Health care Delivery Issues From Another Point of View of View

There are a number of ways to approach the subject of medical care delivery in the time of restricted or lessened resources. J sent this blog link to me today, and I recommend looking at it. The author considers some of the questions related to access to medicine that does not have adequate substitutes available within the fields of natural medicine or low tech healing.

This is good stuff to look at now, all of it, while we still have-some of us anyway- the leisure of living in a time of abundant resources. The leading edge of experiencing the direct effect of the need for localization will be those who are even now low in income. We are entering a time already where those of us who have average or better income can complain about the rising prices of gasoline, home energy, or health insurance, but we who are called "poor" or the working poor" are already staying home rather than making discretionary trips in automobiles, and are already adjusting the thermostats to reflect rising prices.

So here is a link, presented at a time when the clinic -naming issue is still percolating.

http://sharonastyk.com/2008/05/29/public-health-and-welfare-part-ii-depletion-and-abundance-book-excerpt/

Name-the-clinic brainstorming session

In order to begin the legal process leading to the formation of the new clinic, it has to have a name. To get an official name, three names can be submitted to the California office of the Secretary of State, in the order of preference, and a search will be done. If any of the names are free for use, that will be the official name of the clinic. Once the name is chosen and the "Articles of Incorporation" are filed, then that name is written in stone. Changing the name will not really be an option anymore, so right now before anything else really happens the name has to be chosen.

When we are choosing a name, several things have to be taken into consideration. Has the name been trademarked by someone else? Is the name already in use by some for profit or non profit organization in California? And, of course the more local decisions of whether the name fits the goals of the organization. Does it describe the purpose enough so that people can remember it. Is the name memorable enough so that it can be found in the phone book?

There are a couple of other considerations. First, some initially appealing names might just be too airy fairy. The clinic conception itself is far enough outside of the box that my personal inclination is to have a pretty mainstream name.

So lets get started. Here are a few names that have been suggested. And oh, my first choice was some variation of "The Healing Point: A South County Community Clinic...". Well, that is just not available. It is a basically a trademarked name of a manufacturing company in Southern California. I don't know whether the words after 'the healing point' would put it back in the running, but I doubt it. I'm attached enough at the moment to want to try.

i have eliminated a few more names by googling them and seeing if that led to any California organizations and businesses. Although it would make some sense to use the name Cotati in the name, there is no guarantee that the Clinic will be able to locate or necessarily stay right there. Hence the more general location ideas.

A. The Living Tree: A South County Community Based Wellness Clinic
B. The Tree of Life South County Community Wellness Clinic (The Tree of Lifei s the name of a health food store in Berkeley)
C. South County Miracles: A Community Clinic
D. South County Tree of Life: A Community Based Wellness Clinic
E.The Healing Point: A South County Community Clinic and Wellness Center
F. South County Milagros: A Community Clinic and Wellness Center
G. Any other ideas????????

Please let me know what you think by the end of the week. You can email me at: acuiva@sonic.net.

The clinic vision, second post

There is a bit more to the current vision for our future clinic.

In addition to the several healing modalities there will be classes that emphasise healing through movement. Qi gong, yoga, and Pilates mat classes are currently what I imagine we will want to offer.

I am also interested in working with going local with both food and herbal medicines. There is a school teaching western herbology in Forestville. Talking with some local herb growers, and with some graduates of this school's program, I have come to believe that by using local herbs, and Chinese herbs grown locally that acupuncture practitioners and Chinese medical herbalists will be able to wean ourselves from the dependence on Chinese imports. Although up until now Chinese herbs have been very reasonably priced for the American market, that is about to change. Changing climate conditions and natural disasters have been hard on China recently, and it is causing soaring prices there and for their exports, especially for food and herbs. Other factors are the devalued dollar, and shipping prices. It behooves us to work on this issue, and our clinic is an ideal setting for some of this work.

One of my hopes for the clinic, as part of encouraging local community is that we will be able to have classes in growing food and herbs. On the space wish list for the clinic is space for at least a small garden. I hope that we will be encouraging cottage industry herb gardens to be planted in the area.

We aren't going to be doing all of this from the first moment of opening the clinic. It will all take time.

A brand new blog for a new type of clinic

It was only a month ago that the thought seemed to just drop into my head that we should be using our clinics to build community. At the same moment it was also clear that this is just the right time for this to happen. Several forces, some that I know and probably others that I don't have come together right now to make face to face community crucial to our survival. At the same time it is equally clear that except in emergencies, the time has come to uselow tech low cost medical care. Population pressures, climate change, other environmental consideration, and the end of cheap oil are all part of what seems to be almost conspiring to make us remember that our roots our past is in community. This town, Cotati, is in the position of having recently stopped seeming rural and now seems suburban. The price of oil (gas) and with it the price of everything else is rising. It will become increasingly harder for people to buy foods from distant places, and to pay for health care that is both expensive and dependent in somewhat hidden ways on the availability of the low cost petroleum products. In order to get through this in a good way, I feel as do others, that we will need to come together.

The community clinic I am preparing for us to have locally will focus on making healing available at a low cost. I believe we have to do this. The health care "crises" means that the high cost mainstream heath care will be less and less available to the working person.

This clinic is designed to fill in the spaces where mainstream health care cannot quite take care of us. I hope we can have this clinic here in Cotati. We'll see. At first, at least, the clinic will have available mainly healing modalities that are thought of as alternative or complementary medicine. It days will be arranged into "clinics" with each one having a specific focus. I envision one half day focusing on cancer support, another half day for chronic pain, another for Hispanic women and children, one clinic or more for more general health issues, and others as the need arises. Not only do I envision folks being treated to some extent at least in groups with similar diseases, but also I envision people being together in a way so that is both casual and community support building.

I want there to be the sharing of meals together, also. So there has to be a legal kitchen. Maybe soup, bread and salad. Something like that. Happening during the lunch hours and open to those attending the morning AND the afternoon clinics of that day. it is probable that the food itself will come from various sources, some donated by food vendors, some bought with donations from clinic participants, some food brought by participants. A way to get to know each other, share stories of how this or that can be dealt with, fun.

There is more to tell, but I am holding that for the next blog entry.