The Value of Gas Station Cinamon Rolls

I know that no one does this but me. It’s my secret defense against a world that continues to disappoint, frustrate, and aggravate.

There’s a shop around the corner that sells my rescue remedy. Sometimes it’s a bottle, sometimes it’s a bar, sometimes it’s cold and sometimes it’s hot. And on the really bad days—more frequent of late, it seems—my remedy might be a combination of these ingredients.

I eat.

I’m not one of those foodies who seem to be all over the TV extolling the virtues of chocolate covered ants, or wolverine toenails with ceviche. I prefer the gas station cinnamon rolls to those you get in a bakery and I like my cold drinks with as many syllables as possible.

As a result of my caloric-clad cowardice, my inability to confront the issues and the people that drive me to find my ho-ho-ho in a plastic wrapper, I am truly the bigger person. Bigger not because I turn the other cheek, but because I have more cheek to turn—chins too.

Another result of my rescue remedy is that I have spent more time with doctors than I would prefer. Blood tests, treadmills, HDL and LDL are now a part of my vocabulary. I make monthly trips to the pharmacy and am constantly surprised by how much money goes into so few pills.

I take the pills and the stress tests because, however frustrating everyday life can be, I’m not done with it yet. I would like to live long enough to be able to give my wife the kind of life that she deserves.

So my health is important to me and I pay a premium to maintain it. And like many, the dollar cost of that premium keeps going up far faster than my salary.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I am very fortunate to have access to any kind of insurance coverage. But I also know that having less money to pay the other expenses of daily life because of it is one of the reasons that my car seems to stop at the corner store.

Being sick in this country is frightening: more frightening than anything they could come up with on television, or in the movies. For an increasing number of us—even with coverage—it is the nightmare from which you never awake.

The simple doctor visit, with the odd test and prescriptions, can be make a sizable dent in the family budget, but if hospitals and specialists become involved then not just their health, but their economic future can easily be jeopardized.

I am not a stone. I would love a chance to drive a fancy sports car, live in one of those McMansions that were so popular a couple of years ago and have a big enough yard to have more than one dog. I want all of that, but I know that it will have to wait until my bank balance can support it. If I get seriously sick, I do not have the same luxury of deferred gratification. I have a simpler choice: follow the doctor’s orders, wherever they lead, or wait for nature to take its course.

And once you get sick, you increase your risks not only for related disorders, but also that your insurance company will only selectively cover your expenses, or drop your coverage entirely.

Seen in those terms, every trip to the corner store for a flavored, or frozen, or chocolate-covered anything threatens my life, my health and my family’s future.

Great: more stress.

It’s like wearing a Velcro suit in a velour-covered world: once you start down this path, it can take a real effort to break loose.

In some respects I am more fortunate than others who experience congenital disorders, my problems are entirely of my own making. Cutting back and cutting out, walking the dog more and finding other ways to work out can significantly impact my health issues. This in turn will reduce my need for medication and the associated costs.

Sounds all very rational and straightforward, but my car keeps stopping at the store. And will keep stopping until I can address the underlying issues that make junk food so attractive to me.

My mental health and my physical health are connected around my ability to manage stress. There are healthier alternatives to inhaling a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream, but none nearly as enjoyable.

My brother keeps trying to get me to take up boxing, or some other physical activity. He claims that beating up a bag will be just as satisfying as anything I could eat. I understand that there are people for whom that is true, but to me, it makes as much sense as writing down what’s bothering you on a piece of paper and flushing it down the toilet. I could never do that out of fear that the toilet would back up.

A component of the current discussion about healthcare has been the need to get consumers more involved in their own care. The assumption is that having an accurate picture of the cost of care will encourage us all to get healthier and the healthier we get, the less we will need medical care and the cost will go down. It’s a lovely idea and based on sound economic theory, but people are already afraid to get sick. Sticker shock is not going to get me to go to the gym either, but it will get me to have another cookie.

There is no doubt that fear is an excellent motivator: it was responsible for the high level of engagement in the recent town hall meetings on this issue. But comfort and security are perhaps more powerful: this is perhaps why the couch always seems to win out over the exercise bike.

A lot of ink has been already spilled on this topic and I certainly don’t claim that I have any new insights, but I believe this is too important a conversation to be left to insurance companies and politicians.

I keep coming back to the idea that this entire debate is, first and foremost, a conversation about values. What kind of a country would oblige so many of its citizens to live in fear of disease?

The rights recognized in the Declaration of Independence are fundamental to the American character, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum. Of the big three—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—the notion of a “right to life” is clearly galvanizing. Liberty and happiness are important, but they are meaningless without life. Should we really be drawing a distinction between life and health? Between happiness and health?

Reforming healthcare goes to the heart of the question of what the country stands for. The health of any community is a reflection of the health of its citizens. Safe water and effective sanitation are basic to any model of communal living. We demand the government intervene at the threat of pandemic and we volunteer to give blood in the event of disaster. Even the most vehement of libertarians support the notion of a common good.

And if you don’t accept the notion of being your brother’s keeper then you should appreciate that providing access to basic healthcare to the many will reduce the cost of healthcare for the individual. Hospitals spend millions of dollars every year providing care to those uninsured patients that we have heard so much about. There isn’t a healthcare facility that could stay in business if they didn’t pass those costs along to the rest of us.

This is the essential pro-life discussion and should not be hijacked by the misdirection of “death panels”, “Obamacare” and socialism. It is not hyperbole to note that this is a conversation about what a 21^st century America is about and what it stands for. And if you accept that there is some minimum standard for the health of the public then I am convinced that people of good will can develop a practical plan to make that happen.

As the holidays are approaching, I look forward to the opportunity to watch “A Christmas Carol” the essential holiday fable. Early in the story, Scrooge is told that there are many who would rather die then go to the work houses that were so common in Dickens’ time. Scrooge’s response is that if they would rather die, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

By the end of the story, Scrooge is able to change his fate by extending his hand to those less fortunate than himself. By investing in his neighbors, he enriches himself. This is not an idea unique to Dickens, or Christmas, but, I would submit, part of the national identity.

Just as the time has come for me to take responsibility for my health and my future and stop using food as a band-aid, we must decide that investing in healthcare for all is the only responsible thing to do.

I have to go now and take the dog for a walk.

--Graham Campbell
Associate Director

The Swedish Chef Writes About Good Communication

“Wellness” has entered the vocabulary with a vengeance.

A term that once used to be reserved for natural food stores and yoga classes, it has escaped to infuse corporate culture. Many businesses have wellness coordinators and wellness plans. We are being told that we need to have well children and eat well and live well.

Well, well, well….

The emphasis on wellness is driven, at least in part, by the need to control health care costs. The thinking is that if we cannot contain the cost, we can contain the demand by keeping people well.

And it makes sense, up to a point. All of us would like to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible, but until we have our first real scare, until we are forced to confront that we are not as fit, or as agile, or as flexible as we once were, most of us think about our health as an abstract concept: like saving for retirement.

Right now, the airwaves are chock full of infomercials for weight loss and exercise programs because their producers know that we have each made a promise to get fit and get healthy in the new year. The programs are full of chiseled this, tight that, and tanned everything: ideal physical types who exist only at Central Casting. They are hired to represent our hopes and our fantasies of who we think we are and who we can become if we buy whatever the announcer is selling.

The truth is that most of us have a relationship with our bodies that is based on fear: we fear going to the doctor, we fear pain, we fear losing our hair, we fear the truth. Coming in a close second behind fear is shame. We learn to be ashamed at an early age when we are unable to achieve mastery over our bodies: we have “accidents” and we get “boo-boos”. We are constantly being blamed for operator error. We don’t know how the our bodies work, we don’t have a lot of experience with it and we are constantly being blamed for doing it wrong. The same holds true at the end of our lives: we find ourselves losing control, having accidents and getting boo-boos. And where there is shame and embarrassment, there is secrecy.

Of course we try to delay the inevitable by looking for magic and shortcuts. Ninety days to a bigger, smaller, thicker, thinner, stronger, shinier, more natural-looking you. The books tell us that we’re too fat, we’re thirsty, we should eat wheat grass, we should take up ballroom dancing, we should lift weights, we should not lift weights, we should climb stairs, cross-country ski, take enemas, do yoga and breathe better. And, on the very next shelf are an equal number of books advocating for precisely the opposite.

With all of this noise, is it any wonder that doing nothing and taking our chances is the default position that the majority of us take when it comes to our health?

It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, we’re going to be wrong and our doctors are still going to yell at us.

Training through fear and intimidation is what we call “negative reinforcement.” Much like in the classic driver education training films, if we focus on the carnage and the wreckage and the blood on the highway then that will scare us straight and we will take better care of ourselves.

Being afraid of your doctor is surrendering your power in this most critical of relationships. If you are concerned about being scolded by your doctor for not passing on that extra slice of birthday cake then you might be inclined to not tell them about other symptoms you are experiencing. There are already significant limitations on your healthcare provider with respect to the amount of time they can spend with you and failing to be an equal partner in that all-too-brief conversation limits their ability to help even further.

Education is a good first step, but being aware is not always a good indicator that a person is going to take action, even if it’s in their interest to do so. I’ve been overweight my whole life and yet I still haven’t met a cookie that I didn’t like.

Most of us do not make major purchases without first having a clear idea of what we want out of the transaction. When we buy a car we at least know the color and number of doors we want. When we buy a television, we know what size and what features we are looking for. We should be no less involved in our purchase of healthcare. In 2007, the average American spent almost $8,000 on healthcare. Can you imagine the TV you could get for that kind of money?

The encouraging thing about the economic recession is that we have less money to spend on things and a unique opportunity to invest in ourselves. One of the virtues of having less is that we have to do more for ourselves. There is no “they” to step in and make our decisions and set priorities, there is only “us.” And as health insurance becomes a memory for more and more Americans, we are going to have to get involved, protect the health we have and prevent the illnesses we don’t.

This means taking a second look at what it means to be well.

Being well doesn’t mean that you have to look like those models on TV, but it does mean that you have to work on increasing your capacities. If you can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded then you have to work on walking up two flights; if you can play with your grandkids for a half-hour without needing oxygen then you need to work on going for 40 minutes; and you can accept that at least one of the people who cut you off in traffic does not hate you personally then you can work on accepting that there might be two such drivers out there.

A key component in this personal wellness stimulus is attitude: being able to accept that your health—physical and mental—keeps changing and that you have to adapt in order to be well. For many of us, this process of continuous adjustment can be a challenge and for some it can be overwhelming. If you are looking for resources to help adapt, please call us and we will help you help yourself.

--Graham Campbell, Associate Director
Mental Health America of Licking County

True Democracy

I recently had the honor of experiencing true democracy. In my role as Compeer Coordinator for Mental Health America of Licking County, I organized a community discussion designed to collect input that will be used to change our health care system.

Tom Daschle, the Secretary-designate of the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of President-elect Obama, called for individuals and organizations to host what they called “Health Care Community Discussions” in their offices, community rooms, coffee shops and living rooms, between December 15 and December 31.

Despite the fact that this gave us very little time to prepare, we, at Mental Health America of Licking County, decided that this was a wonderful opportunity to share our opinions about the American health care system and how it can be improved. We knew that the experiences of our consumers make them experts and that this issue is too important for us not to share our opinions and ideas with those who will make these decisions.

We invited Compeer program members to a discussion about health care on the evening of December 30th at the Mental Health America offices at 65 Messimer Drive in Newark. We planned to discuss health care, including mental health care, and their experience and concerns.

Invitations were mailed out and, ironically, because several members were sick and unable to attend, only a small group came together to share their perspectives on this important topic. I, too, have been sick and several times considered canceling the event before it got off the ground. But the people who came were enthusiastic and committed to the project.

The discussion became animated as participants took turns describing the problems they had had paying medical bills and their frustrations with trying to find a new psychiatrist in a community where so many are leaving. I, myself, have had my last three psychiatrists quit, before I finally turned to a doctor in Westerville.

Public policy suggestions from the group included making it more affordable for doctors to attend medical school. Despite assistance from insurance, the high cost of prescription medication was another concern of the group. The conversation continued for 1 ½ hours, and although we did not solve the nation’s problems, and we were not all in agreement, there was a feeling of empowerment that came from the sense that someone was listening to you.

At the end of the meeting, a very brief survey was completed and the statements by the participants were collected and entered into the www.change.gov web page for inclusion in the final report.

Because I had registered the event in advance, in order to get the discussion manuals and information, I also received a follow-up query the next morning, asking how the event went and urging me to respond by the January 4th deadline, in order for the information to be passed on to the President-elect.

President-elect Obama says he wants to bring the voices and health care concerns of all Americans to Washington. On his behalf, I want to thank everyone who attended for participating in this discussion and helping to make this happen. For more information about this project, go to www.change.gov/

Compeer is a program of MHA. The program serves people who are recovering from a mental illness. Compeer recruits, screens, trains and matches volunteers in one-to-one friendship relationships with adults receiving mental illness treatment. Compeer volunteers become positive role models and mentors. They help raise self-esteem, increase social and communication skills and encourage independence of their Compeer friend aiding them in their recovery.

Compeer friends also meet for monthly socials. We enjoy socializing together, engaging with guest speakers, going bowling, and trying new things-like cooking.

If you are interested in joining Compeer as a friend or volunteer, or to learn more, please call Kristen Frame, Compeer Coordinator at (740) 345-5658.

Kristen Frame
Compeer Coordinator

Burning the Candle

Ending poverty in Licking County is a lofty goal, I realize. There are a lot of reasons to not bother even trying.

For one thing, it's hard to keep your candle lit long enough to light the way. But, after meeting last Tuesday night with 8 volunteers committed to rolling up their sleeves to get to work on solutions to poverty, I believe we can make a serious dent in Licking County in my lifetime. Today my candle is burning more brightly.

These volunteers were 6 women from the Missionary Social Action Committee (M-SAC) at the Granville First Baptist Church, along with 2 other volunteers I invited. They came to an orientation meeting for people who want to serve on a team (called a Circle) that helps a low-income parent and his or her family to escape from poverty or near poverty.

The low-income parent serves as the Circle Leader and the other Circle members, called Allies, are people from the business and faith communities, along with others who want to make a difference. While the Circle Leader is learning skills and strategies about becoming financially stable, the Allies are learning about poverty in our community and its causes from the real experts (people in poverty).

Our Circle leaders will be people who have graduated from our Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World classes. (18 sessions that can change lives.) Over the last 3 years, about 100 people have graduated from these classes.

Okay, 8 of us at a Granville church may not sound like a big number. But if you'd been there, you'd have felt the energy, commitment and creativity that flowed through the room. My scalp literally tingled with some of the stories and ideas I heard there.

The Circle goes beyond bringing that particular family out of poverty. They look for strategies that will make all of Licking County financially stable. That means working together to ensure good jobs, education, healthcare, housing, law enforcement, and other services that keep the ship afloat and able to weather any storms. If the level of poverty causes a leak in our boat, the whole boat sinks. We need each other.

There's is one tiny hiccup. We haven't raised the money (yet) to make Circles happen. But I'm working on finding grants and I've got help--our Volunteer Brigade is awesome.

Call me at 788-0300 or e-mail me at JudithAllee@MHALC.org if you are:
. a low-income parent who wants to enroll in Getting Ahead
. someone who wants to work on solutions for poverty
. a business person who wants to save costs and increase productivity by increasing retention rates for entry-level workers, helping them and their families to climb out of poverty
. someone with an interest in reducing dropout rates for low-income high school and college students

Or if you want to join a rowdy group of people who fix cars on weekends. Or if you can fix up old computers so that kids in poverty can keep up in school. Or if you like researching or writing grants.

Or if you . . .well, you tell me where your gifts and passions lie, and we will find a way to plug you in. You can learn more about Getting Ahead and other MHA services by surfing our website, www.MHALC,org, or by visiting www.VolunteerMatch.org to learn more about a wide range of volunteer opportunities. You can also visit www.MoveTheMountain.org to learn more about the Circles initiative.

--Judith Allee
Parent Support Coordinator