Results tagged “healthcare” from Uncivil Society
Above: Flickr user Chupacabras is posting photos of Mexico City museums closed due to swine flu.
By coincidence, I have a student in Mexico right now who has to live in quarantine due to the scare, and I've spent the better part of the past week waylaid by some #$!?! bug that's going around up here.*
This got me thinking about the organizational structures of illness in times past, a question that fascinated me as a tyke thanks to educational childrens books my grandparents had kept from the 1940s. In those books quarantine was a social norm--I still remember illustrations of houses in quarantine and other areas that savvy kids should avoid. These books also put me on the lookout for old quarantine signs at flea markets, a cool relic of lost time.
That Mexico has so readily issued quarantine notices and closures while the U.S. has, for all the scare talk, relatively held back speaks to a seismic cultural shift in the years since the polio, mumps and measles vaccines have become standard. Worth noting in this context is the interplay of quarantine with discrimination, a factor in the response to AIDS and what some outside the U.S. are calling the Mexican flu. Equally relevant: our shifting scale of what constitutes a noteworthy pandemic--compared to the last great Western flu epidemic, this is barely a blip.
At what point the norm would switch back to that of the 1940s is unclear. If we scale up from 1 death to 100? 1,000? More? And at what point is there an ethical obligation to avoid public interaction or to shut down your real-world social medium?
Worthwhile questions to consider, but not now--gotta take my Benedryl.
*I'm not joining in the NYC swine flu hysteria, obvs, which at times has been rather amusing in the way every sniffle can be taken to be fatal. Soooo, not wanting to join in the mass panic & out of a misguided sense of duty last night I dragged myself to class, where my students aptly teased me for consigning them to their deaths. As they pointed out, while their imminent demise could be seen as a bad thing, at least it would give them a valid excuse for not completing their final projects.
The other interesting thing about this bug, at least for me, is that it has been wreaking havoc with my memory & communication. I'm normally weak with names--I tend to recall personality markers, not labels--but this past week has been an absolute nominal jumble. I'll look at people I know and address them by names of people not there, and I'll write words with no relation to what I'm speaking or thinking. A real Oliver Saks experience.
This Bad Astronomy post praises Alison Singer for resigning from her post as VP of Autism Speaks. The reason for her resignation: the charity's persistence in investigating the link between vaccines and autism, despite scientific research indicating no substantial connection:
In general, I disagree with a policy that says, “Despite what this study shows, more studies should be done.†At some point, you have to say, “This question has been asked and answered and it’s time to move on.†We need to be able to say, “Yes, we are now satisfied that the earth is round.â€
Whatever one's position in the autism debate, the issue of personal responsibility to resign when disagreeing with an organization's actions warrants further examination. The heated comments thread in the BA post--109 comments & rising--points to the difficult situation faced by leaders of an organization such as Autism Speaks. If they reach a conclusion similar to that of Alison, cutting off support for a project that otherwise has a sizable constituency could have substantial consequences for projects the leaders deem to be more valuable. Moreover, the more leaders who resign out of the conviction that support for the project is wrong, the greater the likelihood that their positions will be filled with supporters of that very project.
It's a scenario that leads to an all too common situation we do not discuss enough--nonprofit leaders who channel funds to projects that they personally don't think are effective in resolving the targeted problem, but are nonetheless necessary due to the group's internal politics.
As you might have guessed, the holiday has led to a bit of a hiatus for the blog. I'll be posting more this week & will resume at full speed after the upcoming New Year's weekend.
One of the things I've been doing over the (alleged) break is catching up on my research. Included in my reading: the invaluable DC Vault, a "museum-in-a-book" that not only chronicles DC history, but reprints some material that I've been wanting to see for a while.
A prominent theme in the book: the relation between comics and "public service." The image above is from one of the reprinted documents: "Superman and the Great Cleveland Fire," a comic that ignorant 11 year old me did not buy for a quarter at a flea market when he had the chance. The comic is a pitch for a Cleveland fund collecting money to expand and to build nonprofit hospitals.
Read the text in the last page (reprinted above) and you'll see a compelling example of effective fundraising. The ad links infrastructure to discrete personal benefits, which is a powerful way to get people to see overhead as a social investment. It also highlights an aspect of the culture of health care that deserves more attention--note how the emergence of health insurance sparked a demand for more health care facilities, which in turn helped give rise to a demand for more insurance.
No Sasha, just Fierce:
As the recession deepens, Fitch has changed its outlook for the not-for-profit hospital sector to negative, from a previous status of stable. Fitch noted that the recession has hit hardest on hospitals that entered the economic downturn with weaker credit ratings.
As we have already noted, fewer patients are seeking healthcare, and more are unable to pay, which is stressing the not-for-profit hospitals even further. Worse still, budget deficits are piling up at both the state and federal levels, which could hurt hospitals that depend on publicly funded health plans.
The ticking time bomb: debt-financed expansion. Defaulting on bonds = not good, which is why I've included bonds, dissolution & related issues in my law for nonprofits class.
As you know if I you read the first article linked up left, I've long been obsessed with getting nonprofits to pay more attention to design. To see how design can help make a positive difference, check out this killer article from Science News, which examines how Florence Nightengale developed cutting-edge information graphics for applied statistical modeling.
The phrase "negative wallet biopsy" refers to a hospital refusing to provide charitable care because the prospective patient has an available credit-card balance or too high a credit score. This recent Business Week article provides the gruesome details.
I've mentioned this before, but my favorite book on the underlying issue raised by wallet biopsies--and one of my favorite courses in law school: Guido Calabresi's Tragic Choices.
Kenketsu-chan--"blood donation girl"--is the Japan's blood donation mascot, one of a stable of public mascots throughout the country. Pink Tentacle (via Animal) has more, including a link to the official Kenketsu-chan site:
From the site, we know that Kenketsu-chan’s ears shrink when she runs low on blood, but return to their original size when people donate. We also know that she comes from Tasuke Island (Help Island), which features a heart-shaped spring at its center. The spring shoots forth rainbows that carry Kenketsu-chan to wherever people need blood.
Below: "Cross Kid," a local Red Cross superhero.
Today I took a moment to get a free brain scan at the Bobby Murcer Mobile MRI. Being in the machine is sublime--I could have spent the whole afternoon immersed in the sounds. For anyone who has ever wanted to get inside my head, I've placed the complete four series on Youtube.
The scene above: Marianne Lydon, Patient Coordinator, at the opening of the Brain Tumor Foundation's new mobile MRI.
UPDATE: My brain scans from the mobile MRI.
Marianne, Jason Dolger of Alliance Imaging and the Foundation's Dmitry Shimelfarb were nice enough to include me in the press event this morning outside City Hall. They offered a number of interesting details about the Foundation and this new project, which provides free MRIs at various places throughout New York City.
A couple things particularly stand out. Providing the service costs about 1.5 million dollars a year, and while there are some major donors most of the amount is covered by small individual donors. With regard to legal issues, it turns out that providing MRI services is a relative piece of cake. What's really difficult: getting permits to park the truck!
If you're in NYC and are eager to get your free scan, you might want to register now--based on response to the word-of-mouth so far, folks were predicting that a flood of calls will follow an upcoming feature on The Today Show.
A Saatchi & Saatchi alum, Kate Roberts of YouthAids sells condoms & AIDS awareness like any consumer product: “You have to make something desirable, available, and affordable.â€
For another look at the marketing of AIDS awareness, check out Elizabeth Pisani's The Wisdom of Whores.
OK, this 1951 ad for MD bathroom tissue is a cultural studies dream. Note the links to health, charity, comfort, children, strength, purity, race ("WHITE"!), high status AND low price--not to mention gender roles, with the woman as the keeper of the throne.
Audacia Ray's Naked City at the Village Voice was an invaluable source of social enterprisey info in the sexual realm. Though NCVV is, alas, no more, she continues to bring the goods in other fora. The ad above is from her new column at Eden Fantasys:
You might not know that Lysol - yes, the household disinfectant - has a significant place in the history of women’s sexual health. From the 1930s through the 1960s Lysol was sold and recommended as a douche for women that would not only clean and deodorize the vagina, but could also prevent pregnancy. Ads like the one pictured preyed on women’s insecurities about the smell of their vaginas and the potential for inspiring their husbands’ disgust and rejection.
Susannah Breslin links to the trailer for 9to5, a new documentary that provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the mundane reality of porn. What particularly caught my eye: the Health Care Foundation sign in the office of Dr. Sharon Mitchell.
2 seconds of research reveals that it's the logo of the AIM Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit that serves "the physical and emotional needs of sex workers and the people who work in the Adult Entertainment Industry."
Like many who watch porn, the nonprofit mainstream tends to act as if this type of organization does not exist, but its work is just as important--and just as inspirational--as raising money for children and puppies.
Katy Perry--whose "I kissed a girl" has become an international hit--has a cast made of her breasts. The bust of her bust will be auctioned off for Keep-a-breast.org.
The cover story in today's Women's Wear Daily featured Gwyneth Paltrow wearing the latest designer t-shirt for Key to the Cure, the annual cancer-related charity initiative of the the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Saks Fifth Avenue. The article (firewalled, alas for you) reviews the history of the effort, which has engaged a series of Oscar-winning spokeswomen and raised money in the usual ways.
Below: one of the project's aims, an example of its emotional effect and other recent shirts:
“There is not a woman alive who is unscathed or untouched by cancer,†Wilson said. “For me, the idea to actually fund scientists to help find a biotester, which would be a blood test for breast cancer, is very important. That is in our reach in our generation.â€
Chapman Meyer agreed, adding that the T-shirts also served to help those affected by cancer on an emotional level. When a friend of her sister was in the hospital dying of cancer, Chapman Meyer recalled sending a batch of the Stella McCartney designed T-shirts for the patient and her friends. “They all wore it around her bed, rallied and put her in the T-shirt,†she said. “I think it just gave this friend of theirs who was dying of cancer hope that maybe her daughter wasn’t going to."
Or maybe it just made everyone gathered around the bed feel good about themselves, which isn't the same thing.
UPDATE: OK, I've had my caffeine, so a brief word about that bedside anecdote.
At some point you might read on this site that I'm t y p i n g m y la st pos t from de at hbed, and I know you'll all rush there to send me off. If I have a fatal disease & you decide to cheer me up by slapping on a tee shirt for a race for a cure that I've clearly lost & speculating that there's an off-chance my offspring will survive my cruel genetic legacy, the gleam you'll see in my eyes will not be an inspirational moment of hope. It will be me summoning every last ounce of energy I have to get out of that bed just one more time so I can f**king whup your healthy ass.
Above: a screen shot for a faux.0 text ad for Gardasil, the controversial HPV vaccine.
Below: where I found it.
The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services provides a graphic reason to avoid noodly appendages.
Now available to order: the first issue of Dr. Rani Whitfield's Tha' Hip Hop Doc and the Legion of Health. Below, excerpts from the press release--particularly noteworthy: Whitfield's focus on the book's professional standards.
Created and edited by local family physician Dr. Rani Whitfield, the debut comic rivals Marvel comics in quality and message.
Fed Up!, which is scheduled for a Baton Rouge release on Tuesday, June 24, brings Tha’ Hip Hop Doc, a doctor, warrior, teacher and hero, and his team of muscle-bound, super-intelligent health advocates with super human powers to protect the human race from members of the Dungeon of Disease.
Representing Western medicine, fitness, nutrition, spiritual health, alternative medicine, research, and mental health these heroes battle SSPs (Symbiotic Supernatural Parasites) with colorful allusions in this comic world.
Tha’ Hip Hop Doc’s nemesis, Bad Heart, a sickly but shrewd and manipulative villain, will stop at nothing to destroy his foes, The Legion of Health. The comic series delivers critical messages on obesity, poor eating habits, physical inactivity, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and STDs packed with imagery and action.
Whitfield, who is also a board-certified sports medicine physician, said he designed the three-book comic series to reinforce positive health values using an ingenious, artistic package that is most popular among youth and young adults.
“The obstacle in the past with health comic books is that they were not of industry standard, and physicians were not actively delivering the messages to the youth,†said Whitfield. With that, Whitfield and comic artist Greg Nichols, took Whitfield’s Hip Hop Healthy speeches and created The Legion of Health. The series has been thoroughly researched and is a recommended teaching tool.
Via the always informative ProHipHop
