leslie

leslie has written 442 posts for Life-O-Mike

More bad news for low-income Americans

As governments refuse to raise taxes on the richest Americans, the poor suffer increasingly. Across the country, cash-strapped states are cutting their spending where it hurts the most — access to Medicaid, the federal program that provides care to the poorest Americans. Already, income requirements are so low that tens of thousands of people who [...]

The biggest lie of the year is a big fat lie.

Politifact, the St. Petersburg Times’ fact-checking site, has said the biggest lie of 2011 is that Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare would end the program as we know it. Frankly, I think the biggest lie out there right now is that it wouldn’t end Medicare as we know it. What was created in 1964 [...]

Where can we go to die?

A column in the New York Times yesterday told the story of a young woman who was dying of cancer. She was the mother of two young children and her husband had done all he could do to care for her.  She was no longer able to do anything for herself, and the cancer had [...]

Lies spread in pursuit of profits over people

Insurance companies would have us believe they’ll all go under if the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, and that we’ll all die because we can’t buy coverage anymore. They talk about government ”death panels” as they refuse to cover anyone who’s ever been sick, and until the law made them stop, they found excuses to [...]

This year’s homeless death toll

Wednesday, Dec. 21, is Homeless Persons Memorial Day here in Asheville. It is observed with a service at the Haywood Street Congregation at noon. Each year, the list of those who died is posted in the front of the sanctuary, along with the lists of those who died in previous years. Each of these approximately [...]

We’re Number 16 (of 16)

The United States ranked dead last in a survey of preventable deaths done by the Commonwealth Fund (more at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/News/News-Releases/2011/Sep/US-Ranks-Last-on-Preventable-Deaths.aspx) and appearing in this month’s online journal, Health Policy. According to the study, we could prevent 84,000 deaths annually if we could improve our health care system to the rates of the top two performers, [...]

Judge: NC Must continue to provide in-home personal care services

A federal judge has issued an injunction against North Carolina’s implementation of a new Medicaid rule that would deny personal care services to recipients who are over 21 and not in an institution. The rule, passed last spring and implemented on June 1, would eliminate or cut back these services for some people with serious disabilities [...]

Are we on the road to single-payer?

Have we started down the path to a single-payer system? Well, if you read Forbes Magazine’s Rich Unger (http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/02/the-bomb-buried-in-obamacare-explodes-today-halleluja/), the road starts today with the implementation of the “80 percent rule.” It goes like this: Insurance companies must spend 80 percent of what they take in in premiums (85 percent if they’re big group insurors) [...]

Things like this cause my head to explode

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum (actually, he’s more af a presidential hopeless, thank God) says he believes Americans don’t die from lack of insurance; he believes they die from bad choices. (http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/12/06/382623/santorum-claims-nobody-dies-because-they-are-uninsured-they-die-due-to-poor-decisions/) Like Mike chose to be born with a birth defect, which made him uninsurable. Like he chose to be denied screening tests for colon [...]

World AIDS Day

Today we observe 30 years of battling HIV/AIDS, and we can look ahead with hope, although we still have a long way to go to erradicate the pandemic. A new study shows that three out of four Americans with HIV do not have it under control. That may be because our health care system is so [...]

Help Life o’ Mike

We need your help now more than ever. Your tax-deductible donation will help us Patient Pals and Family Friends to more people in need of peer support. Please consider a gift in honor or in memory of a loved one. Donate here or mail your donation to Life o' Mike, PO Box 1213, Asheville, NC 28802.

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.

Events in the community

Free birth and labor classes

Peaceful Beginning Doula Services holds free birth forums, Peaceful Birth, 6:30-8 p.m. the last Thursday of every month (except November) at Spa Materna, 640 Merrimon Ave., above The Hop, in Asheville.
All are welcome, expectant women and their partners are encouraged to attend anytime during their pregnancy. We also encourage doulas and other maternal/child professionals to attend and share in the discussions. The forums are "birth circle" style, focusing on normal birth which follows the Lamaze Six Care Practices for Healthy Birth. The forums are led by certified and experienced educators.

NAMI Family-to-Family Class

NAMI of Western Carolina holds 12-week classes for families and caregivers of individuals with a severe mental illness 6-8:30 p.m. Mondays at Charles George VA Medical Center, 1100 Tunnel Road in Asheville. The course covers major mental illnesses and self-care. Registration required. Info at 828-299-9596 or rohaus@charter.net.

Contact your representatives

Ask them what they're doing to fix health care!