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to the archived web site of Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D.
Psychologist (1950-2013) California License
No. PSY 10092 |
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Specializing in Presence-Centered Therapy balancing mind and heart, body and spirit
Now in memoriam - This website is no longer being updated |
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Links: Resources for Life | Search Links Consumer Reviews / Complaints, Volunteering & Environment's Impact on Human Behavior Consumer Reviews / Complaints of Health & Business Services / Products / Volunteering | Environment, Pets & Social Networks / Technologies Impact on Human Behavior Health and Business Reviews Consumer reviews of services and products,
including Consumer Reports, Consumer Affairs, Yelp, Measured Up, ValueStar and
more (even on-line dating services): For a local review of Pleasanton, CA in the
East San Francisco Bay area, peruse the Pleasanton Weekly's 2010 Readers
Choice Pleasanton Winners. Resources
for consumers of health and business services: Information is available for
checking professional licenses and complaints with a given licensed practitioner
and reporting complaints regarding health services, business, identity theft,
automotive repair, home improvement, landlord/tenant and so on through the California
Department of Consumer Affairs. An invaluable set of resources for consumers.
Several links are provided to two websites to run focused background checks
to verify personal identity data and professional credentials when you are
seriously considering a business partnership, hiring an employee, detecting possible
fraud or a primary relationship or marriage. Lexisnexis.com
provides what they call "26 solutions" for identity verification and
authentication, while Intelius.com
offers many protection services including a background check, people search and
employee screening among others. While these services are controversial given
serious privacy concerns, they are provided purely as informational and does not
imply a recommendation in any manner. it may be prudent to consider such services
or even hiring a private investigator (PI) depending on how much you are investing---forewarned
is forearmed and what you don't know can hurt you very badly. Links to several
fraud hotlines and related information and resources are listed below to
avoid scams and help stop fraud. Links are also provided for reporting of suspected
child, elder, couple, and developmentally disabled adult when "reasonable
suspicion" is present. The national reporting of child abuse is available
through the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-422-4453) and
the county Child Protective Services child abuse hotline. The California
Department of Social Services is directly responsible for all the child and
adult protective services in California. The Childhelp's Children's Center
of California has a long history of making a difference in the lives of abused
and neglected children in California along with providing the national child abuse
hotline above. The April 2010 issue of Psychiatric News offers the article
"What's behind soaring number of 'Emotional Neglect' cases?" which notes
how according to a new government study, the number of children removed from families
and placed in foster care continues to rise, even as the number of cases of other
forms of child neglect and abuse has fallen substantially in recent years. Consumer Complaints Making consumer complaints that
get results: Resources to effectively make complaints, including the writing of
complaint letters Volunteer Opportunities in East SF Bay Volunteer opportunities in
the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area and surroundings Fraud Hotlines / Background Checks / Abuse Reporting Fraud hotlines
and resources: Background
checks Child
and Adult Abuse resources Privacy Protection Protect yourself from Internet Data-Mining
companies who gather and then sell every detail of your life!—what you buy,
where you go, and whom you love: Peruse the March 2011 Time magazine
article "Your Data, Yourself" and particularly look at the link that
lists sites to protect yourself and your information. This is vital information
to know and use given that privacy is important to you. Other links look at data
mining, specifically does data mining violates Fourth Amendment protections
and asking the question "Who owns your social network data?"
Gender Wage Inequities Wage
inequities are to be corrected for greater prosperity for all: New York
Times Op-Ed piece by Robert B. Reich on "How to End the Great Recession Gender
gap in pay?: Women still earn less than men—In 1963 women earned 59% of the
wages men earned in the same job it appears; in 2008 women earned 77% of men's
wages. A late September 2010 report from the U.S. Government Accounting Office
(GAO) found that women managers make 81 cents to a man's buck, and that managerial
women with children haven't gained on men at all from 2000 to 2007. A March 2011
White House report states that across educational levels, women only made an average
of 75% as much as their male counterparts in 2009 and women are making solid gains
in education with 87% of women 19 and older having graduated high school, slightly
higher than men, and about 28% of both women and men had at least a college degree,
a huge gain for women over only 8% in 1970. However, since part-time work pays
less and many more women work part-time, this may almost completely close this
apparent wage gap!—March 2010 research conducted by the Mongan Institute
for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital found that even highly qualified
women in academic medicine paid less than equally qualified men. At the same time
a 2009 study mentioned that this apparent gender wage gap almost completely disappears
to an adjusted gap between 4.8 and 7.1 percent once a number of variables are
factored in, such as a greater percent of women than men tend to work part-time,
and part-time work tends to pay less than full-time work, pregnancy leave, and
other factors. Denise Venable, a research assistant with the National Center for
Policy Analysis, says: "The "wage gap" is not so much about employers discriminating
against women as about women making discriminating choices in the labor market."
A July 21, 2010 New York Times Op-Ed piece by Nicholas D. Kristof entitled
"Don't Write Men Off Just Yet" makes the case that gains for women in
society and the workplace are helping put the genders on a more equal footing.
With a rising tide lifting all boats, Kristof notes "The truth is that we
men have typically benefited as women have gained greater equality." Noise Pollution Noise pollution or environmental noise:
One definition offered on Wikipedia for this phenomenon is "displeasing
human, animal or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of
human or animal life": This same source notes tha the word "noise"
is derived from the Latin word nausea that means seasickness. Noise health effects
are both health and behavioral in nature and are not to be undervalued. Protecting
oneself by mitigating and controlling the noise you are exposed to is essential.
Noise Free American is a national, non-profit organization that aims to reduce
noise pollution in the community, especially boom cars (automobiles with loud
sound systems), leaf blowers, motorcycles and car alarms. The Infoplease.com encyclopedia
writes: "Subjected to 45 decibels of noise, the average person cannot sleep.
At 120 decibels the ear registers pain, but hearing damage begins at a much lower
level, about 85 decibels. The duration of the exposure is also important."
Being aware of the warning signs for noise pollution and recognizing that noise
threatens hearing and well-being are important for everyone. Service Dogs Service dogs provide help for people to better manage
their disabilities/challenges: Service dogs help in so many ways, including
as skilled assistance dogs for the disabled, hearing dogs for the deft, diabetes
dogs, Alzheimer's helper dogs, Parkinson's disease helper dogs, and psychiatric
service dogs (including those with severe psychological challenges, anxiety, and
epileptic seizures. Many breeds can be trained as service dogs, with Labradors
and Golden retrievers being the most commonly used. Pets Care, Find Missing, Traveling, Emergencies & Cruelty Important
Resources for Traveling With Your Pet: A May 2011 New York Times article
"What to Know When Traveling With Your Pet" provides important information
for traveling both in the United States and internationally. Also peruse the large
number of comments by readers who share strategies that have worked for them on
their travels. Other links provide more useful tips and information. Finding
missing pets: Ken Pope provides practical information and resources in locating
a missing pet. Keeping
pets healthy during hot weather Animal
Emergencies, poison & First Aid: Pet Resources—Once again Ken Pope
offers vital resources for pet owners The
animal-cruelty syndrome describes connections being drawn between animal abuse
and other forms of violence Pet
Bereavement Resources for all pet lovers: Ken Pope has produced an excellent
list of resources for pet lovers in showing care, love and respect to their pets
when facing terminal illness, pending death, grieving the loss, pet hospice care,
pet loss hotlines, a virtual pet cemetary and more. Resources include free phone
hot lines, email support lists, help with decisions about euthanasia, recommended
readings, online articles, bulletin boards, information for families and veterinarians,
and ways to memorialize a pet. Social Networks / Technologies Social Networking—Advantages
and disadvantages: Malcolm Gladwell writing in October 2010 in The New
Yorker makes the case that the new tools of social media are not a "strong-tie"
(social ties, that is) and hierarchical association most related to high-risk
activism, like the civil rights movement in the 1960's under the tutelage of Martin
Luther King, Jr. Rather modern media-driven social networking is a "weak-tie",
flat-decentralized network associated with increasing participation and motivation.
According to Gladwell, "This structure makes networks enormously resilient
and adaptable in low-risk situations." Networks are not very good at design,
can't think strategically, and are prone to strife, errors and conflict given
that everybody has an equal say. Moreover, the structural features of networks,
such as no formal mechanisms to arbitrate arguments and disagreements, no central
authority, a flat all-have-equal-say, and no checks and balances for cliques or
the independence of oppositional groups, makes networks less than desirable for
a great number of organizations, especially those oriented toward social activism.
He sees how the social network increases the efficiency of the existing order
instead of empowering social activists and change agents. Overall in regard to
modern social networking, Gladwell concludes: "But it is simply a form of
organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information
over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger.
It shifts our energies from organizations that promote strategic and disciplined
activity and toward those which promote resilience and adaptability. It makes
it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression
to have any impact. The instruments of social media are well suited to making
the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the
status quo." Coupled with Gladwell's analysis is an October 2010 Op-Ed piece
by Frank Rich that cites Gladwell's article and sees how it translates into the
current political environment and the highest critical raves for the current movie
"The Social Network." Both articles are recommended.
© Copyright 2013 by Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. |
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