VOR Calls for Mental Health Reform ? Extends Heartfelt Sympathy ...

Article category: healthnews

Title: VOR Calls for Mental Health Reform ? Extends Heartfelt Sympathy For Sandy Hook Families and Community

Elk Grove Village, IL (PRWEB) December 21, 2012

VOR, a national organization advocating for high quality care and human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, joins the chorus of heartfelt sympathy expressed for the families and friends of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. While many citizens and organizations are taking aim at gun control, VOR believes that systemic reform of disability and mental health policies is critically necessary to prevent future violence.

Politics over diverse issues have divided our nation, said Julie Huso, VOR Executive Director. There can be no justice for these senseless killings in Connecticut and elsewhere, but uniting as a nation will get us as close to healing as possible and help prevent tragedies in the future.

We can?t tolerate this anymore, stated President Barak Obama, as he addressed a grieving nation Sunday night. These tragedies must end, and to end them, we must change. (Transcript of Presidents Remarks __Transcript of Presidents Remarks __, reprinted by The Washington Post, December 16, 2012)

For 30 years, VOR has been calling on Congress to support specialized treatment options for people with profound intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Too many people who need help have nowhere to go, are turned away, are displaced from specialized care, or are not adequately treated and monitored, said Huso. Patients rights have trumped almost completely safety to self and others ? in the name of deinstitutionalization and integration.

Decades of deinstitutionalization has resulted in the depletion of an adequate safety net for people who need our help.

Our mental health system has completely failed individuals with severe mental illness and their communities, said Doris A. Fuller, executive director for the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization which advocates for timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness. We have emptied the nation?s hospitals, gutted state and local mental health programs, and turned involuntary treatment into a debate point instead of using it as a viable option to prevent tragedy involving those too ill to help themselves. [Treatment for Mental Illness Should be as Easy to Get as Guns, Treatment Advocacy Center (December 14, 2012)].

Beginning in the 1960s, closing specialized care centers for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness deinstitutionalization was meant to advance the civil liberties of those inappropriately institutionalized by offering care and supports in a less restrictive environment.

Some advocates, however, say deinstitutionalization has gone much too far. Today, people with profound developmental disabilities and health concerns, and those with severe mental illness, are being removed from highly specialized care or prevented from accessing such care in the first place.

What began with altruistic motives namely, better and more appropriate care for disabled people has spawned into something very different, remarked Huso. Today, very fragile people are being forced from their homes under the belief that money will be saved and quality of life will improve.

Were protecting civil liberties at the expense of health and safety, says Fuller. Deinstitutionalization has gone way too far. (Seven facts about Americas mental health-care system, The Washington Post (quoting Fuller) (December 14, 2012))

VOR calls for reform, beginning with a moratorium on deinstitutionalization

Tragedies will continue to befall people with I/DD, children, adults, and citizens if our laws and policies continue to support deinstitutionalization, depriving people with disabilities of needed specialized, residential care and treatment.

Over and over again, news investigations and state audits show that these very fragile individuals need comprehensive, skilled care. They are the ICU residents of the disability community. Scattering them in homes around a community only separates them from qualified staff, life-sustaining health care, oversight, and friends, said Ann Knighton, VORs president.

Prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill, wrote Liza Long, whose son, Michael has severe mental illness. [I am Adam Lanzas Mother, by Liza Long (The Blue Review, December 14, 2012)].

President Obama vowed to use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. (Transcript of Presidents Remarks, reprinted by The Washington Post, December 16, 2012)

Yet, a significant part of the problem begins at his doorstep, says VOR.

Significant federal funds and energies by powerful federal agencies are dedicated to deinstitutionalization, said Tamie Hopp, Director of Government Relations and Advocacy for VOR. The Justice Department has pursued more than 30 legal actions which at their core aim to displace individuals from specialized care options. In Georgia, a Justice Department settlement calls for moving 9,000 people with mental illness from mental health facilities by 2015. (Olmstead: Community Integration for everyone, U.S Department of Justices Olmstead Enforcement Website); (U.S. v. Georgia Fact Sheet, U.S. Department of Justice (October 19, 2012)

Likewise, in a move that VOR characterizes as reckless, the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency, last month released a 300 page policy document and toolkit calling for the closure of all institutions, which it defines as any setting larger than 4 people. [Deinstitutionalization: Unfinished Business, National Council on Disability (November 2012); Reckless disregard shown for the needs and choices of vulnerable persons with severe and profound disabilities, VOR (December 2012)]

As a nation, the Sandy Hook tragedies have left us heartbroken, said Hopp. Families of individuals with profound cognitive disabilities recognize the reform that is needed better than most. Their sons and daughters need highly specialized treatment. Instead federal agencies, some state governments and advocates, are putting energies into removing their loved ones from treatment

We agree with the President. This must end. (Transcript of Presidents Remarks, reprinted by The Washington Post, December 16, 2012).

About VOR:

VOR is a national organization that advocates for high quality care and human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Offering community, legal, medical and educational resources for families of individuals with special needs, VOR is committed to providing help for people with disabilities. Standing up for long term care facilities and community disability programs, VOR is dedicated to maintaining family choice for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For more information about VOR, please visit us at http://www.vor.net __VOR__.

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Source: http://www.medicalguide.pro/4343/vor-calls-for-mental-health-reform-extends-heartfelt-sympathy-for-sandy-hook-families-and-community.html

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Appeals Court Backs Parents in Special Education Placement

A Colorado school
district must reimburse the parents of a student with learning
disabilities as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties for the
costs of the student's enrollment at an out-of-state residential
treatment facility, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The case has been watched closely by school board groups and President Barack Obama's administration because it involves the standard for "unilateral" private school placements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Under the federal law, parents who unilaterally place a child with disabilities in a private school may win reimbursement from their local school district if the district failed to provide a free, appropriate public education, or FAPE, and certain other conditions are met.

At particular issue in the case is whether a school district may be liable for such reimbursement when a child's educational and mental-health needs are closely intertwined and the residential placement is addressing both needs.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, ruled 3-0 in favor of the parents of a girl who is described in court papers as having severe emotional and mental-health needs. In 2008, her parents clashed with the Jefferson County district over her education plan under the IDEA before enrolling her at Innercept, an Idaho residential facility that charges $9,800 per month, court papers say.

The parents sought reimbursement from the Jefferson County district, a request that the district rejected because it viewed the student as being hospitalized out of state and thus not a responsibility of the district. After an administrative-hearing officer ruled for the parents, the district filed a federal lawsuit. A federal district court held that the school district must reimburse the parents for the costs at Innercept except for those medical expenses involving a licensed physician.

The school district appealed to the 10th Circuit court, where it was joined in a friend-of-the-court brief by the National School Boards Association and the state school boards' groups for five of the six states that make up the 10th Circuit: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah. (Wyoming is the sixth state in the circuit.)

"School districts should not be responsible for unilateral residential placements made for medical purposes," the NSBA brief says. "Such responsibility is not only beyond the range of their competence and funding but also exceeds the requirements of the IDEA."

Meanwhile, the parents drew the support of the Obama administration, with the U.S. Department of Justice filing a friend-of-the-court brief on their side that was also signed by a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education.

"This court should join the majority of circuit courts of appeals and adopt a test that a school district is liable under the IDEA for the cost of a residential placement, less the cost of medical treatment that can be provided only by a licensed physician, if the child's mental-health needs are so significantly intertwined with his or her educational needs that educational services cannot be provided without some mental-health treatment," the federal brief says.

While residential placements can be costly, the brief adds, "the very small number of children for whom residential placement is the least restrictive environment are among the most vulnerable and historically underserved children in need of IDEA services."

In its Dec. 28 decision in Jefferson County School District v. Elizabeth E., the 10th Circuit panel weighed whether it should adopt the "significantly intertwined" test urged by the Obama administration (and used by several other federal courts of appeals) or a test adopted by other federal circuits that says a private placement is reimbursable only when it is "primarily oriented" to enabling the child to obtain an education.

The panel decided it did not need to side with either test since the appeal before it could be resolved by a "straightforward application" of the text of the IDEA. The court held that Innercept is an accredited educational facility, and that the student received instruction designed to meet her needs. In addition, the mental-health services the student received were required for her to benefit from her instruction, and thus they were reimbursable "related services" under the federal special education law.

The court also concluded that the school district's "repeated statements that it had no obligation to [the student] under the IDEA because she was not physically present in Colorado" did not square with the IDEA, "which makes no allowance for such a condition."

Source: http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2013/01/appeals-court-backs-parents-in-special.html

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World shares hit highest since July 2011

While the fiscal cliff deal was busy getting passed, bitter House Republicans allowed a $27 billion relief package for states affected by Hurricane Sandy to die amidst partisan, pork-stuffed complaints. Majority Leader Eric Cantor had pushed for the bill to be debated Wednesday, Politico's David Rogers explains, and Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey had filed a $33 billion amendment to the $27 billion Senate bill. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-shares-hit-highest-since-july-2011-153758727--finance.html

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Ronna Kaplan, M.A.: Music Therapy and the Military

It was very fitting that between Veterans' Day, when we recognize our veterans and all they have done for our country, and Thanksgiving, when we show our gratitude for so many and for so much, the creation of a music therapy program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) was announced. What an appropriate way to honor and provide assistance to those who serve our country!

This expansion of the landmark partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Department of Defense was discussed at a recent media teleconference. NEA chair Rocco Landesman mentioned that Walter Reed is the first "point of care in the U.S. for the wounded, ill and injured from global conflicts" and that many troops are now returning with traumatic brain injury and psychological health issues, "complex diagnoses that call for a new level of care."

Walter Reed's NICoE has the first state-of-the-art research center to test treatment plans integrating creative arts therapies alongside traditional rehabilitative treatments for patients in military settings. In November 2013, music therapy was added to healing art efforts at NICoE and throughout Walter Reed with the hiring of music therapist Julie Garrison and music therapy consultant Meagan Morrow, who worked with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Music therapy will be a part of the groundbreaking, interdisciplinary approach to working with patients and their families, according to Melissa Walker, creative arts therapist and the NICoE's Healing Arts Program Coordinator. Ms. Garrison will work with military patients, active duty troops with TBIs and psychological health issues at the NICoE and with patients throughout Walter Reed, including active duty, veterans, and their beneficiaries.

The formal discipline of music therapy has a rich, long history in providing services for our American heroes. It began after World Wars I and II, when community musicians performed in veterans' hospitals and medical professionals noticed patients' positive and emotional responses to music. In 1944, when it became evident that these hospital musicians required special training, the first music therapy degree program was founded. Currently, approximately 50 qualified music therapists work in VA hospitals throughout the U.S., according to Al Bumanis, director of communications at the American Music Therapy Association.

Articles specifically related to music therapy and the military included a 1990 pilot study using drumming with six Veterans Affairs Medical Center patients diagnosed with late stage dementias. [1] Results revealed the group could imitate rhythm patterns they heard and saw demonstrated, match tempos during group playing, respond to a leader, increase duration of their playing, and fit their playing more readily with others' rhythm patterns.

Burt (1995) used drumming with Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. [2] Music therapy utilizing improvisation on hand drums helped veterans modulate their "often misdirected, exaggerated, and unrecognized emotions," with the goal being generalization of these skills to everyday life. Drumming provided an opportunity for the men to express and control their feelings and helped build a sense of connectedness and group mission.

Blake (1994) described a project with inpatient Vietnam veterans with combat-related PTSD, who reported they were able to reconnect with feelings, increase self-understanding, improve concentration, and/or achieve a sense of relaxation during Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) sessions. [3] "The GIM process was significant in allowing the veterans to experience memories and emotions with the therapist as witness."

I recently spoke with Tina Haynes, MT-BC, LCAT, creative arts therapist in music, for the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, York Campus, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Ms. Haynes commented on trends she has recently observed in her clinical practice: She is seeing younger veterans and many more female veterans. Rather than being dependent on drugs, they request alternatives to pharmacologic intervention. They want healthy coping skills and tools to help them return to their lives and make life as normal as possible.

Recent veterans are part of the millennial generation. Pew social trends research found particular reasons leading "millennials" to feel distinctive: "In response to an open-ended follow-up question, 24 percent say it's because of their use of technology." Second in line were the 11 percent who said it's because of their music and pop culture. No other generation cited music and pop culture as a distinctive characteristic, making this generation unique. Haynes commented, "Music is just such a normal part of their life, and we can get them engaged more quickly through its use."

Another trend in today's military is the high incidence of "polytrauma," with individuals being subjected to multiple traumatic injuries. This term is common among U.S. military doctors describing seriously-injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

A recent look at an outpatient music therapy group of veterans of current conflicts at the York Campus in Murfreesboro revealed all had PTSD and several had TBIs, both diagnoses considered "signature wounds" for veterans of our current conflicts, according to Haynes. The majority of group members were in their late 20s to early 30s. A music therapist and a speech and language pathologist co-led the group, the purpose of which was to provide a really intense, saturated experience in addressing attention and cognitive endurance. Standard traditional cognitive attention training and music attention control training were used. The group met twice weekly for eight weeks, with four sessions focusing on each type of attention.

To address sustained attention, the ability to focus on a specific task for a continual amount of time, veterans might be asked to match a rhythm played by the therapist on their instruments, listen for changes in the therapist's rhythm, and match the new rhythm each time a change was made.

An example to practice selective attention, the ability to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring distractions, involved veterans being given a rhythm to sustain on a percussion instrument while someone else played a different rhythm to intentionally try to disrupt their original rhythm.

To rehearse alternating attention, being able to shift focus between two different tasks with different cognitive demands, two leaders might create their own unique rhythms to play simultaneously. The group starts by following one leader and, at a predetermined cue, switches to the other leader's rhythm.

For divided attention, being able to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks, veterans were sometimes given times to track, without using a clock, while they played percussion instruments along with therapist accompaniment. One task was to play for 20 seconds, rest for 20, then play for 20 and to continue on for the remainder of the exercise.

At end of the pilot group, patients were so impressed with how the training affected their lives that they requested additional sessions and offered positive comments, such as: "This group helps you feel focused. It helps you feel good about yourself," or "This group helps with your independence." Comparisons of scores on pre- and post-standard attention tests were promising.

Much more attention is being drawn to what music therapy can accomplish in military circles. We need more music therapists to work with veterans, caregivers, and family members. We need more research, so it is great that this new partnership is very focused on research. In the Nov. 15 media teleconference, Landesman stated: "To reap long-term benefits from this collaboration, so that service people now and in the future might gain from what we learn, we will conduct research as we go along."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius applauded the NEA/Department of Defense partnership, noting NEA created an Interagency Task Force, bringing together multiple federal departments and agencies and encouraging "more and better research on how the arts can help people reach their full potential at all stages of life." Sebelius remarked:

Better research can inform future policy and practices nationwide ... The neurologic music therapy programs and creative and expressive writing programs being tested at Walter Reed may lead to more effective and widespread use of creative arts therapy as a treatment option, both for patients in military settings and within the larger health care system.

Rear Admiral Stocks, commander at Walter Reed, stated: "Time and time again, troops, their families, military and medical professionals tell us that art can make a difference in the quality of life for troops and their families." He shared his excitement "to examine those claims through research and practice."

Melissa Walker summed it up this way:

Through the creative arts therapies, service members come to a better understanding of themselves and are able to express this in a way that can help them heal and help their caregivers understand their experiences.

Feel free to visit the AMTA website, http://www.musictherapy.org, where you can find selected references and key findings on music therapy interventions for those dealing with trauma or traumatic brain injuries, although not specifically related to military participants.

References:

(1) Clair, A. C., & Bernstein, B. (1990). A preliminary study of music therapy programming for severely regressed persons with Alzheimer's type dementia. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 9, 299-311.

(2) Burt, J. W. (1995). Distant Thunder: Drumming with Vietnam Veterans. Music Therapy Perspectives, 13, 110-112.

(3) Blake, R. L. (1994). Vietnam veterans with post traumatic stress disorder: Findings from a
music and imagery project. Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery, 3, 5-18.

For more by Ronna Kaplan, MA, click here.

For more on veterans, click here.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronna-kaplan-ma/veterans-music-therapy_b_2361076.html

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Sandy Hook children, parents tour their new school

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

People walk past a makeshift memorial in Sandy Hook after the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting tragedy , in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 28, 2012.

By Tracy Connor, NBC News

Students from Sandy Hook Elementary will go back to class Thursday in a borrowed building that one police official described as ?the safest school in America.?

They will enter classrooms that have been furnished to look like the ones they left last month as Adam Lanza carried out his massacre.

Desks and even abandoned backpacks and coats have been brought from Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn., to the new school in Monroe, seven miles away.

Pupils and parents had a chance to tour the building ? an unused former middle school ? on Wednesday after Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy met with teachers.

When they return at 9 a.m. Thursday, they will find counselors and extra police on hand.

?It feels extremely secure there,? Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson told reporters.

Police declined to say what security measures were in place, but Monroe Lt. Keith White said parents don?t have to worry.

?Right now, it has to be the safest school in America,? he said.

David Connors, 40, who has 8-year-old triplets, said he knows that sending his kids back to school will be difficult ? but crucial.

?The past three weeks have been just crazy,? he?told NBC Connecticut.? ?Getting back to that sense of figuring out what the new normal is going to look like, I think, is important. Everyone is waiting for that to happen.?

His children, he said, are ready for the transition.

?They want to see their teacher. They want to see their classes. They want to get back into a routine,? he said.

The 500 students have not been in school since Adam Lanza blasted his way into Sandy Hook on Dec. 14 and killed 20 children, six staffers and himself. He had earlier killed his mother.

Teachers from Newtown and Monroe spent their holiday break readying the new building for the children, and Robinson said it looks ?cheerful and happy? and is decorated with paper snowflakes sent in from around the world.

She said the first day back will be as ordinary as possible, and the school will wait some time to honor teachers for their bravery during Lanza?s killing spree, which was largely confined to two first-grade classrooms.

"There's certainly going to be children that are scared,? Thalia Andernen, a counselor with The Center of Hope, a nonprofit family support center,?told NBC New York.

?They're going to be frightened and feel very insecure about going back, but a lot of them are going to be resilient.?

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Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history left 20 children and six staff members dead at Sandy Hook Elementary.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/02/16300369-sandy-hook-elementary-children-parents-tour-their-new-school?lite

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Weston School Board Briefs | The Weston Forum

The Weston Board of Education discussed the following agenda items at its meeting on Monday, Dec. 17.

Retirements and resignation

The board accepted retirement letters from three teachers who will be retiring at the end of the 2012-13 school year: William Slattery, a 34-year veteran of Weston public schools as a special education teacher; 23-year veteran Margaret Taylor, a family and consumer sciences teacher in the Weston Middle School; and John Drummond, a curriculum instructional leader in math and science, who has worked for 23 years in Weston.

The board also accepted the resignation of Wendy Brighindi, administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent, who is taking a position in the Easton-Redding school district.

Hurlbutt?s history

In light of the proposed allocation of space in North House at Hurlbutt Elementary School to the town, board member Dick Bochinski researched the history of Hurlbutt with cooperation and assistance from Karin Giannitti, secretary of the Weston Historical Society. Although the board subsequently decided to table ?indefinitely? allocation of the space to the town, Mr. Bochinski presented his research.

In 1929, the town accepted Horace C. Hurlbutt?s offer of 10 acres of land to build Weston?s first central school. The donation was contingent on it being named after his son, Horace C. Hurlbutt, Jr., who had been a heroic ambulance driver in World War I.

Hurlbutt School opened in 1934. That year, a series of murals titled ?School Life in this Neighborhood of the 18th Century? were painted by Ray Strang as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under President Roosevelt, and were displayed at Hurlbutt. In 1950, East House at Hurlbutt was opened and the murals were moved there. In 1952, South House at Hurlbutt opened.

In 1963, a fire destroyed the original Hurlbutt school. Two years later, North House was opened on the site of the original Hurlbutt school. In 1991, a four classroom addition to North House was completed. In 1997, Hurlbutt?s core building was constructed; and in 1998, the Strang murals were moved to the Learning Resource Center in the core building at Hurlbutt.

Hurlbutt principal search committee

The board discussed putting together a search committee to look for a new principal for Hurlbutt Elementary School, following the resignation at the beginning of the school year by Joanna Genovese. Michael Cicchetti has been serving as interim principal since that time.

The board did not appoint committee members at this time.

Textbook adoption

The board adopted a series of math textbooks for grades K-8. Recommendations were made by textbook committee members Carolyn Vinton, John Drummond, Jenna Connors, and Kelly DelVecchio.

Gun Club gift

The board accepted a gift in the amount of $3,020 from the Weston Gun Club Community Foundation, for the purchase of equipment for the district?s photography program.

Source: http://www.thewestonforum.com/7080/weston-school-board-briefs/

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Sharapova withdraws at Brisbane; Serena advances

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2012 file photo, Russia's Maria Sharapova eyes the ball during a Gillette Federer Tour exhibition tennis match with Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in Sao Paulo, Brazil. No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Brisbane International before her opening match after feeling pain in her right collarbone during practice. The French Open champion on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 said she would head immediately to Melbourne to start preparing for the Australian Open, starting Jan. 14. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2012 file photo, Russia's Maria Sharapova eyes the ball during a Gillette Federer Tour exhibition tennis match with Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in Sao Paulo, Brazil. No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Brisbane International before her opening match after feeling pain in her right collarbone during practice. The French Open champion on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 said she would head immediately to Melbourne to start preparing for the Australian Open, starting Jan. 14. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

Serena Williams of the U.S. plays a shot in her match against Alize Cornet of France during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday, Jan 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic plays a shot during her 2nd round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Sara Errani of Italy plays a shot during her first round match against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday, Jan 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia reacts after beating Sara Errani of Italy 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 during their match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) ? Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Brisbane International on Tuesday because of an injured right collarbone that left her unable to serve. She said she didn't want to aggravate the injury with the Australian Open two weeks away.

Also out was 2011 champion Petra Kvitova, who lost 6-4, 7-5 to Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a season-opening tournament that has proved rough for many of the top players.

Serena Williams, however, had no such problems. She carried her relentless winning form into 2013, reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at night over No. 44-ranked Alize Cornet.

Williams, a 15-time major winner who is ranked No. 3, has lost only one of her last 34 competitive singles matches in a run that includes titles at Wimbledon, the London Olympics and the U.S. Open.

She was hitting winners so fiercely that Cornet didn't bother chasing most of them. One of her serves, in the fourth game of the second, was 124 mph (200 kilometers). That was faster than any of her serves last year, and she has rarely served faster anywhere.

"I just really went for it. I've hit 200 before but they never go in so I was really excited that it went in," Williams said. "I tried to be more aggressive."

Sharapova, ranked No. 2 and the French Open champion, didn't want to risk worsening a collarbone problem that flared late last month and also forced her from an exhibition in South Korea. She started hitting overheads and serves only on Monday and said it was wiser to head to Melbourne to get ready for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, which begins Jan. 14.

"I still have quite a bit of time to prepare for Australia. I'm on the right track, been training really well, so I just don't want to jeopardize what I've gained in the offseason so far," she said. "Just have to make a smart move here."

Kvitova, who won the Brisbane title five months before claiming her first Grand Slam crown at Wimbledon in 2011, didn't find any rhythm against Pavlyuchenkova. She will head to Sydney for more matches before the Australian Open.

Combined with Daniela Hantuchova's 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 win over No. 5 Sara Errani and the first-round exits of No. 7 Sam Stosur and No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki, the season-opening event featuring eight of the top 10 ranked women had already lost five of its top eight seeds before the end of the second round.

"This tournament was a really tough draw, everybody's playing," Kvitova said. "After the offseason, it's hard to be on the court against some opponents."

Williams will next meet the winner of Wednesday's match between fellow American Sloane Stephens and Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson.

She said she had a touch of insomnia after arriving in Australia, and was awake listening to the New Year's Eve fireworks on Monday but not able to join the celebrations.

Now she's hoping for a night quarterfinal.

"I don't know what time zone I'm in. I don't know if I'm in Florida or if I'm in Mauritius or if I'm in Brazil. I just don't know anymore," she said, but "I'm good when I'm awake."

If she continues her dominating run right through the Australian Open, the 31-year-old Williams has a good chance of becoming the oldest player to be ranked No. 1. Chris Evert holds that record ? she was 30 years, 11 months when she last held the top ranking in 1985. She attributes her resurgence since her first-round exit at the last French Open to a feeling of invigoration.

"I just feel alive," she said. "I feel really alive."

On the men's side, local qualifier John Millman, ranked No. 199, advanced to a second-round match with Olympic and U.S. Open champion Andy Murray by beating Japan's Tatsuma Ito 6-4, 6-1.

Seventh-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria downed Denis Kudla of the U.S. 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, while eighth-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia lost 6-1, 6-2 to Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Spain's Tommy Robredo advanced 6-4, 7-6 (4) over American Ryan Harrison, and Alejandro Falla of Colombia set up a second-round match with third-seeded Gilles Simon with a 6-1, 7-6 (8) win over Jesse Levine.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-01-TEN-Brisbane-International/id-35cf573e0f6b4246ad751ed6942b0bf2

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