Share and Voice: Disney's Earth

Hey bloggers!! You may have seen commercials advertising the new Disney movie Earth which just came out this month. The movie shows the challenges and experiences animals face on Earth. It shows how they raise their young, deal with predators, and adjust to the changes people are making to their environment. Check out this link to see the movie trailer. You'll fall in love with the animals presented in this clip. I sure did!!





After each ticket is sold, Disney has agreed to plant a tree in your honor! I think this movie also will get a better insight as to how they affect the environment around us. It's not just affecting people, it's affecting the animals, plants, and natural resources around us.

Reflections: Weeks 13 and 14

Hey Bloggers!! Well I don't know about you, but I think that the last two weeks have definetly been my favorite so far. I mean, getting out of part 2 on our advocacy project by the moans and groans of the class is awesome!



Week 13
We began week 13 by watching The Story of Stuff which was designed apon environmental literacy, operational literacy, and functional literacy. It really shocked me to see the chain reaction of being a nation of consumers. How can we avoid buying so many things? We are constantly being targeted by advertisements which on average see about 3,000 a day. It really made me double think some of the items I buy on average such as bottled pop.



Next on my checklist of things we completed, we headed to Bagley Nature Walk. To be honest with you, I've never used a compass so this was quite an experience. My goup memmbers and I followed the directions and successfully made it through the course with limited amounts of animal droppings on our shoes. I have another confession... I had never been to Bagley Nature Park before this opportunity. I really had a great time walking through the trees and admiring the environment around me.

Week 14
Week 14 began by us having the opportunity for Brian to come and talk about his experience majoring in environmental health. I found it very interesting how passionate he is about what he's currently doing. Followed by Brian speaking we moved on to talk about our letter to a local representative. I found this very difficult since I've never had to write such a formal letter.
Now for the finale of the past two weeks.. drum roll please...... the Junk Competition!!! Calling this an interesting experience would definetly not fufill the description of this exercise. Dr. V gave our class a variety of different "junk" items to incorporate into something useful. Well, I have to say that Group 1 came up with the funniest/most creative items yet. Kathy had me laughing throughout the whole activity as she suggested the titty covers for show girls in Las Vegas.. haha I put this picture up just for you Kathy! Can you imagine our creation in Vegas on showgirls? Hahaha.. maybe after some deep sterilization...





After brainstorming, we found various items to share such as a ship in a bottle, a fingernail holder for manicures, ninja stars, and even bike baskets. We had a lot of fun through this activity as people got the opportunity to show their creative side.

Overview
I loved the activities we've taken part of in the last weeks. I love to refurnish items in my bedroom as well and absolutely love rummage sales and bargain shopping to create my own decorations. I am so glad that Dr.V has stressed the point that someone's junk may be someone's treasure! Thank you all!!

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

April 28, 2009

Senator Amy Klobuchar
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Klobuchar,
It has been an arising issue that individuals and families cannot afford reliable health insurance.
By signing this bill we can take a step in the right direction in
making health insurance more affordable for individuals and families that
are not covered.
H.CON.RES.48 expresses the sense of Congress that national health care reform should ensure that the health care needs of women and of all individuals in the United States are met. A majority of people are offered health insurance, but what about the jobs that do not provide this benefit? Also for people who are unemployed are not able to pay for proper health insurance for themselves or their families.

There are many consequences involved if people continue to live without health insurance. Many individuals with health conditions will begin to avoid going to the doctor if they cannot afford the care necessary creating more severe problems in the future.Uninsured children are more likely than insured children to not receive medical care for common conditions like ear infections- illnesses that if left untreated can lead to more serious health problems. If children are left untreated, more problems may arise causing life-long conditions.I have the freedom to go to the doctor if I have any concerns regarding my health while people have to live with their health conditions due to financial reasons.

I understand that tax payers will be paying more money if this bill is passed, but it's all for a good cause. By paying more for taxes, they may feel at ease to know that they're potentially saving peoples' lives. It is known that 44 million Americans living without health insurance. By signing this bill, we may decrease this number significantly and avoid more preventative deaths or conditions. The baby boom generation is also greatly affected by this issue. If they cannot afford health insurance, they'll be faced with financial challenges with the economy the way it is.

As a health educator, I know I'll be faced with families who may or may not be covered by health insurance. That's when I began to ask myself if health insurance is a privilege or a right? You can be the judge when you decide on signing this bill to make health insurance more available for people.

Thank you very much for taking the time to review my request. I will be awaiting your response in the near future and willing to answer any questions if you wish.

Christen B
1830 Orchid Lane
Cherry Blossom, MN 55874

Please let me know if you have any suggestions to make my letter better. Thank you!

Advocacy Project:Issue Overview

I chose bill H.CON.RES.48 to defend my case dealing with health insurance. This bill's title includes: Expressing the sense of Congress that national health care reform should ensure that the health care needs of women and of all individuals in the United States are met.

What is the Issue?
The issue in my advocacy project is to increase the amount of people with health insurance. Many lower class individuals are faced with problems affording the proper health insurance for their families. Health insurance is a often offered through employment but not all the time. What about families that have no job? Not only the parents, but the children are greatly affected. How can we make health insurance more affordable for these individuals?

Who is affected by this issue?
It is known that 44 million Americans are living without health insurance. My target population was previously at 100%. Health insurance affects everyone!
Health insurance affects access to health care as well as the financial well being of families. It is more likely that if parents do not have health insurance, their children do not as well. I may be bias to this issue since I have always had health insurance under my parents name and just thought of it as the norm. The truth is that many people do not have this advantage which makes it hard to afford for themselves or for families.

What are the consequences of the issue?

I found a variety of consequences dealing with uninsured individuals and families..
-Many uninsured individuals skip recommended medical tests or treatments since they cannot pay for the care needed.
-Uninsured children are more likely than insured children to not receive medical care for common conditions like ear infections- illnesses that if left untreated can lead to more serious health problems.
-Uninsured individuals are much less likely to receive preventative care which delays treatment or even not receiving the care.


What is the social impact of the issue?
If people cannot afford the prices of health insurance, we are going to have a lot of problems in the future.A survey taken in 2007 indicated that 340,000 people in Minnesota are uninsured. That is a very large amount! The social impact of this issue may be more apparent than other bills since it deals with access to care. We may see more ill people undergoing health issues that are not getting treated due to their financial status. If worse comes to worse, people uninsured will not live as long as people who are insured since they are not getting the physical exams needed to determine any health disparities.


What are the barriers?
Without health insurance, the prices of care for individuals or families is very expensive creating barriers for individuals to get the help they need. They may avoid care which may lead to more damaging effects if untreated. Since a vast majority of uninsured are homeless, they're even less likely to obtain health care practices. Many people cannot afford health insurance and even a roof over their heads. With our economy the way it is, it's hard enough affording all the changes going on around us.


What are the resources?
The most important resource necessary for health insurance are money. As we have previously learned, money means power. If you have the money to afford health insurance you have more opportunities to get the health care you need at a more affordable price. If taxpayers are willing to pay higher taxes, this resource will be crucial as well.


Economical Impacts of issue:
Taxpayers will be affected by this if the bill is passed which may cause some room for debate. Taxpayers may ask, why do we need to pay more taxes for people who cannot afford health insurance? If each taxpayers would pay a small addition to their taxes, they could potentially save other people's lives in the long run.


What is the history of this issue?
I actually found quite a bit of information regarding the history of health insurance. It all began in 1861-1865 when the first insurance plan began during the civil war. The earliest ones only offered coverage against accidents related from travel by rail or steamboat. This health insurance plan eventually paved the way for covering all illnesses and injuries. The first group policy giving comprehensive benefits was offered by Massachusetts Health Insurance of Boston in 1847.

While Preisident Clinton was in office in 1993, he created a plan in which guaranteed health insurance for all Americans. This plan was opposed by leaders since it was too expensive. This was never reached even though alternatives were made.Congress had passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996. This protected individuals from losing their health insurance when they moved from one job to another or became self-employed. Unfortunately, it did not ensure the overall quality or comprehensiveness of insurance offered by employers.


Allies and Opponents
Currently, President Barack Obama has plans to improve health care for our country. He says he will make health insurance affordable and accessible to all, and to build upon the preexisting healthcare systems. He would also like to lower the cost of health care about 2,500 per family by investing in health information technology, prevention and care coordination. People who currently cannot afford health insurance will also be very supportive of this bill since it will offer them opportunities they did not have before. It's obvious that some tax payers will be opposed to this bill since it will increase the price they pay in taxes.



I hope that after reading my request that you will vote YES for more affordable in health insurance creating access to care for individuals and families.

Resources:
Uninsured in America
Health Insurance Center
History of Health Insurance in the United States
Organizing for America

Share and Voice: Jon and Kate Plus Eight Go Green

If you haven't had the experience to watch the television show Jon and Kate Plus 8, this share and voice may interest you to see what it's all about. I found this show to be very addicting to watch. It combines humor and education while juggling a family of 8 kids. They all work as a team to make it all possible.


To see the Jon and Kate Plus Eight Music Video about Going Green click here

Make sure you see the episode on April 19, 2009 about the family going the extra mile to go green. This family goes to show, no matter what the size, you can still recycle, buy organic foods, and reduce the amount of chemicals used.

Reflections: Weeks 11 and 12

Hey bloggers,
Wow, only a few more weeks to go!! I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone. Well weeks 11 and 12 have definetly been keeping us busy.....


Week 11:
During week 11, we watched a movie entitled Unnatural Causes which showed us how money creates power. It showed us that we are ranked 30 in life expectancy. I cannot believe those results. I always thought the United States would've been ranked better than that. This documentary also showed how stress relates to high blood pressure making systems to work overtime and creating cortisol. We also had the change to overview the THOMAS and Healthy People 2010 in order to collect enough data for our research project.

Week 12:
We had the opportunity to chose our own topic to do research for including the links above. I chose to do mine with accessibility to health care through insurance. It's a very serious problem that need to be addressed to increase the amounts of people with health insurance. A fun thing we did this week was watch some cartoon movies that I still remembered seeing from when I was a kid. We watched Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law if you must see this again! Another video that we found humorous was the Conjunction Junction video! We also saw a sneak peak of Dr.V's Frisbee skills as she tossed our reusable bags to each of us. It was a very nice donation of Super One to give us these bags!



I thin that through these last couple weeks, we've began to learn the political sides of environmental health. I hope that our generation IS known as the generation that has Gone Green just like Sara mentioned in class. Have a great weekend!

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

Hey bloggers,
I chose to do my advocacy project on the Accessibility of Health Care Services because I am familiar with health care facilities and am interested in what is in store for them in the future. We also got an inside look at the THOMAS option which was very neat to investigate.
Through this review, I will provide the goal of this objective in Healthy People 2010, progress tables, disparities, opportunities and challenges, and emerging issues.

Goal for Objective 1-1

-Increase the proportion of persons with health insurance.

Target: 100 percent.

Baseline: 83 percent of persons under age 65 years were covered by health insurance in 1997 (age adjusted to the year 2000 standard population).

Target setting method: Total coverage.

Data source: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), CDC, NCHS.













Goal:
Improve Access to Comprehensive, High-Quality Health Care Services.

The Progress Table

The progress table demonstrated a wide variety of diversities and showed if they met the targets, moved towards the target, or moved away from the target. It was surprising to see that the Asian or Pacific Islanders made progress towards the target or met many of the requirements targets throughout the whole progress table. I was also surprised to see how low the Hispanic/Latino rates represented. Even though they're working towards the target, they're statistics were rather low in each of the categories.

Disparities:

The chart of race and ethnicity represents the White, non Hispanic group as being the dominant among the health issues. They have a high score in receiving health care compared to the other groups. Following them are the Black non Hispanic group.

Along with race and ethnicity comes the Income, Location, and Disability table. The category that exceeds the rest is the Middle/High income group. The "poor" category is definitely the lowest on the scale. This goes to show that money means power.
The final group represented is the Gender and Education table. Females took control in this representation by scoring the highest in each of the categories represented. As the list goes on, you begin to notice the trend in education patterns. It showed that the less educated individuals were, the lower the rates were of health care trends. As we look at these results, it sends the message that the more educated are, the smarter health decisions you make.

Progress Towards Healthy People 2010 Targets

Even though some of these topics did not meet or exceed their targets, efforts were made in each of these instances. Many of the objectives and subobjectives progressed towards their target. Some examples include:

"HHS agencies support programs to measure and improve the quality of care for persons living with asthma and to prevent hospitalization for uncontrolled asthma."

"Progress toward the targets for persons with sources of ongoing care (1-4), persons with a usual primary care provider (1-5), and difficulties or delays in obtaining needed health care (1-6) may in part be attributed to the expansion of HRSA's community health center program across the country. The program now serves approximately 14 million people."

Opportunities and Challenges:

A staggering amount of 18,000 deaths have occurred due to the lack of health care insurance according to the Institute of Medicine. It's very difficult to measure since 45 million people are uninsured. This is a very big issue. If people do not have the resources needed to help assist medical bills, they are going to remain untreated. Long term consequences involve the services of home health, adult day care, assisted living, and nursing home care. There are demands that go along with health care facilities, but have to realize that it creates more challenges in meeting the overall target.


Emerging Issues
Issues such as workforce, insurance, and consumer-directed services are up for discussion. The demand for LTC is up for discussion since the baby boom generation has higher rates for disabilities. With the prices of health care, many people are having a hard time affording the cost of health care the way it is. This may create jobs for people in the health care field, but may use up many of their retirement funds to receive hands on care.
Bill:


H.CON.RES.48
Title: Expressing the sense of Congress that national health care reform should ensure that the health care needs of women and of all individuals in the United States are met.

Sponsor: Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] (introduced 2/11/2009) Cosponsors (37)

Latest Major Action: 2/11/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Recommendation: Vote _____ (indicate yes or no) for H.CON.RES.48 Expressing the sense of Congress that national health care reform should ensure that the health care needs of women and of all individuals in the United States are met.

My Political Representative: Amy Klobuchar
Contact Information:
Washington, DC
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
phone: 202-224-3244
fax: 202-228-2186
Email: http://klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm

My Thoughts:
I believe that this issue is very important to be debated since many people are uninsured and undergoing serious medical conditions. I feel that since I am interested in nursing in my future, that I am passionate about health care for everybody. I live in a very small community where the nearest health care facility is about 45 minutes away which is not as accessible than in a large city. I found the issue of medical insurance is a very important topic to research. I hope you enjoyed my review!!