Latest news with #START
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
OSF Healthcare now offering scalp cooling for cancer patients
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A new service being offered at OSF Healthcare is helping patients going through chemotherapy. It's called scalp cooling, and it's a first-of-its-kind service being offered in our area. It's a non-invasive, free treatment designed to reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. It works by lowering the temperature of your scalp down to 65 degrees before, during and after chemo. Scalp cooling helps cancer patients keep as much of their hair as possible, which in turn, helps their mental health. Our 2025 Remarkable Women winner, Patricia Cutiletta, had a huge part in bringing this service to our area. 'Well, it has nothing to do with vanity,' Cutiletta said. 'I had an oncologist who said to me, oh, that's for vain people. It's not. It's for people who want to preserve some sense of identity. It's for people who want to continue as much of their normal lifestyle as they can. And it's for people who want something that they can try and control.' The scalp cooling service is part of OSF Healthcare's START program. Which stands for survive, thrive and recover together. There's more than just scalp cooling. Patients can also get personalized care to help navigate their 'new normal' with confidence. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
09-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Can free money help people stay off drugs? These programs are trying it.
Nothing stuck until Pagan, a 36-year-old personal caregiver from Revere, learned late last year of engaged in physical exercise, Pagan was rewarded with $5 loaded onto a debit card. Advertisement While modest, the payments were enough to motivate Pagan to keep coming back, week after week, to a program that taught her new strategies for controlling her cravings. 'When you're living on the edge, sometimes you need something — even if it's small — to feel better about yourself and your future," she said. Pagan is among hundreds of people addicted to stimulants in New England who are part of a bold but debated experiment: giving financial rewards to people who abstain from illicit drugs. In cities across the region, treatment providers are embracing the concept of monetary awards as they seek new ways to combat a troubling surge in the use of psychostimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine. Advertisement The approach is known as Policy makers are banking on the intervention to help address a gaping hole in the substance use treatment system. There are no targeted medications for the estimated 'People have been brainwashed into thinking that depriving people and letting them `hit bottom' is the only way for somebody to get better, and contingency management flies in the face of that,' said Deirdre Calvert, director of the state Department of Public Health's Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. 'Most importantly, it works.' While offering people small rewards for abstinence dates to the 1980s, the approach has been slow to catch on. One of the biggest obstacles has been the moral objection to the idea of paying people to stay off drugs — which, critics argue, they should be doing anyway. Legal concerns have been another barrier. Treatment providers have long worried they could run afoul of Advertisement Yet attitudes began to change a few years ago amid a troubling new reality. Many people were taking cocaine and meth without realizing it was At the same time, states received the So in 2021, Boston Medical Center received a $1.43 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to launch Interest in the program has far exceeded expectations. Justin Alves, co-medical director for the START program and a nurse educator with the Advertisement All told, 660 patients with stimulant use disorders have participated in the program since 2021; and more than 50 percent have been people of color, according to Boston Medical Center. Organizers of the program are now looking to tap opioid settlement funds to expand the incentives to $300 to $500 per person per year, consistent with scientific studies showing that larger amounts are more effective in promoting abstinence. 'The $75 was enough to get people to come to group [meetings],' Alves said. 'By the time the $75 ran out, we had nurse-patient relationships with people and that's what has made the program blossom.' Behavioral scientists said the programs are effective in part because the prizes act much like stimulants do — by increasing dopamine levels in the brain. The US Department of Veterans Affairs was Advertisement The concept is also taking hold in Maine, which has been And in Vermont, Some treatment providers are wary of giving prizes that they say patients could then sell or trade for drugs. Yet that hasn't emerged as a problem, say clinicians and researchers. The Howard Center tracks how participants spend the rewards and found they largely use the money to buy food, gas, and other basic items. Rosario Malcolm-Testaverde credits a contingency management program with potentially saving his life. He spent 15 years addicted to crystal methamphetamine, bouncing in and out of hospital emergency departments, before he discovered the Boston Medical Center program. He didn't need the money, yet the weekly prizes gave him an incentive to show up at group meetings. There, he encountered a community of people who understood the powerful pull of crystal meth and its dangerous side effects — including paranoia and auditory hallucinations. Advertisement 'I felt fully recognized as a human being,' said Malcolm-Testaverde, 36. 'And the rewards system helped replace the dopamine hit I would get [from crystal meth].' At noon on a recent Monday, the mood was upbeat as Pagan and a dozen other people in recovery filed into a brightly lit conference room at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless office at 780 Albany St. One by one, members introduced themselves and talked about what they were looking forward to in their lives. An older man named John described the daily challenge of staying sober when, each day, he encountered people using cocaine outside his apartment building in Cambridge's Central Square. Among the last to speak, Pagan proudly announced to the group that she had just received word of a new job opportunity and was brushing up her resume — something she never would have imagined just a couple of years ago, when she was still living on the streets and using drugs. 'Hopefully a door opens because I feel like I'm ready,' Pagan said. In an instant, everyone around the table burst into applause. Chris Serres can be reached at
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Business Standard
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Russia to respond to attacks on airfields as military deems right: Kremlin
Russia will respond to Sunday's Ukrainian drone attacks on its airfields when and how the military deems appropriate, the Kremlin said on Thursday. On June 1, Ukraine used drones to carry out attacks against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, home to Moscow's nuclear triad. Replying to a media query on when Russia could retaliate and how, the Kremlin spokesman said, In such a way and at such a time as our military deems appropriate. On Wednesday night, in an unscheduled phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet. Agreeing with his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's view voiced at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Putin also described peace talks with Ukraine as "useful." Russian planes that were damaged after Ukraine's attack on Jun 1 will be repaired, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday. "As the defence ministry said, these aircraft were not destroyed but damaged. They will be repaired, he told the state-run news agency TASS when asked about the attack's potential impact on the strategic balance. So, draw your own conclusions. Apart from that, the aircraft we are talking about are not necessarily covered by any particular agreements. As for the START treaty, we have suspended it, as you know, Raybkov said. The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) is an agreement for nuclear arms reduction between the US and Russia, and establishes a limit on deployed strategic warheads. Raybkov refuted Kyiv's statements about the destruction of 41 aircraft in the attack's aftermath. There is nothing of the kind, he stressed, adding that one should rely on the data released by the Russian defence ministry. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scottish Sun
19-05-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
BBC star says school rewards kids for nodding along and many don't fit in the system
'If you run a company, go back to school. Mentor. Offer a placement. Let a young person shadow you, ask questions, and see what's possible' BACK TO SCHOOL BBC star says school rewards kids for nodding along and many don't fit in the system BBC Scotland's Home of the Year judge Danny Campbell has called for fellow entrepreneurs to return to the classroom. The 33-year-old, who runs his own architect firm HOKO, took part in a new schools initiative called the START programme which connects senior school pupils with business mentors to help them pitch and develop real startup ideas. 3 Kids only learn to nod along in class, says Danny Campbell. 3 Danny Campbell is a co-host on Scotland's Home of the Year. START Founder, Phil Ford, said: 'There's no better way to feel equipped with the necessary skills and mindsets to be an entrepreneur than by spending time with one.' Here, Danny Campbell, explains why schools fail to hit the mark when it comes to developing business leaders of the future. I WISH I could go back in time and speak to my 15-year-old self and tell him not to go to uni – start a business instead. Recently, I've gone back to school, mentoring pupils at John Paul Academy in Glasgow through START – a programme that gives young people the chance to build and pitch real business ideas, matched with mentors who've been there and done it. It struck me how little access many pupils have to this kind of thinking. A lot of them still believe starting a business is something for other people. It feels far away. But all it takes is one person to say: 'This could be you'. Now, two pupils are coming to intern at my architecture company, HOKO. It's a great opportunity for them, but they'll give us as much as we give them. They're smart, sharp, and curious. They'll bring a fresh perspective and help us question our assumptions. And for them, they'll see that entrepreneurship isn't some far-off dream. Some of the most successful business owners I know hated school. Many had ADHD, couldn't sit still, got told off for not paying attention. But give them real-world problems to solve, and the chance to think on their feet, and they fly. School rewards you for memorising and nodding along. Business rewards you for figuring things out. I've seen that contrast play out in my own family. My younger brother Duncan was one of the most talented people I've ever known. Before he passed away (last August from neoplasm brain cancer) he became an incredible actor and author. But at school, he was misunderstood. The system didn't know what to do with his creativity, and it slowly chipped away at it. I think about him constantly. I think about how many young people today don't fit within the system and wrongly believe they're not good enough, just because they don't tick the right boxes. My own experience, my brother's experience, and the children I've worked with through START have all shaped how I parent my eight-year-old son, Teddy. He loves Minecraft and YouTube. But I didn't want to just hand him an iPad and let him scroll. Instead, we turned it into a project. He had to create something. A series of videos he recorded and edited himself. He learned structure, patience, and how to take feedback. Now we're turning that into a mock business. Logo, a strategy. We're not going to post it – the learning is by doing. In this safe environment he'll work through the messy mistakes early, learning that he can take control of his own ideas and run with them. That's what most kids are missing today - real-world experiences that build belief. Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation argues that we've removed all the safe, practical risks that used to teach resilience – climbing trees, walking to the shop, knocking on doors – and replaced them with hours online, scrolling alone and unguarded. I am the way I am because I was allowed to live in the real world. When I was 10, I walked into a café in Garelochhead and asked if I could wash their customers' cars. I charged £2.50, donated 50p to charity, and got my mate involved to scale the operation. We were rubbish at it, but I made enough money to buy my mum a horribly tacky dolphin ring with the profits. I learned how to ask. I learned how to use what I had - my age, my cheek, my energy. That one summer gave me more belief and experience than years of school ever did. But far too often now, kids are trained to be passive – either sitting and scrolling, or sitting and nodding. They deserve the chance to build a product, pitch an idea, or work on a team. Programmes like START are about showing young people there's more than one path. And this is my call to other business owners. If you run a company, go back to school. Mentor. Offer a placement. Let a young person shadow you, ask questions, and see what's possible. Entrepreneurs are builders. Job creators. Problem-solvers. The government and education system should be actively encouraging them to get into the classroom – and entrepreneurs should grab any opportunity to do so. If we want to improve the future, start with a classroom. We need more entrepreneurs back in schools to show that it can be done. Because if they don't see it, they won't believe it. *To find out more visit:
The Herald Scotland
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Home of the Year judge in plea for START programme help
He took part in the Glasgow-founded education initiative and it was so successful that two students from the programme have secured internships at his growing architecture firm, HOKO. Now the 33-year-old is hoping others follow suit and begin helping out in the START programme too. START is a project-based learning programme for final year school students that attempts to harness the tools and mindsets of design, entrepreneurship and storytelling to bring the experience of participating in a startup to Scottish schools. It was launched by the High School of Glasgow and it is set to expand to more than 12 schools later this year. Read More Scottish Government slashes targets for closing primary school attainment gap Mr Campbell said: 'Going back to school has been one of the most energising experiences of my career. The ideas, energy and ambition these young people brought to the table were incredible. 'A lot of people think you're there to teach – but I learned just as much. Seeing business through their eyes reminded me why I started in the first place. It's a two-way street: you help them, and they absolutely help you. It's access to a younger perspective, a new mindset, fresh energy and the chance to play a role in someone's first steps towards building a business.' START Founder, Phil Ford, said: 'START is all about inspiring the next generation of business leaders and innovators. It encourages young people to draw on their own experiences and passions to identify real-world problems and to then solve them by creating new products or services which they pitch in a 'pre-seed investment round' to industry experts. 'We've witnessed the programme igniting entrepreneurial ambition in school leavers with 98% of this year's cohort saying that participating in START has encouraged them to consider starting a business in the future. 'A huge part of the confidence instilled in pupils is thanks to exposure to founders via the mentoring aspect of the programme. There's no better way to feel equipped with the necessary skills and mindsets to be an entrepreneur than by spending time with one: getting under the bonnet of a startup and learning what it takes to build a business first-hand. The pupils at John Paul Academy were helped immensely by Danny's insight, knowledge and enthusiasm and I watched them flourish under his counsel.' Mr Campbell added: 'The team at John Paul Academy completely threw themselves into the challenge. I'm excited to have one of them join HOKO this summer — they really earned it. 'They were sharp, motivated, full of ideas, and I've no doubt they'll bring something new to the team ''We often talk about building future talent pipelines — this is how you do it. You open the door earlier. You build relationships that last. You give people a chance. 'This isn't about criticising the system, it's about creating more routes in. 'As a dad of three young boys, their futures and education is something I think about a lot, and I am actively encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset already. 'Not everyone's path will be university. And that's OK. We need a landscape where young people see multiple routes to success — whether that's higher education, apprenticeships, starting their own thing or joining a growing business to get real world experience. 'As business leaders, we have something to offer. We have something to gain too. A half-day spent mentoring could change someone's life. But it could also spark something in you.' START is growing and is due to be offered to at least 12 schools in Scotland from August. There are still some mentorship opportunities available, get in touch to find out more:
