Rough Sleepers September book club selection

Our book club assignment for September is Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder.  Here is a summary of a model program from 1985 to the present at its website with a description of the book. Our History | Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (bhchp.org)

"2023:  Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder is published. Kidder tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, (Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program) BHCHP’s founding physician and the BHCHP Street Team as they offer medical care and friendship to “rough sleepers”, our patients living on the streets. Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer prize-winning author followed the Street Team for 5 years resulting in this New York Times bestseller.

Rough Sleepers appears on the cover of the New York Times magazine with a 10,000-word author essay by Tracy Kidder and a photo montage of patients cared for by the BHCHP Street Team.

Barbara McInnis House respite program [in 2023] opens the Complex Addiction Treatment (CAT) team specializing in the respite care of people with active SUD using best practices from addiction medicine, harm reduction, and trauma informed models of care. This is a unique model of care: The team’s goals are 

(1) to provide effective care to respite patients at BMH who are at high risk for adverse outcomes related to drug use 

(2) to retain these patients in care at BMH to address the medical need(s) for which they were admitted and 

(3) to decrease triggers and trauma for patients in respite who are not using drugs by cohorting and better supporting patients for whom cessation of use is not an option."

Additional information

Find Immediate Homelessness Assistance | SAMHSA

Need Housing Assistance? - HUD Exchange

"SAMHSA’s SOAR program increases access to Social Security disability benefits for eligible children and adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or co-occurring substance use disorder." However I found it so complex, I couldn't figure it out. Find Treatment Locators and Helplines | SAMHSA  Definitely would require a whole department of specialists. But I also looked at the number of applicants in 17 years this department has helped, and I was not impressed.

"Under federal disability rights laws, alcohol addiction, whether current or past, is typically considered a disability due to the effects it has on a person’s brain and neurological functions and is protected by the ADA. 7 On the other hand, though drug addiction is generally considered a disability, the ADA only allows protections for those in recovery and not currently engaging in illegal drug use. 7

Is Addiction a Disability? ADA Protections & Disability Benefits (americanaddictioncenters.org)

Dr. Jim O'Connell wrote a memoir in 2015. House Calls To The Homeless: A Doctor Treats Boston's Most Isolated Patients : Shots - Health News : NPR

Medicaids-Role-in-Housing-1.pdf (macpac.gov)

Thousands in Columbus are waiting for affordable, Section 8 housing (dispatch.com)

An interesting book review

Famous Stutterers: Twelve Inspiring People Who Achieved Great Things while Struggling with an Impediment by Gerald R. McDermott

Last night I listened to a fascinating book review and author interview of Gerald R. McDermott.  I knew Moses was a stutterer, but I didn’t know about Marilyn Monroe, and that they had to do 47 takes to get one line right in “Some like it Hot.”  Moses, Aristotle, Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, King George VI, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, distinguished historian Peter Brown, TV journalist John Stossel, Senator's wife Annie Glenn, ABC correspondent Byron Pitts, novelist John Updike.  I did know about Annie Glenn, who recently died, and had seen the movie about George VI, and John Stossel has talked about it.  McDermott said that millions suffer from the embarrassment and challenging disability of stuttering, and that 98% of them are men. I believe he said he is also a stutterer, although there wasn’t anything in the interview to indicate it. Singing, for some reason, is no problem, and each stutterer finds ways to handle it, and takes training or lessons to calm it. I remember almost 60 years ago helping a Russian graduate student with his first draft (or more) of his PhD thesis.  He had a terrible stutter, but only in Russian, not in English (which wasn’t very good).

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2017/02/20/12-famous-stories-determination-stutterers/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/northamptonseminar/2016/09/04/marilyn-monroe-stutterer/

The book review reminded me of the many, many people with  disabilities who struggle everyday to challenge, improve, or maybe despair. Some are bullied, some are teased, some give up. 

Is there womb discrimination?

Democrats are OK with discrimination because of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, or disability as long as it results in the death of an inconvenient baby in the womb. Democrats have been brutal to Justice Clarence Thomas as long as I can remember, but it has only made him stronger.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/06/05/clarence-thomas-shows-lefts-hypocrisy-on-discrimination/

Auditory processing disorder

I have APD, but since no one knew about learning disorders when I was a child, I'm glad now I didn't have any of the technology or instruction recommended in this article. I may have just thought of myself as a victim. I was always an A student and retired as associate professor, but even the compensations don't work as well at 79. I only mention it because if you think your child or grandchild isn't listening, it just might be APD. Slow down your speech, make eye contact, and turn off the distractions and see if that helps.

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/the-difference-between-dyslexia-and-auditory-processing-disorder

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2006/11/thursday-thirteen-13-things-about-my.html

Stop editing yourself is this blind painter’s advice

There’re so many people saying, ‘Well, I can’t draw a straight line,’ or, ‘I can’t do this or that,’ and it’s interesting how, if you stop editing yourself–if you stop judging every little thing you do when it comes to art–you end up invariably being able to do way more than you thought. It seems like it’s the same way in life. When I lost my eyesight, I really thought everything was over because I already had epilepsy and all; but then thankfully, with the painting, I stopped thinking about it that way. I stopped editing everything I did, stopped worrying about the past or the future and just focused on being in the moment. Things got a lot better after that. I wish more people would do that, because they don’t realize that what they’re capable of is incredible.” John Bramblitt

https://usodep.blogs.govdelivery.com/2014/08/06/artist-sees-painting-as-a-way-of-life/

 

http://bramblitt.net/

This film is 10 years old, but shows how he has developed his art and skill. https://vimeo.com/5497828

Wendy Davis knows no shame

The woman who made her pitch for fame and a place in the Democratic party on aborted babies and pink athletic shoes, is now going after her disabled candidate. James Taranto account:

The Washington Post calls it “one of the nastiest campaign ads you will ever see.” (Hope springs eternal.) It’s for Wendy Davis, the state senator who is the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas and is heavily disfavored for an office her party hasn’t won since 1990. As Politico describes the ad, it “directly references gubernatorial rival Greg Abbott’s partial paralysis—including the image of an empty wheelchair—to charge the Republican with hypocrisy”:

“A tree fell on Greg Abbott. He sued and got millions,” a narrator says over the image of a wheelchair. “Since then, he’s spent his career working against other victims.” . . .

The spot cites three cases Abbott worked on as a state Supreme Court justice or attorney general. In one case, Abbott’s office argued a woman with an amputated leg wasn’t disabled because she had a prosthetic limb. In another, he said a door-to-door sales company wasn’t responsible when one of their employees raped a woman. (The Texas Supreme Court ruled in the woman’s favor.) In the third, he helped a hospital defend themselves [sic] against a lawsuit after a doctor botched surgeries.

“Greg Abbott,” the narrator says. “He’s not for you.”

The ad’s—and Politico’s—account of the cases is tendentious. In that third case, for instance, Law360.com reported at the time (in March) that the plaintiffs were “challenging the constitutionality of a revised state law that requires claimants to prove that the defendant had a specific intent to cause injury or harm.” Abbott, as attorney general, sought to intervene to defend the state on that question of law.

At any rate, the “hypocrisy” charge is ludicrous. Is the Davis campaign’s position that if a lawyer has ever been the plaintiff in a personal-injury action, he is obliged to side with plaintiffs in every subsequent case, regardless of the facts or the law? (As a corollary, are one-time defendants obliged to side with all future defendants? Is a plaintiff who gets countersued guilty of hypocrisy either way?)

But distortion and illogic are not exactly uncommon in political ads. What makes this one unusual is the harsh way in which it seeks to exploit Abbott’s physical infirmity. The criticism has Davis on the defensive; the Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas reports that she reiterated the attack on Abbott this morning at a press conference “featuring speakers in wheelchairs.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/10/13/abbott-if-wendy-davis-wants-to-attack-a-guy-in-a-wheelchair-thats-her-prerogative/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/14/blowback-continues-after-texas-candidate-wendy-davis-ad-uses-wheelchair-to/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/wendy-davis-wheelchair-ad_n_5978342.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2791760/wendy-davis-doubles-controversial-wheelchair-ad-attacks-paralyzed-foe-governor-s-race.html

Brain development in children

“The list of chemicals that can affect brain development in children has grown. In a study out today in The Lancet Neurology, researchers outline new chemicals that may be contributing to what they dub the “global, silent pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity.” In 2006, the team had released a list of five neurotoxins that may contribute to everything from cognitive deficits to attention problems. Now that list is expanded, based on new research that has since accumulated on chemicals linked to developmental disorders in children. Today, they outline six more.” Forbes

Summary in The Lancet Neurology.  “Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence. In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants:

• lead,
• methylmercury,
• polychlorinated biphenyls,
• arsenic,
• and toluene.

Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—

• manganese,
• fluoride,
• chlorpyrifos,
• dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane,
• tetrachloroethylene,
• and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy. Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity. To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse.”

Abort a disabled baby?

Bare foot walking, pt. 3

When I was a student at the University of Illinois I used to pass two disabled students at lunch time--I think it was in Lincoln Hall (now closed for renovation). I believe one may have been blind and in a wheelchair and the other had no arms. The U. of I. was a forerunner in services for the disabled, beginning I believe with disabled veterans after WWII. The armless man would push/guide the wheelchair with his pelvis, and ate his lunch using his feet as his hands. He was quite limber, as was I at age 19, and his toes functioned as fingers. Blind students attending college didn't surprise me because my grandmother was blind and I'd seen her do many remarkable things that sighted people didn't or couldn't, including distinguishing her many grandchildren by voice (she often mistook me for my sister, but so did sighted people). But I'd never seen someone hold a sandwich with his toes. (Don't know who prepared his sack lunch.) At that time I could pick up objects with my toes, I know, because I tried it after seeing him. But walking barefoot the last few days I discovered that the joints in my toes no longer are flexible--at all. I have no idea when this ended, because I so rarely go barefoot, I haven't tried to move anything with my toes in probably 40 years.

I suspect that a healthy, limber foot should be able to pick up objects. Aren't joints supposed to move? What do you think?

Today I wore hose on my barefoot walk. The temperature has dropped about 30 degrees and we've had a lot of rain, so I thought I'd just check this out rather than not do it at all. It works fine (assuming you aren't planning to use those hose for anything else) and washing your feet afterwards is much easier because anything that sticks, is probably on the hose. Not sure why, but I found the wet grass less slippery. I thought it would be the other way.

When walking barefoot in the grass you certainly see and hear and feel more of nature, even listening to Luther's Catechism on CD. A multi-sensory experience, this barefoot walking.

Give us this day our daily bread And let us all be clothed and fed. Save us from hardship, war, and strife; In plague and famine, spare our life, That we in honest peace may live, To care and greed no entrance give.

Luther wrote his small catechism in 1529, but this hymn of the Lord's Prayer in catechetical form was 1539. The tune on the CD is not the one Luther wrote.

Federal bailout funds coming to Ohio

Upper Arlington, that wealthy suburb of Columbus, the same city that wants a $25 million levy for an addition to the library (last levy was 2 years ago), is hoping to snag a modest $500,000 of the more than $28 million in ARRA funds to install sidewalks along streets that serve as school and bus routes. No self-respecting, safety minded, SUV driving, Gen-X UA parent allows a child to walk or bike to school--so I'm not sure if a little foot will ever meet that concrete. I hope they don't get it. And if our city planners of the 1930s hadn't put the sidewalks up against the street, we'd all be a lot safer.

The process of getting this $500,000 could easily consume that much in employee time because like any government money, it has to pass through many hands. First our own UA city staff has to research it and work through complex applications; the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission which reviews, coordinates and makes recommendations; the Ohio Department of Transportation which administers the funding, makes sure all the applicants meet state infrastructure standards, and requirements; and of course, all the Washington career worker-bees, and party loyalists who are writing those standards and funding requirements. Just to get that little sum to UA city Manager, Virginia Barney, will cost a bundle. Even not getting it has a dollar cost to the tax payer--all over the country wherever ARRA funds are sought unsuccessfully. This is how our politicians, Democrats and Republicans, grow our economy; first you grow the government; second you expand what you just grew. (details from the UA News, April 22, 2009, opinions my own)

Then today's Columbus Dispatch reported that we're going to reinvent the Great Depression CCC and put men to work. Ohio officials are using federal stimulus money to "resurrect the idea and create the Recovery Conservation Corps" expecting to "create" 20,000 jobs funded with $47 million of the federal stimulus (maybe we could give them the library money and 10,000 jobs?), plus another $2 million of state money to transport these workers to their jobs of litter pick-up, building repair, and removing invasive plants.

Now, the snag here is there has always been money (grants) for this, so this is additional money, but these jobs are designated for low-income, disadvantaged, drop-outs, homeless and disabled. You see, Democrats believe that if low IQ men, or ex-cons, or mentally ill, or physically disabled people would just try harder, they could all have government jobs. With all the billions and billions that have been designated for that during the last 50 years, I wonder why we still have people sleeping under bridges? In recent years, when the economy was booming under Bush, disabled and disadvantaged were being incorporated into the regular income stream as tax payers--I saw them many places as grocery baggers, stockers, janitors, and in protected, sheltered workshops. Often with one-on-one, or two-on-one job coaches and supervisors, in part subsidized by the state. Sometimes it was a private-public partnership type thing, but often it was just a private business willing to spend the extra time training them. Workers with disabilities hired for REAL jobs put money into the community--into goods and services, transportation, restaurants, house. But not a program to pick up litter by the homeless (something state workers are hired to do). So this ARRA money will primarily be going for the social services required to assist minimally functioning people who either can't or won't or are too ill to work. More games with our money and with the wording of ARRA, which is pork distribution by Obama to those who supported him.

Government cannot and has never created jobs. It only redistributes money from workers by handing it off (for a fee) to other workers. No job is "created."

Pray for the President

During George Bush's time in office, I received e-mails from a group that prayed for him. I don't know if Obama will have a similar arrangement, but I will certainly be praying for him. St. Paul tells Christians to do this, and if you remember the years immediately after the crucifixion, those were not easy times either for Jews or their off-shoot "cults." In some ways, praying for Obama will be easier; for me it's his views on the sanctity of life. If I know nothing else about what's going on in Washington or which head of state he is meeting with, or what terrorists are planning for him, this I know--he needs to respect the unborn who are the future of our country. There are times when knowing how or what to pray for are difficult, so people just don't pray. As if they should know the mind of God! I know two things for sure--all this is in God's hands, and he already knows the outcome. But we are also told to pray for our leaders. I also know from scripture, specifically Psalm 139, that God cares deeply about each little one in the womb, whether he's the product of a tryst between a rebellious 17 year old involved with a married man, or she's missing a chromosome or has a serious physical problem, or even if the parents sincerely believe they can't handle the economic impact of a third or fourth child. Killing the child is never the best choice. So that will be my prayer for President Obama--that he will become an advocate for the weakest and most helpless in our society, that he will liberate women by encouraging their mothers to give birth to them, that he will find the solutions to society's problems by raising up a generation from pre-birth to old age who will find them.

A Father's love

This is one of the most beautiful videos I've seen. A picture of how God carries us in love.



"Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk. . . "

Dick the father is over 65 and Rick graduated from college in 1993. He works at a computer laboratory working on a system to develop a wheelchair controlled eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer. Story here. The Hoyt's racing history.

Malaria is a leading cause of death and illness worldwide.

(CDC)--742,000 child malaria deaths in Africa alone were estimated for the year 2000. The U.S. has contributed to this death toll by caving in to environmentalists' hysteria about DDT. Now we hand out nets soaked with pesticide.

In the U.S., about 6,000 teen-agers die in automobile accidents each year, 4 times the adult rate, and a lot of these could be prevented just by raising the legal driving age to 18. About 7,000 people a year die in hospitals from medication errors. It appears that more people in the U.S. now die from the mostly hospital-acquired staph infection MRSA than from AIDS, according to a new report from the CDC. Simple hand washing by staff could have prevented many of these. More people die in a given year in the U.S. as a result of medical errors (estimated at between than from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516). (To err is human).

Drug intervention is saving the lives of many obese Americans from cardiovascular disease, allowing them to live longer with debilitating conditions--arthritis, diabetes, stroke, cancer--because it doesn't solve the obesity problem. (JAMA, Nov. 7, 2007). But it's still most dangerous of all to be an unborn child of a mother with a choice in America--at least since the beginning of the women's movement in the late 60s. The late 70s through the early 80s were particularly dangerous for the unborn. Johnson Archive

Fellowship of the Cane

If you read no other blog today, stop by Arkansas and read Hokulea's Fellowship of the Cane, or what she learned after breaking her foot. It's better than anything I ever heard at a "sensitivity training," disability workshop and she speaks directly to all of us, able-bodied or not:

"I found myself saying that I don't think I could do this forever, and whining about my little issues. I have learned what a wimp I am in general and as this episode winds down and my mobility is returning . . ."

Then hang around a bit and look through her beautiful photos of Arkansas and Hawaii, as well as other travels. She's a writer with an artistic eye and a sensitive soul.