Experienced psychiatrists admit that schizophrenia, considered the nadir of mental disorders, is one of the toughest to treat. Gandhar?s (full name withheld), example is of a patient who has recovered. he had symptoms of schizophrenia for almost nine years and could not continue studies after Std X.

Fortunately for Gandhar, his family lived close to Dhairy where the Schizophrenia Awareness Association’s Rehabilitation Centre is located. ?He was encouraged to attend the rehab programme as one of the shubarthis, ? says Gurudatt Kundapurkar, Vice President ? Schizoprhenia Awareness Association (SAA). after several interventions and close monitoring, Gandhar now is capable of running a tea and snack centre. may 24 is observed as World Schizophrenia Day to create awareness about the disease. The age group at highest risk is between 15-35 years. The problem not only affects the personal health and hygiene of the person but also his/her relations with the family and community at large.

Schizophrenia reduces the individual?s ability to work, socialise and reduces his or her attention, concentration, and memory. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorders of thinking, neglect of health care and personal hygiene as well as disinterest in socialising. On the occasion of World Schizophrenia Day, the SAA plans to recall the contribution of Dr. Philippe Pinel, the Chief Physician of the Bicetre Hospital, on the outskirts of Paris of the late 18th century. in this asylum Pinel found 200 men diagnosed with mental illness chained to the walls, some for 30 to 40 years, as if they were wild beasts. with the concurrence of the Revolutionary Government, Dr.Pinel created history and social disquiet by ordering these men to be unchained and treated like other human beings.

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Despite recommendations that pregnant women have tests for certain sexually transmitted diseases, many may not be getting them, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that of nearly 1.3 million U.S. women who had blood work done during pregnancy, only 59 percent were tested for Chlamydia — a common STD that can cause pregnancy complications or be passed on to newborns.

That’s despite the fact that experts generally recommend pregnant women be screened for Chlamydia.

In addition, 57 percent of women in the study were screened for gonorrhea — a test recommended for some pregnant women.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that all pregnant women should be tested for Chlamydia at their first prenatal visit. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has said the same since 2007.

As for gonorrhea, the CDC and other groups recommend screening for pregnant women who are at increased risk. that includes women younger than 25 and those living in areas of the country where gonorrhea is common.

“As our study shows, there’s a significant gap between the recommendations and actual practice,” said Dr. Jay M. Lieberman, who is medical director for infectious diseases at Quest Diagnostics inc. and worked on the study.

Quest is a diagnostic testing provider that operates labs throughout the U.S. The company offers STD testing and funded the new study.

Since not all pregnant women are advised to have gonorrhea testing, it’s difficult to tell whether the 57-percent rate in this study is appropriate or not, according to Lieberman.

However, he said, even women who should be screened, based on guidelines, are sometimes not. Of pregnant women ages 16 to 24, 69 percent were tested for gonorrhea, the researchers report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Screening plays an important role in catching Chlamydia or gonorrhea because both STDs often have no symptoms, Lieberman pointed out.

“These two infectious diseases are easy to diagnose, and easy to treat and cure,” he said.

But without screening, Lieberman added, many cases will be missed.

If left untreated, Chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which can lead to infertility or an ectopic pregnancy — a dangerous condition in which the fertilized egg grows outside the uterus.

Both STDs can also infect the baby during childbirth. Chlamydia can cause eye infections or pneumonia in newborns, while gonorrhea can lead to joint infections or serious blood infections.

A limitation of the current study is that it’s based on pregnant women who had blood tests done between 2005 and 2008. and during those years, screening guidelines were in flux; the ACOG recommendation came out in 2007, for example.

“Clearly, this is still evolving,” Lieberman said. But, he added, “there’s also no evidence that screening rates have improved.”

A 2009 CDC study, for example, found that only a minority of U.S. women who should be screened for Chlamydia actually had been. Screening is advised not only for pregnant women, but for certain other at-risk groups — like women age 25 or younger (see Reuters story of April 16, 2009).

Exactly why some pregnant women are not tested as recommended is unclear. “Our data don’t speak to that,” Lieberman said.

For some women, access to prenatal care is a hurdle, he noted. But the data in this study all came from women already in prenatal care.

Lieberman suggested pregnant women talk to their doctors if they have not been tested for STDs or are not sure if they have had testing. other STD tests done during pregnancy include ones for syphilis and HIV.

Sometimes, Lieberman noted, women are put off by the suggestion that they have STD testing. “But doing these tests is not a judgment on them or their behavior,” he said. “We’re just trying to do what needs to be done to make sure you’re healthy and your newborn is healthy.”

According to the CDC, about 100,000 pregnant women in the U.S. are infected with Chlamydia each year. Just over 13,000 have gonorrhea.

Junior and seniors in the Ector County Independent School District learned the raw facts and information on Thursday about sexually transmitted diseases and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The Texas Department of State Health Services, in coordination with the Ector County Health Department, informed students about STD/HIV during an hour-long presentation at both Permian and Odessa high schools. Students learned through the slideshow and discussion about the symptoms associated with some of the diseases, how they could get an STD and what to do if they ever become infected. There was also a panel of three doctors to provide students with medically accurate answers to any questions they might have had at the end.

Gino Solla, director of the Ector County Health Department, said the information the students received in the presentation is what they need to know, but an issue that has not been fully addressed in the past.

“It’s one of the health disparities that’s not being addressed,” Solla said. “It’s time to put the information forward.”

Solla said it’s the first time the health department has given a presentation to the students. In 2008, Solla said he served on the district’s School Health Advisory Committee and at that time, the district was teaching students an abstinence-only program. Solla said once the district moved toward abstinence plus, he thought it was a good time to offer a presentation through the department.

“I thought it was a good time to augment the program,” Solla said. “We’d like to do it on a yearly basis if the district allows it.”

But before the students could get any information at all, they had to turn in forms signed by their parents allowing them to participate.

Solla said the forms were necessary because the presentation included a lot of graphic images. He said at previous SHAC meeting, members had expressed an interest for showing and informing students exactly what happens if they become infected as opposed to diagrams or just telling students.

“this is the full deal,” Solla said.

And students at the Permian High presentation did not hold back on their reactions as the images of infected genitalia appeared in the slideshow. Students laughed and made gagging sounds as presenters displayed the images.

Tate Owen, an 18-year-old senior, said she was speechless after the presentation. she said some of the images were a little too graphic.

“The pictures – it’s to an extreme,” Owen said.

Owen said she didn’t really learn anything in the presentation that she didn’t already know from previous presentations, but thought it was a good excuse to be out of class.

However, Emilio Diaz, an 18-year-old senior, said he thought the information was good and that it taught him about the importance of always using protection. He said he thought the pictures were fine.

“it shows you what’s up and what really happens,” Diaz said.

Victoria Rodriguez, an 18-year-old senior, said she also thought the information was valuable. she said the presentation was useful and that it taught her to not plan on having sex for awhile.

“I hope a lot of people learn from it,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the pictures were “pretty scary,” but it was good to show everyone now before it’s too late.

Oscar Hernandez, program specialist III for the regional Texas Department of State Health Services, said the department has always wanted to give a presentation to students in ECISD. He said the presentation was meant to get the students’ attention and provide medically accurate information about STD/HIV.

“We’re always looking for opportunities like this,” Hernandez said.

The same presentation was given at Odessa High in the afternoon on Thursday to about 600 students, and Hernandez said the program went well.

Campus Involvement — by Kayla O'Brien on December 6, 2009 at 4:56 pm Tweet

Remember those signs that hung outside your dorm room advertising LINK LOOT points for the past 3 months? If you actually attended one of these events you probably realized how dedicated many student were to collecting these points.

But what was so important about these Link Loots? on Wednesday night the freshmen of UCF gathered in the Pegasus Ballroom for the annual Link Loot auction. after registering I found out that I had 6,000 points and felt confident about my chances of winning one of the many items located on the prize table in the front of the room.

Soon after the auction began I realized that my point count was no match to my fellow classmates. each link loot point accumulated during the fall semester could go towards winning some pretty sweet prizes. A 32 inch flat screen TV, Blue Ray Player, mountain bike, PS3 gaming system and the Wii just to name a few.

The most anticipated prize of the night was a giant tuition check that sold for 73,000 points. 2 students bid an equal amount and therefore the winner was determined in a best out of 3 rock paper scissors show down. At the end of the night I unfortunatley left empty handed but the experience has inspired me to collect more loot next semester!!

by Abby Normal

I feel myself up quite regularly. It’s quite natural, really as most medical resources say I’m supposed to do a monthly breast self-examination starting after the age of 20. Granted, there was few-year period where I neglected my cancer detecting duties, but I can officially tell you I’m back on track.

I also regularly visit my gynecologist, which is not nearly as much fun as feeling myself up. in fact, the sight of that little three-by-five reminder card can downright put a damper on the day.

It’s not that I don’t like my gynecologist. She’s funny, color-coordinated and talks about sex like she’s deciding which shoes to wear. I’ve never been afraid to tell her if I’m feeling weird or have been having symptoms of anything.

I chose her for very specific reasons—the first being that she’s a she. actually, that alone might be my top five reasons when I think about it.

I’ve tried the whole male gynecologist thing, and it just wasn’t for me. Contrary to the infinite wisdom of rush Limbaugh, most women aren’t sluts, and the fewer men we have to show our hoohah off to, the better—even in a clinical setting. Not to mention, there are the fat days, the I-haven’t-shaved-anywhere-in-far-too-long days and the God-dammit-I-just-got-dressed days that can be downright uncomfortable sharing with a man you only see once a year.

And then there’s the actual pap smear test itself.

There really aren’t words to describe getting a pap smear?or the Babe?-Papanicolaou test for those of us with absolutely no life?but I suppose we can start with the name. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s possible to come up with a more disgusting and off-putting reference. When I think of my nether regions, the word “smear” doesn’t really have a place.

Then there’s a cold, stark room sporadically wallpapered with labeled diagrams of the human body and pamphlets about all the various types of STDs. And since doctors are so rarely punctual, there’s always plenty of time to reflect on what life would be like if those pamphlets applied to me. of course, I’m already naked and cold while I’m contemplating all this loveliness because I was told to undress and wrap some tissue paper around my body that has the same softness as a toilet seat cover and might as well be the same size.

Next is a knock on the door and a stern-looking old man walks in. a cold handshake and brief, joyless introduction leads to sterile, papery hands that poke and prod my breasts before he tells me that everything looks fine in that department.

It’s now time to get a sample from down below. Can I get a “Yippee!”?

Up my feet go into metal, cloth-covered stirrups, and a million thoughts go through my head: Jesus, I really should’ve have shaved this morning. do I smell? Does mine look “normal”? There’s a certain amount of freak out that occurs before I’m forced?for sanity’s sake?to detach myself from the situation. I lay my arm over my eyes and wait for it to be over.

Long before the end, though, there’s the infamous speculum—a tool I’ve fondly started calling the Jaws of Life. Under normal circumstances, the speculum is used to open the vaginal canal in order to swab for cell tissues. But by the time that shiny, metal beast is unveiled my vagina has clamped shut for business and I can actually hear it cussing me out.

For the record, the speculum is beak-like and unyielding in design, and applies a kind of sharp, pinching pressure that isn’t unbearable so much as it is truly uncomfortable. If you were to, say, see it on display as an accessory in the Museum of Torture, it wouldn’t require that much of a stretch to the imagination.

Since the biggest complaint we seem to get from our on-the-fence readers is, “Why? why so much detail?” let me address that now:

I have written this to share with you what it’s like to be a mature, sexually responsible woman. I have sex because it is pleasurable and I love my partner. (That’s right, my darling Rick Santorum, I have yet to have sex for procreation purposes.) As a result, there are things I must do to take care of myself and him. It’s not exciting. It’s not fun. It’s not as carefree as they portray it in the movies, and it’s certainly not as happy-go-lucky as the porn industry has made it seem. this is real life in all of its awkward glory.

Anyway, I went through above routine for about three years. cold handshakes, pokes and prods, feet go up, awkward silence, pressure, swab and then?at long last?it’s over. Let me be clear: I don’t think my doctor was a bad man; I simply could never get comfortable, emotionally or physically. And given that this is something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life, I didn’t think that was right.

I’m not sure why it took so long for me to look for a new gynecologist. mostly, it was the perceived ordeal and a bunch of excuses that turned me off of the search. after all, the one I had was so close to home and it was only once a year—couldn’t I just deal?

The more I thought about it, the answer was no. I came to this conclusion after contemplating what it would be like if I actually ever had a problem “down there” one day. would I be able to talk to this man openly and honestly about my symptoms? definitely not.

After searching high and low, reading reviews and asking friends, I eventually found a female gynecologist that I could relax around. for those out there considering a change, right here is a good place to start the search.

My lady gynecologist isn’t perfect. There are times when she talks louder and longer than is preferable, or when I have to wait wrapped in tissue paper for 30 minutes.

But at the end of the day, there is never an uncomfortable silence that fills the air, and I’m no longer looking for patterns in the ceiling stucco, imagining I was anywhere or anybody else. I can ask her anything without fear of judgment, and I don’t ever think, “Damn, I should’ve shaved” anymore.

Instead, I can focus on the real issues at hand—any abnormalities or bodily changes I’ve observed, or how the pill is affecting my sex drive, weight or mood. Basically, I’m there to check up on the health and wellbeing of me, and that’s it.

I acknowledge that some women simply don’t care if they’re seen by a male or female gynecologist. But if you’re dreading your appointment you might want to take a look into the reasons why. There are so many options available to us today, and there’s no reason to endure unnecessary stress if you’re unhappy.

Sex in San Diego, a column appearing every Friday here at The OB Rag, explores topics related to sex in America’s Finest City. to encourage openness while still respecting privacy, most authors will use pseudonyms.

A California health department pamphlet on sexually transmitted diseases is under investigation after concerns were raised about the graphic nature of sections on gay sex. 

According to FOX40 in Sacramento, the pamphlet on STD symptoms includes anatomically correct male stick figures engaged in sexual acts, as well as explicit language. Print-shop workers complained to the state printer about the issue, which is now being investigated at the state health department. 

“It’s almost like a how-to manual to have gay sex,” one print worker told FOX40. 

The worker said he has no problems with the purpose of the manual, but was concerned the language and images went too far. 

“The language used — they’re using the F-word, you know? and male sex organs using the C-word and the D-word,” he said. 

Anita Gore, the deputy director of public affairs for the State Department of Public Health, told FOX40 that procedures designed to review materials were “breached.” 

Click here to read more at FOX40.

We all know that most advice columns are more about entertaining readers than about giving useful, logical counsel, and that’s fine, but, believe it or not, sometimes those two things can exist symbiotically.  Advice columns have gone from exclusively being the domain of prim and prudish agony aunts to giving realistic, down-and-dirty real-talk answers.  The expectations and morals of both readers and writers are changing, and it’s making for some really good articles.  If you’re a little voyeuristic, like me, then advice columns are a perfect read. if you’re at all savvy to alternative newspapers, then you know that the figurehead of this trend is Dan Savage, who writes a sex-advice column, “Savage love.” His column’s been running in “The Stranger” and in syndication by other publications for almost twenty years now, and for good reason – he gives funny, kinky sex-positive advice that often goes against the grain (e.g. advocating cheating in some situations and celebrating weird fetishes) and satisfies curiosities that readers can’t indulge elsewhere, especially not at the myriad knockoff columns that emerged in the wake of “Savage love,” like The L Magazine‘s “The Natural Redhead” and Time Out new York‘s “get Naked.”  Trust me, go with the original.

Relationship junkie Lesley Arfin is a relatively new player in this line of work, but she writes in a way that has established her quickly in the field.  Her column, “ask Barf” at Street Carnage gives rational advice in answer to people’s irrational friendships, relationships, and living situations in a way that’s simultaneously sweet and hilariously realistic.  Sample line to a woman who’s got boyfriend anxiety: “I think you have a case of what my friends and I call ‘hate you first.’  When you diss someone first or come up with excuses of why you don’t like them, you never have to get dissed.  You’re protecting yourself from the pain of getting hurt.  It’s pretty common.  Everyone on Seinfeld is a good example of it.”  Her column’s best feature is its accessibility to people who wouldn’t normally write to something in its vein.  Viva Barf!

Jezebel’s long-running video column “Pot Psychology” has a simple, but winning premise: Tracie Egan and Rich Juzwiak get stoney bologna and answer questions from the masses, which are often dirty-minded and usually pretty funny.  There’s always some kind of winning 1980s single accompanying their advice in the background, making it that much more attractive to yours truly.  In some of the most recent installments, they’ve examined the ChatRoulette phenomenon and given advice about, um, maxi-pads.  Although I’m not as experienced as these two in the advice-giving world, I feel that I can safely counsel you against watching the videos at work.

Emily Yoffe  combines the old school of advice columnists with more modern ideologies in Slate‘s “Dear Prudence” column (great name, right?) – think “Dear Abby” with a clue.  She comes off like a concerned parent who keeps a level and loving perspective in the face of some truly insane questions, even managing to do so spontaneously in a live chat that she holds with readers every Monday.  Prudie’s column has become one of the biggest draws for Slate, and rightfully so.

ATLANTA — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released new recommendations to treat latent tuberculosis infection.

The new recommendations, published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provide guidance on how to administer a new 12-dose regimen for TB preventive therapy that will significantly shorten and simplify the course of treatment from about nine months to 12 weeks. the recommendations are based on the results of three clinical trials, as well as expert opinion.

“this regimen has the potential to be a game-changer in the United States when it comes to fighting TB,” CDC director Thomas Frieden said. “it gives us a new, effective option that will reduce by two-thirds — from nine months to three months — the length of time someone needs to take medicine to prevent latent TB infection from progressing to active TB disease.”

Latent TB infection occurs when a person has TB bacteria but does not have symptoms and cannot transmit the bacteria to others. In the United States, the number of persons with TB disease is at an all-time low (11,182 total cases were reported in 2010); however, approximately 4% of the U.S. population, or 11 million people, are infected with the TB bacterium. TB continues to disproportionately affect people of color and foreign-born persons in this country.

“If we are going to achieve our goal of TB elimination in the United States, we must ensure that those with latent TB infection receive appropriate evaluation and treatment to prevent their infection from progressing to TB disease and possibly spreading to others,” said Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.  “it is critical that we accelerate progress against TB in the United States in order to avoid a resurgence of the disease.”

The new 12-dose regimen adds another effective treatment option to the prevention toolkit for TB, and is not meant to replace other preventative treatment regimens for all patients where the new regimen is not the best option. the regimen includes 12 once-weekly doses of rifapentine and isoniazid. Doses should be taken under the supervision of a health care worker to ensure completion of doses and to allow for monitoring of safety among patients.

Chairman of Linkage Assurance Plc, mr. Babatunde Fatayi-Williams said the company has initiated merger talks with a reputable insurance company for the purpose of building capacity, increasing market share and providing value for its shareholders.

Addressing shareholders at the 17th Annual General Meeting hosted by the company in Lagos recently he said the move is for shareholders who have hitherto had to contend with their inability to pay dividends based on the prevailing economic situations and lack of capital with which to operate optimally and it is in furtherance of the approval obtained from shareholders at the 2008 AGM.

In his words “We have made reasonable progress with the merger exercise and are confident that it will prove to be the best way forward for all stakeholders.”

Meanwhile, the company settled claims to the tune of N377.11 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. this is a 9.91 per cent reduction in claims settled in the previous year which peaked at N418.59 million and an indication on better underwriting by the insurance company.

Last year, the company raked in gross premium written to the tune of N2.14 billion while its gross premium earned was N2.31 billion.  also its net earned premium for the year under consideration peaked at N1.77 billion.

In the same manner, the non-life insurer raked in commissions to the tune of N106.53 million with its total underwriting income rising to N1.88 billion. Linkage Assurance within the year under consideration, incurred net claims to the tune of 377.11 million, a 9.91 per cent shortfall from the 418.59 million it coughed out in the 2009 financial year.  Its underwriting profit last year was N573.74 million.

Also last year, the insurance firm raked in N19.04 million, N354.15 million and N59.56 million from its managed funds, investments and other sources respectively. the company also improved its bottom-line by as much as 606.38 per cent, reversing the N55.29 million loss before exceptional items and tax to end up with N279.98 million profit before exceptional items and tax.

The company also maintained its share capital and share premium at N2.55 billion and N729.04 million respectively in the last financial year while increasing its revaluations and contingency reserves by 25.15 per cent and 14.82 per cent respectively.

The firm grew its revaluation reserves from N351.85 million in the previous year to N440.36 million last year while its contingency reserve was raised from N432.36 million in 2009 to N496.44 million in 2010. Its shareholders’ fund peaked at N3.01 billion.

Short and long term investment maintained by Linkage Assurance last year stood at N1.25 billion and N1.13 billion respectively.  also its fixed and total assets last year were N707.49 million and N4.80 billion respectively.  Its insurance fund peaked at N681.62 million.

Fatayi-Williams lamented the ongoing legal battle between Linkage Assurance and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) over its fund that was trapped in Allstates Trust Bank Plc now under liquidation.

He said the company’s inability to recover the trapped funds four years down the line has remained a clog on the expansion wheels of the company and as such, the firm is exploring the merger option as a way out.

“Our company has in the last four years operated under great financial pressure as a result of our inability to retrieve our outstanding public offer proceeds of almost N1 billion from the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

We have however strived to keep our heads above water and continued to meet all our operating obligations in spite of this challenge. this situation as well as the harsh and unfriendly economic and financial climate currently in existence in the business world globally has regrettably made it difficult for us to pay dividends to our shareholders and we thank them for their understanding.”

An early-morning ritual of which most new Yorkers know very little plays out every day on sidewalks across the five boroughs, riling neighbors but bringing relief to some of the city's saddest cases.

While commuters queue at their local Starbucks for their first cardboard growler of coffee, addicts often don't have to leave the city's choicest neighborhoods to get their daily paper mouthwash cup of hot-pink methadone.

Six mornings a week, beginning well before the crack of dawn, methadone users gather in front of an unmarked, grimy metal door at 253 Third Avenue in Gramercy. like a Prohibition-era speakeasy, a methadone dispensary often acts under the cover of ignorance, and passersby typically have no idea Gramercy Park Services is even there.

But every day the clinic serves as many as 400 people from different strands of the city's tapestry. “People from Wall Street, rock group people, you see fire men, policemen, you name it,” according to Raymond Sanchez, a consultant who has worked at the clinic since 1994 and says meth clinics offer a vital public service.

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“We're the good guys. we give them the medicine to treat their addiction, their mental health problems, we treat other illnesses when they get sick, and we check for HIV and STDs,” Sanchez told the IBTimes in his second-floor office at Gramercy Park Services.

The methadone clinic has long been a mainstay in the gritty new York drug scene lying just below the town's glitzy surface. Its clientele gets up early for their fix, smoking cigarettes and hanging out along well-travelled blocks in Gramercy and Midtown–not just South Bronx and South Jamaica.

Methadone clinics attract not the high and mighty but the down-and-out, people who have hit rock bottom on heroin who are looking to find a safe buzz, and maybe even wean themselves off opiates for good.

But they also have a well-deserved reputation for drawing people who don't fit the accepted mold of the model citizen. Many heroin addicts are unable to hold jobs, have other health problems, or most visibly, exhibit the negative symptoms of using not only dope but also a whole range of other drugs.

So the clinic directors and workers undertaking the difficult job of trying to help these people, who have found themselves at the end of life's rope, find themselves constantly and understandably at odds with the people who live and work near the facilities.

But Sanchez argues that without places like his facility, opiate addicts would instead turn to crime and illicit behavior to pay for heroin or other more expensive drugs.

“You have a family, you're worried about your three kids, but here comes a person, he's not a part of a cartel. He's not selling, he's not going to try to get your child to do drugs, he's not a criminal, he's just here to get treatment, he's bettering his life,” he explained. “We want to put people back on a good track, get their lives back together.”

That line of argument does little to allay the fears and concerns of many workers, residents and business owners who live or work near such facilities.

A worker at Adriana Pizza, two doors down from Gramercy Park Services, says its patients are rude and threatening, and she wishes it would close down or move elsewhere.

“They stand in front of our door smoking cigarettes. I ask them to leave and they say it's public property and I can't say no to them,” she said while waiting for a customer's grandma slice to heat up. “'I'll find you later,' they say. They're just nasty people, about 75 percent of them. I've been here 26 years and it's always been a problem. Would you want your children growing up with people walking around the street like this? I don't think so.”

A barista at Fête Coffee, located on the same block as the clinic said employees have found syringes in the shop's bathroom, where many of the clinic's patients use the facilities and sometimes smoke cigarettes, to the chagrin of the shop's owner. She said the patients have scared some customers away as well.

“Some of the customers are not very pleased. They see these people and sometimes they're afraid to come in,” the barista said. “From a business perspective, I don't see anything positive.”

The irony is that Gramercy Park Services actually wants to pull up its roots and move to a new location. Its facility is dingy and small, and it is too small to allow for the installation of an elevator, meaning it does not comply fully with the American Disabilities Act, and is therefore not able to offer as wide a range of medical services as its ownership would like it to.

But NIMBYers have kept them from being able to find a site in Manhattan where they can relocate without causing an uproar from neighboring residents and workers.

It's the ongoing struggle of the methadone clinic: they are performing a necessary service, which large swaths of people agree needs to be done, as long as it takes place far from where their families lay their heads, says Nicholas Papageorge, office manager at Gramercy Park Services.

“If we were an abortion clinic, there'd be no problem, and an abortion clinic is dedicated to taking lives. We're in the business of making lives but we get a lot of problems. It's because people are ignorant of what we do,” Papageorge said. “We perform social miracles. we literally save lives and people don't understand that. If it wasn't for us, who knows how many people would be dead.”

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