In 2013 Maine lost 176 people to drug overdoses. This is roughly one person every other day. This is due in part to a surge in heroin use, causing overdose deaths from heroin to rise over 400% during 2013. Last year the legislature passed important measures to curb this frightening trend. But it’s not enough. This year the Legislature and the Governor’s office will be considering common sense policies that will curb the meteoric rise in overdose deaths. These policies will enhance access to emergency medical services and Naloxone, a medication that temporarily reverses an overdose. Tell the Governor and the Legislature that we have to do MORE to address this public health emergency. Tell them that a death every other day is not good enough. Tell them to support Good Samaritan provisions and enhancing access to Naloxone!!! These policies will help save lives, reducing the number of avoidable deaths due to drug overdose each year and preserving our youth, our veterans and other populations that tend to be tragically impacted by drug use and overdose. An Act To Prevent Drug Overdose Deaths By Enhancing Access to Naloxone Hydrochloride: Naloxone is what is called an opioid antagonist. It has no other use than to counteract the effects of an overdose. It produces no high, has no street value and no effect on an individual unless they have opioids in their system. What's more, studies have found that its distribution has no impact on rates of substance abuse - it does NOT increase how many people are abusing drugs. LD 1047 would enhance access to Naloxone by decreasing barriers to getting, using and dispensing this overdose remedy. Allowing for access through non-medical settings would make sure that this life-saving medication was in the right place at the right time. An Act Providing a Good Samaritan Defense To Individuals Reporting A Drug Overdose: Good Samaritan provisions have been passed throughout the U.S. to ensure that people feel safe calling for emergency medical assistance in the event of a drug overdose. In many situations people afraid of being reported to law enforcement due to drug use or possession avoid seeking medical help, increasing the risk of a fatal drug overdose. By providing limited protections for those seeking medical assistance this bill would ensure that people are not punished for attempting to save a life, and are not afraid to ask for help. The difference between life and death can be as much as a few minutes. Every minute wasted could be a life lost. Tell the Governor and the Legislature that we do not want to lose any more lives to drugs. Tell them to support An Act To Prevent Drug Overdose Deaths By Enhancing Access to Naloxone Hydrochloride AND An Act Providing a Good Samaritan Defense To Individuals Reporting A Drug Overdose.

The Integrative Dry Needling Institute, LLC is currently marketing a course titled “IDN Foundation Course”, to be held on March 20-22, 2015 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. This three-day course marketed toward physical therapists includes needling demonstrations by a physical therapist who does not hold an acupuncture license. The course will be held at Elliott Physical Therapy in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Per Elliott’s website there are no licensed acupuncturists on staff, only physical therapists. We petition the COA to regulate the safe practice of acupuncture in Massachusetts. Take action now and send a cease and desist to the Integrative Dry Needling Institute, LLC 7051 Navajo Trail Solon, OH 44139 to stop this course.

My name is Isaac Rodriguez and I’m an EMT at St. Francis Medical Center near Los Angeles. My hospital system, the Daughters of Charity, six hospitals with over 100-years of serving the poor and sick in our communities, is up for sale. The potential buyer, Prime Healthcare, has a track record of ignoring community needs, cutting health services, and laying off dedicated caregivers in order to maximize profits. When Prime bought Centinela Hospital in Inglewood eight years ago, the company said they would “maintain all currently-offered services.” It took them less than a year to cut the hospital’s maternity and psychiatric care units. I couldn’t stand to see my community lose access to so many important services. For me, it’s most important that our hospitals keep providing all of our services to our community. Everything I know about Prime tells me that they will do the opposite. I’ve looked into the company and its practices. Prime Healthcare is under investigation for Medicare fraud and their CEO, Prem Reddy, has stated that a patient’s care should should be limited by what they can afford. If putting profit over patients is what they’re about, Prime shouldn’t be anywhere near our safety-net hospitals. Luckily, California state Attorney General Kamala Harris can prevent the sale to Prime, just as she has done with other hospital sales in the past. If she does, there’s another buyer ready to step up, who has committed to protecting community care and the hospital’s mission of charity. Sign the petition asking Attorney General Harris to stop the sale of Daughters of Charity hospitals to Prime Healthcare, and protect access to quality health care for everyone in our communities.

To drive UPG to consider placing a satellite pediatric office in Rockbridge County.

Let's awaken the American public about the consequences of drug use after a period of sobriety, focus on relapse prevention and do something about the opiate trafficking in the US. My beautiful son Colin Grady Finn, 19 years old, died from ten dollars of a lethal dose of heroin. He had just picked up a year chip for being clean and sober and never had any history with that drug. He was in a good place and we and all his counselors thought he was well. On 8/8/14, he slipped. He paid the highest price. He had his whole life in front of him. I believe he had no idea what was could potentially happen. Something needs to be done to educate others.

The State of NC and 45 other states do not require registered nurses (RN's) to be employed and physically present everyday in Assisted Living/Memory Care facilities. State law governs these facilities and is seriously lacking. The residents in the memory care units have dementia/alzheimers which is an "illness" of the brain, but their illness is not afforded the necessary higher level of care provided by RN's that skilled nursing facilities are given. In many assisted living/memory care facilities, the highest level of medical training is a "med-tech," which requires only five months of training with a high school education. These "med-techs" dispense medications including NARCOTICS. The daily running of the memory care unit is often overseen by a med-tech without oversight of an RN or a doctor. The residents are primarily elderly with numerous health problems including heart and kidney illness, hypertension, diabetes, etc. in addition to memory impairment. They often cannot tell you what is wrong. They need and deserve the highly trained eye of an RN. I witnessed daily calls for paramedics to take residents who had fallen to the ER: diagnosis - dehydration. That's often preventable with the oversight of an RN. And the cost to Medicare - staggering. Charges for ambulance trips to and from ER and facility, use of ER, expensive diagnostic tests, physician diagnosis, sometimes sutures or surgery to repair broken bones, and rehabilitation, in addition to pain and suffering, confusion and fear of these helpless people. Skilled nursing facilities, on the other hand, are governed by the state and the federal government which mandates registered nurses in every skilled nursing facility on a daily basis. The residents in skilled nursing have illnesses too but their illnesses are given a higher priority than our loved ones with numerous illnesses and memory impairment. This is an injustice to these innocent human beings who have no voice. Please sign our petition.

Agent Orange was used in Viet Nam and veterans were compensated for being exposed to it. Same with Panama but the VA refuses to compensate ALL who were exposed in Panama. This is a petition to demand the VA take on the Panama Exposure cases and duly compensate those who were exposed.

My son overdosed and was given Narcan. He was released from the hospital after being held 3 hours. Then just 23 minutes later was hit and killed by a train..

He (William “RED” Lowe) went five times to the Hospital before his wife called an ambulance to pick him up just to get admitted. Once they admitted him, and ran a few tests. The cancer had metastasized to his lungs and brain. This shouldn’t happen after we have Obama Care. This is a classical case of evil from Medical Center Navicent Health Care. I am sounding off on this miserable, melancholy, and murky Hospital, and Dr. Ninfa M Saunders, President and CEO. I am calling her out personally since she wanted to boast in The Macon Telegraph about how she has changed this Hospital. YES, with additional deaths to victims who do not have health insurance. This community were just fine without your arrogate, incongruous, and evil death penalty ways. We were a sufficient, and self-contained community without, “YOU” shaking things up. The blood of William “Red” Lowe, is on your hand. This is a direct result of your leadership, and your claims of shaking things up at the Medical Center Of Central Georgia. We do need you, nor want you. Get out of Macon, Georgia with your name changed, and your killings, unapologetic, unashamed, and unabashed ways. Yes this is Rev. Ronnie A. Jackson Sr. (478) 262-4858. This fight is on; she has won round one, and she will receive certified correspondences from me, by Monday in round two.

As a clinician who has been in practice for 30 years, I can not help my college age children and have not succeeded in building the kind of retirement I need to have to not be a burden on the state at a later date. This is not because of any personal recklessness or bad investment, but because of the fixed market rates of the Insurance and Managed Care industry. In fact, my copay is so high that I cannot afford my own therapist! In my practice, I have fewer resources to spend off-session time and energy to help those who need it.

Recently the Secretary of the VA has deemed that the VA has no authority to authorize long term residential care for veterans with brain injuries. This determination will displace vets all over the US! They will be placed in skilled nursing care facilities and nursing homes that are not capable of caring for this population. The alternative to placement will be to place the burden on their families to either pay for private care or bring them home and attempt to care for their loved one. We need to change or amend the regulations to include long term residential care for these vets. I know for my family and loved one the loss of care would prove devastating! At 35 years of age my husband was serving overseas when he was brain injured. Over the last 10 years I have raised our three children on a small pension. I do not have the funds to pay for private care even if I wanted to. I have also fought and advocated for his care and placement. He has been in a group home now for 5 years that specializes in brain injury and has finally achieved a quality of life he deserves. The facilities that he would be forced to live in have already been tried over the last decade resulting in neglect & abuse. He has been the victim of being drugged, beaten and neglected to the point of nearly having to have amputation. He spent his days locked on one floor and walking circles because he is a high risk for elopement. When he first came home with his brain injury I had attempted to care for him for 6 months nearly ending up in the hospital myself from exhaustion and nervous breakdown. Please sign this petition and contact your representatives to support long term residential care for veterans with all brain injuries. THANK YOU!

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is bad for the economy, the environment and peoples health, but no group suffers more than the blind and visually impaired. This outdated practice neglects the visual impairment DST inflicts on everyone especially the visually impaired. Sign the petition to get visual relief from the darkness of Daylight Saving Time.