Hear Me Now Podcast: Recent Episodes
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Providence, one of the nation's largest healthcare systems, is dedicated to caring for the whole person. The twice monthly Hear Me Now Podcast helps fulfill the unmet needs of patients, their loved ones, caregivers, and communities by offering a place for in-depth conversations that matter. Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
Winner of the PR News Nonprofit Podcast of the Year Award 2022
An online transcript is available
At the end of last year,The New Yorker and ProPublica documented fraud and mistreatment in some for-profit hospices across the country. The exposé shouted something that has been whispered for a long while in circles concerned with the care of the dying: hospice needs saving.
Begun as a visionary mission run by charities, hospice care has morphed into a 22 billion dollar industry where margin trumps mission. On today's program, host Seán Collins discusses the state of hospice, its future, and ways to preserve quality of care when caring for people at the end of their lives. Guests are Drs. Ira Byock and Glen Komatsu, longtime hospice physicians and thought leaders in the field.
Glen Komatsu, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Providence Hospice, Los Angeles County
Torrance, Calif.
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Ira Byock, M.D., FAAHMP
Emeritus Professor of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Author, Dying Well (1997), The Four Things That Matter Most (2004), and The Best Care Possible (2012)
Missoula, Mont.
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FURTHER READING
How Hospice Became a For-Profit Hustle by Ava Kofman (New Yorker)
Endgame: How the Visionary Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle by Ava Kofman (ProPublica)
Joint statement from The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) responding to Ava Kofman's reporting.
Dr. Tara Friedman's response to the New Yorker article (President, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Hospice Needs Saving by Ira Byock (STAT First Opinion)
Hospice Industry: Start with Apologies by Ira Byock (STAT First Opinion)
National Hospice Locator (Hospice Analytics)
Hospice Compare (medicare.gov)
A simplified description of the person from Dr. Eric Cassell's "The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine."
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A transcript is available online
Addiction and overdose rates have reached historic levels in the last several years. And while fentanyl and synthetic opioids are responsible for much of the surge, cocaine and other stimulants such as methamphetamine are playing an increasingly common role. Addiction problems are not rare (it's estimated that 10% of the population has substance use disorder) and they don't go away because someone is pregnant.
Substance use during pregnancy -- whether of licit or illicit substances -- can complicate pregnancy and may pose a risk for the fetus. And because of the stigma associated with substance use, many people forego prenatal care, further complicating the pregnancy.
Host Seán Collins talks with two healthcare professionals about their efforts to reach people with substance use disorders to help them care for themselves and their fetus.
Collin Schenk, M.D., is an Addiction Recovery Services physician at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Wash. Kirsten Lavery, RN, MSN is the Nurse Manager for Addiction Recovery Services. In addition, we hear from Jennifer Justice, a parent ally at the FIRST Legal Clinic in Seattle, about her own story of recovery and her work now helping others during their pregnancies.
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An extended excerpt from Jennifer Justice's conversation with Kirsten Lavery is available here.
Perinatal Substance Use Disorder Learning Collaborative (WSHA)
A transcript of this episode is available online • A list of mental health resources is available on our website
"Everyone has anxiety and you can't really survive childhood without some anxiety," says psychiatrist Dr. Maureen Nash. "It is, at least theoretically, what prevents us from doing catastrophically negative things like walking off a cliff, or hugging the stove when it's red hot."
The fight-or-flight response has its place. We're hard-wired to preserve our overall well-being at the expense of a few anxious moments when we're threatened. But, as Dr. Nash adds, "an anxiety disorder is when you have fight-or-flight gone awry and it is either in excess of what is useful to you or it actually debilitates you."
A growing number of young people are showing symptoms of anxiety, in part due to the zeitgeist (consider a future of global warming, longterm economic prospects, and pushback on efforts to foster inclusion and diversity) and nearly continuous stimulus from electronic devices and social media.
"Trigger after trigger after trigger," says Dr. Robin Henderson, Chief Clinical Officer of WORK2BEWELL, a mental health and wellness program focused on providing mental health resources and education for teens, parents, and educators.
"When we look at increasing rates of anxiety -- we see numbers as high as 40% of females, 36% of males, young adult, high school having some symptoms, if not a full on diagnosis of anxiety -- we see numbers that has to be what we're seeing out of the pandemic and all of those stressors there and what we're seeing in social media and, candidly, what we're seeing in the political environment, not limited to climate change, politics, racism, and all of those things. It's a very stimulating world."
But there's hope. There are ways to cope with anxiety even to treat it as one's "superpower." Today's episode also includes conversations with two college students who not only live with anxiety, but who are working to help others cope with the stressors they face in the world today. And they share their insights into strategies they use to manage their anxiety. Billie Henderson is a college student in Oregon and Dominic Brown attends college in Southern California. Both have worked to help other young people through WORK2BEWELL.
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RESOURCES
Need to talk now? or call 988
Anxiety Grounding Techniques
WORK2BEWELL website
WORK2BEWELL Instagram account
State-by-State Mental Health Resources
Anxiety Disorders (NAMI)
"Hiding in Plain Sight" documentary PBS | Amazon
Providence ElderPlace
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A transcript is available online
America is obsessed with food. And it's killing us.
It's estimated that half of all Americans will be obese within a decade. Overweight and obesity are directly tied to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, joint disorders, erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, stroke, and contribute to dementia and some cancers.
On today's program we focus on how the object of our obsession could — just maybe — become the means to our better health.
What does it mean to think of food as medicine?
Our guests are Dr. Miles Hassell, board certified in internal medicine and in private practice at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. He established the Integrative Medicine Program at Providence Cancer Center and is Associate Medical Director/Professor at Pacific University School of Physician Assistant Studies. He uses evidence-based nutrition and exercise options in his medical practice and lectures widely to physician groups regarding the use of nutritional medicine. Along with his sister Mea, Dr. Hassell is the author of "Good Food, Great Medicine: A Mediterranean Diet and Lifestyle Guide."
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Check out these excerpts from Dr. Hassell's book.
- Meal planning tips
- Pantry Basics (Shopping list)
- Risk Reduction Action Plan (Start with your pantry)
- Risk Reduction Action Plan (Secret weapon: Protein + Good Fat + Fiber)
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Chef Josh Galliano grew up in New Orleans where life is a little slower and the food is a little more amazing. After studying History as an undergrad and Political Science as a grad student at LSU, he went to London and Le Cordon Bleu where he received the Grand Diplôme. Galliano cooked and honed his skills in Angela Hartnett's MENU and at Roussillon, both in London, Restaurant Daniel in New York, and Commander's Palace in New Orleans. Galliano moved to St. Louis and found community and support that rewarded him with a loyal following and awards such as ‘Food and Wine’s Best New Chef: Midwest’ and multiple nominations for the James Beard-Best Chef in the Midwest award. Today he's elbow deep in dough at Companion Baking, making breads steeped in tradition and new breads that express healthfulness, place, and awareness of community.
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A transcript is available online
An alarming fact about childbirth in America is that after years of decline, the maternal mortality rate has risen for the past 10 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 800 and 900 women die in the U.S. each year from complications of childbirth. Black women are up to four times more likely to die during or as a result of childbirth than non-Hispanic white women.
In Seattle, an innovative program combines world-class obstetric care with doula support, cultural understanding, community connection, and respect for family traditions. The program is led by a fourth-generation birth doula named Sauleiha Akangbe.
"Healthy mom and healthy baby is a bare minimum," Akangbe says. "Can we please get a happy mom, a fulfilled mom, an empowered mom, a baby that's going home to know that mom is going be able to take care of me afterward because she didn't have to go through all this traumatic stuff when she had me?"
On today's program, conversations about the JUST Birth Network between Sauleiha Akangbe and her sister, Safia Alakbar -- and with host Seán Collins, who also talks with Dr. Emily Norland who is System Chief for Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Swedish Medical Centers in Seattle and the Chief of OB/GYN at the Swedish First Hill Campus.
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An online transcript is available
For years, heart disease was thought of as "a man's disease." But the truth is quite different and quite sobering: one-in-three women in America dies of heart disease. Symptoms go unnoticed, warning signs are often ignored, and delays in seeking care make heart disease the #1 killer of women in the U.S.
On today's program, we talk with Dr. Lori Tam, a cardiologist at the Providence Heart Clinic in Portland, Ore., about the ways heart disease in women differs from heart disease in men and some of the particular warning signs women should be aware of.
Also, we talk with Kris Kleindienst, a small business owner in Missouri who had a heart attack a year ago. She tell us about her experience seeking care and the ways she's changing her life in recovery.
Lori Tam, M.D.
Providence Heart Clinic
St. Vincent Medical Center
Portland, Ore.
Kris Kleindienst
Owner
Left Bank Books
St. Louis, Mo.
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READ MORE:
Women and Heart Disease (CDC)
Go Red for Women (American Heart Association)
Listen to Your Heart (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
MINOCA Heart Attacks (Providence)
Broken Heart Syndrome (American Heart Association)
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An online transcript is available
Early in May 2023, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, announced an end to the COVID-19 Global Health Emergency. But Dr. Ghebreyesus was quick to add that thousands of people were still fighting for their lives in ICUs and many millions more were living with post-COVID health conditions.
On today's program we explore life post-COVID with Dr. James Jackson, author of "Clearing the fog: From surviving to thriving with Long COVID — A practical guide" (Little Brown Spark, 2023).
Dr. Jackson has been a pioneer in treating ICU survivors and that work prepared him to help patients as they emerged from the initial infection with SARS-CoV-2 and entered the uncharted -- and sometimes, baffling -- territory of Long COVID.
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James. C. Jackson, Psy.D.
Assistant Director
ICU Recovery Center,
Director of Long-term Outcomes
Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center,
Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
Associate Professor of Medicine,
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Nashville, Tenn.
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Read an excerpt from Clearing the Fog Chapter 7: THE WOUND IS WHERE THE LIGHT ENTERS: Post-traumatic growth after COVID.
An online transcript is available. The book from which these reflections are drawn is available to download or read online.
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On today's program, we are listening to nurses as they reflect on their experiences on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are stories of uncertainty and fear, of anger and resilience, dedication, recovery, and camaraderie. But most of all these are stories about caregiving.
The readings that make up this episode are drawn from the book, Providence Nurses Inspire Hope through Healing: Reflections from the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic, edited by Hilary Alison, Katie Adams, Katie Grainger, and Hayley Pike. Our thanks to the editors and to all the nurse-contributors, including:
Syl Trepanier, SVP Chief Nursing Officer, Renton, Wash. • Shandria Dyer, Critical Care Nurse, Santa Rosa, Calif. • Nanny Rawlings, Nurse Navigator, Complex Care Management, Bainbridge Island, Wash. • Starr Salvatore, Clinic/Triage Nurse, Lacey, Wash. • Amanda Meyer, ICU Nurse, Spokane, Wash. • Ana Rocha, Oncology Nurse Practitioner, Santa Monica, Calif. • Ashlee Dowling, Senior Clinical Informatics Specialist & ICU Nurse, Missoula, Mont. • Lady Lou S. Sayson, Certified Registered Nurse, Lubbock, Texas • Christine Marshall, Emergency Care Center Nurse, Orange, Calif. • Jennifer Gentry, Chief Nursing Officer Central Division, Portland, Ore. • Illeana Bassoco-Barajas, Med Surgery Oncology Nurse, Fullerton, Calif.
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A transcript is available online
Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder of the blood protein hemoglobin. It has multiple ways to impact the health of someone with the disease — with a hallmark symptom being excruciating chronic pain. The vast majority of people with sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease are Black. Until relatively recently, there has been only one drug to treat the disease.
On this week's program, host Seán Collins talks with Dr. Titilope Fasipe, co-director of the Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Program at Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center in Houston about advances in both the treatment of sickle cell disease and progress toward a cure.
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Titilope Fasipe, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Director
Sickle Cell & Thalassemia Program
Texas Children's Cancer & Hematology Center
Assistant Professor
Pediatrics & Hematology/Oncology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas
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To produce this episode, we collected stories from people living with sickle cell disease. These interviews are excerpted in this podcast episode and we invite you to listen to more of the conversations by following the links below.
Andre Marcel Harris speaks with his sister Alexis Harris
Sijaama Branch talking with producer Scott Acord
Heather Avant in conversation with her cousin Dr. Bria Davis
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To learn more:
A full list of resources is available on our website
Sickle Cell & Thalasemmia Program (Texas Children's)
Sickle Cell Disease Coalition
A “Narcotics Contract” for a Patient With Sickle Cell Disease Pediatrics / (the "care-seeking" article)
Building access to care in adult sickle cell disease Blood Advances
Cure Sickle Cell Initiative NIH
Sickle Cell Gene Therapy Education Project NIH
Addressing SCD: A Strategic Plan and Blueprint for Action NASEM
Sickle Cell Data Collection CDC
A Review of Sickle Cell Disease (and Reply) JAMA
Hospital Use and Mortality in Transition-Aged Patients With Sickle Cell Disease Hospital Pediatrics
Still seeking balance in opioid management for acute sickle cell disease pain Pediatric Blood & Cancer
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A transcript is available online
We all know how the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" ends: Dorothy taps her heals together and reminds herself that 'there's no place like home.' And that's true for many people in need of long-term care.
On today's program, two conversations about some of the challenges faced by two different groups of people wanting to stay in their homes and receive needed services there: people with a disability and the elderly. Both groups often find that living in their homes and in communities they're familiar with benefits them in multiple ways.
But the cost of long-term assistance from caregivers can make staying at home difficult, if not impossible.
Dr. Maureen Nash is a geriatric psychiatrist. She talks with host Seán Collins about the many psychological benefits of receiving care in a familiar setting for those who choose "aging in place."
And we hear from Dr. Lisa Iezzoni from the Harvard Medical School about the many barriers that exist for people with a disability, regardless of their age, remaining in their own home.
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Dr. Nash has recently been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. She previously was a guest on this podcast's episodes that focused on Dementia and memory care and Family Caregiving.
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Maureen Nash, M.D., FACP, FAPA, DFAAGP
Medical Director
Providence ElderPlace — PACE Oregon
Portland, Ore.
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Dr. Iezzoni is the author of Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities. She previously was a guest on this podcast's episode that focused on Doctors & Disabilities.
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Lisa Iezzoni, M.D., MSc.
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Health Policy Research Center—The Mongan Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Mass.
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FOR MORE INFORMATIION:
Aging in Place: Growing Older at Home National Institute on Aging
Book review of Making Their Days Happen Disability and Health Journal
Dignity of risk and living at home despite severe disability Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Informal and formal home care for older adults with disabilities Health Affairs
Remaining at home with a severe disability Health Affairs
Historical mismatch between home-based care policies and laws governing home care Health Affairs
A transcript is available online
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The COVID pandemic showed us how critical the problem of professional fatigue is in healthcare. It has led to early retirement, reduced staffing, and increased costs throughout healthcare systems. But the syndrome that's commonly called "burnout" existed long before the pandemic and it will — undoubtedly — exist after it.
Our guests today believe that healthcare burnout is a systems problem that is manifest in individuals: a symptom of a disease that is often not apparent until a talented professional resigns and leaves the clinical setting altogether.
On today's program, we hear from a number of front-line healthcare professionals about their experiences with a pilot program that connects certified coach-physicians with medical staff who are feeling some degree of professional dissatisfaction and are concerned about their well-being.
Could physicians-coaching-physicians bypass the cultural stigma against receiving help, provide much needed professional development, offer refinement of personal mission, and optimize mental health and personal resilience? Happily we can report that the answer appears to be yes.
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Chrissie Ott, M.D.
Internal Medicine & Pediatrics
Medical Director
Center for Medically Fragile Children
Providence Regional Medical Director of Well-being
Portland, Ore.
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Tricia James, M.D.
Internal Medicine Residency Faculty
Medical Director, Wellness
Providence Portland Medical Center
Portland, Ore.
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To read an executive summary of the Medical Staff Coaching Initiative, a partnership between Providence and Coaching for Institutions, please click here. (.pdf)
To read the presentation slides from the 2022 International Conference on Physician Health, click here. (.pdf)
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Hans Moller, M.D.
Orthopedic Surgery
Providence Seaside Clinic
Seaside, Ore.
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Kimi Powers, PA-C
Family Medicine
Providence Center for Weight Management
Portland, Ore.
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Maneesha Ahluwalia, M.D.
Infectious Diseases
Certified Life Coach
Baltimore, Md.
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To hear more of Dr. Ahluwalia and Ms. Powers' conversation, click here.
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Christina Rothans, LCSW
Palliative Care Social Worker
Santa Monica, Calif.
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Zahra Esmail, DO
Geriatric Medicine
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif
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Today's program begins with an excerpt from COVID-19 Realities, an episode of our podcast that featured the stories of two palliative caregivers describing the stresses of working through the pandemic surge in Southern California, in January 2021. You can listen to the rest of their remarkable story, here.
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A transcript is available online
One of the unforeseen consequences of the COVID pandemic has been increasing popular awareness of a nursing shortage that was already well in place. COVID just made it worse. Nurse turnover has cost healthcare organizations enormously — both in terms of dollars, but also in lost expertise and institutional memory.
On today's program, host Seán Collins talks with two senior nurse leaders about a vision for how hospitals might be structured moving forward and the new models of care that will ensure nurses are able to focus on the tasks that require their training and expertise as well as their professional license.
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Cynthia Salisbury, RN, MSN, CPHQ, CPPS, NEA-BC
Northern Division Chief Nursing Officer
Providence
Seattle, Wash.
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Jennifer Gentry, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Central Division Chief Nursing Officer
Providence
Portland, Ore.
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This episode was prompted by a LinkedIn post by Providence SVP and System Chief Nursing Officer Syl Trepanier, DNP, which engaged quite a number of nurse leaders across the country.
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Building on their longstanding efforts to meet the educational needs of refugee children, for the first time ever, in Ukraine, the people at Sesame Workshop are producing specialized content for children living in an active war zone.
In this excerpt from this week's podcast, our host Seán Collins speaks with Shanna Kohn, Director of International Education at Sesame.
You can hear more about Sesame's work in Ukraine — along with three other conversation about the impact of the war on the men, women, and children living through it — on this week's podcast: Ukraine and civilian war trauma.
CW: war fighting, sexual violence, genocide
An online transcript is available
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The latest iteration of Russia's war on Ukraine has entered its second year prompting us to examine the issue of war trauma — especially the toll war takes on civilians. Russia's indiscriminate targeting of civilian housing, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure has not only made civilians witnesses of war, but victims of it. War-rape, which was only recognized as a crime against humanity following the war in the former Yugoslavia, is being used by Russian forces and paramilitaries as a means of terrorizing civilians.
On today's program, four conversations about civilians during and after war.
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Sr. Donna Markham, OP, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and Dominican sister, heads Catholic Charities USA. She describes her encounters with Ukrainian civilians during her recent trip to the war zone and the tasks that face the people of Ukraine today. (Watch: Catholic Charities' webinar on Sr. Donna's visit to Ukraine.)
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Next: we talk with Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, MBBS, Ph.D., a physician who co-directs the Centre for Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto about the long-term effects of maternal and child health of living in a war zone and the very real developmental deficits that can arise by disruption of adequate nutrition, normal schooling, and play. (Watch: Aga Khan University's Lecture by Dr. Bhutta on the future of maternal and child health.)
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And we have a conversation with Shanna Kohn who is Director of International Education at Sesame Workshop. In addition to its longstanding effort to meet the educational needs of refugee children, for the first time ever, Sesame Workshop in Ukraine is producing content for children in an active war zone. (Watch: the entire episode "Гровер сумує" ["Grover's Sad"])
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And finally, we talk with Dr. Nena Močnik, Ph.D., author of Trauma Transmission and Sexual Violence: Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Post Conflict Settingsabout the use of rape as a tool of war and the ways victims can begin to recover from the trauma of it. (Watch: Project Eirene's video of Dr. Močnik's webinar on "Women and Post-War Transitions: Oral history,")
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BONUS: Listen to our episode "Life During Wartime" (Episode 041) from March, 2022 where we examined the early days of the Russian War on Ukraine through the lens of whole-person care; how every aspect of a person's life is thrown out of balance in the midst of war. It features conversations with displaced people, ex-pats and people of Ukrainian ancestry living in the U.S. eager to help people back home, relief workers assisting refugees, and a journalist with a long history of covering Putin and the Ukraine.
An online transcript is available
More than 60 million Americans live with a disability and that number will grow as the baby boomers continue to age. But new research throws into question whether those people are receiving the best care possible.
More than four out of five physicians say someone with a significant disability has a worse quality of life than someone without a disability. A minority of physicians — only 42% — feels strongly confident that they can provide equal quality of care to their patients with disabilities as they provide to other patients. And a large number of doctors say they do not strongly welcome disabled patients to their practice.
On today's program, a conversation with Harvard's Lisa Iezzoni, M.D. — a researcher at the Health Policy Research Center at Mass. General Hospital. She has been studying healthcare for people with disability for a generation now and finds the attitudes of her fellow physicians alarming, even 30 years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Lisa Iezzoni, M.D.
Health Policy Research Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Mass.
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FURTHER READING:
Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care, Lisa I Iezzoni, M.D., M.Sc. et al., Health Aff (Millwood). 2021 February
What should we teach about disability? National consensus on disability competencies for health care education, Susan Havercamp, Ph.D., et al. (Disability and Health Journal)
A call to action: Preparing a disability-competent health care workforce, Christina Neill Bowen MSW, LICSW et al. (Disability and Health Journal)
The Ohio Disability and Health Partnership
Nisonger Institute at The Ohio State University
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An online transcript is available
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There's growing evidence that the routine practice of meditation improves quality of life (including relief from anxiety, increased focus, and the mitigation of negative emotions) and that these benefits can be seen after as few as five sessions of meditation. But we didn't really need scientific journals to tell us that: Practitioners of mindfulness meditation have been enjoying the benefits of this natural brain hack for millennia.
On today's program, host Seán Collins talks with a pioneering neuroscience researcher who describes what goes on in the brains of people who meditate, with a hospice doctor who trains his colleagues in techniques of meditation to help them deal with the stresses of their work, and with the founder of a program in Southern California that teaches at-risk youth to meditate as part of a program in effective social and emotional learning.
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Michael Posner, Ph.D., M.S.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Psychology
University of Oregon
Eugene, Ore.
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Glen Komatsu, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Providence Hospice, Los Angeles County
Torrance, Calif.
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Patricia Jones
Founder
P.S. I Love You Foundation
Redondo Beach, Calif.
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Seán refers to the Balance app — a personalized meditation coaching tool which is available for both the Apple and Android platforms.
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MORE INFORMATION
Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation (Tang, Posner, et al., 2007)
Short-term meditation induces white matter changes in the anterior cingulate (Tang, Posner, et al., 2010)
Mechanisms of white matter change induced by meditation training (Posner, Tang, & Lynch, 2014)
Circuitry of self-control and its role in reducing addiction (Tang, Posner, et al., 2015)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders (Hoge, et al. 2023)
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An online transcript is available
On the next episode of the HEAR ME NOW Podcast, we'll explore Mindfulness Meditation with three great people who have connections to the practice.
- Dr. Michael Posner is a brain researcher who has demonstrated changes in brain tissue of people who meditate AND shown changes in how they deal with stress and anxiety.
- Patricia Jones has been helping at-risk youth in Los Angeles to meditate for 25 years.
- And Dr. Glen Komatsu, a hospice and palliative medicine physician in Southern California, teaches Mindfulness Meditation techniques to his colleagues to help them deal with the stress of their work.
Dr. Posner's research shows that as few as five short sessions of meditation can begin to change how people feel and react to stress. In this four minute BONUS episode, Dr. Komatsu coaches us in a simple meditation technique that you can try out before listening to the next podcast episode.
A video of the episode that includes captioning & ASL interpretation is available online. A transcript is also available.
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If you take only one fact away from this podcast today, it should be this: more than 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, healthcare providers in the United States remain ill-equipped to meet the needs of deaf, deaf-blind, and hard of hearing people who come to them for care. On today's program, host Seán Collins talks with Drs. Poorna Kushalnagar and James Huang of Gallaudet University about the barriers that exist in the healthcare setting for people with hearing loss and some of the steps medicine can take to make the best care possible a reality for all patients.
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Poorna Kushalnagar, Ph.D., MA
Director of the Center for Deaf Health Equity
Chief Research Officer
Office of Research
Gallaudet University
Washington, D.C.
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James Huang, M.D. FAAFP
Family Physician
Medical Director, Student Health Services
Gallaudet University
Washington, D.C.
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We also present excerpts from a conversation between Christine Kostrubala and her friend Sarah Rasmussen about some of the hurdles Christine has faced as a deaf person seeking treatment for cancer. An extended version of this conversation will be available by 6:00p PST on Thursday 12 January.
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MORE INFORMATION
The Center for Deaf Health Equity
The Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses
A print-ready transcript of this episode is available.
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An online transcript is available
Complete episode note can be found here
Playlists: Apple MusicSpotify.pdf
Trouble listening? Right-click to download an MP3
"Self-care" became a common discussion topic at the start of the pandemic to the extent that it's now not unheard of for relative strangers to share their life-hacks with each other. So, as we come to the end of 2022, with all of the stress and craziness that come from turning the page of a calendar, we offer you a life-tested playlist for well-being: deep cuts our guests recommend for those moments when you want to pull back, recharge, take stock, reset, and find that special sweet spot between listening-and-hearing where you connect with your wellness and can be restored.
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Many thanks to all our panelists today. And from all of us at the Hear Me Now Podcast, we hope the year ahead is sweet.
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You'll find the (nearly) complete Well-being Playlist on Apple Music and on Spotify. And you can download a printable list, too. A few cuts heard on the podcast episode are not available on streaming services but are available for you to hear elsewhere: "Don't Think Twice" ft. Billy Strings, "Barbara Allen" ft. Emmy Rossum, "Barbara Allen" ft. Emmylou Harris, and an unplugged version of Spencer LaJoye's "Plowshare Prayer," as heard on the podcast.
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Jeremy Edmonds
Outreach & Marketing Liaison
Providence ElderPlace - PACE
Guest on the debut of this podcast: Ep. 001 "I see you. I hear you. And I ache for you" and on Ep. 022 "George Floyd revisited: Our first anniversary."
Vashon Island, Wash.
"Love's in Need of Love Today" by Stevie Wonder on "Songs in the Key of Life"
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PRODUCERS' PANEL: Melody Fawcett
Care Experience Manager
Providence Home & Community Care
Tukwila, Wash.
"Spanish Steps" by Van Morrison on "Poetic Champions Compose"
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Dr. LJ Punch
Trauma Surgeon & Founder of the BRIC — the Bullet-Related Injury Clinic
Recent guest on this podcast: Ep. 50 "When Bullets Wound"
Saint Louis, Mo.
"Chrysalism" by Toonorth on "Chillhop Essentials Spring 2020"
"Go Up Moses" by Roberta Flack on "Quiet Fire"
"Right On" by the Roots, Joanna Newsom, STS" on "How I Got Over"
"Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley & The Wailers on "Legend — The Best of Bob Marley"
"Song Song" by Ben Wendel on "What We Bring"
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Steve Silberman
Author, "NeuroTribes: the Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity"
Recent guest on this podcast: Ep. 57 "Neurodiversity"
San Francisco, Calif.
"Kids and Dogs" by David Crosby (ft. Jerry Garcia) on "If Only I Could Remember My Name"
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Dr. Anna McDonald
Faculty,
Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Global Health Residency
Recent guest on this podcast: Ep. 54 "Family medicine building bridges"
Seattle, Wash./Mangochi, Malawi
"Particula" by Major Lazer & DJ Maphorisa on "Know No Better"
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Eric Thoelke
Founder, TOKY Branding + Design
Saint Louis, Mo.
"The Breaking of the Fellowship" by Howard Shore on "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring"
"Days of the Ring" by Howard Shore on "LOTR: The Return of the King"
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PRODUCERS' PANEL: Mike Drummond
Executive Director, Communications
Providence Health
Dana Point, Calif.
"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan performed by Billy Strings
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Gwen Thompkins
Writer and Host of Music Inside Out
Guest on this podcast: Ep. 007 "COVID winter strategies"
New Orleans, La.
Two recordings of "Barbara Allen" (trad.) sung first by Emmy Rossum and then by Emmylou Harris.
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Bob Boilen
NPR host and producer, musician
All Songs Considered& Tiny Desk Concerts
Silver Spring, Md.
"Opening" by Michael Reisman, Philip Glass, and The Philip Glass Ensemble on "Glassworks."
"Retracing Home" by Bob Boilen on "Hidden Smiles."
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Alexandra Beers
Poet
Brooklyn, N.Y.
"Someone to Watch Over Me" by Ira Gershwin performed by Keith Jarrett from "The Melody at Night, With You."
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Dr. Ira Byock
Palliative Care Physician and Founder of the Providence Institute for Human Caring
Missoula, Mont.
"My Life" by Iris DeMent from "My Life."
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PRODUCERS' PANEL: Scott Acord
Communications Manager
Hear Me Now storytelling project
Providence
Los Angeles, Calif.
"Plowshare Prayer" by Spencer LaJoye
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Seán Collins
Host and co-producer of the Hear Me Now Podcast
Saint Louis, Mo.
"1/2" by Brian Eno from "Ambient 1: Music for Airports"
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A transcript is available online
Women outnumber men in American medical schools, but in the operating room it's still an Old Boys' Club. Surgery remains a bastion of male privilege, prerogative, and power in American healthcare. But that is changing. On today's program, Seán talks with three surgeons who understand firsthand the challenges faced by the women who routinely suffer insults and aggressions in an antiquated system.
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Julie Ann Sosa, M.D., MA, FACS, FSSO
Chair, Department of Surgery
Leon Goldman, M.D. Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Professor, Department of Medicine
Affiliated faculty, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
University of California, San Francisco
Editor-in-Chief
World Journal of Surgery
Société Internationale de Chirurgie
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Dr. Sosa on Twitter • Mastodon
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Shenia Theodore, M.D.
Trauma & Acute Care Surgeon
Boston Medical Center
Boston University School of Medicine
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Dr. Theodore on Twitter
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M Cristy Smith, M.D., FACS
Cardiothoracic & Heart Transplant Surgeon
Surgical Director, Heart Transplant/Mechanical Circulatory Support
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Spokane, Wash.
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Dr. Smith on LinkedIn
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The episode includes this piece by Brooklyn- and Berkshire mountains-based poet, Alexandra Beers, MS Ed., MFA:
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Recovery
for Seán Collins
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They open your heart the way dentists open your mouth, as if they can just peek inside, and then they start with the loud drills and suction and all manner of vocabulary is tossed about and picking and pulling until they have cleaned you up, and afterward you are supposed to just spit and go on living the way you did, your teeth or your chest or your whole self sore for a bit, and you avoid hard candies and proceed with caution. Then you almost forget and you just bite and swallow and breathe easily again. Only if you are alive, really alive to this you are never the same. You are deeply in love with the people who fixed you and you want to stay in their care forever. Yet you must rise, rise each day to the blessing of blue true nothing of all knowingness that they bestowed on you as they sewed you up with the twine of science and grace and sent you out to join the rest of us. Be brave, and share.
—Alexandra Beers
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A transcript is available online
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Today we’re tapping the storytelling skills of veteran science and tech reporter, Steve Silberman.
In 2015, Silberman’s book NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity was published and soon took a place on The New York Times bestseller list. And in Britain, it was awarded the Samuel Johnson prize for best nonfiction writing in English.
The work was groundbreaking: exploring both the legacy of autism, but also the future of neurodiversity. It brought clarity where there had often been confusion and it began to explore new avenues and answer questions that have lead to even more fascinating questions.
Steve Silberman is Seán's guest on today's program.
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TELL US YOUR STORY
With this podcast episode, we’re inaugurating a project to collect oral histories of autism — stories from autistic people and people who work alongside them, or care for them, or love them.
Let us know if you’re interested in being part of that project and would like to tell us your story.
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Steve Silverman's website www.stevesilberman.com includes an extensive list of resources for parents, clinicians, and autistic people (many written by autistic people.)
NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
The forgotten history of autism (TED)
The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical (ISNT)
Autistic Self-Advocacy Network
Asperger/Autism Network
Don't Mourn for Us by Jim Sinclair (Our Voice, 1993)
An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks (The New Yorker, Dec 27, 1993)
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Before the pandemic, one-in-five children in America faced a challenge with their mental, emotional, or behavioral health. Since the pandemic, symptoms of depression and anxiety among young people have doubled, worldwide.
We all have a role in protecting the mental health of kids. And we can start by making it something that it’s OK to talk about.
On today’s program, two youth advocates for mental health – Billie Henderson and Kaiya Bates – discuss what they’ve experienced and how they’ve worked to make things better for other young people.
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A transcript of this episode is available online.
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CONTENT WARNING:
Billie and Kaiya's conversation includes discussion of self-harm and suicide, which may be troubling for some listeners. If you are struggling, please call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. Someone is available to talk with you now.
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RESOURCES:
Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory (.pdf)
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline call 988 anytime
Work2BeWell: Mental Health Resilience Support for Teens & Adults
The Trevor Project call 866-488-7386 | chat | text "START" to 678-678
The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline (RAINN) call 800-656-4673 | chat
How do we connect with our kids? Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D. & Dr. Becky Kennedy, Ph.D. (video)
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness a film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers (video/paywall)
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In 2019, Tembi Locke's book From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Homefound a place in Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Cluband on the New York Times bestseller list. It has now been adapted as an eight-part series on Netflix starring Zoe Saldaña and Eugenio Mastrandrea.
Tembi Locke talks with Seán about the adaptation that she helmed with her sister Attica Locke, about the experience of watching Zoe Saldaña portray a character based on Tembi's life, and about the thickly-woven fabric of family, food, love, serious illness, loss, and grief that's at the heart of Tembi's story.
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Tembi mentions her recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana being used to feed the cast and crew during filming. Read the recipe (.pdf) here.
Closing credit music: Anime Imperfette sung by Matteo Bocelli, From Scratch (Soundtrack from Netflix series) Laura Karpman & Raphael Saadiq
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Tembi Locke's best-selling memoir, From Scratch, has been turned into an eight-part series streaming now on Netflix. It's the story of life and love and loss... and the healthcare choices a family makes.
Tembi will be our guest on the next episode (10/27/2022) of the podcast. Check out "From Scratch" on Netflix and then make a plan to join us on the next Hear Me Now Podcast.
📄 A transcript is available online
They describe the program as bi-directional: The Providence Global and Domestic Engagement department sponsors family medicine residents from across Providence’s seven-state health system to gain skills not available in the U.S. context to practice at the Mangochi District Hospital in Malawi. Meantime, family medicine registrars from Malawi's Kamuzu University of Health Sciences travel to Seattle for training not available in the Malawian context at the Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency. Splitting their time between the two locations are faculty members Anna McDonald, M.D., and Jacob Nettleton, M.D.
The goal: Address global health inequity.
We examine a macro view of what happens when there's a collaboration and a sharing of human resources, building bidirectional medical rotations, and where learners are teachers and teachers are learners.
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Additional Information:
Global & Domestic Engagement | Community Partnerships | Providence
Global & Domestic Engagement | Capacity Sharing in Malawi | Providence (.pdf)
Malawi Global Health Program | Swedish Family Medicine Residency
Wonca— Global Family Doctors
AfriWon— Africa chapter of Wonca
Seed Global Health
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♫ Mojo by the Malawian musician, Driemo (Official video)
Last year in the U.S., more than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses. It's a staggering statistic that was unthinkable just a few years ago.
A paper by Dr. Honora Englander and attorney Corey Davis in the New England Journal of Medicine took hospitals and policy-makers to task last month for not doing enough to support and engage people who use drugs and who are hospitalized.
They write, "The United States is in the throes of a decades-long exacerbation of drug-related harm. Hospitals are a key domain for implementing person-first, evidence-based interventions for reducing that harm. Yet despite the obvious need, hospitals have been slow to enact reforms to improve the health of people who use drugs. We believe that systemic reform, led by the federal government, is necessary to mitigate the ongoing crisis of drug-related harm." †
In this episode they talk with Seán about current impediments to the best care possible and their vision for improving standards of care nationwide.
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Honora Englander, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Director/PI, Improving Addiction Care Team (IMPACT)
Division of Hospital Medicine
Section of Addiction Medicine in DGIM
Department of Medicine,
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, Ore.
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Corey Davis, J.D., M.P.H.S.
Deputy Director, Southeastern Region Office
Director, Harm Reduction Legal Project
Network for Public Health Law
Edina, Minn.
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† Englander, H. & Davis, C. (Aug. 25, 2022) Hospital standards of care for people with substance use disorder, New England Journal of Medicine, 387:672-675. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2204687 (N.B. Article is behind paywall, though free access is possible with registration.)
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Today, we look at well-being with wisdom gleaned from the first two years of this podcast. We listen with an ear to taking care of ourselves in ordinary times from people in the throes of extraordinary times… warfare… pandemic… social change… illness… and the challenges of just being human.
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Explore the complete list of past episodes.
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BE UNCOMFORTABLE
Providence caregivers Jeremy Edmonds and Victoria Johnson reflect on their experiences of racism in our first podcast episode, "I see you. I hear you. I ache for you," published just weeks after the murder of George Floyd.
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UNPLUGGING IS OK
Syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson talks with Seán about her strategies for the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the episode, "COVID Winter Strategies," published in October 2020.
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ANIMALS ARE OUR FRIENDS
Mazie B. is 11 years old and she offers advice for social distancing and building relationships with pets. Also heard in the episode, "COVID winter strategies," from October 2020.
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PERSON TO PERSON IN WARTIME
Providence caregiver Inna Pashniak talks with her friend Oleksyi Kurka who is internally-displaced in Ukraine. He talks about the ways people are reaching out to one another, even as missiles are fired at civilian targets, in the episode "Life during wartime" from March 2022.
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GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FOR KIDS
In June 2022, we talked about the standards of care for trans kids with pediatricians and endocrinologists and we augmented that conversation with stories from trans youth, parents of trans kids, and trans and non-binary adults. Sam Pleger, who is 19, talks with his mom Erin about his experiences as a kid in Montana and her experiences parenting a trans kid.
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COVID-19 REALITIES
Dr. Zahra Esmail and social worker Christina Rothans, palliative care team members, talk about the realities of caring for dying patients during the height of a COVID-19 surge in Southern California in an episode from January 2021.
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The syndrome that's appearing after someone is infected with COVID is an emerging global health crisis. Yet, confusion about Long COVID remains. Which symptoms get ruled-in? Which get ruled-out? Can anything be a symptom of Long COVID if it occurs after a COVID infection?
On today's program, we talk with researchers studying the illnesses that people who have had COVID are living with, including persistent fatigue, loss of the sense of smell, vascular conditions, and brain fog and other neurological problems. We also talk with a psychologist who began support groups for Long COVID patients who often feel their symptoms are ignored (or not understood) by their doctors and families. And four patients describe their life with Long COVID for us.
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James R. Heath, Ph.D.
President
Institute for Systems Biology
Seattle, Wash.
The Heath Lab
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Jason D. Goldman, M.D., MPH
Infectious Disease Specialist
Swedish Center for Comprehensive Care
Seattle, Wash.
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Drs. Heath and Goldman are co-principal investigators of the PASC study — (Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19) — published in the March 3, 2022 issue of the journal Cell. It is part of a nationwide initiative to study the aftermath of COVID-19 infection known as RECOVER: Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery.
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James C. Jackson, Psy.D.
Research Associate Professor of Medicine
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Director of Long-Term Outcomes, ICU Recovery Center
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tenn.
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Dr. Jackson welcomes email from clinicians interested in starting Long COVID support groups at their institutions.
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PATIENT STORIES
This episode begins with the voices of four people who are living with Long COVID in conversations facilitated by producer Scott Acord. We're grateful for them taking the time to talk about their experiences. You can listen to extended cuts of their conversations here:
Pam & Lyla Bishop: Bedbound
Alicia Swift: Bone-tired
Suzanne Martin: The hardships of having Long COVID
TJ Roseberry: A wanderer is homebound
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Bullet wounds go more than skin deep. LJ Punch, M.D., is a trauma surgeon and the founder of the BRIC — the Bullet-Related Injury Clinic in Saint Louis, Mo.. The BRIC is where shooting victims come for wound care and education, help with pain management, care for the emotional and social impact of being shot, and the acknowledgement that their bullet wound could likely have profound spiritual meaning for them, their families, and their communities.
They also find a place of warm welcome.
"Trauma is a communal injury and must be healed in community," says Dr. Punch. "The medical world is missing out because it's abstracting this one tiny part of it." He says the treatment that's needed to heal a bullet wound is not happening in hospitals.
We also talk with Pierre Underwood, who was shot early this year and is recovering from his bullet wound with the help of the staff of the BRIC.
It’s estimated that 1 in 10 of us hear voices, which may be a sign of mental illness. Or not. We examine the phenomena through Caroline Mazel-Carlton. She’s part of a movement of people who have come to find meaning in the experience of hearing voices (or seeing visions) and who learn to incorporate those experiences in their life. Many forgo use of some or all medications and are seeking wellness through peer-support networks and harm-reduction strategies.
Mazel-Carlton tells host Seán Collins that many of the voices she hears have a cautionary or protective role in her life and have reminded her to be more mindful of the aspects of her life the voices comment upon.
She serves on the board of the HEARING VOICES NETWORK—USA (@HVN_USA) and works at the Wildflower Alliance (@WildflwrAlliance) in western Massachusetts, a grassroots peer support, advocacy, and training organization with a focus on harm reduction and human rights. Her work includes training in suicide alternatives.
Earlier this year, Caroline Mazel-Carlton was profiled in a story in the New York Times reported by Daniel Bergner: Doctors gave her antipsychotics. She decided to live with her voices.
If you are thinking about harming yourself, HELP IS AVAILABLE. Call or text 988 and connect with someone today.
FURTHER READING
A comprehensive review of auditory verbal hallucinations: lifetime prevalence, correlates and mechanisms in healthy and clinical individuals. by S de Leede-Smith, E, Barkus Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. (2013)
The current outbreak of monkeypox is unusual because the viral illness is rarely seen outside the places where it's endemic. (It is most often seen in Central and Western Africa.) Monkeypox is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infectious person or animal, or by contact with material (clothing, bedding) that an infectious person has used. It's a self-limiting disease with symptoms lasting 2-4 weeks. Rarely deadly, cases may be severe, especially in children, pregnant women or people with suppressed immune systems.
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GUEST INFORMATION
Rebecca Bartles, DrPH, MPH, CIC, FAPIC
Executive Director, System Infection Prevention
Providence
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Rosemary Martin, ASCP (M)CM, CLSSBB, CIC
Program Manager, System Infection Prevention
Providence
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INFORMATION RESOURCES
Updated information on the U.S. outbreak 2022 (CDC)
Updated U.S. case count & map / Updated global case count & map (CDC)
Prevention (CDC)
Facts for people who are sexually active (CDC)
Social gatherings, safer sex, and monkeypox(CDC)
Monkeypox: be aware but don't panic (GMHC)
Monkeypox: Key facts (WHO)
These resources are being updated by the source organizations and may contain more current information than that found in the podcast audio.
Host Seán Collins talks with Dr. Carlos Blanco, lead author of a perspective piece published June 16th in the New England Journal of Medicine titled, "Research to Move Policy — Using Evidence to Advance Health Equity for Substance Use Disorders."
The authors note that, despite substantial efforts to address the epidemic of drug-overdose deaths in the United States, racial and ethnic disparities in treatment access and outcomes among patients with substance use disorders have widened. Rates of overdose deaths are rising faster in Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native populations than in White populations.
Dr. Blanco talks with Seán about barriers to the best care possible along with ways medicine can make that care available to all regardless of race and ethnicity.
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Carlos Blanco, M.D., Ph.D., MS
Director, Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institutes of Health
Rockville, Md.
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Link to the piece in the New England Journal of Medicine:
Research to Move Policy — Using Evidence to Advance Health Equity for Substance Use Disorders
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A discussion of the accepted standard of care when assessing and treating pediatric patients whose gender expression is different from what was assigned at birth. In addition to clinicians and public health experts, we hear from parents of trans+ kids, others who love them, and trans+ kids themselves.
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Not seeing the glossary & all of the resources below? Try this link to our podcast website.
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PERSONAL STORIES (BONUS MATERIAL)
Longer versions of the stories excerpted in this episode are available as BONUS MATERIAL for you to listen to at your leisure along with additional one-on-one interviews from trans+ & non-binary people, and their loved ones. These stories are being archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress as part of the HEAR ME NOW oral history project, the largest collection of healthcare narratives in the country.
If you're interested in talking with someone about your experience with Trans+ healthcare, write to us and tell us something about your story.
Our email: HearMeNowStories@providence.org
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SAM & ERIN
Sam Pelger, a 19-year-old trans man in New York, talks with his mother Erin Pelger about his transition when he was younger and living in Montana. (44:34)
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EVY & HOLLY
Holly talks with her daughter Evy (14-year-old trans girl) about her transition seven years ago. (49:09)
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KAREN & DANIEL
Rabbis Karen and Daniel Bogard talk about their young son's transition, about support they have received in their family, school, and faith communities — and the threats they face from the state legislature as parents of a trans child in Missouri. (30:42)
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VINNY & HENRY
Vinny and Henry Fox discuss their life together and Vinny's identification as a queer non-binary trans+ person. (38:03)
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CARMEN & ELBE
Carmen Marshall talks with her friend Elbe about shared experiences as mothers of trans+ individuals. (48:45)
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ELBE & ELLA
Elbe talks with daughter Ella, a preteen trans girl. (38:33)
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JAMI & SCOTT
Producer Scott Acord talks with Jami Gramore, a queer non-binary adult. (40:49)
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TRAVIS, CINDY, & ROWAN
A conversation between Travis, a pre-teen trans boy, and his parents Cindy & Rowan… who’ve asked us to use pseudonyms when referring to their family. (27:53)
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JAYNE & SCOTT
Producer Scott Acord talks with his colleague Jayne Hopke, who identifies herself as pan sexual. (39:53)
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PODCAST GUESTS
Ponrat Pakpreo, M.D., MPH
Pediatrician focusing on Adolescent Health
Providence Medical Group
Spokane, Wash.
Marcie Drury Brown, M.D.
Pediatric Endocrinologist
Providence St. Vincent Medical Center
Portland, Ore.
Bentley Moses, MPH
Senior Program Manager
Trans+ Health Initiative
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Gardena, Calif.
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RESOURCES
World Professional Association for Transgender Health
American Academy of Pediatrics
Society of Adolescent Health & Medicine
The Endocrine Society
LGBTQIA+ Comprehensive Treatment at Swedish
Transgender Health at Swedish
GLAAD Transgender Resources
National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center
Transgender Law Center / Health Resources
HRC Resources for Providers & Hospital Administrators
The Trevor Project
The Lavender Rights Project
GALAP: Gender-Affirming Letter Access Project
Straight for Equality: Trans Ally Materials
ICATH: Informed Consent for Access to Trans Healthcare
US Trans Survey
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GLOSSARY
A guide to some of the language you'll hear used when we talk about gender.
CISGENDER – Describes someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
GENDER — The behavioral, cultural or psychological traits associated with one's sex, which can vary depending on time and place. Sex and gender are not the same.
GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE – Medical care that affirms a person's gender identity. For minors, this can include the use of puberty-blocking hormones. For adults, this could mean hormone therapy, speech therapy, and various surgical procedures.
GENDER DYSPHORIA – A term for the psychological and physical distress that can occur when one's sex assigned at birth does not align with their gender.
GENDER EUPHORIA – The satisfaction and happiness someone feels when their gender is affirmed.
GENDER EXPRESSION – How someone presents their gender outwardly, through behaviors, mannerisms, clothing, name, pronouns, and more.
GENDER IDENTITY – One's internal knowledge of one's own gender. For many, it aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. But others may identify with another or multiple genders.
GENDER TRANSITION – The multilayered process of aligning one's life with one's gender identity. This can include social, cultural, medical, and legal changes.
MISGENDER – An action when someone refers to another person by the wrong gender, either accidentally of intentionally.
NONBINARY – A term used by people whose gender identity or expression does not align neatly with "male" or "female."
SEX – Usually assigned at birth and based on the appearance of external anatomy. It's typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.
TRANS+ – An inclusive term relating to people with gender expressions such as transgender, genderqueer, agender, or nonbinary.
TRANSGENDER – Describes someone whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
TRANSPHOBIA – Prejudice or hatred shown in speech or actions toward transgender or gender-nonconforming people. This bias is centered on gender identity.
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Based on a series of Instagram posts published in April 2022 by the washingtonpost newspaper.
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A conversation between Travis, a pre-teen trans boy, and his parents Cindy & Rowan… who’ve asked us to use pseudonyms when referring to their family. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Producer Scott Acord talks with his colleague, Jayne Hopke, who identifies herself as pan-sexual. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Producer Scott Acord talks with Jami Gramore, a queer non-binary adult. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Carmen Marshall talks with her friend Elbe about their shared experiences as mothers of trans youth. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Vinny and Henry Fox discuss their life together and Vinny's identification as a queer non-binary trans person. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Rabbis Karen and Daniel Bogard talk about their young son's transition and about the support they receive in their social and faith communities, and the threats they face from the State Legislature as parents of a trans child in Missouri. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Elbe talks with daughter Ella, a preteen trans girl. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Holly talks with her daughter Evy, a 14-year-old trans girl, about her transition seven years ago. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
Sam Pelger, a 19 year old trans man, talks about his transition with his mother, Erin. This extended interview is part of a podcast on Gender-affirming care for kids.
A small number of first year medical students each year are significantly older than the norm. They've come to medicine as a second or sometimes third career. Do those other work experiences make a difference in how they make their way through their training and, more importantly perhaps, do they make a difference in how the individuals practice medicine?
Seán talks with four physicians who began their training later in life.
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JOIN US ONLINE ON JUNE 16th
HUMANIZING HEALTHCARE EXPERT SERIES
For information on the June 16th online event, Remote Palliative Care: A telehealth roadmap to reaching rural communities, visit this link. Registration is now open.
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Kevin Murphy, M.D.
Executive Director
Palliative Practice Group
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Tuckwila, Wash.
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Rebecca Armendariz, M.D.
Physiatrist
LaJolla, Calif.
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Tara Kimbeson, M.D.
Neurologist
Locum Tenens
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Tom McNalley, M.D.
Pediatric Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Physician
UCSF
Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.
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Dr. Bill Richards has been researching the therapeutic uses of psychedelic substances for 60 years and he believes there's a legitimate role for them in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal withdrawal. He believes these substances behave in a novel way among psychiatric medications: it's the memory of an experience that's therapeutic and that you carry with you. You don't have to keep taking medication every day to have the effect. You experience something so profound, that it changes your whole concept of who you are.
William Richards Ph.D.
Research Psychologist
Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Md.
author: Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
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Ira Byock, M.D., FAAHPM
Founder/Senior Vice President for Strategic Innovation
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Missoula, Mont.
author: The Four Things That Matter Most and The Best Care Possible
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JOIN US ONLINE ON JUNE 16th
HUMANIZING HEALTHCARE EXPERT SERIES
For information on the June 16th online event, Remote Palliative Care: A telehealth roadmap to reaching rural communities, visit this link. Registration is now open.
Twenty percent of Americans live in a rural setting and full access to some medical care is limited: often requiring long drives or temporary relocations. That includes specialty palliative care -- the interdisciplinary services of physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains aimed at helping patients control symptoms of a serious illness.
On today's podcast, we explore a demonstration project underway in rural Stevens County, Washington undertaken by the Palliative Practice Group at the Providence Institute for Human Caring.
The in-person nursing and chaplaincy providers in two rural hospitals are being joined by physicians and social workers through a Tele-PC video connection or by phone, allowing patients to avoid 70-100 mile drives to seek consultations. And the Tele-PC connection allows far-flung family members to be involved in bedside conversations about the goals of care.
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JOIN US ONLINE ON JUNE 16th
HUMANIZING HEALTHCARE EXPERT SERIES
For information on the June 16th online event, Remote Palliative Care: A telehealth roadmap to reaching rural communities, featuring a number of guests heard on this episode of the podcast, visit this link. Registration is now open.
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Gregg VandeKieft, M.D., MA, FAAFP, FAAHPM
Executive Medical Director,
Palliative Practice Group and Tele-PC
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Olympia, Wash.
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Kevin Murphy, M.D., MSW
Executive Director,
Palliative Practice Group
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Seattle, Wash.
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Adie Goldberg, Ph.D., LICSW
Palliative Care Social Worker
Spokane, Wash.
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Amber Moody, RN
Palliative Care Nurse
Providence Mount Carmel Hospital
Colville, Wash.
(LISTEN to extended conversation)
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Kelly Corcoran
Chief Mission Officer
Providence Mount Carmel Hospital
Colville, Wash.
(LISTEN to extended conversation)
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Matthew Gonzales, M.D., FAAHPM
Associate Vice President,
Chief Medical and Operations Officer
Providence Institute for Human Caring
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Ira Byock, M.D., FAAHPM
Founder/Senior Vice President for Strategic Innovation
Providence Institute for Human Caring
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The days of medical robots, scanners, and bots are upon us — but do not fear! — these tools of digital health may be exactly what the doctor ordered to regain the personalism that's at the heart of caring.
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Dr. Bertalan Meskó is the director of The Medical Futurist Institute.
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The indiscriminate targeting of civilians as the Russian military prosecutes its illegal war on Ukraine has caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis: more than a quarter of Ukraine's forty million citizens are displaced.
In this episode, using a lens of whole person care, we talk with people reaching out to others in wartime, making connections, and countering the darkness with (in the words of W.H. Auden) "ironic points of light."
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NGOs PROVIDING UKRAINIAN RELIEF
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Catholic Relief Services
Medical Teams International
Assist-Ukraine
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
Médecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
Episcopal Relief & Development
BGR (Buddhist Global Relief)
Voices of Children
Save the Children
International Committee of the Red Cross
CARE(Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere)
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GUESTS
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Inna Pashniak
Digital Marketing Manager
Providence Digital Innovation Group
San Francisco, Calif.
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Oleksyi Kurka (internally displaced)
Communications Manager
British Embassy to Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine
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Orest Holubec
EVP/Chief Communication and Community Engagement Officer
Providence
Renton, Wash.
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Caroline Brennan
Emergency Communications Director
Catholic Relief Services
Chicago, Ill.
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Anne Garrels
Foreign Correspondent (retired)
NPR News
Author
Putin Country: A Journey Into the Real Russia (Macmillan, 2016)
Connecticut
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The lullaby heard in this episode is titled "Ой місяцю" (Oh Moon)
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Seán reads an excerpt from W.H. Auden's poem, "September 1, 1939" published in Another Time (Random House, 1940)
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Our guests this week bring tremendous expertise to the constellation of issues that surround family caregiving: from managing the expense of caregiving, to strategies for finding respite care, to enjoying the psycho-social benefits of being present and accompanying a loved one in a time of need.
In addition, we hear excerpts from interviews with two family caregivers who talk with producer Scott Acord about the family dynamics of providing care at home. To hear extended versions of these conversations, follow the links to Linda's Story and Marti's Story or look for these bonus episodes being published along with this podcast.
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Robin Henderson, Psy.D.
Chief Executive, Behavioral Health
Providence Health & Services, Oregon
Chief Clinical Officer
WORK2BEWELL
Portland, Ore.
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Nicholas Kockler, Ph.D.
VP System Ethics Services
Chair, Applied Health Care Ethics
Providence Center for Health Care Ethics
Portland, Ore.
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Maureen Nash, M.D.
Geriatric Psychiatrist
Medical Director
Providence ElderPlace
Portland, Ore.
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Linda's parents were both active long into their lives, but as they began to age, they began to need more and more help. Linda lived near them and initially was able to check in on them daily. But soon after her father died, a decision was made for Linda and her husband to move into her parents' home so she could provide more constant care of her mother. Linda talks about the importance of asking for help in caregiving and making changes in the physical layout of the home to remove potential obstacles and to improve safety.
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This extended conversation is a bonus episode that accompanies a podcast on Family Caregiving.
Marti talks about coming to a realization that "this is Julia's life," rather than something that 'happened' to Marti. She talks about the way Julia has an impact on others, such as the childhood friends of her brother, whom Marti believes have grown up to be more compassionate simply because they have a relationship with Julia. Scott and Marti talk about the importance of taking breaks (and how difficult scheduling those breaks can be) and they discuss music Julia and Marti enjoy together.
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This extended conversation is a bonus episode that accompanies a podcast on Family Caregiving.
Susan Marks is a certified family nurse practitioner who focuses on the medical use of cannabis. She's also a daily user for essential tremor. She talks with host Seán Collins about what she calls the treasure trove of medicinal benefits the cannabinoids in marijuana represent.
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Susan Marks, CFNP
Website | Twitter | Facebook
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American Cannabis Nurses Association
Doctors for Cannabis Regulation
Medical Cannabis Laws by State (National Conference of State Legislatures)
WeedMap's directory of dispensaries
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Are you a healthcare professional with questions about the best practices for using social media? We're interested in hearing from you. Leave a voicemail message at +1 424-212-5436 or drop us an email at HearMeNowStories@providence.org.
Daniela Lamas, M.D., is a critical care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School. She's also a frequent opinion writer for The New York Times. The paper published her piece, "When Faced With Death, People Often Change Their Minds," earlier this year.
"We need to shift the focus from talking to healthy people about what would happen should they stop breathing during a routine procedure, and toward improving conversations with people who are already seriously ill," Dr. Lamas wrote.
Her op-ed piece comes on the heels of an essay the Journal of the American Medical Association published a few months earlier, "What's Wrong With Advance Care Planning?" by Drs. Sean Morrison, Diane Meier, and Robert Arnold, which argues that advance care planning has failed to accomplish its goals of aligning care and improving communication at the bedside.
Joining Dr. Lamas in conversation is Ira Byock, M.D., a palliative physician, author, longtime advocate for advance care planning, and the founder of the Providence Institute for Human Caring, where this podcast is produced.
Dr. Byock holds that while there’s dire need to redesign advance directives, providers should talk with patients about who they trust to speak for them and their general healthcare goals — optimally long before onset of a medical crisis.
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The podcast producers are interested in hearing from providers with questions or suggestions for an upcoming webinar on BEST PRACTICES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA USE FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS. Have a story to share with us? Have suggestions? Write to us at HearMeNowStories@providence.org or leave a voicemail message on +1 424-212-5436. And thanks!
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Claire Zangerle, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL, FAAN
Chief Nurse Executive
Allegheny Health Network
Pittsburgh, Penn.
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David Marshall, JD, DNP, RN, FAAN
Senior Vice President,
Chief Nursing Executive
Cedars-Sinai
Los Angeles, Calif.
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Syl Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAONL, FAAN
Senior Vice President
Chief Nursing Officer
Providence
Renton, Wash.
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And we hear a nursing story from Jen Little-Reece, RN, an oncology nurse at the Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon, in conversation with her partner Terran Williams. Their conversation is part of the HEAR ME NOW Storytelling Project and its growing oral history collection from healthcare workers, patients, families, and friends.
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David Marshall mentioned that he played Santa at Cedars-Sinai in December. Curious? Here's a link to a tweet with some pictures.
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, president of clinical operations at Providence, believes we're about to see the end of the pandemic and the beginning of endemic COVID - where the illness is less severe yet more widely seen in the general population. The unprecedented rapid development of vaccines has made this remarkable advance possible.
Julie Rovner, who has been following the Supreme Court's review of the Biden administration's mandates for workplace use of masks and testing, points to problems seen in public health messaging and the challenges the pandemic has posed for clear and concise advice for individuals, clinicians, parents, and employers.
And, despite the hope that the end of the pandemic may be in sight, Dr. Zahra Esmail reminds us that today the ICUs are still full, people are still dying, and the suffering wrought by the virus is far from over.
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Amy Compton-Phillips, M.D.
President, Clinical Care Operations
Providence Health
Renton, Wash.
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Julie Rovner
Chief Washington Correspondent
Kaiser Health News
Washington, D.C.
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Zahra Esmail, D.O.
Palliative Care Physician
Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
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We could have produced this episode in any month of the year: problematic substance use can be triggered by any number of things and at any time. But in December, as one year is poised to give way to another, the stressors seem to mount: finances, holiday expectations, extended family dynamics, and what seems to be a never-ending pandemic.
We reached out to three people — all with personal experiences with recovery — to talk about strategies for making it safely to 2022 with your wellbeing intact.
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To share this episode with a friend, send them this link: https://bit.ly/hmnp-share-035
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Andrey MacCracken, CRM
Clackamas County Peer Support Specialist
Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon
Portland, Ore.
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Berni Fried, LMFT
Clinical Director
Red Door Life
Los Angeles, Calif.
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Joe Newberry
Banjo, Guitar, Fiddle and Song
Raleigh, N.C.
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From the October 17, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association:
The effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence, called narrative medicine, is proposed as a model for humane and effective medical practice. Adopting methods such as close reading of literature and reflective writing allows narrative medicine to examine and illuminate 4 of medicine's central narrative situations: physician and patient, physician and self, physician and colleagues, and physicians and society. With narrative competence, physicians can reach and join their patients in illness, recognize their own personal journeys through medicine, acknowledge kinship with and duties toward other health care professionals, and inaugurate consequential discourse with the public about health care. By bridging the divides that separate physicians from patients, themselves, colleagues, and society, narrative medicine offers fresh opportunities for respectful, empathic, and nourishing medical care.
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,
FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION
Columbia University's Narrative Medicine Program
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Dartmouth-Hitchcock Palliative Medicine
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"Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust" (html/pdf) JAMA 2001; 286: 1897-1902)
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Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness by Rita Charon, M.D. (2006)
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The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine by Rita Charon, M.D. et al. (2016)
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Dr. Rita Charon's 2011 TEDx Talk "Honoring the Stories of Illness" (video)
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"My Mom's Last Meal" Hear Me Now story told by Seán Collins with Jennifer Traeger (video)
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Chloe Zelkha is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. She helped to found the COVID Grief Network which is putting groups of young adults together with therapists and chaplains to make meaning of their losses during the COVID pandemic. Zelkha has worked as a resident chaplain at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco and was a guest on an earlier episode of this podcast.
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Some Cited Works
"Saturday" from Hood by Emma Donoghue
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"'Tis a Fearful Thing" by Yehuda HaLevi
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"In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver
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"Adrift" by Mark Nepo
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"When You Meet Someone Deep In Grief" by Patricia McKernon Runkle
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PERSONALIZING CARE IN A TRANSACTIONAL WORLD
excerpts from the online conference held 1 November 2021
and sponsored by the Providence Institute for Human Caring
.
You can watch the videos of each online session here.
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CONFERENCE AGENDA
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KEYNOTE: Three Keys to Personalizing Healthcare
Dr. Ira Byock, Institute for Human Caring
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Why Serious Illness is a Serious Health-Equity Issue
Dr. Tammie Quest, Emory
Dr. Glen Komatsu, TrinityCare Hospice
Dr. Karen Boudreau, Providence
Michael Drummond, Institute for Human Caring
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Medicine Meets Ministry - Engaging Faith Communities to Fill Unmet Needs
Seán Collins, Hear Me Now Podcast
Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat, Alameda County Care Alliance
Jeannie Blaustein, ReImagine End of Life
Johnny Cox, Alliance of Catholic Health Care
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Let's Get Digital, Digital - Humanizing the EHR
Sara Veazy, Providence
Dr. Matt Gonzales, Institute for Human Caring
Gregory Makoul, PatientWisdom
Mike Drummond, Institute for Human Caring
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From Scratch - Discovering the Healing Powers of Food, Family and Community
Tembi Locke & Dr. Ira Byock
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Whole Person Care in the ICU
Dr. Wes Ely, Vanderbilt
Dr. Daniela Lamas, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Liga Mezaraups, Providence
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Age-Friendly Works at Providence and Beyond
Amy Berman, John A. Hartford Foundation
Yazmin Hehdi, Patient Representative
Dr. Carrie Rubenstein, Swedish Family Medicine
Mike Drummond, Institute for Human Caring
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Closing Remarks
Drs. Ira Byock and Matt Gonzales, Institute for Human Caring
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Rayna Oliver
Student
University of Washington
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Megan McAninch-Jones, MBA, M.SC.
Executive Director
Community Investment Strategy & Evaluation
Providence
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Dana Codron, RN
Northern California Regional Director
Community Health Investment
Providence
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Aimee Khuu, MPA
Executive Director, Health Equity
Providence Home and Community Care
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Read more about Providence andPopulation Health, Health Equity, and Community Resources.
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PART ONE
PERSONALIZING CARE IN A TRANSACTIONAL WORLD
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Dr. Wes Ely is the author of the new book, Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU. He's also one of the participants in the upcoming online conference Personalizing Care in a Transactional World, presented by the Providence Institute for Human Caring. The conference is being held Monday, Nov. 1, from 8a-Noon PDT. Registration is now open. Dr. Matt Gonzales, Chief Medical Information Officer for the Institute, talks with host Seán Collins about some of the topics featured during the conference.
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Matthew Gonzales, M.D., FAAHPM,
Palliative Care Physician
Associate Vice President
Chief Medical Information Officer
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Gardena, Calif.
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PART TWO
EVERY DEEP-DRAWN BREATH
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A conversation with Dr. Wes Ely about his new book.
Wes Ely, M.D., MPH
Pulmonologist and Critical Care Physician
Professor of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Nashville, Tenn.
author: Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU
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Proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center established to help ICU survivors and their families. Visit Dr. Ely's website: www.icudelirium.org for updates on the work at CIBS.
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The people of Afghanistan have lived with the trauma of war for close to 50 years. Jacki Lydenis a writer and former host & correspondent for NPR News, who first went to Kabul just as the Taliban left a generation ago. She taught journalism for an American NGO in Afghanistan, and has maintained ties with Afghan friends and colleagues.
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Heidi Miller, M.D. is the Medical Director of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission and a consultant for Alive & Well Communities, a nonprofit promoting equity-centered trauma-informed care in the midwest. Dr. Miller collaborated to design a curriculum and trains healthcare professionals on Trauma-Informed Care.
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Hyonjin Im Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She is a principle author of "A Multitier Model of Refugee Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Resettlement: Toward Trauma-Informed and Culture-Informed Systems of Care" (Psychological Services, H. Im & C.J. Rodriguez, December, 2019)
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Christian Diance, RN BSN
Critical Care Nurse
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center
Los Angeles, Calif.
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Instructor
STOP THE BLEED
Los Angeles, Calif.
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Andrea Chia, RN
School Nurse
Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles, Calif.
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Rocky Duff, RN
Perioperative Nurse
Providence Medical Group
Spokane, Wash.
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Megan Craft, RN
Critical Care Nurse
Swedish First Hill Medical Center
Seattle, Wash.
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Faith in Practice
Life Changing Medical Mission
Houston, Texas
Chase Anderson, M.D.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow
UCSF
San Francisco, Calif.
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Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, M.D.
Professor & Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine
UT Health Rehabilitation
San Antonio, Texas
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Riordan Ledgerwood, M.D.
General Pediatrician
Killeen, Texas
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Joel Bervell, MS3
Washington State University
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Spokane, Wash.
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Listen to Joel discuss being Black during a pandemic with his sister and mother. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
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MedTwitter
GayMedTwitter
TransMedTwitter
LatinasInMedicine
WhiteCoatsForBlackLives
WhiteCoars4BlackLives
We return to two caregivers who poignantly described the Winter Surge in Southern California in our episode "COVID-19 Realities," in January 2021. Listener advisory: The effects on these caregivers of treating unvaccinated patients is startling.
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Zahra Esmail, DO
Palliative Care Physician
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
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Christina Rothans, LCSW
Palliative Care Social Worker
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
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We discuss the challenge of getting public health messages to compete with economic messaging in a culture that is predisposed to treat the market with primacy.
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Binyamin Appelbaum
Lead writer on Economics & Business, author of "The Economists' Hour"
The New York Times Editorial Board
New York, N.Y.
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Finally, we turn to a therapist to ask about strategies for moving beyond the anger that many feel with the resurgence of serious illness and deaths with the Delta wave – something that could have been prevented with a higher percentage of vaccination.
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Alexandra Fleming, MSW, LICSW
Therapist
Swedish Center for Perinatal Bonding and Support
Nurturing Wisdom Therapy
Seattle, Wash.
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It's crazy how complicated the relationship is between your dentist and your other healthcare providers. There are cultural, institutional, regulatory, and financial barriers that would have to be dismantled for a better system to prevail. And the pandemic may be just the excuse we needed to work on making change.
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Oral Health Stakeholders: A Time for Alignment and Action
Millbank Quarterly, 29 June 2021
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Shenam Ticku, BDS, MPH
Instructor
Dept. of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Boston, Mass.
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Jane Barrow, MPH
Associate Dean
Office of Global and Community Health
Executive Director
Initiative fo Integrate Oral Health and Medicine
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Boston, Mass.
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Jane Grover, DDS, MPH
Director
Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention
American Dental Association
Chicago, Ill.
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Making the Case for Dental Coverage for Adults in All State Medicaid Programs
ADA Health Policy Institute, July 2021
Robin Henderson, Psy.D.
Chief Executive for Behavioral Health
Providence Oregon
Chief Clinical Officer
Work to be Well
Portland, Ore.
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Crystal Brown-Tatum
Director of Human Resources
Cadence Delivery
Fort Worth, Texas.
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Joselyn Eitemiller MA, CCC-SLP
Home Health Clinical Manager
Providence SoundHomeCare
Olympia, Wash.
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Jessica Collins, CRNA
Nurse Anesthetist and mother of three
St. Louis
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We have a favor to ask. Would you please take 2 minutes to vote for Hear Me Now in the "People's Choice" podcast award? You have to fill in your name, email, and make up a password (we know), then vote for us in the "Health" category. And thanks!
Feel free to share with your friends. We're grateful. https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup
We explore the poetry of medicine by offering two conversations. In the first, Dr. Ira Byock talks with Dr. Patrick Clary about his poetry, why he writes it, how he uses it, and why it matters.
"I don't see it as a medical practice so much as a humane practice for us as we do medicine; to maintain our way of looking at our patients as people."
—Dr. Patrick Clary in conversation with Dr. Ira Byock
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Then host Seán Collins talks with palliative care clinician Redwing Keysaar about the poetry workshops she's been hosting online during the pandemic. What began as a way for people to process their grief has become a way to get in touch with un-tapped creativity and strengths.
"We forget so many of the healing modalities that are with us all the time and that have been part of the various cultures that many of us come from. Dr. Rachel Remen says, "We may have lost faith in our ability to write poems just as we have lost faith in our ability to heal. Recovering the poet strengthens the healer and sets free the unique song that's at the heart of each life."
—Redwing Keysaar, RN in conversation with Seán Collins
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Patrick L Clary, M.D. has long used poetry as a tool in his effort to understand, practice, and teach medicine. His work has appeared in anthologies and in two collections, Notes for a Loveletter and Dying for Beginners. A conscientious objector on the basis of Quaker beliefs, he served as a medic with US Infantry Units in Vietnam 1969-70. He is past President of the New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and remains clinically active in end-of-life care as medical director of a community hospice house.
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Ira Byock, M.D., FAAHPM, is a leading medical authority and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He is founder and serves as chief medical officer of the Providence Institute for Human Caring. The Institute drives transformation in clinical systems and culture to make caring for whole persons the new normal. The Institute for Human Caring’s change strategies produce measurable and scalable improvements in healthcare quality and efficiency. Dr. Byock's books include The Best Care Possible and The Four Things That Matter Most.
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Redwing Keysaar, RN is a palliative care clinician, author, poet, educator, national presenter, and frequent contributor to the public conversation about palliative and end-of-life care. Redwing is currently the director of Patient and Caregiver Education at the MERI Center for Education in Palliative Care (Making Education Relevant and Integrated) for Primary Palliative Care Education at the Mt. Zion Campus of the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of The Last Acts of Kindness.
Jeremy Edmonds
Marketing and Outreach Liaison
Providence ElderPlace — PACE
A Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly
Seattle, Wash.
Victoria Johnson
Quality Compliance Specialist
Providence ElderPlace — PACE
A Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly
Seattle, Wash.
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Listen to the debut episode, "I see you. I hear you. And I ache for you," featuring Jeremy Edmonds & Victoria Johnson which was published June 19, 2020.
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The episode ends with "A Plowshare Prayer," written and performed by Spencer LaJoye. For more information, visit their website: www.spencerlajoye.com
Veronika Zantop, M.D.
Medical Director
Swedish Center for Perinatal Bonding and Support
Medical Director
Reproductive Mental Health at Swedish
Seattle, Wash.
Alexandra Fleming, MSW, LICSW
Therapist
Swedish Center for Perinatal Bonding and Support
Nurturing Wisdom Therapy
Seattle, Wash.
..
We are collecting stories of pregnancy loss as part of the ongoing Hear Me Now oral history project. On today's podcast, we listen to four women who describe their experiences of early pregnancy losses. Side-by-side with this episode of the podcast we're also publishing extended versions of their stories for you to explore in more detail.
- Danielle Jenkins and Marie Balance have been friends since they were 13. Danielle describes how she found out she was miscarrying. (47:46)
- Angela and Eric Hodge are a married couple whose first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. (25:11)
- Samantha Edwards and Scott Acord – Sam shares her story with Hear Me Now producer Scott Acord and describes the loss of a perceived future for her child. (44:13)
- Lauren Sawson and Sara Epstein are sisters-in-law. Lauren talks about her decision to have a dilation and curettage procedure following her pregnancy loss. (46:24)
- ALSO: WATCH Lauren and company in one of their dance performances. She writes, "Showing pregnancy loss through the lens of miscarriage, medical abortion, and stillbirth. The journey transitions from an individual one, to one with family and support. The piece ends with the power of holding space, and being there for each other."
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If you're interested in sharing your story of pregnancy loss, write to us for information on participating in the Hear Me Now story project:
HearMeNowStories@providence.org
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Many thanks to Suzanne Engelder and Melody Fawcett for help with this episode.
This interview is an extended version of material that appears in a podcast episode devoted to exploring early pregnancy loss. We invite you to listen to that podcast. If you're interested in sharing your story of pregnancy loss, write to us for information on participating in the Hear Me Now story project:
HearMeNowStories@providence.org
WATCH Lauren and company in one of their dance performances. "Showing pregnancy loss through the lens of miscarriage, medical abortion, and stillbirth. The journey transitions from an individual one, to one with family and support. The piece ends with the power of holding space, and being there for each other."
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This interview is an extended version of material that appears in a podcast episode devoted to exploring early pregnancy loss. We invite you to listen to that podcast. If you're interested in sharing your story of pregnancy loss, write to us for information on participating in the Hear Me Now story project:
HearMeNowStories@providence.org
This interview is an extended version of material that appears in a podcast episode devoted to exploring early pregnancy loss. We invite you to listen to that podcast. If you're interested in sharing your story of pregnancy loss, write to us for information on participating in the Hear Me Now story project:
HearMeNowStories@providence.org
This interview is an extended version of material that appears in a podcast episode devoted to exploring early pregnancy loss. We invite you to listen to that podcast. If you're interested in sharing your story of pregnancy loss, write to us for information on participating in the Hear Me Now story project:
HearMeNowStories@providence.org
Sylvain “Syl” Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAAN, FAONL
System Chief Nursing Officer
Providence
Renton, Wash.
Caregiver Resources from Providence
Navigating Stress and Burnout
This episode is the third in a series on nursing that marks the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Listen to the other episodes:
Caring for the First COVID-19 Patient in the U.S.
The Voices of Nurses
Diane Meier, M.D., is professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York, N.Y., where she also holds a chair in Medical Ethics. Dr. Meier is the director emerita and strategic medical advisor of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) where she has championed the sharing of best practices in the field of palliative medicine.
She has been succeeded at CAPC by Brynn Bowman, MPA, the new chief executive officer. They talk with us about palliative care, about goals of training for caregivers, and the expectations for care that patients and families should expect.
To find a palliative care program near you, visit getpalliativecare.org or follow them on Twitter.
Here's a link to CAPC's Tipping Point Challenge.
Aaron Martin
Executive Vice President
Chief Digital & Innovation Officer
Providence
.
Managing General Partner
Providence Ventures
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Watch the Google Assistant haircut appointment video.
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF THE WHOLE PERSON
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Imam Yusuf Hasan
Chaplain
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
New York, N.Y.
MSKCC Spiritual & Religious Care • NYP Pastoral Care • African American Day Parade • Association of Professional Chaplains • HealthCare Chaplaincy Network • Association of Muslim Chaplains • Masjid Malcolm Shabazz
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Chloe Zelkha
Rabbinical Student
Hebrew Union College
Cincinnati, Ohio
Co-Founder
COVID Grief Network
Instagram • Twitter • Facebook • Website
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Rev. Danielle Pruitt Cummings
Palliative Care Chaplain
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
Reflections Blog • PLCM Palliative Care
On April 5, 2021, a new federal rule mandates that healthcare providers make most medical records available to patients without charge and without blocking. It's a move proponents hope will promote transparency and collaboration between patients and clinicians.
But will clinicians tailor their language for patients? Will the average patient understand what's in the medical record? And will this move aimed at transparency cause more confusion than clarity?
Healthcare attorney Nathan Kottkamp and palliative physician Gregg VandeKieft join Seán Collins to discuss the new medical records rule and some ways patients and clinicians can use the change for their common good.
And then Maura Wozniak joins Seán to talk about how important it is for patients with chronic illness to understand their condition and their treatment options in order to fully participate in their own care. She has lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life and says it's "imperative" that you understand your medical condition.
Nathan Kottkamp, JD
Partner
Waller Law Firm
Nashville, Tenn.
Founder
National Healthcare Decisions Day
Gregg VandeKieft, MD
Medical Director
Palliative Practice Group
Providence Institute for Human Caring
Palliative Care Physician
Providence St. Peter Hospital
Olympia, Wash.
Maura Wozniak
Patient living with Cystic Fibrosis
Charlotte, N.C.
FOR FURTHER READING:
21st Century Cures Act
OpenNotes
Advance Care Planning Decisions (videos)
National Healthcare Decisions Day(April 16)
Trusted Decision Maker (website)
Trusted Decision Maker (podcast episode)
CARING FOR THE FIRST COVID+ PATIENT
Robin Addison is a nurse in the emergency department at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. She's also the clinical coordinator for the BEST team — the biocontainment, evaluation, and specialty treatment team, the people charged with caring for patients with what they call a "high consequence infectious disease."
In January of 2020, Robin and her colleague Andrea Leighty were called back into work one night to take care of a man who was being admitted to the hospital. But this wasn't just any man. He was the first person in the United States to have a documented case of COVID-19.
That's when Robin and Andi learned that all of their training paid off.
Robin Addison, RN, BSN, CEN, TCRN, NHDP-BC
Clinical Coordinator BEST Team
Emergency Department
Providence Regional Medical Center
Everett, Wash.
Andrea Leighty, MSN, RN, CEN
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Emergency Department
Providence Regional Medical Center
Everett, Wash.
This is the second in a series of occasional episodes about nursing that will continue throughout the year as WHO extends the Year of the Nurse & Midwife in 2021.
Also in this series:
The Voices of Nurses
Nurses & Self-care
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I SEE YOU, I HEAR YOU, AND I ACHE FOR YOU
Our first episode of this podcast featured a remarkable conversation between two of our colleagues: Jeremey Edmonds and Victoria Johnson. They're friends and workmates, and like many people across the country, these two Black women were struggling with understanding the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and some of the reactions to his death seen around the globe.
In an episode we titled, "I see you. I hear you. And I ache for you," Jeremey and Victoria talked through their feelings and their reactions and allowed us to listen-in. To mark the end of Black History Month, we're presenting an extended excerpt from their conversation. We invite you to listen to their entire conversation in Episode 1.
Jeremy Edmonds, BA
Outreach and Marketing Liaison
PACE
Seattle, Wash.
Victoria Johnson, MHPA
Quality & Compliance Specialist
Providence ElderPlace
Seattle, Wash.
Last spring, Cylix Shane and some other engineers, using off-the-shelf parts, built a prototype emergency ventilator that could be readily-deployed during the pandemic. “We have some rural hospitals that wouldn’t have access to ventilators if they had a surge in patients, so we wanted to be able to allow them to configure one rapidly using parts they could get locally.” Total cost: about $250.
WATCH VENTILATOR VIDEO
Cylix Shane
Design & Construction Manager
Providence St. Joseph Health
Spokane, Wash.
Heather Martin leads a team of 14 medical librarians who support the work of Providence caregivers in seven states. She says that 75% of her work this past year has been staying on top of research focused on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the treatment of COVID-19. On average, she sees around 1,200 to 1,500 peer-reviewer articles each week, which she prioritizes and passes on to Providence clinicians. “They can do their own research and find evidence, but I’d much rather my doctor was spending time reading the article rather than spending time in a database when they have librarians to do that.”
Heather Martin
Director
System Library Services
Providence
Astoria, Ore.
Donell Grayer is sous chef at Providence Marionwood, a skilled nursing facility in Issaquah, Wash. He says the staff does a good job looking out for each other and credits the facility for being on top of safety protocols for residents and staff. “I felt like I was more protected there because we took the measures to make sure everyone was safe. We were on top of it kind of early and I thank my facility for that.”
Donell Grayer
Sous Chef
Providence Marionwood
Issaquah, Wash.
Getting personal protection equipment (PPE) to where it is needed is a full-time job for Erik Teeter, who says he takes seriously the “other duties as assigned” clause in his contract because he wants the best for his colleagues. “I’m good friends with a lot of our nurses, and chaplains, and social workers, and hospice aides, and billing personnel. These are my coworkers, my friends, my work family. I want to make sure they’re all safe.”
Erik Teeter
Materials Management Supervisor
Home and Community Care
Providence St. Joseph Health
Seattle, Wash.
Patty Pomi has had to get creative. She is a hospice volunteer at the Hospice of Petaluma in Northern California. She’s not allowed to visit in person, but she’s been calling regularly and hand-making cards with rubber stamps, flowers, or pictures of her new puppy. “They (patients) definitely miss their families. It makes me sad.”
Patty Pomi
Patient Care Volunteer
Hospice of Petaluma
Petaluma, Calif.
Dave Baker and his team keep computer-based platforms running at St. Mary's Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif. It’s critical work that should be out of view. “When someone turns on the faucet they shouldn’t have to think about the pipe. You should just get water. We are the pipe.”
WATCH THE WASHINGTON POST VIDEO
Dave Baker
Information Services End User Support Supervisor
Providence St. Mary Medical Center
Apple Valley, Calif.
“You can no longer see the smile.” Life with PPE has made Lisa Macia’s work more complicated, but she believes patients have a right to hospice care. And so she goes into their homes, risking her own safety, to be sure they receive that care.
Lisa Macias
Home Health Aide
Memorial Hospice
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Randy Amatto is a maintenance engineer at Providence Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, Wash. He spent the first part of the pandemic re-working heating, ventilation and air conditioning in hospital rooms to create negative air flow to keep staff and patients safe in the pandemic. “The nurses - they are the ones who are on the front lines every day. If we get a call it’s a pleasure to do what we can for the rest of the staff in the hospital.”
Randy Amatto
Maintenance Engineer
Providence Holy Family Hospital
Spokane, Wash.
Wayne Pierce has just a few moments to build rapport with patients at the Providence Portland Medical Center where he provides patient transportation. And he does as they journey together. “There is a heightened state of emotion. And that can morph into fatigue. It’s a shared emotional circumstance that’s being shared by us — the staff of the hospital — and also the family, and the patient.”
Wayne Pierce
Patient Transportation
Providence Portland Medical Center
Portland, Ore.
Against a backdrop of COVID-19 denialism and super-spreader events, Dr. Zahra Esmail and social worker Christina Rothans have been treating a recent surge of patients with their colleagues in the South Bay of Los Angeles.
The two serve on one of the in-house palliative care teams at the Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, Calif. They are responsible for the care of the very sickest patients.
The hospital's census of COVID-19-positive patients has climbed steadily for the past two months to heretofore unseen levels. All of the COVID-19 patients have been isolated from their families and many, despite the best efforts of their caregivers, have succumbed to the ravages of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
And despite bracing for what they knew was coming, neither Dr. Esmail nor Ms. Rothans felt fully prepared for the scale of loss they have experienced this winter in LA County.
Zahra Esmail, DO
Palliative Care Physician
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
Christina Rothans, LCSW
Palliative Care Social Worker
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center
Torrance, Calif.
- This podcast was recorded on 1/11/2021
Ali Santore and Julie Rovner join us for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges members of the new Biden administration face as they work to mend the nation, deal with the nation's response to a deadly pandemic, and advance access to care for underserved populations in what is now a four trillion-dollar healthcare business in America.
Nominally, the Democrats have an advantage in Congress, but it's only with a razor-thin margin in the Senate that will necessitate cooperation across both the aisle and within the party itself. That suggests we'll see a return to more deliberative processes on Capitol Hill and less drama.
Confused by the difference between a Public Option and Medicare for All? Julie Rovner wrote in detail about these and other issues leading up to the 2020 election. Read her piece here. And be sure to check out this video that sorts through some of the political rhetoric.
Executive Orders have become a common way for Presidents to accomplish short-term goals, but they can be undone with a stroke of the next guy's pen. Julie writes about the Great Undoing that's likely to be high on the Biden agenda.
For the latest healthcare policy news, follow Julie on Twitter. And check out her other stories at the Kaiser Health News website. And be sure to listen to What the Health? (our second-favorite podcast!)
Stay up-to-date on Ali Santore's advocacy work for Providence on the Community Partnership website. Ali also contributes to the Providence leadership blog.
Julie Rovner is Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News and host of the all-women panelist podcast, “What the Health?” Prior to joining KHN in 2014, she spent 15 years as health policy correspondent for NPR, specializing in the politics of health care. A noted expert on health policy issues, Rovner is the author of a critically-praised reference book Health Care Politics and Policy A-Z.
Ali Santore is senior vice president of government affairs and social responsibility for Providence. Her national advocacy and engagement strategies have advanced federal priorities that preserve and expand access to care for the underserved, positioning Providence as a leading advocate for mental health, advance care planning, and strengthening the Medicaid program. Ali also oversees Providence's social responsibility programs, including the organization's initiative to become carbon-negative by 2030.
Seán Collins is the host and a producer of the Hear Me Now Podcast, a production of the Providence Institute for Human Caring. He is a veteran public radio producer, having spent more than 20 years at NPR News where he led a team that produced the network's flagship newsmagazine, All Things Considered. Collins is a former Benedictine monk.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Rev. Denise Hess of the Supportive Care Coalition (now part of the Catholic Health Association) joins host Seán Collins in a reflection on the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation and the ways it has inspired centuries of healthcare. They talk about the example of Jesus-as-healer, the crucial role women have served in promoting healthcare ministries, and the place suffering plays in our understanding of caring for the whole person.
They are accompanied throughout the hour by three musicians who perform original arrangements of traditional carols: Gabe Miller, violin and arranger; Elijah Cole, guitar; and Nathan Pence, bass.
"Good is the Flesh"
by Brian Wren
Good is the flesh that the Word has become,
good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
good is the body for knowing the world,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body for knowing the world,
sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body, from cradle to grave,
growing and aging, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Samaritanus bonus (excerpt)
by Pope Francis
"At work here is a contemplative gaze that beholds in one’s own existence and that of others a unique and unrepeatable wonder, received and welcomed as a gift. This is the gaze of the one who does not pretend to take possession of the reality of life but welcomes it as it is, with its difficulties and sufferings, and, guided by faith, finds in illness the readiness to abandon oneself to the Lord of life who is manifest therein."
"A Blessing for the New Baby"
by Luci Shaw
Lightly as a falling star, immense, may you
drop into the body of the pure young girl like a seed
into its furrow, entering your narrow home under the shadow
of Gabriel’s feathers. May your flesh shape itself within her,
swelling her with shame and glory. May her belly grow
round as a small planet, a bowl of golden fruit.
When you suck in your first breath, and your loud cries
echo through the cave (blessings on you, little howler!),
may Mary adorn you with tears and caresses like ribbons,
her face glowing, a moon among stars. At her breasts,
may you drink the milk of mortality that transforms you,
even more, into one of your own creatures.
And now, as the night of this world folds you in
its brutal frost (the barnyard smell strong as sin),
and as Joseph, weary with unwelcome and relief, his hands
bloody from your birth, spreads his thin cloak
around you both, we doubly bless you, Baby,
as you are acquainted, for the first time, with our grief.
"Journey of the Magi"
by T.S. Eliot
“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
Rev. Denise Hess, MDiv, BCC-PCHAC
Supportive Care Coalition
Catholic Health Association of the United States
for further reading:
Incarnate Grace: Perspectives on the Ministry of Catholic Health Care
ed. Fr. Charles Bouchard, OP, STD
Listen to the playlist from today's episode on SoundCloud.
- Seán Collins is the host and a producer of the Hear Me Now Podcast, a production of the Providence Institute for Human Caring. He is a veteran public radio producer, having spent more than 20 years at NPR where he led a team that produced the network's flagship newsmagazine, All Things Considered. Collins is a former Benedictine monk.
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
"Nurses bring science to the bedside." It's an elegant and succinct way to think about the key role nursing plays in healthcare.
In a year that had been set aside to honor nurses, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Many nurses found themselves working under extraordinary circumstances and in situations that none had experienced before. "We were building the plane as we were flying it," we are told on today's program.
Guests:
Sylvain Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAONL, FAAN
Chief Nursing Officer, Providence
Sarah Thompson, BSN, RNC
NICU Providence Portland Medical Center
Bennett Pendleton, BSN, RN, CEN
PACU Providence Portland Medical Center
This is the first in a series of occasional episodes about nursing that will continue in the year ahead as WHO extends the Year of the Nurse & Midwifethrough 2021.
Also in this series:
Caring for the First COVID+ Patient
Nurses & Self-care
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
- Kelby Johnson, Content Strategy Director for Providence in Seattle, is making plans to have his mom move in with him and his two school-aged children in the spring.
- Crystal Walsh, LCSW, Manager of Supportive Services for TrinityCare Hospice in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., cared for her own mom for many years and helps families negotiate some of the boundary issues multigenerational-living brings up.
- Jennifer Liddell welcomed her mom into her home in South Bend, Ind., to live with her, her husband, and her kids. She recommends having conversations about expectations early on.
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
America has been fighting a War on Drugs for 50 years - a war we've been losing. Oregon's Measure 110 is a bold attempt to re-reframe the tactics. It will attempt to shift the thinking from law enforcement to health care.
On today's program, we hear from four people who'll be involved in how this first-in-the-nation experiment plays out. They don't all agree on the means to an end, but they do agree on the goal: Get help to anyone who wants it for substance use disorders and stop putting people in jail for what amounts to a complex neurobehavioral disorder with far-reaching social consequences.
Read the text of Oregon Measure 110
Andrew Seaman, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Oregon Health and Science University
Central City Concern
Addiction Medicine
Mike Marshall
Co-Founder & Director
Oregon Recovers
Beau Kilmer, Ph,D. M.P.P.
Director
RAND Drug Policy Research Center
Janie Gullickson, M.P.A:H.A. P.S.S. P.R.C.
Executive Director
Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon
Co-Chief Petitioner, Oregon Measure 110
- Seán Collins is a veteran public radio producer, having worked in NPR’s newsroom in Washington, D.C. where he led a team that produced the network’s flagship daily newsmagazine All Things Considered in addition to spending time on the staff of both Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation. Seán, a former Benedictine monk, lives pretty quietly these days with an eleven-year-old puggle in Saint Louis.
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
EAT SMART, MOVE MORE, STAY SOCIAL
During our recent episode on Mental Health and the Pandemic, we asked for strategies from Robin Henderson who offered a three-fold plan for staying safe and engaged this winter: We have to eat healthily; we have to move our bodies, and we have to interact with each other socially. She says digital wellness is more important than ever during this pandemic. And she suggests now may be the time to join an online support group or a book club or class to learn a new skill.
- Robin Henderson Psy.D., Chief Executive, Behavioral Health Providence Oregon, Portland, OR
LITTLE MOVEMENTS MATTER
Catherine Stifter tells us we can be moving more at home (and restoring balance and function) by making subtle changes in how we arrange the items we use daily. Having to reach (or bend) for something you use every day will, over time, preserve your range of motion. Small, consistent efforts pay off over time.
- Catherine Stifter, Restorative Movement Instructor, Your Movement Project, Nevada City, CA
- Catherine on Instagram
GO OUTSIDE ANYWAY AND CONSIDER FOSTERING A PET
Eleven-year-old Maizie B, who lives in New Mexico, says as long as you're smart about taking the proper COVID-19 precautions, there's no reason not to get outside in the winter for some skiing or sledding with friends. And she encourages us to think about fostering a shelter dog or cat — you'll make a new buddy this winter.
CHECK YOUR ANGER, WATCH FOR S.A.D.
Abbot Christopher Jamison is a Benedictine monk who says the fractious nature of our political discourse is not going to go away and cautions us to notice when our initial response to situations is anger. That doesn't have to be the end of our response. And, as the daylight hours diminish, Abbot Christopher urges us to remember that Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) naturally occurs in winter and can be anticipated and helped by reaching out to others.
- Dom Christopher Jamison OSB, Abbot President, The English Benedictine Congregation London, UK. Author, Finding Happiness: Monastic Steps for a Fulfilling Life and Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life.
- AloneTogether.org.uk
- VIDEOS:Shaping the Day: Morning / Midday / Evening
TRY WRITING A SONG
Using a different part of your brain is a great way to stay engaged. Got a song in your heart just waiting to get out?Joe Newberry reveals how you can try your hand at songwriting. Joe is a world-renowned clawhammer banjo player, guitarist, teacher, and singer-songwriter. He's moved his songwriting classes online and offers practical tips for getting started. (When you win your first Grammy or CMA, remember to give us a shout-out in your acceptance speech!)
- Joe Newberry, banjo, guitar, fiddle & song, Raleigh, NC.
- Joe on Twitter
GET OUTSIDE, WALK EVERY DAY, & GROW SOMETHING
Amy Dickinson gives advice for a living, so when she talks, people listen. And with good reason. Her advice is sound: Get outside, even in the cold, walk some every day, and watch something grow. She says tending to something that will flower in the winter is especially wonderful for kids.
- Amy Dickinson, syndicated columnist "Ask Amy." Author, The Mighty Queens of Freeville and Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things. A regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!
- Amy on Twitter and Instagram
CREATE SOMETHING NEW. OR SOMETHING OLD-NEW.
Rabbi James Stone Goodman notes we're all feeling "the squeeze" of the current condition with all its abnormalities and he says what works for him is to create something new, or in the Jewish sense, old-new: a serious renewal, such a renewal that you might not even recognize the original any longer. He and his wife, Rabbi Susan Talve, have been unpacking the psalms (old) together in a live-stream (new) each morning with analysis of the text for our time of "squeeze."
- Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, MO
- Psalms for the Soul of the Nation
EXPLORE AMERICA'S MUSIC: JAZZ
Gwen Thompkins is a writer and radio host who lives and breathes the music of her hometown - there's just no way to get away from great music in New Orleans. We were thinking that this winter might give some of us an opportunity to do some musical exploration and why not focus on jazz, with its full-throated appreciation of the joys and pains of the human experience. Gwen is a terrific guide. Besides writing and reporting about jazz and the men and women who make it, she hosts the radio program Music Inside Out on WWNO in New Orleans. As a starting point, you'll find our COVID Winter playlist on Spotify. Happy exploring!
- Gwen Thompkins, host Music Inside Out, New Orleans, LA
- Gwen's playlist on Spotify
THINK CREATIVELY ABOUT ZOOM
Allie I. is 12 years old and has been using Zoom to stay in touch with friends and family in inventive ways, such as watching movies together or holding a long-distance baking contest. Allie plans to try some holiday DIY projects this winter and crocheting... and even poetry.
- Seán Collins is a veteran public radio producer, having worked at NPR’s newsroom in Washington, D.C. producing the network’s flagship newsmagazine All Things Considered in addition to spending time on the staff of both Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation.
Ira Glass says of him, “He has a special gift for mulling over an issue or phenomenon and then staking an utterly original way to cover it. His work is ambitious, spiked with big ideas and small human moments. It does one of the hardest and best things journalism can do: it scratches its way to a new perspective.”
Seán is a former Benedictine monk and now lives more-or-less quietly in Saint Louis with an eleven-year-old puggle named Gibson who often attends podcast staff video calls.
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or other mental health issues and would like to seek help, please check out the Work@BeWell website for a list of qualified organizations.
Send us an email and share your COVID Winter strategies with us to help us plan our next episode.
Read Dr. Ira Byock's article Heroism and Hypocrisy: Seeing Our Reflection with 2020 Vision in The Journal of Palliative Medicine.
Guests
- Robin Henderson, Psy. D. is a clinical psychologist in Portland, OR, and the Chief Executive for Behavioral Health for Providence Oregon and the Clinical Liaison to the Well Being Trust.
- Ira Byock, M.D., is a leading palliative care physician and the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Providence Institute for Human Caring in Gardena, CA.
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole-person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind, and spirit.
Learn more about our Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative.
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind and spirit. To learn more about whole person care and the Institute for Human Caring go to: instituteforhumancaring.org
To learn more about the Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative please go to: https://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/Hear-Me-Now.aspx
Contact us at HumanCaring@providence.org
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind and spirit. To learn more about whole person care and the Institute for Human Caring go to: instituteforhumancaring.org
To learn more about the Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative please go to: https://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/Hear-Me-Now.aspx
For additional information about the Transgender educational programs by Erika Laurentz or Bennett Pendleton please reach out to them directly at:
Erika Laurentz: Erika.anne.Laurentz@gmail.com or Erika.Laurentz@providence.org
Bennett Pendleton: Bennett.Pendleton@gmail.com
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind and spirit. To learn more about whole person care and the Institute for Human Caring go to: instituteforhumancaring.org
To learn more about the Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative please go to: https://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/Hear-Me-Now.aspx
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind and spirit. To learn more about whole person care and the Institute for Human Caring go to: instituteforhumancaring.org
To learn more about the Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative please go to: https://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/Hear-Me-Now.aspx
About Us
At the Institute for Human Caring, we believe that whole person care is essential to helping patients, families, and caregivers experience the best care possible. This requires attending to the body, mind and spirit. To learn more about whole person care and the Institute for Human Caring go to: instituteforhumancaring.org
To learn more about the Hear Me Now storytelling and listing initiative please go to: https://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/Hear-Me-Now.aspx