March 30, 2013

What Say You? No One Dies Alone


Sister Maureen Craig holding a patient's hand at St. Johns Hospital
Part of the NODA Program


SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist





“The scientist in me knows that we don’t thrive alone.  When we’re born we need human contact.  Throughout our life we know from science and from our own emotions that we need human contact to thrive.  In dying we can no more be alone that we can at birth.



“I’m not religious but I am spiritual.  It makes me feel good to be able to be with the dying person, to touch them, to hold their hand, to make human contact.  I want to be there for people.  It means a lot to me,” said Melissa McRae



McRae is a native of Santa Barbara who studied at both UCSB and UCLA.  She currently works at St. Johns as a Surgery Administrative Coordinator.   She volunteers for the No One Dies Alone (NODA) program at St. Johns.



NODA was the idea of a Critical Care Nurse named Sandra Clarke.  She wrote, “there seems to be an unwritten universal protocol (among nurses) for the patient who is dying without the presence of friends or family.  One’s other patients’ care will be taken over by nearby nurses.  Rituals of passing are acted out: I’ve seen nurses quietly singing, holding the hand of the dying, and, in all other manners of behavior, showing care and respect while an individual passes on to death.  Nurses know the awe of being present at the birth or the death of another human.  I believe awe and privilege is an innate human response at these times – the very essence of humanity.” 



That unwritten protocol became a formal program now known as “No One Dies Alone” and it was founded at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene Oregon in November of 2001.   Hospitals and health centers across the country have followed their lead.  St. Johns began their NODA program in 2004.



Sister Maureen Craig, a person happily known to all who work at St. Johns said, “St. Johns has a long tradition, rooted in the mission of the hospital, for compassionate care.  I am thankful for the volunteers carrying our traditions forward.  Through the years our numbers have diminished and work that was once done by the Sisters has now become part of the lives of our volunteers.  We love the fact that the loving care we so believe in is being continued by the hundreds of volunteers at St. Johns and by the remarkable volunteers of the No One Dies Alone program.”



Grenda Pearlman, Director of Volunteer Services at St. Johns reports, “the NODA program currently has about 25 volunteers.  Each one attends orientation sessions and receives training.  The current volunteers range in age from their early 20’s to their late 70’s.  The requirement for being a NODA volunteer is “an interest in being advocates for the patient.  These patients are on comfort care and our goal at St. Johns is to see they have no physical pain and to offer compassionate care.



“NODA volunteers are special people and it is not something that everybody can or should do.  But if it is something a person can do then it is not only a gift to the patient it is also a gift to the volunteer,” said Pearlman. (For information about volunteering for the NODA program of for any of the St. Johns programs contact Grenda Pearlman at 310 829 8434 or grenda.pearlman@st.johns.org)



Marge Gold is a NODA volunteer who provides care to patients and who also helps the Director with program organization and coordination.  Gold talked about what she learned from being a NODA volunteer.  “NODA has taught me to just be there in whatever way the patient needs, to suspend judgment and to come with no expectations about the patient or the family.  I hope I always say and do whatever is needed and am of help.  It’s a profound experience and I’m grateful to be a part.”



Like other volunteers for NODA, Nancy Cronig has a long series of accomplished volunteer work on her resume.  Currently she is an actor in the Moot Court program at UCLA, is part of the St. Johns Surgery Waiting Room Volunteer program and a NODA volunteer.



Recounting her NODA experiences Cronig said, “I came to realize that even in a coma a person hears you.  I play music and sing to them.  I hold their hand.  I wipe their brow and put ointment on their lips and do other things to make them comfortable.  I advocate for them when they can’t advocate for themselves.



“When I got called for my first patient I didn’t know what to expect.  I sat with her and held her hand and played music for her.  I was so thankful to be able to pass on some of help I have gotten in my life to someone who was in need.  It is a healing experience.”



From the beginning of St. Johns to now much has changed in health care.  The work of being a physician and the physician’s commitment to each patient is a value we agree to as a nation.  One we all want to protect.  However the delivery of health care, cost of health care, and availability of health care remains in the public, the political and the economic spotlight. 



In addition medical technology has made great advancements bringing great benefits but adding to the ethical questions that have always been part of medicine.  



A discussion of the forces shaping our national health care is, and needs to be, ongoing.  Throughout what can sometimes be a contentious debate individual people, across the nation, are using their time to volunteer in ways that support the commitment to each individual patient.    NODA is one part of the answer to the ethical questions of our time.



What Say You?





March 15, 2013

What Say You? Planned Parenthood Food Fare



What Say You?  Planned Parenthood Food Fare          
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  March 7, 2013.
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
March 15, 2013

Julia Child was an ardent Planned Parenthood supporter and the inspiration for the now much anticipated annual Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA) Food Fare Fundraising Gala.  34 years ago Child supervised 20 amateur sous chefs in the kitchen of Ma Maison in Beverly Hills as they prepared a five-course dinner for 130 people.  That dinner was the first of the Planned Parenthood “Food Fares.”

The 2013 PPLA Food Fare at the Civic was attended by more than 1500 people.  It was the 17th year PPLA hosted the Food Fare at the Civic.  An orange carpet marked the entry into the beautifully decorated and lit Civic, a great venue for this event.  Fare goers feasted on food prepared by Chef of the Year Joe Miller.   PPLA chose Miller for the Chef of the Year Award based on his culinary arts, his history of work with PPLA and his commitment to the goals and values of Planned Parenthood.  The list of participating restaurateurs reads like a “Who’s Who” of LA’s favorite chefs.
Alice Miler, Clementine
Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Food Fare
March 7, 2013

Fare goers also bought chic goods from vendors selling everything from jewelry to pajamas. http://pplafoodfare.com/?page_id=8 

The credit for planning and organizing this event goes to the PPLA Guild President Marcy Bergren Pine and the approximately 200 Guild Members. They volunteer their time and their expertise to support PPLA’s fundraising and public outreach. The Food Fare is PPLA’s major fundraising event and this year, from attendees, donors, sponsors and contributors to the Fare, they raised over $800,000.00.

Supporting reproductive rights wasn’t always this fun or this easy.  Giving out information about birth control was once a crime in the U.S.   The reproductive rights pioneer Margaret Sanger was jailed for opening the first U.S. birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York in 1916.

“Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916 when Sanger, her sister, and a friend open America's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. In Sanger's America, women cannot vote, sign contracts, have bank accounts, or divorce abusive husbands. They cannot control the number of children they have or obtain information about birth control, because in the 1870s a series of draconian measures, called the Comstock laws, made contraception illegal and declared information about family planning and contraception "obscene."” http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/history-and-successes.htm

Sanger overcame legal and public obstacles and her clinic became the American Birth Control League.   Over time the League became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Margaret Sanger was Planned Parenthood’s first President.

Planned Parenthood “believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility regardless of the individual’s income, martial status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence.  We believe that respect and value for diversity in all aspects of our organization are essential to our well-being.  We believe reproductive self-determination must be voluntary and preserve the individual’s right to privacy.  We further believe that such self-determination will contribution to an enhancement of the quality of life and strong family relationships.” http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/vision-4837.htm

Serena Josel, the Director of Public Affairs for PPLA said, “In LA it can become easy for us to become complacent but when you look at what’s happening across the country you can’t be complacent.  From 2010 to 2012 there were over 2000 pieces of anti- women’s health legislation in the form of anti abortion and anti birth control bills across the country.

“We served over 136,000 patients last year in our 19 clinics and 80% of our patients live at or below the poverty level.  Our goal is to never turn anyone away,” said Josel.  “Fewer than 7% of patients are teens and the majority of teen patients come with their parents.  We provide reproductive health services, family planning, contraception, abortion, screening for breast, cervical and testicular cancer, HIV screening and counseling, STD testing and treatment.  We work to help people have healthy families.

“California often leads the nation on reproductive rights health care and that’s a signal to us to keep on.  We follow common sense, evidence based policies and when we don’t get bogged down by outside politics we can concentrate on our essential work.”

PPLA expenses totaled approximately $48 million in 2012.  Over $5 million came from donations.  The main source of funding is from reimbursements for individual health services from private health insurance companies or from public health coverage such as California Family Pact or from health care programs supported by Federal funding.

Federal funding to Planned Parenthood started in 1970 when President Nixon signed “The Family Planning Services and Population Research Act.”
The Act provides funding for family planning services and was supported by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. 

Signing the Act, Nixon said, “No American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.”

What Say You?