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Today I learned a new word: Telepsychiatry.

If the truth be known, though, it’s much more than a word.  Telepsychiatry is a way, a means, a tool—not to mention a cross cultural gap-bridger and a stigma reducing weapon*.  If you’ll permit me.

According to those in the know, Telepsychiatry, or telemedicine is a specifically defined form of video conferencing that can provide psychiatric services to patients living in remote locations or otherwise underserved areas.

And now, let’s have an example of an underserved area:

Psychiatric visits via HDTV

To meet growing demands for mental health treatment, the Army is treating more soldiers with “telepsychiatry” — providing a psychiatrist by video conference on a high-definition television set instead of face-to-face meetings.

Jonathan Berry, a 19-year-old soldier from White Cloud, Michigan, had three televised conversations with a psychiatrist while assigned to an Army behavioral-health clinic in Maryland.

He jumped out of a window after the third, killing himself.

Marla VerDuin (Berry’s finacee) said he told her that all he had to do was “just sit and talk to someone over a TV” once a week.

VerDuin went on to say that Berry had no roommate in his last days there. Nor was he permitted to socialize with other soldiers. “I know that he was by himself. He sat in his room and played a video game.”

Jeffrey Castro, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command, said the command is investigating Berry’s death and will not comment.

Dr. Michael Lynch, the director of Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s telepsychiatry program, also said he could not discuss an individual case.

But they agreed the Army is increasing its use of telepsychiatry as a treatment tool, particularly when soldiers are stationed in places where psychiatric care is not readily available.

“Telepsychiatry is not a magic bullet,” Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie (psychiatry consultant to the Army’s surgeon general and director of the Proponency for Behavioral Health) said.  There are disadvantages. For one, doctor-patient relationships are “a little harder to maintain or develop.”

Here’s what I wonder.  Did Jonathan Berry know the difference between a video game and his weekly screen visits with the psychiatrist?  And how does a health clinic in the state of Maryland qualify as a place where “psychiatric care is not readily available”?

*(Army News Service) - In the Army’s recent fight to reduce the stigma of seeking and receiving treatment for combat stress, the latest weapon is telepsychiatry.  Telepsychiatry is currently one of the most effective ways to increase access to psychiatric care for individuals living in underserved areas.

Speaking of underserved areas… Jonathan Berry, this sunset’s for you.

Here’s a good way to stay out of the rain and see what’s going on at the same time. Aren’t these the cutest California Quails you’ve ever seen?  We have a couple of bevies/coveys/drifts living in the manzanita bushes. They hang around for the whole Winter. Maybe that’s why we call them our state bird.

Yes, folks. For all of you out there who thought the Condor was the California State Bird, you’re hearing the sound of the buzzer.  The humble quail holds that honor.  Its numbers are legion.

Not so the Condors.

After the lightning fires of 2008, there are even less of this endangered species. Two are presumed dead after a June wildfire burned for more than a month through Big Sur, California, where the Ventana Wildlife Society operates its condor sanctuary.

“It’s hard to put a value on the loss of a 6-year-old male that was about to breed and an up and coming female,” said Joe Burnett, Ventana Wildlife Society senior wildlife biologist. “It’s devastating to lose any birds. We can rebuild the pens, but we can’t replace the birds.”

Orville Myers / The Monterey County Herald
Joe Burnett, senior wildlife biologist at Ventana Wildlife Society, gets first look of destroyed release pen used for the condors as #340 watches him walk by at the Basin Complex Fire In Big Sur, Calif., some people were allowed to go back to their homes on Tuesday July 8, to see how their property was. Photo: Orville Myers/ Monterey County Herald 07/08/2008

Big Sur is home to more than 40 wild condors, including mature condors that are now breeding in the wild. Three condor nests were within the burned area. Ventana Wildlife Society biologists entered two of the three nests, finding the chicks alive and healthy.

Photo of California Condor in cliffside cave in remote Ventana Wilderness of Big Sur.
Photo taken April 11, 2007.

You can adopt a baby condor.  Just open your heart, browser and pocket book.

What do those ET's want with our mountain?

Yikes! Now here’s a lenticular cloud worth its liquid water content (LWC).

Oops, did I say lenticular? Around here, most folks call ‘em spaceships. My wide-angle lens just couldn’t get wide enough to capture the full effect. It takes a mighty cloud to morph Mount Shasta.

With an estimated volume of 108 cubic miles, Mount Shasta logs in at 14,179 feet above the rising sea level. According to those in the know, observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps (see pictures below) indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century.

Back to capturing, though. This mighty cloud blew in with the sunset not that long ago, folks. Without a doubt it was the biggest one of ‘08.  If it was chocked full of ET’s, we’re all in trouble. At least we won’t have to be ashamed of our leader–come January, that is.

Technically speaking, weather people call these clouds altocumulus standing lenticularis or ACSL.  I can’t figure out why the weather-namers mix an English word with two Latin ones.

Moving on.  Wave clouds form when the wind hits a topographic feature, such as a mountain, and get deflected up and over the peak, thereby creating a gravity wave downwind of the obstruction, i.e. mountain.  The clouds only materialize when sufficient moisture is in the air, but the wave pattern in the atmosphere may still be there.

That’s why you don’t see airplane pilots (unless they’re gliders) buzzing around tall topographic features like mountains.  The downdraft could suck them under.  Here’s the thing, folks, lenticular clouds may look like they’re standing still, but they ain’t.  These clouds are constantly forming in the updraft and dissipating in the downdraft and sometimes contain winds of 50 knots or more.  14 more knots and they’d be a hurricane.

So let this be a lesson to you. Don’t fly your motorized vehicle near a mountain. If you’re a glider pilot, though, be my guest.

The same combination of winds and updrafts that allows the cloud to form also provides a rapid lift and a long flight in a glider.  Glider pilots spend long hours trying to catch the wave or be the wave.

Mountain wave schematic

A view down the Whitechuck Glacier in North Cascades National Park in 1973

The same view as seen in 2006, where this branch of glacier retreated 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles)

Burney Falls in the Fall of '08

Hello everybody!  I am thrilled to the bone!  How about them Democrats! It was such a sweet victory that blogging seemed lackluster by comparison, so I skipped a couple of weeks (times two).  I even bought a vintage coat on ebay to commemorate the purpling of our nation.  Yes, folks, the coat is very purple–purple mohair to be exact!

The savoring period is over, though, and now I’m back on track (ahem). But I just can’t seem to shake the feeling that some serious celebrating is still due me and my kind.  I mean it’s been 8 years since adults occupied the White House.  I am trying so hard to ignore Bush’s last stand and keeping my fingers crossed that he won’t do anything undoable.

I’ve heard that a little known law sponsored by Congressman Bill Archer will allow our President Obama to repeal any last minute Bush do-dads commonly known as ‘midnight rules’. It is called the “Congressional Review Act of 1996”.

Pushing all that out of our minds for a day, my partner (Chris) and I drove to Burney Falls, which is about 60 miles east of where we live.  What a gorgeous day on the Modoc Plateau–home to the McArthur-Burney Memorial State Park and the eighth wonder of the world, so designated by President Teddy Roosevelt.

Eighth or not (’cause there is a bit of controversy), here are a few pics and links with info on how to get to the magnificent falls, what to wear and some neat walking trails.  I say ‘walking’  because the paths are certainly hospitable. Even Grannie could walk the flat 75 feet from the parking lot to view these spectacular falls. And have I mentioned the fine steps down to the mist filled basin?

love-eagles

This northern California State Park is within the Cascade Range and includes 910 acres of forest, plus five miles of streamside and lakeshore, as well as a portion of the man-made Lake Britton, itself.

While walking along the shore, Chris and I were privileged to spot two mature bald eagles in flight and at rest. Follow the link for a pdf file on the subject.  I didn’t know this, but the Lake Britton/Pit River area is home to one of the largest populations of bald eagles in the contiguous United States.  At least seven pairs nest here, and it is a winter home for a some, as well.

We sat for twenty minutes and watched these creatures on a conifer branch, just hanging out side-by-side like lovebirds. I choose to think they were happily enjoying each other’s company, but maybe they were after a luscious fish or two.

The whole Burney Falls area is a fisherperson’s paradise. With his eagle-eye, Chris spotted some fine fellows swimming close to the shore.  He offered them vanilla Power Bar (for which I scolded him) but they weren’t biting.  A sixteen incher, however, did go for a bit of bagel.

Back to Lake Britton.  Formed by damming the Pit River, it’s fed by four (count ‘em) active creeks full of trout: Cayton, Clark, Hat and Burney.

The park’s centerpiece, however, is the 129-foot Burney Falls–not the highest or largest waterfall in our state, mind you, but often regarded as the most beautiful. Not having seen them all, I am reserving my opinion.  I did delight in the mist filled basin as you can see from the picture below.

About the park’s landscape:  It was created by volcanic activity as well as erosion.  Everywhere you look there is black volcanic rock or basalt. This layered, porous matter holds a ton of rainwater and snow melt, which in turn feeds a large underground reservoir.  The basalt also hosts a ton of green moss, as you can see from this pic Chris took along Burney Creek.

Not enough can be said about Burney Falls–but how about these two:  It flows at 100 million gallons every single day, and it was named after pioneer settler Samuel Burney whose offspring are credited with saving the entire area from dreaded commercial development.  Let’s hear it for the McArthurs! Arriving in the late 1800s, their laudable descendants bought the property and gave it freely to the state in the 1920s.  Now those were some generous, farsighted folks! Speaking of which, here’s Chris.

Me too