I am so grateful to Joan for her willingness to take a leap of faith with me and bring her expertise and experience to a project that simply couldn’t have been done without her.

LOS ANGELES (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

Sex educator, activist, humanitarian, and Wicked Pictures star jessica drake and author, speaker, and ageless sexuality advocate Joan Price have just received the 2020 AASECT Audio Visual Award for jessica drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex: Senior Sex. The collaborative and explicit sex education film was the first of its kind to feature non-actors in its demonstrations and narratives and was produced and distributed by Wicked Pictures.

The presentation of the awards and scholarships will take place during AASECT’s Virtual Summit, Friday, June 5th, 2020 at 2 PM Central Time. To register for the Virtual Summit, click here.

Upon learning of the award, jessica said, “I am incredibly honored to receive this impressive recognition from AASECT and to share it with such an amazing group of people. I am so grateful to Joan for her willingness to take a leap of faith with me and bring her expertise and experience to a project that simply couldn’t have been done without her. I am thankful to my cast as well- Bonnie, Joel, Marlene, and Galen, for allowing me the privilege of showcasing their sexuality while fighting societal stereotypes and ageism. My talented crew gave me their all as usual- Barrett, Jenna, Rae, Triton, Jo, Johnny- and together we have truly created a standout resource for folks of all ages.” She continued, “as always, I am so appreciative of Wicked for supporting and encouraging me throughout my career.”

AASECT, the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, is devoted to the promotion of sexual health by the development and advancement of the fields of sexual therapy, counseling, and education.

The AASECT Audio Visual Award is for the producer(s) of a film, video or DVD that makes a significant contribution to AASECT’s vision of sexual health and to the clinical and educational standards of the field. Previous recipients include Scenarios USA for House Not Home (2016), Jallen Rix, EdD for Lewd and Lascivious (2014), and Chris Arnold and Mark Schoen, PhD, CSE for TRANS (2012). This is the first time that an educational film with explicit content is being acknowledged.

“I am thrilled to receive this validation of the quality and significance of our film,” Joan Price said. “It was an exhilarating experience to work with the amazing jessica drake, the cast of ‘Sexy Seniors’ – Bonnie, Joel, Marlene, Galen — and the talented film crew. Making this film with jessica was a high point in my professional career, and I’m honored to receive this award from AASECT.”

President of Wicked Pictures, Steve Orenstein, shares his thoughts, “I’m very happy for and proud of jessica. Her sex education path has been a long and difficult one. Being an extremely successful adult performer has never defined who she is as a whole person or represented all she has to offer but unfortunately has further marginalized her along this journey. It is encouraging to see an organization like AASECT recognize jessica for her contributions to the sex-ed community which I know she is very passionate about.” Orenstein concludes, “I also know that while she felt strongly about this particular topic, she might never have created it without Joan Price getting on board. So a big thank you to Joan as well.”

jessica drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex: Senior Sex was named Best Niche Production at the 37th Annual AVN Awards. It received media attention from notable outlets such as Vice, Fast Company, Yahoo, Access News, Jezebel, and more. .

For more information about additional jessica drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex titles, appearances, and sex education seminar series, visit GuidetoWickedSex.

About AASECT:

The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) is a not-for-profit, interdisciplinary professional organization. In addition to sexuality educators, sexuality counselors and sex therapists, AASECT members include physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, allied health professionals, clergy members, lawyers, sociologists, marriage and family counselors and therapists, family planning specialists and researchers, as well as students in various relevant professional disciplines. These individuals share an interest in promoting understanding of human sexuality and healthy sexual behavior.

About Guide to Wicked Sex:

Three-time AVN Best Actress winner and sexual wellness authority jessica drake brings erotic topics to life through intimate demonstrations performed by some of today’s hottest adult stars in her “Guide to Wicked Sex” series (Guide to Wicked Sex: Senior Sex is the first volume in the series to feature a non-industry cast). The stimulating sequences are sensual, provocative and enlivened by an informative optional audio commentary. In each volume of “jessica drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex,” writer, producer, director, and host jessica drake addresses a different aspect of human sexuality, ranging from Fellatio and Anal to Basic Positions and Female Masturbation. jessica explores each topic with the same distinct blend of knowledge, experience, and good humor, which led Dee Dennis, the founder of sexuality conference CatalystCon, to praise her as “an amazing sex educator and speaker, who represents a new direction and is breaking new ground” in the sexual self-help genre. The series’ volume on Fellatio earned AVN’s 2012 Best Educational Release trophy, “Anal” was named XBIZ’s 2012 Specialty Release of the Year, “Anal Sex for Men” received AVN’s 2014 Best Educational Release award, and “Plus Size” earned XBIZ’s 2015 Specialty Release of the Year. For more information, visit GuidetoWickedSex and Twitter.com/Guide2WickedSex

Members of an Arc of Southern Maryland group home display a sign they created thanking Melwood for their donated flowers.

“It’s more important than ever to reach out to those who need our help, thank the healthcare workers on the front lines, and bring a little cheer to seniors and individuals of differing abilities,” said Melwood’s President and CEO Cari DeSantis.

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

Melwood is proud to be donating thousands of vegetable and flowering plants grown by people of differing abilities to DC area hospitals, food pantries, group homes and nursing homes. “It’s more important than ever to reach out to those who need our help, thank the healthcare workers on the front lines and bring a little cheer to seniors and individuals of differing abilities,” said Melwood’s President and CEO, Cari DeSantis adding, “We salute our brothers and sisters on the front lines keeping the nation safe from the coronavirus.” Each day, hundreds of Melwood employees of differing abilities are responsible for sanitizing more than 60 federal buildings and military bases in the DC area so the essential federal workers can go about doing the nation’s business.

According to Clarissa Mitchell, CEO of EPIC, a Maryland based group home and service provider, “The flowers were beautiful, and they came at the perfect time to breathe a little life back into our team members and the people we support. COVID-19 has been at the forefront of many of our lives and to step away and have something else to focus on really helped diminish our stress.”

Throughout April and May, thousands of vegetable plants have been delivered to:

• The Capital Christian Fellowship Food Pantry in Lanham, Maryland
• Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC)

While hundreds of flowering plants have been delivered to hospitals including:

• Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC
• George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC
• University of Maryland Capital Region Health buildings in Prince George’s County, Bowie and Laurel Maryland
• University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center in La Plata, Maryland

And hundreds more donated to group homes and nursing homes including:

• Spring Dell Center in La Plata, Maryland
• Charles County HARC
• EPIC in Brandywine in Maryland
• Arc of Southern Maryland

Melwood also supplied plants to Plants and Blooms ReImagined who distributed them to:

• Deanwood Rehabilitation Center
• Unique Rehabilitation and Wellness Center
• Seabury Friendship Terrace Senior Center Assisted Living and Seabury Home First Residency

“With National Nurses Week running May 6 –12 and May being Mental Health Awareness Month, this was the perfect time for Melwood to show our appreciation to the health care workers and to cheer up those who may be feeling isolated and lonely during these troubled times,” said DeSantis.

About Melwood

Melwood is one of the largest employers of people of differing abilities in the country, employing more than 1,600 workers – nearly 1,000 of whom are people of differing abilities. Melwood offers job placement, job training, life skills for independence, and support services to more than 2,300 people each year in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Melwood’s Garden Center sells plants commercially and wholesale to businesses throughout the year. Melwood also has an inclusive summer camp program for children and provides employment and support services to veterans and active-duty military members who have experienced service-related trauma or injury. For more information, visit http://www.Melwood.org.

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TRC

By taking a moment to think through reopening concerns related to basic compliance, workplace testing and hygiene, and mid- to long-term planning, we hope to help organizations build resiliency and avoid any setbacks

LOWELL, Mass. (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

Today TRC Companies (“TRC”) announced the release of its Back to Business Self-Assessment, a free online tool that will help business owners and leaders assess whether their organizations are prepared to move forward as the country takes steps to reopen and ramp up. This latest offering from TRC is intended to assist business leaders evaluate their readiness relative to CDC guidance and provides ideas for short-, mid-, and long-term COVID-19 safety precautions for business activity.

A leading force in end-to-end engineering, consulting, and construction management solutions, TRC continues to be pivotal in ensuring its clients are empowered to address today’s challenges and create resiliency for tomorrow. The Back to Business Self-Assessment is a menu-driven self-assessment tool for businesses that want to benchmark where their current status is versus where they want to be when planning return to work readiness. At the end of the self-assessment the user will be provided with a downloadable PDF of their results. The assessment will provide useful ideas and suggestions for how to improve an organization’s preparedness. In addition, the users can request detailed direction and have access to a call center of professionals who can help answer questions and provide support.

The Back to Business Self-Assessment assists business leaders in evaluating their organization’s opening preparedness holistically for health and safety, including indoor air quality, disinfection and overall industrial hygiene.

“As facilities look to reopen or stay open, TRC wants to provide businesses with a picture of where they are and insights on where they may need to go,” said Mark Robbins, President, Environmental Sector. “By taking a moment to think through reopening concerns related to basic compliance, workplace testing and hygiene, and mid- to long-term planning, we hope to help organizations build resiliency and avoid any setbacks”.

TRC continues to be committed to improving the operations of our clients and to meeting their changing needs. To find out where your business stands and to assist in determining the best route forward in an increasingly complex market take the Back to Business Self-Assessment.

About TRC Companies

A pioneer in groundbreaking scientific and engineering developments since the 1960s, TRC is a leading consulting, engineering and construction management firm that provides technology-enabled solutions to the power, infrastructure, environmental and energy markets. We serve a broad range of public and private clients, steering complex projects from concept to completion to help solve the toughest challenges. TRC is ranked #20 on ENR’s list of the Top 500 Design Firms in the United States.

Learn more at TRCcompanies.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

# # #

Communications Contact:

Dora Rosiclair

prosiclair@trccompanies.com

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SignatureCare Emergency Center, Pflugerville, TX – Coming Soon

We are happy to be able to meet the emergency care needs of the Pflugerville, TX community. Our emergency rooms offer patients faster and more personal service than a typical hospital emergency room and we are conveniently open 24/7.

HOUSTON (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

SignatureCare Emergency Center, your friendly neighborhood 24-hour Texas emergency room is expanding to the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, TX.

The new ER is set to open early June, 2020, and will be located on the southeast corner of SH 130 and Gattis School Road at 21315 N SH 130, Bldg.4, Pflugerville, TX.

According to Dr. Aaron Braun, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and managing partner at SignatureCare Emergency Center, the company believes residents and businesses around Pflugerville deserve to have the absolute best 24-hour emergency medical services.

“We are excited to be coming to Pflugerville. We believe residents and businesses in that area deserve top-quality 24-hour emergency room care, hence our decision to open a location there,” Braun said.

“Like all of our emergency rooms, the new emergency center in Pflugerville, TX will provide quality care 24/7. Our top priority has always been to serve the local community, and that is what drove us to the decision to open in this location,” he added.

“We are happy to be able to meet the emergency care needs of the Pflugerville, TX community. Our emergency rooms offer patients faster and more personal service than a typical hospital emergency room, and we are conveniently open 24/7, so you can walk in anytime and be seen by a board-certified emergency room physician,” Braun continued.

Set to open early June, 2020, the new ER will serve residents of Manor, Round Rock, Hutto, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Lakeway, Bee Cave, The Hills, Hudson Bend, Rollingwood, Brushy Creek, Hornsby Bend, Sunset Valley, West Lake Hills, Coupland, Weir, Taylor, Elgin and Lago Vista.

When operational, the ER can be reached at 512-354-4134.

SignatureCare Emergency Center is currently hiring for various positions for the new Pflugerville, TX location. To apply, simply go to our careers page and submit your resume.

About SignatureCare Emergency Center

Houston, TX based SignatureCare Emergency Center owns 24-hour emergency centers throughout Texas including nine locations in the Houston area (Montrose, Houston Heights, Cypress/FM 1960, Copperfield, Memorial City, Westchase, Bellaire, Mission Bend/Sugar Land and Stafford), Killeen, Austin, College Station, Paris, Midland, Odessa, Texarkana and Lewisville, TX.

Additional information is on our website at https://ercare24.com.

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Dr. Agalliu’s innovation shows how the antibodies get into the brain, using previously undiscovered mechanisms in the olfactory system. -Diana Pohlman, Director of the PANDAS Network

WASHINGTON (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

New research has discovered a previously unknown mechanism through which certain infections can impact the brain causing post infectious encephalitis. The work was conducted to determine if PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) and PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) could adversely attack the central nervous system and create brain inflammation as well. PANDAS and PANS cause devastating symptoms, which can include a sudden, dramatic onset of obsessive compulsive disorder, or severely restrictive food intake, together with severe anxiety, depression, tics, neurological conditions, sleep disturbances, and a host of other psychiatric behaviors.

PANDAS and PANS afflict roughly one in every 200 children in the U.S. The conditions are caused by an autoimmune reaction triggered by infections such as strep throat, walking pneumonia, viruses and Lyme disease, which result in inflammation of the child’s brain.

Research conducted by Dr. Dritan Agalliu in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, reveals that immune cells responding to strep throat bacteria and likely other infections can travel through nasal passages up into the brain area called the olfactory bulb, where they damage the blood-brain barrier in mice. Compromising that barrier — which is meant to keep molecules out of the brain that don’t belong there — allows autoantibodies to enter and inappropriately attack healthy brain cells and damage blood vessels. That attack causes neuroinflammation and neuronal dysfunction, leading to the abrupt onset of severe neurological and/or psychiatric symptoms.

Dr. Agalliu was investigating autoimmune encephalitis (AE), a group of central nervous system disorders. Specifically, he was probing the mechanisms that cause post-infectious basal ganglia encephalitis (BGE) disorders, a subset of AE that is triggered by either bacterial, viral or fungal infections. The basal ganglia are in an area of the brain associated with regulating functions such as motor movement, cognitive and emotional response, and procedural learning.

“The loss of taste and smell in BGE patients was an unexpected clue,” said Diana Pohlman, director of the nonprofit PANDAS Network. “Dr. Agalliu’s innovation shows how the antibodies get into the brain, using previously undiscovered mechanisms in the olfactory system.”

In honor of the children and adults who have suffered from AE, the PANDAS Network sponsored the development of an animated video — “How Immune Response to Infection Triggers Basal Ganglia Encephalitis Through the Breakdown of the Blood-Brain Barrier” — to illustrate the mechanism discovered by Dr. Agalliu’s research.

“As we explain in the video, early diagnosis and treatment is imperative for this complex patient population,” added Pohlman. “We hope this video helps healthcare providers better understand the neurological processes causing the disturbing and confusing symptoms these patients often present with that are often misdiagnosed, which can include crippling OCD, tics, inability to eat and in some cases periods of intense seizure-like rage and breaks from reality.”

The free video is available for viewing online here.

This research was funded by a RO1 Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

About PANDAS Network

PANDAS Network is dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment of children with PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) and PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome). Armed with an impressive network of doctors, researchers and scientists, PANDAS Network strives to collaborate with subject matter experts, build public awareness, provide family support, and gather data and resources to better inform parents and the medical community about PANDAS and PANS. To learn more or donate, visit http://www.pandasnetwork.org.

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This repeat recognition is a testament to our team members who are committed to bringing leadership and expertise to our clients in the planning and development of their projects.

MILWAUKEE (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

Milwaukee-based Hammes has again been named the nation’s top healthcare developer by Modern Healthcare’s 2020 Construction and Design Survey. The survey ranked firms based on the total dollar volume of healthcare construction projects completed in 2019.

“This repeat recognition is a testament to our team members who are committed to bringing leadership and expertise to our clients in the planning and development of their projects,” said Nancy Connolly, President of Hammes Company Healthcare, “We are extremely grateful to our healthcare clients who entrust us as their partner and for their unwavering commitment to providing quality patient care.”

Modern Healthcare’s Construction and Design survey, now in its 40th year, has ranked Hammes as one of the leading healthcare developers for 22 consecutive years—including 19 years as No. 1—based on inpatient and outpatient construction volume. For more information on the Modern Healthcare Construction and Design Survey, please visit https://www.modernhealthcare.com/.

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Uniform Advantage Scrub Donations

We are proud to serve the healthcare community and give to the healthcare heroes that are selflessly fighting to keep us safe.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (PRWEB)
May 26, 2020

Uniform Advantage (UA), a multi-channel retailer of medical uniforms for medical and hospitality industries, has donated gift cards, personal protective equipment and fabric to caregivers in need.

A total of $164,000 in UA gift cards were donated to healthcare professionals that traveled to COVID-19 hot spots in the United States. Each gift card, valued at $65, was distributed by travel nursing agencies such as: Wanderly, Travel Nurse and Aya.

“As Covid-19 changed our industry, our travelers have had to switch gears quickly to fill needs all across our country. At Wanderly, we allow our traveling healthcare providers to compare various assignments as they choose the right assignment and agency to work with. They are truly doing heroic work, and the Uniform Advantage gift cards have allowed them to worry about one less thing throughout their day while simultaneously gifting them to show appreciation and support.” Said David Deane, Vice President of Wanderly.

In addition to the gift card donations, Uniform Advantage has produced personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and local communities: team members and employees have stepped up to the task and have created more than 4,000 masks in a short span of time.

More than 10,000 scrub sets have been donated to various hospital and healthcare organizations worldwide in need.

“We are putting our mission of supporting those who support others into action,” said Susan Masimore, Chief Executive Officer of Uniform Advantage. “We are proud to serve the healthcare community and give to the healthcare heroes that are selflessly fighting to keep us safe.”

For more information on Uniform Advantage and their contributions and partnerships visit give.uniformadvantage.com, or to shop online, please visit http://www.uniformadvantage.com.

About Uniform Advantage                                     

Uniform Advantage has represented style, quality and, above all, customer satisfaction for more than 30 years. As the first division of UA Brands, the chain was launched with a single South Florida store in 1985. Today, the company operates 29 retail locations in key markets across the U.S.; e-commerce and print catalog divisions; plus, designs and manufactures its own proprietary healthcare apparel lines. The company’s corporate office is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a distribution center near Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at http://www.UniformAdvantage.com or by calling 800-283-8708.

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