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TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A JUSTICE ISSUE

8/23/2025

Val's Take/Conjecture

A number of people and entities are talking about Translational Medicine in terms of Health Equity and Justice.

We've had some significant Federal investment in Mental Health Research, and that seems to be paying off.

I've been known to say that if we just got out of the Punishment Business and went to Civil Certification --- things would be better.
- And I think they would be --- probably.
- I say "probably" because a small percentage of justice-involved people with psychiatric disorders would prefer a more definite prison term than an unpredictable civil commitment term.

BUT that doesn't solve our DESPERATE NEED for better understandings and treatments.

BHA Launches Colorado LIFTS, Increases Access to Behavioral Health Support (2025)

The Colorado Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), today celebrated the launch of Colorado LIFTS (Linking Individuals and Families To Services).

Colorado LIFTS is Colorado’s streamlined network of safety net behavioral health services, including crisis, substance use and mental health support.

From today forward, anyone in Colorado, no matter their insurance status or where they live in the state, can connect directly with care navigation support to help them begin or continue their journey to whole-person health.

Colorado is probably not the only State that tries to address frightening shortages with administrative fixes.
BUT Colorado does it a lot.

On the other hand, will State Governments ever have enough funds for OUT-OF-DATE understandings and treatments in Mental Health.

MENTAL HEALTH has already EXHAUSTED the Public Health Care System.

Those new understandings and, to a certain extent, treatments are here ---
- But they are in a wide range of ACADEMIC JOURNALS and ACADEMIC TEXTS and maybe the occasional YouTube video.
- Dr. Chris Palmer did write a book designed for the Public --- BRAIN ENERGY -- and it is helping to popularize some of these new paradigms along with METABOLIC MIND.

Robert Plant and Kashmir

8/13/2025

Val's Take: Lyrics to Kashmir

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, with stars to fill my dream.
I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been.
To sit with elders of a gentle race this world has seldom seen.
Who talk of days for which they sit and wait
When all will be revealed.

There are many associations with Kashmir and with the Robert Plant interview and mental health.

I'm going to focus on KNOWLEDGE and IGNORANCE. Enormous progress has been made in understanding Neuro-Developmental, Psychiatric and Addiction Disorders. Has all been revealed --- NO.

But if we adopt a comprehensive Public Health Approach to Criminal Justice ---- we can still maintain our integrity without complete certainty.

Dan Rather interviews Robert Plant
Kashmir over Stairway to Heaven and Loss & Grief

Led Zeppelin
Kashmir

Confused understandings, Paradigm Shifts and Justice

8/6/2025

Val's Take: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is interesting because patients have worked so hard to have the disorder not considered a Psychiatric Disorder --- THIS IS A REAL ILLNESS.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is like Multiple Sclerosis in that those patients often have co-morbid Psychiatric Disorders.

It wasn't that long ago that Psychiatric Disorders were considered "Psycho-Somatic." That is not as true today, BUT our understanding has been CONFUSED.

When we make that paradigm shift to Neuro-Developmental & Psychiatric Disorders as NEURO-IMMUNE DISORDERS and appreciate the ramifications of Maternal Immune Activation and Atypical Virus Response --- we're in quite a different place than we've been for the last several decades.

This has all kinds of ripple effects in Criminal Justice, and is piling on to the need for a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

NYU School of Medicine
Schizophrenia and Covid 19: Lessons From Systemic Immune Challenge (2022)

Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine -- NSU Florida
Virus Reactivation: Testing and Treatment (2024)

Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A JUSTICE ISSUE

Robert Plant and Kashmir

Confused understandings, Paradigm Shifts and Justice

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Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A​ JUSTICE ISSUE

Robert Plant and Kashmir

Confused understandings, Paradigm Shifts and Justice

Archives

Categories

TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A JUSTICE ISSUE