A New Approach to Home Care
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Perhaps you've read this before and are wondering, "Why am I seeing this again?" But millions of other Christians haven't seen it! So please use the "share" buttons above to share it with your social media friends. Thanks!!
What is Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC)? "HBPC programs provide appropriate care (primary, urgent, or palliative) to high-risk, medically vulnerable patients, often suffering multiple chronic conditions, when and where they need it. This patient-centric, continuous care model delivers clinical, economic, and human benefits such as:
* facilitating timely interventions when chronic conditions worsen and preempting avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations
* alleviating social stressors that contribute to poor health
* comforting patients by giving them loving care and letting them know they’re not alone."
Some states, recognizing that home health care is far less expensive than nursing home care, are starting to supplement family caregivers: States take the lead on addressing family caregiver needs. "As baby boomers grow into old age, there is a growing demand for caregivers — both paid and unpaid. While legislators have largely overlooked the looming shortage, some states are stepping into the void with innovative solutions.
"In Hawaii, family caregivers who work outside the home can get up to $70 per day from the state to apply toward adult day services. Washington has a tool to assess the needs of family caregivers and refer them to the most useful resources, and in Minnesota, the 'Live Well at Home' program gives grants to local organizations to test ways to support older adults and caregivers."
Check out AARP's Family Caregiving How-To Video Series: "Special Diets", "Managing Incontinence", "Wound Care", "Mobility", and "Managing Medications" with lots of instructional materials; also the Home Alone Alliance - "a partnership of public, private, and nonprofit sector organizations coming together to change the way health care organizations and professionals interface with family caregivers.
"20 million family caregivers say they perform medical/nursing tasks. These include handling prescriptions, helping someone climb the stairs with a cane, and caring for and cleaning wounds. Family caregivers often do these tasks with no training or help from health care professionals." This is why we offer our online Social Ministries of the Church program.
An example of Supporting older adults and their caregivers in the community is Wellmed Charitable Foundation's activity centers for seniors in Texas and Florida. This will give you an idea of what might be available in your state too! Also see their page on Caregiver Support for emergency call-in help, caregiver coaching, caregiver teleconferences, a stress-busting program and more.
Just one of the many Home Health Care organizations is Home Instead Senior Care with branches all over the U.S. They also offer free monthly newsletters with tips and advice for caregivers of elderly loved ones. You can also do an Internet search for "home health care organizations in XX" (XX = your state) to find out what's available locally, or go to Home Care Association of America and click on the "Find a Provider" link.
The John A. Hartford Foundation "is dedicated to improving the care of older adults" including Age-Friendly Health Systems - "an initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States." They sponsor a multitude of programs all over the U.S. to advance health care for people in the "baby boom" generation who are reaching their 70s now, when health issues tend to crop up.
Here's a really helpful factsheet: Supporting the Critical Role of Family Caregivers: State Opportunities on the value and the personal toll of family caregivers, as well as examples of what some states are doing to support this vitally important role. Print it, hand it out, and share it online!
The RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council of the U.S. government's Administration for Community Living (ACL) consists of non-governmental and federal government members chosen for "providing recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on effective models of both family caregiving and support to family caregivers, as well as improving coordination across federal government programs."
I hope you've found this info to be helpful!
"Dr. Bob"
Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., D.Min.
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NEXT, THE NEWS:
[VIDEO] MANHATTAN PLANNED PARENTHOOD INJURES 33RD WOMAN IN FIVE YEARS
from: LiveAction News
(25 Mar.) A pro-life activist participating in 40 Days for Life witnessed a woman being taken to the hospital by ambulance from Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan facility. While the details of her injury are not known, she is the 42nd known injury since the facility’s opening, and the 33rd in the last five years.
The witness contacted Operation Rescue about what she had seen. It began with the arrival of a Stericycle truck to the facility, with some Planned Parenthood staffers outside. The witness assumed it was there to collect the bodies of aborted preborn babies.
"Stericycle days are tough. Especially if I'm by myself," the witness told Operation Rescue. "I usually kneel and make the sign of the cross each time the workers bring out hand trucks stacked with cardboard boxes marked for incineration. While I was preparing my heart to deal with this truck again, the workers were trying to clear off a few cars that were trying to park in front of the… door. They would shake their heads and motion to the drivers to keep going."
But it turned out the staffers weren't clearing the way for the Stericycle truck; they were making room for two ambulances and a fire unit. While the witness took photo and video, she was approached by an angry woman.
"'I'm here to help,’ was my response," the witness said. "She replied with strong language and said that I wasn't helping. Then I pointed towards the double EMS trucks directly in front of us and said, 'How is this helping women?' I said that I would pray for her and that we should both pray for the poor woman that was possibly dying inside Planned Parenthood right now."
After 15 minutes, the injured woman was loaded onto an ambulance; the second ambulance and fire truck left, while the ambulance with the injured woman remained. The witness does not know what happened after this. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: The barbarism of abortion is akin to King Herod's slaughter of the innocents. It is shocking that "Bland Barrenhood" attempts to cover up their murderous actions by using bland euphemisms such as "a woman's right" and "freedom of choice" when in actuality a legal right to prostitution, fornication, or adultery does not make these actions morally right, and freedom of choice implies moral responsibility for one's rational decisions. It is a double tragedy when the willful murder of an unborn child also results in the death or maiming of the mother.
[VIDEO] WAR CREEPS CLOSER TO KYIV'S SURROGACY INDUSTRY
from: BioEdge.org
(13 Mar.) Surrogacy became much more complicated on February 24 in Ukraine. With the Russian invasion, it was evident that Kyiv would become a war zone. But the babies, the surrogate mothers and the intended parents needed protection. Pregnancies do not stop in war time.
"Nearly every day, Ukrainian surrogates give birth to the children of foreign couples, and these parents are struggling to evacuate their children or even meet them for the first time," says The New York Times.
"At least a dozen companies offer surrogacy in Ukraine, and BioTexCom, one of the leading agencies in Kyiv, estimates that it arranges at least a thousand births each year. The agency had expected to have 100 babies born by month’s end. Many of these newborns will be born in Kyiv, where fighting has neared hospitals, far from the parents who wait anxiously from outside Ukraine’s borders to take them home."
BioTexCom has just posted a video to reassure clients that they will be well taken care of. It is rather disconcerting. Without subtitles or translations of building signs, it is difficult to know what is happening. But it appears that the company is lodging the babies – dozens of them – in the basements of several hotels and clinics around the city.
Parents, nurses and a burly security guard toting a submachine gun load the babies, snug in their bassinets, into a van and zip off along mostly deserted highways, once swerving to avoid tank traps, to their shelter. Outside, the streets are nearly deserted; inside babies are wailing, being fed, and being rocked to sleep. It seems that none of the surrogate mothers appear in the video. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: The euphemism of "surrogacy" or renting out one's body for sex and procreation ought to be just as morally repulsive as the barbarism of abortion that is most often caused by prostitution, fornication, or adultery, as in our first news article above.
RUSSIA: PATRIARCHATE PRIEST FINED FOR CONDEMNING WAR IN UKRAINE
from: Forum 18 News Service
(11 Mar.) On 10 March, a court fined Fr. Ioann Burdin of the Moscow Patriarchate's Kostroma Diocese one month's average local wages for online remarks and a Sunday sermon in church condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and stressing the importance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."
The court decision is "a ban not only on expressing one's opinion but also even on professing one's religious beliefs," Fr Ioann told Forum 18. So far, no other individual is known to have been prosecuted under the new Administrative Code Article punishing "discrediting the use of the Armed Forces" for expressing opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine related specifically to their exercise of freedom of religion or belief.
This Russian Orthodox priest has been fined for condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and stressing the importance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." Fr. Ioann Burdin, of the Moscow Patriarchate's Kostroma Diocese north-east of Moscow, made his remarks both online and in his sermon to parishioners on Sunday 6 March. Police then called him in for interview. On 10 March, a court fined him the equivalent of one month's average local wages.
The court fined Fr. Ioann 35,000 Rubles under Russia's new Administrative Code Article 20.3.3, Part 1. This punishes "discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, [and] maintain international peace and security." Any appeal would be heard at Kostroma Regional Court. "We will appeal, but the outcome is clear," Fr Ioann told Forum 18 on 10 March. He added that the decision was "a ban not only on expressing one's opinion, but also even on professing one's religious beliefs."
Forum 18 asked the police why stating facts about the fighting and praying for an end to bloodshed is considered to be discrediting the armed forces, how police found out about his remarks and why those leading meetings for worship cannot speak freely without fear of punishment. But no officer in the police department which initiated the case, or at Kostroma Region's Interior Ministry branch, would agree to answer any of Forum 18's questions about the case. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: This Russian Orthodox priest, Fr. Ioann Burdin, is just one of hundreds of Russian Orthodox priests who have condemned Russia's invasion and ongoing war of mass killings and destruction in Ukraine. This is in addition to the 15,000 Russian medical professionals who signed a joint letter to Putin pleading for an end to this war and the 15,000 or more ordinary Russians who have been arrested for protesting Russia's war in Ukraine.
CDC & WHO CRITICIZED FOR PERPETUATING DOWN SYNDROME 'MISINFORMATION'
from: Disability Scoop
(22 Mar.) Down syndrome advocates want the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to rethink how they're classifying the chromosomal condition. At present, the health agencies have grouped Down syndrome alongside other birth defects. That's a problem, according to the National Down Syndrome Congress.
"It should not be classified as a birth defect by anyone," said Jordan Kough, executive director of the nonprofit, which recently put out a statement rebuking what the advocacy group calls "misinformation on Down syndrome" from prominent health organizations.
"It is a genetic condition and often people with Down syndrome have other birth defects or other issues like congenital heart disease, which is very common with people with Down syndrome, but qualifying all of Down syndrome as a birth defect in its own right we think is completely inappropriate and completely inaccurate and potentially leads to harmful perceptions of people with Down syndrome in the broader community," Kough said.
The issue stirred up earlier this month when the World Health Organization posted on social media about World Birth Defects Day. The posting included a list of several common severe birth defects that included Down syndrome. Parents and other advocates quickly clapped back over the inclusion of Down syndrome in the list and the World Health Organization updated the posting. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Down syndrome in itself is not a severe birth defect: there are many people with Down syndrome who lead happy lives, have graduated from higher education, are holding good jobs, and have started families. The problem here is that those with Down syndrome are often considered to have other birth defects that are more severe. This is called "spread" – when we simply assume that if a group of people have one condition, they automatically have all of the severe conditions that are sometimes associated with the former. For example, "spread" is when younger people assume that all people over age 65 or 70 have some form of dementia or poor health, so they are shunned.
AFTER A MONTH OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION, METROPOLITAN EPIFANIY ONCE AGAIN CALLED ON THE UOC-MP TO JOIN THE OCU
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(25 Mar.) This call was made on March 24 in the message of the Primate of the OCU. "Dozens of communities, several monasteries in different regions of Ukraine have already voluntarily and consciously fulfilled their canonical duty and followed the Tomos of Autocephaly. Make your choice in favor of the church and Ukraine," the First Hierarch urged the clergy and faithful of the UOC-MP.
Metropolitan Epifaniy's appeal was shared by the press service of the OCU.
"Our prayer is also for the unity of the Orthodox Church. Once again, I repeat the Holy Synod's appeal to the brothers and sisters who are still subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate: unite around Kyiv, unite in the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine! Do not wait for Moscow to give you permission or instructions – the missiles and bombs that the Russian military is now dropping on you with the deceptive blessing of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill are already the answer of the 'Russian World.' This answer is your shelled, burned, destroyed temples. This response is Kirill's silence on the crimes of the Russian army in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and dozens of other cities and villages in Ukraine." [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Some dozens of UOC-MP parishes have now joined the OCU, as well as hundreds of UOC-MP priests who have stopped commemorating Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in their Liturgy services since the beginning of this war, signaling a possible split in the UOC-MP.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY WHEN YOU HAVE A DISABLED CHILD - AND MAYBE WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE SAID
from: Disabled World
(11 Mar.) Parents are sensitive to comments made about their parenting skills and about their children. Sometimes, these words can stick with you like superglue that has accidentally dropped on your fingers. I have three daughters; two are "normal" and one is disabled. Most of the comments directed to me about my normal daughters were generic in nature, the most positive being that they were pretty, smart, and compassionate. The worst being that I was spoiling them. I don't remember most of them.
My sister was born when I was seven years old. She was diagnosed with a visual impairment at birth. That is a devastating diagnosis for any parent. The way my parents were informed was harsh and unprofessional. I remember my mother, describing to friends, how the doctor walked into her hospital room and told her to have my sister's eyes checked. When my mother asked if my sister could see, the doctor turned and walked out of her room. The doctor should have taken the time to sit with my mother, explain the visual impairment and allow my mother to ask questions.
My daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was six months old. I remember my husband and I sitting with the neurologist as he examined her. Included in the examination were the usual questions about my health, my pregnancy and my eating and social habits. After answering no to any questions that would adversely affect my pregnancy and the baby I was carrying, my husband added that I didn't even drink Coca Cola. The doctor's response directed to me was, "What did you do?" That comment crushed me more than her diagnosis. A compassionate response would have been sharing his knowledge of the causes of cerebral palsy and how that might relate to our daughter. Finally, the doctor should have asked, "Do you have questions or how can I help you?" We did not go back to that doctor.
Our daughter spent the first two weeks of her life in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at a children's hospital. The nurses were fabulous. Our daughter spent her final weeks in the hospital in the transitional unit. Because of the distance from the hospital lobby to the transitional unit and the fact that I was still recovering from a blood clot in my leg, my husband would push me in a wheelchair. There was one nurse who questioned my ability to care for my baby because I was in a wheelchair!
Upon our daughter's discharge she said our daughter was "slow" and recommended that I enroll our daughter in their early intervention program. Our daughter was three weeks old and was in the process of being weaned off high doses of seizure medication. I took offense to the word, slow. If the nurse explained that babies who experience trauma or a serious illness at birth are eligible for their early intervention program, I might have considered her recommendation. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: People sometimes say stupid things when they meet someone with a disability or a parent of a disabled child. We need to learn how to respond charitably rather than reacting naturally: our fallen human nature can often be very uncharitable!
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
(24 Mar.) In the village of Stoyanka-2 outside Kyiv, a half-dozen cars line the road, riddled with holes, their bodywork mangled by bullets and an explosion.
Their windows, bearing handwritten Ukrainian signs saying "Children" are perforated or shattered. The suitcases inside the vehicles appear to have been searched. The bodies have been recovered by volunteers or removed by Russian soldiers or locals.
This is what remains of the quarter of a 20-car civilian evacuation convoy that tried to escape the suburban town of Irpin on the morning of March 6. As the convoy entered Stoyanka-2, Russian forces opened fire, most likely from a nearby building, killing at least four people in the first five cars and wounding several more. The rest managed to back up, turn around and flee.
Oleksandr Syrtsov saw it happen directly in front of him. "I saw with my own eyes how my loved ones were being shot to death… like cannon fodder," he told the Kyiv Independent over the phone from Kyiv. "In 30 seconds, I lost my friend, my cousin, all my things, my documents, my car… all I saved was my life."
The brutality of Russia's war of agression against Ukraine is beyond description. My stomach churned when I saw this photo, read news articles, and when receiving many letters from friends and former coworkers there. One former coworker wrote that he and his family had to evacuate from Kyiv to Poland just before Russia attacked, but that the above group of his Ukrainian colleagues drove the above 20-car convoy back from Poland to Kyiv in order to take 200 people to Poland. Our Russian friends still in Russia, however, are mostly silent.
Another ministry in Russia that we've worked with sent a rather bland, positive letter today describing their ministry there, but a letter from the same ministry sent from the U.S. was quite descriptive of the refugee situation in Poland, Germany, Moldova, and Romania. A half-dozen other former coworkers have written, sending photos and prayer requests.
Antiochian Metropolitan Joseph posted regarding Ukraine – "As Orthodox Christians, we oppose any type of violence or injustice throughout the world. Rather, we call upon Almighty God to send us His heavenly peace and bring us together to resolve our disputes through fair and open discussions. I join with all the clergy and faithful of this God-protected Archdiocese to pray fervently for the immediate end of hostilities, and for the health and safety of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian people in these difficult times." [Metr. Onufriy heads the Moscow-oriented UOC-MP.]
Also the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America has likewise called for “all parties and all people to refrain from further aggression, withdraw…all weapons and troops from sovereign lands, and instead to pursue de-escalation and restoration of peace through dialogue and mutual respect.” The Antiochian Orthodox Patriatrchate, based in Syria, owes its continued existence to the protection of Russian armed forces there. Thus, it makes only vague, equivocating statements about Ukraine. The following commentaries, however, are all rather clear:
THE CHURCH AND THE "DIABOLICAL FORCE." HOW PATRIARCH KIRILL FORGOT ABOUT THE GOSPEL AND BECAME A PREACHER OF FRATRICIDE by Sergei Chapnin, who formerly worked in the Russian Patriarch's office but became a dissident, was defrocked, and now writes bluntly and plainly about what's really going on there.
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH: THE INVADERS OF UKRAINE SEEM TO WANT THE HUMILIATION OF THE PROUD UKRAINIAN PEOPLE: This is just the latest of several messages by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
BISHOPS OF THE POLISH ORTHODOX CHURCH: WAR IN UKRAINE "WICKED AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE"
METROPOLITAN IOBI (PATRIARCHATE OF GEORGIA): RUSSIANS ARE ONLY CHRISTIANS IN WORDS, NOT IN DEEDS.
METROPOLITAN OF THE GEORGIAN CHURCH: ANY PATRIARCH OR BISHOP WHO SUPPORTS RUSSIA'S ACTIONS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ORTHODOXY.
[VIDEO] INTERVIEW WITH ARCHBISHOP DANIEL OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH USA (24 FEB 22)
[AUDIO] OCA METROPOLITAN TIKHON AND POLISH ORTHODOX ARCHDEACON JOSEPH MATUSIAK SPEAK ON PROVIDING UKRAINIAN REFUGEE RELIEF.
HERE'S WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON WITH THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA - an article from 2018 explaining why the Antiochian Orthodox Church remains silent about Ukraine: being based in Syria: "Russian political and military support is vital to its very survival in the Middle East."
A DECLARATION ON THE "RUSSIAN WORLD" (RUSSKII MIR) TEACHING. This "Russkii mir" ideology claims that wherever there are Russian-speaking people, that part of the world is Russian territory and should be united with Russia. It also portrays Moscow as the center of true Orthodoxy and the Ecumenical Patriarch as heretical and schismatic.
AN ORTHODOX AWAKENING by George Weigel in First Things: let us hope and pray that this war will bring about an Orthodox awakening!
(Get this as a separate page at ARC-News-blog.blogspot.com).
