Page 33 - Florida Sentinel 10-29-21

Local Simply Healthcare Donates $180,000 To West River Non-Profit To Address Adolescents’ Behavioral Health
Simply Healthcare has do- nated $180,000 to Project LINK’s eMerging Healthy Stu- dents program, a school-based behavioral health program of- fered at four Title 1 middle schools in Hillsborough County, Florida.
eMerging Healthy Students was developed by Project LINK and a team of healthcare profes- sionals to support children who have been demonstrating behav- ior and emotional stressors re- lated to COVID-19, in addition to social, school, and home life challenges. Student participants will engage in an online preven- tion focused emotional wellness resiliency app called “K’Bro,” which will enable behavioral health counselors, school social workers, and therapists to cap- ture a real-time assessment of an adolescent’s emotional well- being via the use of gaming tools developed by YouROK Corpora- tion.
A second innovative mobile technology called “CopeNotes” was integrated in this student
From left to right are: Attorney Sonya Colon; Lori Mingo, Hillsborough County Public Schools; Tina Young, CEO, Project LINK; Charles Martin, Project LINK Board member; Councilman Or- lando Gudes; Kevin McDonald, Just Elementary Principal; Paul Vargas, Project LINK Board mem- ber; Angela Blaylock, Simply Healthcare; and Dr. Christine Moore, Diverse Family Interventions.
One in six U. S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year. While re- search on the pandemic’s effects on mental health is still in the initial stages, current evidence shows a surge in anxiety and de- pression among children and adolescents since the pandemic began, including young people of color and among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) youth.
“A healthy mind is as impor- tant as a healthy body,” said Holly Prince, President of Simply Healthcare Medicaid Plans in Florida. “At Simply Healthcare, we’re proud to sup- port programs that strengthen the well-being of teens in Hills- borough County. When students get the support, they need dur- ing challenging times like these, they’re better prepared to learn, grow and thrive.”
For more information about eMerging Healthy Students, please visit their website at www.project-link.org.
Editor’s note: This commen- tary is provided by the Medical Marijuana Education and Re- search Initiative (MMERI) of Florida A&M University.
Eugene Monroe entered the NFL in 2009 as a first round draft pick for the start of his pro career. After only seven seasons, he retired from the Baltimore Ravens at age 29 with his body aching from injuries, including head trauma.
But before announcing his retirement in 2016, Monroe openly challenged the NFL to re- move cannabis from its list of banned substances and advo- cated for the use of cannabinoids to treat chronic pain and sports- related injuries.
“I’m calling for the NFL to remove marijuana from the banned substances list; fund medical marijuana research, es- pecially as it relates to CTE [chronic traumatic en- cephalopathy]; and stop over- prescribing addictive and harmful opioids,” he stated.
Now 34, Monroe is still very much a presence in the ad- vocacy of using CBD and cannabis to help athletes recover from injuries and manage pain. He also heads Heart Community Capital, an investment group
that helps the “traditionally dis- advantaged” get started in the cannabis indus- try.
As a former
professional ath-
lete who still
maintains a rig-
orous exercise
regimen, Mon-
roe speaks from
personal experience when he says cannabis doesn’t increase athletic performance.
Monroe has a well-quali- fied ally in Jeff Konin, Ph.D., a leader in sports medicine who advises athletic organizations on how to embrace cannabis and CBD as natural therapeutic sup- plements similar to vitamins.
“Cannabis, it comes out of a plant, and it’s called a phyto- cannabinoid. Inside the body, you have what’s called endo- cannabinoids. So, similar func- tions already exist in your body. The purpose of supplementing them with the phytocannabinoid is that you have a deficiency in your body. So, you’re not en- hancing anything, you’re actu- ally bringing it back to where it should be and you’re removing the deficiency,” Konin ex- plained.
JEFF KONIN, Ph.D.
Dr. Konin has the bona fides to back up his pro-cannabis views as they relate to sports medicine. He is the Clinical Pro- fessor and the Director of the Doctor of Athletic Training De- gree at Florida International University in Miami. He leads a team of FIU faculty, staff and students on cannabis research and educational initiatives. He’s also the Founder and President of PHD420, Inc., a nonprofit that focuses on cannabis re- search and education to health- care providers around the world. His clinical experience in- cludes stints at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers in Lake Placid and Colorado Springs, and he served on the medical staff for the 1996 Olympic Games in At- lanta. He’s also a Hall of Fame inductee in the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.
JOLINE RIVERA
So, when he calls for the end to drug testing ath- letes for mari- juana, he offers this reasoning: “All of the bodies, the NCAA, all the professional bod- ies are out there on record stating that cannabis is not a performance
even further. I think that pretty soon we’ll see raw cannabis fan leaves in the grocery store. When you think about just the classic five-leaf cannabis, those are called fan leaves. And those fan leaves, those plants, just the leaf, you won’t get high from it, but it’s rich in antioxidants and antibiotics. In fact, it has cannabinoids in there that are stronger in antioxidants than vi- tamins C and D.”
Monroe said he ate raw cannabis while recovering from shoulder surgery last year in- stead of taking pain medica- tions.
Monroe, Dr. Konin, and Rivera offer interesting insights into the natural healing proper- ties of cannabis and believe it’s time for sports organizations to listen to these kinds of voices.
Visit https://bit.ly/
cannabisandsports to watch MMERI’s Conversations on Cannabis Virtual Forum featur- ing former NFL player Eugene Monroe, nationally recognized athletic trainer and cannabis consultant, Jeff Konin, Ph.D., and culinary cannabis expert Joline Rivera on YouTube.
For more information on medical marijuana and to sign up for the MMERI newsletter, go to http://mmeri.famu.edu.
wellness program as a preventa- tive digital health intervention that uses daily text messages to improve mental and emotional health. The eMerging Healthy Students will benefit adolescents who have been experiencing low of self-esteem, feeling bad about themselves, demonstrating an increase in anger and aggres- sion, lacking coping skills, and
problematic struggles with gam- ing and online engagement.
The program’s intervention strategies include student indi- vidual therapy, group counsel- ing, meditation, yoga, music therapy, practicing self-care and device management to help stu- dents regain their self-confi- dence and reconnect with their life.
“Our goal is to reduce the risk factors associated with be- havioral health challenges among our students” states Tina Young, CEO, Project LINK. She explained, “these risk factors often lead to poor aca- demic performance, behavior problems, school violence, sub- stance abuse, and sadly - sui- cide.”
Advocates Say Cannabis And Cannabidiol (CBD) Are Proven Winners As Sports Medicines
EUGENE MONROE
enhancer. And that’s the reason I ask the question, ‘Then, why do we drug test for it?’ That doesn’t make any sense to me, if it’s not enhancing anything. Stop test- ing, and we’ll take care of that in-house, and we’ll deal with it as a medicine, and we’ll work with people who need it or who may use it inappropriately.”
Both Konin and Monroe agree that the cannabis plant has nutritional and recuperative ef- fects, a position Joline Rivera has parlayed into an entrepre- neurial niche. She’s the founder of Kitchen Toke, a print and dig- ital medium that reports on culi- nary cannabis for health and wellness, and Red Belly Honey, which is infused with CBD made by honeybees that eat hemp.
“When you eat the plant, you’re basically supplementing your body,” said Rivera. “I’ll go
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