Share and Voice: Becoming American

Hey Everyone!

I decided to watch another video from"Unnatural Causes...Is Inequality Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" titled "Becoming American". I chose this particular video because I can relate to it, since I am an immigrant.
Like the previous video we watched, this video discusses the correlation of race and health. This video focuses on Mexican Immigrants, unlike the other "In sickness and in Wealth", which focuses on African Americans.

The video was shot in in Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania, a very diverse area. It focuses on a specific family, I can't remember what their name is, and also did some research on their health and other Mexican population. It turns out that most immigrants are healthier than American, considering that they have few cases of psychotic disorders and other diseases such as cancer, and also less chronic illnesses. The main reason for this is the "family ties" , and also support from family friends. The video states that 1/4 Americans have ties with "social isolation", and this causes really bad health effects. I am going to keep this brief since it's share and voice. I have too much to say. :) I am actually planning on watching all these videos when I get a chance, this whole documentary seems very interesting.

Words:
Social Isolation: When people work harder than they ought to be working and are increasingly isolated, putting themselves at higher risk for diseases.

Thanks for reading!

Reflection: Weeks 11 & 12

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the weather this past week like i did. It finally feels like Spring! :), my favorite season of course....:). Anyways, I also enjoyed the past two weeks in class. There weren't as intense as I expected, so that was definitely a plus since all my other classes were demanding.

During week 11 we watched video titled "Unnatural Causes...Is Inequality Making Us Sick?". This is a four-hour documentary that explored some racial and socioeconomic bias in health. I was so interested I actually decided to check out it form the library and watch other parts that I found interesting since we only got to watch part one "In sickness and in Wealth." I was moved by the the facts in this video because I've never thought of our society the way the video portrayed it. One thing that moved me the most in this video was the correlation of health and race in American society. It mentioned that wealthy people live longer healthier lives since they have less stress, considering that they have easier access to resources. I thought this fact applied to everyone, but unfortunately the video also revealed that African Americans would live shorter lives regardless if they're wealthy. I couldn't help but think of myself in because I relate to the African American society group the most in America. I could go into details about this, but I think you guys get the picture. :)

The main focus of week 12 was basically about solutions and improvements in the "environmentally-friendly world". We worked on our second Advocacy Project assignment called "Healthy People Thomas". We had to pick a topic that we will later advocate on as the semester comes to an end. My topic of choice is Access to Quality to Health Care Services. I am hoping to learn a lot from this topic by the research I will do, and also be able to promote the goal well enough to my political representatives.

Have a great weekend, and I hope the weather is going to be as nice as today.

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

Hello Everyone!
I decided to focus on health care for my Advocacy topic. So here are some facts about it!

Healthy People Goal 1: Access to Quality Health Care Services

Goal: to improve access to comprehensive, high quality health care services, and eliminate health disparities.
Objective: To provide better, more accessible services to home health care, adult day, assisted living, nursing home, and hospitals.

Target: 100%
Baseline:83% of people under age 65 years were covered by health insurance in 1997.

Progress: The Progress Quotient Chart indicates that individuals of all ages moved toward target for Sources of Ongoing Care by 11%. The chart also shows that Asian/Pacific Islander met the target for Health Professions(100%) in 1996–97 and 2001–02, while African American and Hispanic population moved toward the target by less than 10%. Poison Control Centers have been doing a really good job providing great services, and exceeded the target in 1999, 2000 by providing single toll-free number. The list goes on.....

Opportunities and Challenges: Residents with limited access to primary and preventive health care need to be focused on, so their health needs may be identified and met. There are challenges encountered for meeting targets for long-term care (LTC) services of nursing home, care home health, assisted living, and adult day care.

Emerging Issues: Timely access to the ED should be studied and tracked using measures that address health care disparities. Issues faced in LTC include topics of workforce, insurance, and consumer-directed services. Adding on, quality of care is an ongoing issue.

Disparities are showed in these three charts:
-Race and Ethnicity
-Gender and Education
-Income, location and Disability

The topic of Quality Health Care is pretty broad, so I had a hard time finding a specific bill that relates to it, but I did find something I think is relevant. It contains too many sections and it's too, so here is a link to it. :)

S.F. No. 2 - Health Care (Second Engrossment)
Author: Senator Linda Berglin
Prepared by: Katie Cavanor, Senate Counsel (651/296-3801)
Date: February 28th, 2007
Vote Yes for S.F.No. 2-Health Care bill.

Thanks for reading!