriff’s sergeant who encountered the 35-year-old man Tuesday didn’t know any of this, said sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran. Truong abruptly punched the sergeant, did not respond to pepper spray, and then used the sergeant’s baton to beat him, according to the Sheriff’s Department’s version of events. Six minutes into the confrontation, the sergeant shot Truong multiple times, killing him.
Could this incident – and others like it – have been prevented? Maybe, some officials said, given Truong’s history.
“If something had been done to intervene with the mental health (issue), maybe this last contact that resulted in this wouldn’t have happened,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Reali, who has advocated for more cooperation between mental health professionals and law enforcement.
Tuesday’s shooting was the third high-profile case in two years in which law enforcement officers in the Sacramento region have killed someone acting aggressively and exhibiting signs of mental illness during a confrontation.
The three deaths – those of Truong, 23-year-old Joseph Han in Folsom and 44-year-old Ricardo Manuel Abrahams in Woodland – highlight a long-standing debate about how law enforcement should deal with the mentally ill, and the tragedy that can occur when meetings of the two become explosive.
The conversation began locally about a decade ago, when Sacramento police, sheriff’s deputies and mental health workers teamed up to address mental illness within the homeless population – an effort that eventually ended when funding dried up.
A more expansive effort, however, gained traction in 2005, as officials studied the possibility of using funds from the state’s Mental Health Services Act to pair mental health officials with street cops in a collaborative effort to get people the help they need.
Need for response team
The idea of the so-called psychiatric emergency response teams, or PERTs, was widely embraced by law enforcement and county officials, but never funded.
Cases like Truong’s show the need exists, Reali said.
He speculated that had the response teams been implemented, earlier intervention for Truong might have changed Tuesday’s outcome.
“Certainly (someone like Truong) would be on the PERT team’s radar,” Reali said. “That would be the target group – mentally ill individuals who are producing calls for service.”
While most interactions are solved peacefully, law enforcement comes into contact daily with people showing signs of mental illness. In 2008, the Sheriff’s Department responded to more than 1,700 calls involving someone known to be mentally ill or behaving that way, Curran said.
According to the state commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, officers must undergo six hours of training focused solely on working with the mentally ill. Training includes “de-escalation” tactics and tips on how to communicate without triggering an outburst.
Sheriff John McGinness, who advocated for a psychiatric emergency response team, said his department requires 13 hours of such training in its academy, and that deputies receive refresher courses every other year.
Other agencies have gone further. More than two dozen counties in the state have crisis intervention teams, said Mark Gale, a board member of California’s division of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and chairman of the organization’s criminal justice committee.
Gale describes crisis intervention teams as the “gold standard of police training in terms of dealing with the mentally ill” – it involves 40 hours of intensive training.
No agency in Sacramento County does such training, but McGinness said the law enforcement community of late has ramped up awareness of mental health issues. “We have, as a profession, accepted very sincerely the benefit and the need to recognize symptoms of mental health issues and treat people in a manner that’s most likely to produce a positive outcome,” he said. “But I hasten to add, you cannot guarantee that.”
Use of force
No amount of training can guarantee a peaceful outcome in every confrontation between an officer and someone who’s mentally ill.
Officers are sometimes unfairly put in a tough position by a society that doesn’t do enough for mentally ill people before they reach their breaking point, said Reali, the sheriff’s sergeant. “It’s a disservice to law enforcement and it’s a disservice to the mentally ill individual to rely strictly on a cop to be the first responder to a mentally ill person in crisis.”
“He’s absolutely right,” said Gale, the advocate. “At some point, the police get called. So that’s why the jails and prisons become de facto psychiatric institutions.”
Gale said blame lies with a broken mental health system that’s underfunded and overburdened. He said he understands local governments are hurting financially, but said officials can take smaller steps – like creating PERT or CIT programs – by partnering with neighboring agencies and streamlining spending.
“It will save lives, it will save money, it will save lawsuits, and people will stop getting hurt,” he said. “You don’t have a choice. You have to do these things.”
Reali said it’s impossible to know for sure whether a local PERT team could have helped Truong – but he’s confident one could help others like Truong from meeting the same end. “I can tell you there are a lot of other people out there whose psychosis is getting worse,” he said. “It will happen again.”