Happy Halloween!! Can’t believe we’re at the end of October, closing in on the last eight weeks of the year. The healthcare reform debate in Washington makes everything related to healthcare front and center. It could be that because of all the healthcare talk it’s in our consciousness and what has always been there is [...]
Archive for October, 2009
Trick or Treat(ment)
Posted in Medications, tagged coaching illness, drug interactions, Greg Katz, herbal supplements, illness coaching, importance of pharmacists, misdiagnosis, over the counter medications, patient empowerment, pharmacists, pharmacists as educators on October 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Are Others Empathic Enough?
Posted in Caregiving, tagged care for the caregiver, caregiver burnout, caregiver empowerment, caregiver health, caregiver needs, caregiver stress, caregiver support, coaching caregivers, empathy, Greg Katz on October 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Welcome to Caregiver Friday!! Years ago when I was doing trainings for healthcare/complimentary health providers it was important to understand their level of empathy. It was clear that they had the knowledge to help their patients/clients, but could they really understand the other’s point of view? I started thinking about this because we had a [...]
Pay Attention to Demographics
Posted in newly diagnosed illness, tagged Cancer, cancer and hope, Cancer diagnosis, Cancer Support, Cancer Survivor, coaching illness, Greg Katz, health and demographics, health mentors, illness coaching, Imerman Angels, patient empowerment, Wall Street Journal on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had an article about Imerman Angels (http://www.imermanangels.org) , a Chicago based organization that pairs a mentor with a newly diagnosed person with cancer. The organization matches the mentor and the newly diagnosed patient based on as many parameters as possible, but most importantly age and type of cancer. [...]
Published Outcomes
Posted in after the diagnosis, coping with chronic illness, coping with life threatening illness, living with chronic illness, Living with Illness, tagged Greg Katz, illness coaching, invisible disability, MN Community Measurement, partnership with doctors, patient empowerment, Physician Outcome studies, Wall Street Journal on October 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What if the success of your doctor’s practice was published on a website for the world to see? Do you think it would change how your doctor provides care? A group in Minnesota has done just that; taken the information about standards and goals and compared them with other health providers in the state. MN Community [...]
Does Everyone have a Secret?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged coaching illness, diabetes, family communication, family dynamics, family secrets, glucose test, Greg Katz, illness coaching, new diagnosis, patient empowerment on October 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Families are funny because they create interesting communication scenarios that complicates life. I had a funny experience with my family this weekend that I want to share and see if you or someone you know has ever experienced something similar. My parents came for a visit, a long weekend, since we hadn’t seen each other [...]
When Do You Know the Time is Right?
Posted in after the diagnosis, coping with chronic illness, coping with life threatening illness, Emotional Health, living with chronic illness, Living with Illness, tagged Bipolar Disorder, coaching illness, Glenn Close, Greg Katz, illness coaching, Jessie Close, Mental Illness, Michael J. Fox, multiple personality disorder, Parkinson's Disease, patient empowerment, Schizophrenia on October 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m still blown away by the Public Service Announcement about mental illness, http://www.bringchange2mind.org, but I’ve been thinking more extensively about why is now the right time to bring this message to consciousness? The truth is that we’ve been pushing mental illness to the background because it’s misunderstood. Even in this day and age people don’t [...]
Disbelief
Posted in Caregiving, tagged Bipolar Disorder, care for the caregiver, caregiver burnout, caregiver empowerment, caregiver health, caregiver needs, caregiver stress, caregiver support, coaching caregivers, depression, Glenn Close, Greg Katz, Jessie Close, Mental Illness, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Schizophrenia on October 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Welcome to Caregiver Friday!! If you haven’t been following the blog this week then you’ve missed out on learning about the new public service announcement (PSA) about mental illness. You can view the video at http://www.bringchange2mind.org and see not only the artistry in the piece, but the power of the message. So why am I writing [...]
Ignore the Whispers…Start the Conversation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bipolar Disorder, coaching illness, depression, depression and illness, Glenn Close, Greg Katz, illness coaching, Jessie Close, Mental Illness, patient empowerment, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Schizophrenia on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been thinking a lot about the post from yesterday because it impacted me greatly. The idea that 1 in 6 Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness is astounding, and I’m a mental health professional. The biggest problem and I’ve seen in it my own family, we don’t talk about problems like depression [...]
Would You Be Willing to Out Yourself?
Posted in after the diagnosis, coping with life threatening illness, Emotional Health, living with chronic illness, Living with Illness, tagged Bipolar Disorder, coaching illness, depression, Glenn Close, Good Morning America, Greg Katz, illness coaching, Jessie Close, patient empowerment, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Schizophrenia, self-empowerment on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I was watching Good Morning America and they had a segment on mental illness. The guests were Glenn Close and her sister Jessie Close. They wanted to bring attention to the fact that 1 in 6 Americans have a mental illness. They created a public service announcement to bring this issue to the consciousness of [...]
The Elements
Posted in after the diagnosis, art and healing, coping with chronic illness, coping with life threatening illness, living with chronic illness, Living with Illness, tagged asthma, coaching illness, Greg Katz, healthy breathing, illness coaching, lung disease, patient empowerment on October 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last week I had the opportunity to engage in transformational art projects that were augmenting my morning classroom experience. Each day we were exploring one of the four elements; fire, earth, water, air/sky. During each opportunity to connect our inner beings and nature we were guided in a meditation. After the meditation, we were then [...]
