Archive for May, 2011
The immorality of ‘optional’ care
I read in the newspaper this morning that the NC Senate is considering cutting “optional” Medicaid services as the costs rise. Sounds reasonable, right? That’s until you hear what’s optional. The place where my friend Stacie and her best friend, Ashley, live is optional. That’s Stacie in the photo, showing off her beautiful smile. I [...]
Dear liberal groups …
Everyone who knows me understands that I’m an unabashed, unreconstructed, aging hippie, pinko, commie, socialist liberal. I believe in helping people in trouble, I believe in giving equal opportunity to all, starting with a good education and proper nutrition. I believe health care should be a basic human right, and quality care should be available to [...]
Score one for health care
In a very conservative upstate New York Congressional district, a Democrat won a special election last night. I like to think it a portent of things to come in 2012. As I’ve said many times, I don’t want to bring politics into this, but looking at the differences in the parties’ policies, it is the [...]
Who will tell the stories?
Later this week, 12 of my former colleagues at the Asheville Citizen-Times will lose their jobs to corporate greed. The beat that I covered for years, social justice/nonprofits, will disappear. It won’t be anybody’s job to tell the stories of how corporate greed and government cuts hurt real people, and how people can get help [...]
What does a better community look like?
Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County held a summit today to ask what a community without child poverty would look like. About 150 people showed up to participate in building the vision, bringing their ideas and their enthusiasm. We talked about a community where a nurse visits every home with a new baby and offers [...]
Another week’s reprieve
The NC House of Representatives postponed its vote on House Bill 115, the industry-friendly bill that would hand off control of the federally mandated insurance marketplace to Big Insurance, most notably, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Adam Sering, of the NC Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition, believes the pressure we have put on legislators to kill the [...]
Determined to sabotage health reform
The disastrous bill H115 is scheduled to be voted on in the NC House today, and the chances are good it will pass. The bill effectively hands control of the state’s insutance exchange — the marketplace set up by the federal Affordable Care Act — to the very industry that will operate it. Last year, after [...]
Report: Poor women have the least access to care
Once again a report, this one issued by the Kaiser Family Health Foundation, shows that women below 300 percent of the poverty level are in poorer health than those above that mark. What’s more, the poorer the woman, the more likely she is to report her overall health as poor, and to have a disabling [...]
The health care fight isn’t over
The Republicans in Washington have announced they’ll stop trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but that doesn’t mean we’ve won. More than half the states have lodged an attack on the portion of the law that mandates everyone buy insurance. Even if the US Supreme Court decides the mandate is legal, the inurance companies [...]
A real solution
I don’t like to play politics on this blog; I really am open to all proposals to solve the health care access crisis in America. I am, however, willing to call out a proposal that doesn’t work, and that includes Rep. Paul Ryan’s idea to privatize Medicare and to offer states block grants to replace [...]
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Start From Seed
Life o' Mike has a new program- Start from Seed (SFS).
SFS is a volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high-risk women and families of Buncombe County focusing on three areas:
1. We help new doulas with certification and training in return for their participation as a volunteer doula for SFS
2. We mentor volunteer doulas with their first few clients
3. Our volunteer doulas provide birth and postpartum doula services to low income, high risk moms, providing support and tools to empower them as a new parent.
A birth doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; a postpartum doula provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.
Start from Seed clients are referred to us from the Buncombe County Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Western North Carolina Community Health Services, and Mission Hospital. The Program is intended and designed for growing clients’ inner strength and helping them gain empowerment to help them cope with the emotional, physical and mental challenges of childbirth, labor, and motherhood.
To learn more, visit www.startfromseed.org, or call Program Director Chelsea Kouns at 804-814-9946.