Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of December 25, 2022

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog consists of topics from improving your mental health in 2023 to the importance of making connections to how COVID’s learning loss may negatively impact our children’s future earnings. Today, I wish to highlight the article pertaining to how each of us needs to focus on healthy daily habits. In order to reduce stress, try incorporating a mixture of the following into your daily routines: relax (mindfulness), journal (gratitude), exercise (including sleep and nutrition/hydration), monitor (limit your exposure to social media), and laugh! The past three years has taken a toll on most of our lives. The COVID pandemic has changed the way we must negotiate the future. To this end, Abe Lincoln once said: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”

Source:

www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/7-daily-habits-thatll-improve-your-mental-health-in-2023/

MH advice for 2023

7 daily habits for improving MH

Emotional health & Kindness

Emotional support / Sadness / Conversing

Does virtual MH therapy work?

Military / Behavioral challenges / Enlist

Psychedelics on the rise & Safety

Psychedelics & Brain research

Post-pandemic life: Connections

Mental Illness & Connections

Teen pregnancy & Child poverty

Children: Victims of fentanyl

2022: Opioids in America

Another Opioids lawsuit

Narcan is NOT bulletproof

Fentanyl addiction & Treatment

Schools stock Narcan

FDA & non-prescription naloxone?

Anxiety & Your brain

Aging & Insomnia

Tinnitus treatment?

Schools & Absenteeism

Schools / Learning loss / Earnings

Rosati-Kain HS update

Tua / Concussions / Future?

Women / Rugby / Concussions

Pele: The real GOAT

Pro-union sentiment

OK & Black market weed

Student debt: Update

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of December 11, 2022

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog consists of topics from the importance of Narcan to avoiding holiday heart attacks to the connection between stress & social media. Today, I wish to highlight the articles pertaining to opioid overdoses and Narcan. This blog has long emphasized the devastation that opioids has had on our workers, their families, and our communities: urban, suburban, and rural. We can NO longer idly stand on the sidelines and hope this crisis passes due to time. People from ALL walks of life have lost family members and friends to opioid poisoning; beginning in the 1990s it was prescription pain pills, then heroin, and more recently, fentanyl. Public health officials often cite a three-pronged approach to attacking substance misuse: prevention, intervention, and postvention. Narcan focuses on the intervention piece of this public health puzzle. Most of us have taken courses in First Aid, CPR, and (possibly) AED. These tried-and-true practices are known to save lives in the workplace. In the same manner, each and every one of us can be trained in less than 1 hour on how to safely administer Narcan (naloxone nasal spray). I, for one, know firsthand that Narcan saves lives!

Source:

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-st-louis-man-who-saved-overdose-victim-pushes-airline-to-carry-narcan/article_54ced5c1-9d10-5867-9101-979b08e9bc3e.html

Fentanyl ODs

Opioids ODs and Life-saving meds

OTC Narcan?

NARCAN Training

FL officer ODs

First responders / PTSD / Ketamine

Connection & Support: Key to breaking addiction cycle

Another Opioids Settlement

Overhauling US drug policy

Pain (1)

Pain (2)

Pain (3)

Gun violence & Children

Kids & Social Media

Vaccine Fatigue?

The COVID time warp

Pandemic / Kids / Brains

Holidays & Loneliness

Holidays & Heart Attacks (1)

Holidays & Heart Attacks (2)Men & Therapy

Men / India / Suicide

Aging & Homelessness

Grief / Hope / Holidays

Grief: How to help

Stretching before a workout?

Mindfulness & Work

Women / Stress / Social Media

Cure for a holiday hangover?

Cold water therapy?

CTE Warrior: Life after NFL

H2H: Construction industry pushes safety helmets vs hard hats

Worker shortage / Migrants / Jobs

World Cup & Migrant Workers

St. Mary’s High School: Community steps up

Student loan forgiveness: Update

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.

For many decades, organized labor has played a key role in establishing minimum safety standards in the US workplace. These efforts have mainly focused on the physical aspects of safety (i.e., falls, chemical exposure, noise reduction, etc.). More recently, public health professionals have identified that in order to better protect workers, the workforce eco-system must address the whole person. To this end, a major goal of establishing a WWP is to ensure that all workers have access to timely information regarding their mental aspects of safety on the job and in the community. In so doing, we will offer programming and advice on issues related to work-life balance, wellness, and well-being.

As the WWP develops, we will seek partnerships with local community agencies so that programming can be tailored to local needs. It is our intention to have a presence in towns across the state as a means to deliver training and/or perform research that informs our future activities for the benefit of all workers.

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of November 27, 2022

CDC announces new public health (workforce) funding

How Africa recruits MH workers: A lesson for the USA?

Who is a MH expert?

Trauma training / Schools / Healing

DOD & Suicide Prevention workforce

Sailors & Suicide

Yale / MH & Suicide 

Recovery & Relapse: Immoral players in a deadly game

Meth: Terror & Triumph

Seniors & AUD / SUD

Aging alone

China & COIVD

NYC / MH / Homeless (1)

NYC / MH / Homeless (2)

Ketamine: Free therapy?

Holiday stress & Exercise

Pickleball: Friend or Foe?

US / Sugar / Forced labor

Biden / Unions / Rail strike

Heat & Safety regs?

Robots & Workers

Middle-aged men & Work (or lack thereof)

Middle-aged (and older) men & Suicide

Rethinking college degrees

CA / Worksite inspectors / Bilingual shortage

Immigrant workers / Dairy farms / Poor housing

Hope / Turnover / Volunteer work

World Cup Update (1)

World Cup Update (2)

Student debt Update (1)

Student debt Update (2)

Webinars:

FREE Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) courses in December

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.

For many decades, organized labor has played a key role in establishing minimum safety standards in the US workplace. These efforts have mainly focused on the physical aspects of safety (i.e., falls, chemical exposure, noise reduction, etc.). More recently, public health professionals have identified that in order to better protect workers, the workforce eco-system must address the whole person. To this end, a major goal of establishing a WWP is to ensure that all workers have access to timely information regarding their mental aspects of safety on the job and in the community. In so doing, we will offer programming and advice on issues related to work-life balance, wellness, and well-being.

As the WWP develops, we will seek partnerships with local community agencies so that programming can be tailored to local needs. It is our intention to have a presence in towns across the state as a means to deliver training and/or perform research that informs our future activities for the benefit of all workers.

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of November 13, 2022

MO / Legal Pot / Workplace?

MH awareness & 988

MH needs persist

Meth-Fentanyl combo = OD deaths

Cocaine-Meth-Fentanyl Deaths

Player Coaches & Addiction Recovery

Vets & Opioids Crisis

Walmart & Opioids Settlement

New Narcan?

Meditation & Rx / Wellness

Common pain reliever & Risk

Death penalty & MH

MH break?

Being kind = Good Well-being

Deeper connections: Post COVID

Dealing w/ Dark Days

Banned vaping?

Marijuana worse than Cigs?

Lifelong friends unite

Nose-picking

A CTE test for the living in 2 years?

Red Cup Day

Coal mining & Kids

Ela Bhatt & Leading India

Women & Apprenticeships

World Cup Issues (1)

World Cup Issues (2)

World Cup Issues (3)

World Cup Issues (4)

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.

For many decades, organized labor has played a key role in establishing minimum safety standards in the US workplace. These efforts have mainly focused on the physical aspects of safety (i.e., falls, chemical exposure, noise reduction, etc.). More recently, public health professionals have identified that in order to better protect workers, the workforce eco-system must address the whole person. To this end, a major goal of establishing a WWP is to ensure that all workers have access to timely information regarding their mental aspects of safety on the job and in the community. In so doing, we will offer programming and advice on issues related to work-life balance, wellness, and well-being.

As the WWP develops, we will seek partnerships with local community agencies so that programming can be tailored to local needs. It is our intention to have a presence in towns across the state as a means to deliver training and/or perform research that informs our future activities for the benefit of all workers.

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of October 23, 2022

New PSA on MH

Global sadness

How your job affects MH

The war to define “work”

Parents & Youth MH warning signs

TikTok and MH

Youth Suicide Summit

Seasonal disorder

Depression & Family support

Fentanyl myths

Fentanyl & Inmate ODs

OUD & Stigma

A Family’s Tribute: Sober Living Farm

Building brain resilience

Resilience framework

Dogs & Human stress

Fungus & Health?

Water & Health?

Nostalgia & Health?

Grief / Death / Living

Homelessness & Affordable housing

Aging out after foster care

Rethinking sports & concussions

Concussions: What about Women/Girls?

CTE / Collision sports / Deceit & Change

Menopause benefits? (1)

Menopause benefits? (2)

Soccer & Rights (Human & Labor)

Student debt update (1)

Student debt update (2)

Upcoming webinars:

Addressing stress

Supporting & Honoring Vets

Women in Leadership

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact johngaal@moaflcio.org with related questions or comments.