August 10-16, 2009
| Also online at http://www.vrha.org/weeklies.html | August 10-16, 2009 |
In this Issue...
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| VRHA News |
| Save the Date! |
The Virginia Rural Health Association will be holding a joint conference with the Virginia Association of Free Clinics November 15-17 at the Homestead. Monday's featured presentation is:
When you leave this presentation, you will feel empowered to use the tools you learned - tools for creative problem solving and action planning - to make a positive impact on those things you can control and influence. Led by Kimberly Douglas, Founder and President of FireFly Facilitation. All conference attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Ms. Douglas' book, The Firefly Effect. Click the conference logo to learn more.
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| Lack of Access is a Crisis |
By Beth O'Connor - VRHA Executive Director The July 27 Roanoke Times included a McClatchy-Tribune feature story about high-end hospital maternity wards in Minnesota ("Oh, baby"). The article detailed how birthing centers have developed into luxurious accommodations with spa-quality amenities. I wish The Times would print an article about the maternity options available in the small, rural hospitals of Virginia. Unfortunately, the options are few. There are seven hospitals in Virginia with the federal designation of Critical Access Hospital. CAH facilities have 25 beds or fewer and are at least 35 miles from any other hospital. Without these facilities, people in Bath, Dickenson, Giles, Page, Patrick, Rockbridge and Shenandoah counties would have to travel great distances for any medical service that required hospitalization. Of those seven, only Carilion Stonewall Jackson in Lexington provides labor and delivery services. At any other facility, a woman who shows up in labor is put in an ambulance and driven to a hospital large enough to have a maternity ward. Read the full commentary.
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By Allison Chopin - The Roanoke Times VCOM received 35,000 pairs of shoes to be sent to Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. The donor is Foot Levelers, a Roanoke-based company that makes custom orthotics. The shoes will help prevent foot injuries and infections in places where children and adults often go without proper footwear. Read the full article.
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| Virginia Rural Health News |
By Delmarvanow.com Under Dooley's direction, Eastern Shore Rural Health added the Chincoteague Island Community Health Center (with two providers) and dental services at several locations. Read the full article.
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| Haunted by Handcuffs |
By Beth Macy - Roanoke Times In the Roanoke region alone, a projected 13,666 people will have Alzheimer's by 2030. At least half will at some point display the kind of violent behavior Steve Ward showed the night he was hauled away by police from his room at The Court, an assisted living facility for Alzheimer's patients in Roanoke. Gail Ward worries: If a veteran long-term care nurse can't navigate the medical, financial and legal maze laid out before caregivers of people with Alzheimer's, how will the rest of us manage?
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| National Rural Health News |
| Use the Recess to Talk Rural! |
With Congress entering the August recess, many of them will be in their home communities. Please take the time to talk with your local member of congress and their staff about the importance of the rural aspect of health reform.
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| Project Links Patients and Physicians |
University of Missouri School of Medicine A rural Missouri girl who doesn’t speak English is the first patient to benefit from a new partnership involving the Missouri Telehealth Network at the University of Missouri. The grant-funded partnership connects patients and physicians with interpreters of 25 languages, from Spanish to Swahili. The girl lives in a town of approximately 100 people in southern Missouri, where she had no access to the health care services required to diagnose and treat her chronic skin condition. She suffered for months from an unusual rash spreading across her arms until May 2009, when the power of telecommunications technology helped connect her with a pediatric dermatologist at MU’s medical school in Columbia and a Spanish interpreter in St. Louis.
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| Lack of Rural Mental Health |
By Lynda Waddington - The Iowa Independent Seven months ago, Jelle Hans Reitsma, a 37-year-old Dutch immigrant who owned and operated two large California dairies, succumbed to the financial strain of low milk prices. Under pressure from banks to repay millions of dollars in loans, and believing the only foreseeable way to raise money was to either sell his dairy herds or have them slaughtered, he took a handgun, drove to a nearby walnut orchard and committed suicide. Reitsma wrote two notes before shooting himself. One was to his family. The other was a four-word note to the bank’s local branch manager: “Welcome to the kill.” Stories like Reitsma’s are becoming more frequent in states like California, Maine and Colorado. Experts say Midwestern states like Iowa are better prepared to deal with rural mental health problems, but the risks are still high.
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KIDS Count |
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Do you have exciting rural health news that needs to be shared? Do you know of an upcoming health-related event which should be on our calendar? E-mail Beth O'Connor at: boconnor@vcom.vt.edu |
Disclaimer: The VRHA circulates state and national news as an information service only. Inclusion of information is not intended as an endorsement. If you prefer to receive email in plain text or rtf format instead of html or if you receive this email more than once, email VRHA. |
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