#rural healthcare access

[townpostin]

3-Year-Old Tanu Sabar Receives Life-Saving Heart Surgery

Dr. Sanjay Giri and team facilitate critical operation at Medanta Hospital, Patna A three-year-old girl from Baikanthpur, Chakulia block, undergoes successful heart surgery after community intervention. JAMSHEDPUR – Tanu Sabar, a three-year-old from Baikanthpur in Chakulia block, received life-saving heart surgery thanks to the efforts of Dr. Sanjay Giri and his team from Sampurna Manavta Kalyan…

[brownpaperhag]

im so drunk @ sheema kermani

sheeeemaaaaa 😩

[sunnygattan]

Sunny Gattan The Impact of Nurse Practitioners on Healthcare in Rural Communities

Rural communities often face significant healthcare challenges due to limited access to medical facilities and professionals. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are crucial in bridging this gap, offering quality care, and improving health outcomes. In this blog, we explore the impact of NPs on healthcare in rural areas, with insights from Sunny Gattan, a renowned healthcare expert.

Addressing the Shortage of Healthcare Providers

One of the most pressing issues in rural healthcare is the shortage of medical professionals. Many doctors prefer to work in urban areas with more abundant resources and facilities. Rural populations now have less access to medical treatment as a result. Nurse Practitioners, like Sunny Gattan, have been instrumental in addressing this shortage. With their advanced training and ability to provide a wide range of services, NPs fill the gap left by the absence of physicians.

Nurse Practitioners can diagnose and treat illnesses, prescribe medications, and manage chronic conditions, offering comprehensive patient care. Their presence ensures that rural residents receive timely and appropriate medical attention, reducing the need for long-distance travel to urban centers for basic healthcare needs.

Enhancing Preventive Care and Health Education

Preventive care and health education are vital components of maintaining a healthy population, yet they are often overlooked in rural areas due to resource constraints. Nurse Practitioners play a pivotal role in promoting preventive care through regular check-ups, screenings, and vaccinations. She emphasizes the importance of health education in empowering individuals to take charge of their well-being.

NPs conduct community outreach programs, workshops, and health fairs to educate residents about healthy lifestyles, disease prevention, and self-care practices. This proactive approach not only helps in the early detection of health issues but also reduces the overall burden on healthcare facilities by preventing illnesses before they become severe.

Providing Culturally Competent Care

Rural communities often have unique cultural and social characteristics that can influence healthcare needs and practices. Nurse Practitioners, like Sunny Gattan, are trained to provide culturally competent care, which involves understanding and respecting the diverse backgrounds of their patients. This approach builds trust and fosters better patient-provider relationships.

By being attuned to the cultural nuances of the communities they serve, NPs can offer personalized care that aligns with the beliefs and preferences of their patients. This cultural sensitivity enhances patient satisfaction and encourages individuals to seek medical help when needed, leading to better health outcomes.

Improving Chronic Disease Management

In rural settings, chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are common. Limited access to specialists and ongoing medical care makes managing these conditions challenging. Nurse Practitioners are well-equipped to provide ongoing management and support for chronic diseases, ensuring patients receive consistent and coordinated care.

She highlights that NPs develop individualized care plans, monitor patients' progress, and adjust treatments as necessary. They also educate patients on lifestyle modifications and self-management techniques, empowering them to take control of their health. This continuous and personalized care significantly improves the quality of life for individuals with chronic conditions and reduces hospitalizations and complications.

Expanding Access to Mental Health Services

Mental health services are often scarce in rural areas, contributing to the stigma and neglect of mental health issues. Nurse Practitioners are stepping up to fill this gap by providing mental health assessments, counseling, and treatment. Sunny Gattan underscores the critical role of NPs in addressing the mental health needs of rural populations.

NPs offer a holistic approach to care, integrating mental health services into primary care settings. This approach reduces the stigma associated with seeking mental health support and ensures that patients receive comprehensive care for both physical and mental health concerns. By expanding access to mental health services, NPs are helping to create healthier and more resilient rural communities.

[thegoblinpit]

One thing about growing up in the Bible Belt and very poor is that both 1. Childhood mortality and 2. The threat of Hell were very real and traumatic fears to my ancestors, so I was trained to say this classic prayer nightly: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul will keep. For if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul will take.”

I’m still religious, but don’t subscribe to the fear-mongering-for-followers, especially telling *children* that God is like a scary Santa that sets you on fire if you’re naughty. Anyway. I realized today that that prayer was, in part, probably supposed to make me a little frightened, especially of the ideas of death and hell. However, a second thing about growing up super poor in the Bible Belt (aka, the land of “hillbillies neither want nor deserve public assistance”) was that 1. I knew very early that childhood mortality may very well Get Me, but 2. I honestly hoped it would. I always took comfort in that prayer. It was a relief, a plea, that God might take me away any night, and I’d be in a better place forever.

I’ve always had pretty severe mental health issues, and considered the onset of my suicidal tendencies to be ~7y/o, but today, I realized there’s never been a time I was just a happy kid. I’ve been romanticizing the daydream that all of my suffering would end One Day Soon since I was old enough to speak and remember that prayer.

It makes me kind of sad that even though my disabled, single mother fought for our lives and did everything she could for me, even taught me a prayer to 1. protect my life and 2. Protect my soul if my life was too much to ask… and yet all my days I’ve been wishing, *praying* away the life she was so afraid to lose.

My mom used to tell me that when I was only four, I used to cry and say, “I just miss the good old days.” I can only assume those Good Old Days were a time between birth and 4 when her arms still had the ability to carry me, my chronic nightmares hadn’t started, and meals were guaranteed. I have no memory now of such a time. I hope I didn’t hurt her too much by showing my misery.

I don’t know why I’m saying any of this. I guess it was just a stark realization and I need to shout it into the void.

[watercolor-wings]

Catch me laying fucking facedown in the sand

[buttonbuckfarm]

it’s disability pride month!! I love you disabled farmers!! I love you disabled rural folks!!

rural areas can be impossible to access as a physically disabled person - no sidewalks, no public transit, minimal healthcare facilities, etc - but that doesn’t mean disabled people don’t still live out in the country. even if metropolitan areas only do the bare minimum, funding isn’t allocated to do even that in rural areas, not to mention a total lack of funding for disabled farmers, rural disability focused nonprofits, etc.

disabled people of all kinds live rurally (often in poverty). metropolitan areas aren’t the only places with diverse populations, and “the country” shouldn’t be written of as spaces that don’t need or deserve accessibility. don’t reduce disabled people down to one lifestyle! support disability access everyone, for everyone!

[useless-catalanfacts]

Translation:

El Español (newspaper): The victory of parents like Sonia: 107 schools switch Valencian for Spanish because of the Mazón law.

Response: Is it possible that Spain is the only country where it's considered a victory the fact that your children will be only monolingual instead of bilingual?

Surely not the only one (imperialist countries very often try to exterminate the languages of the countries they occupy, which also means not allowing their children to learn the language of the place they move to), but Spain and France are particularly aggressive against the local languages that aren't Spanish and French, respectively.

Schools in the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands (where the local language is Catalan or Valencian, two historical names for the same language) are being pressured to remove the local language from the school and to teach only in Spanish. In fact, the Spanish nationalist and far right-wing government of the Balearic Islands has announced that Catalan-speaking children and Spanish-speaking children will be segregated in schools from now on (parents will choose which school to send them to, accompanied with the propaganda pushing them to choose Spanish schools), with the purpose of reducing every time more and more who gets to speak and learn the islands' language, imposing Spanish instead.

Everyone learns Spanish regardless because it's the government's language and it's everywhere (TV, radio, netflix, social media, etc), plus we study it in school as a first language anyway. It's impossible to grow up here and not learn Spanish naturally as you grow up. But the same is not true the other way around. If children from Spanish-speaking families, immigrant families, and those families who have believed the decades of being told "speaking Catalan makes you sound uneducated/rural/stupid/rude, only Spanish is good for your children's future and makes you normal", if their children are only exposed to Spanish at home and on media, and because Catalan speakers are already bilingual and have an inferiority complex so will always switch to Spanish when talking to a Spanish-speaker, these children will never learn the language of the place they live in, and they will be monolingual Spanish speakers. When the number of monolingual Spanish speakers grow, Catalan speakers will be even more marginalized and won't be able to access healthcare in our language (though we already don't half of the time), won't be able to go to the shops and talk in our language, won't be able to have services in our language, etc. And, thus, they will have made our language almost useless for our everyday life. We will disappear from public spaces, and people will stop passing down the language to their children. And the language will die, and with it our way of understanding the world, the words that describe our culture, or our ability to read what our ancestors wrote, our country's literature, or to understand the names of the places we live in.

The point was always to exterminate our language and culture, to create their made-up dream of a unified Spain where everyone is the same, which has never existed. As Franco used to say, "we want an absolute unit. With one language: Spanish. And one personality: the Spanish one".

Cultural diversity is a richness and beauty of the world, and every language has an equal right to exist. Don't let anyone convince you that your language and your people don't deserve to live.

[alphajocklover]

Thank you for reporting on this InstaJock app. It's been helpful to get more information. I work in healthcare and a lot of people ask me about it. So much so that I downloaded it myself to explore the app's features. I wouldn't use it on myself though. I just graduated from med school and I'm not about to waste that education. But one thing I've noticed is this "location feature" where it seems the quality of the jock it might change you into has to do with your surroundings. I have to drive through some more rural parts to get back home and the number of redneck jocks here is freaky. Wondering if you've got more insight into all that.

I’m really glad that my work has been helpful, and I’m also very impressed that you know so much about the app. I’ve never met another person who was able to get the app without falling into its enchantment. You must have protections like I do, or an incredibly strong will. I’m surprised people are interested in the app for healthcare reasons, but I suppose it makes sense. InstaJock turns anyone who uses it into a jock instantly, and jocks are muscular and healthy as shit. If I had to choose between being deathly ill and a dumb jock, I might do the same thing. But we’ll explore the interesting connection between InstaJock and healthcare some other time. Today let’s look at the location feature.

You’ve basically got it all figured out. InstaJock has a feature that tracks your location and turns you into a certain type of jock based on where you are. Or, more accurately, where you spend a lot of time, since it accesses your location history too. Just like all the features it can be turned on and off when setting up an account, or in settings afterwards, but unlike other features it is usually turned on to begin with. It makes sense when you think about it. The app may turn the user into a jock, but they’re still a version of themselves. So their new self should reflect their surroundings. Since you’re in a rural area, it seems most of the InstaJock users there would become redneck jocks.

It is strange that you’re seeing so many though. InstaJock is meant to spread, but… not that quickly. A guy gets turned by the app, maybe invites a couple of his old nerdy friends, and then enjoys being a buff, dumb, sexy jock. The jocks aren’t organized or intelligent enough to turn people on mass. So… someone must be directing them, telling them what to do. They’d have to be smart, but someone the jocks would listen to. There are only a handful of people who could do that. It’s probably the same person whose been using the app to torment nerds, who tricked that nerdy frat president into turning himself, who told that bullied kid InstaJock could help him steal muscles.

I have some theories on who it is. But I shouldn’t say anything until I have more proof. Be careful though. If it’s who I think it is, then our protections… may not keep either of us safe for long.

[crippled-peeper]

“I’m a trans man and I’ve never experienced not being able to access healthcare” and you go to their bio and they live in California and work a 80k a year job and genuinely believe disabled, uninsured, and rural trans men simply do not exist at all. very smart analysis. you are so important

[apologynics]

The intersection of rural healthcare and women’s healthcare is incredibly important to me. The closest Planned Parenthood to where I live is nearly two hours away, and this is a “blue” (swing) state. Meanwhile, Evangelical-bankrolled “pregnancy resource clinics” that distribute Christian literature to women in crisis operate in nearly every town in the county, including mine. *I* have access to a gp and a major hospital, but many of my friends, family members, and hundreds of other women living and working in rural areas do not.

And no, I don’t care what their political views are. All women, even the farmer down the street with the Trump sign painted on her trailer, deserve access to reproductive healthcare. That is a fundamental human right.

[townpostin]

Snake Bite Claims 4-Year-Old's Life in East Singhbhum

Family struggles with medical expenses as mother survives, son contracts malaria A tragic snake bite incident in Kowali, East Singhbhum, led to the death of a young girl and hospitalization of her mother and brother. JAMSHEDPUR – A four-year-old girl died from a snake bite in Kowali, East Singhbhum, while her mother survived and her brother was hospitalized with malaria. Manisha Sardar, aged 4,…

[thoughtportal]

At least one in five people who have had COVID-19 will develop what is known as “long COVID,” characterized by signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or well after a COVID-19 infection. According to officials, Detroit has the second highest rate of long COVID in the nation, with over 25% of adults who had COVID-19 reporting long-term symptoms.

In response, a new no-cost mobile health unit is working to provide metro Detroiters with screening for the condition, intending to gather research on long COVID’s effects and bridge the gap to healthcare access in marginalized communities.

On Friday, March 15, declared Long COVID Awareness Day, Michigan Speaker of the House Joe Tate, Michigan Rep. Tyrone Carter, health experts, and community members gathered for an event highlighting the first-of-its-kind CT chest screening program.

The unit was created about a year ago through a partnership between Moderna, Team Wellness Center, People.Health, and other local community organizations.

“Some of our locations service some of the most vulnerable communities in the whole state,” Dani Hourani, Director of Team Wellness Center, said. “It’s very important for us that we are able to bring them resources that they otherwise would not have.”

So far, the screenings have not only helped the impact of long COVID but also been able to detect non-COVID-related illnesses including cancer. Plus, the team has connected patients with further care and testing when needed.

“Whether you’re in Detroit or rural areas, bringing healthcare access directly to the community and partnering with organizations that have that trust with community members is critical,” Tate said at the Friday event. “We still have more work to do to make sure that we lessen the impact of COVID on this community.”

Anyone over 18 who has had COVID-19 and is still experiencing difficulty breathing or other symptoms is encouraged to get scanned. People can fill out a form at People.Health to schedule an appointment.

[claraameliapond]

PSA : THE INDIGENOUS VOICE REFERENDUM 14th October 2023

The Yes Vote is literally just giving indigenous Australians A SEAT AT THE TABLE to give information and advice about issues and governmental decisions that affect them.

Indigenous information and advice for indigenous issues from indigenous Australians.

That's it . It's acknowledging their existence as the first peoples of Australia and recognising that they have valuable information to contribute about their cultures, the ways they live, what their most pressing needs are and the best ways in which to help, to enable governments to effectively help them.

The government already provides "help" each year, in an effort to close the gap on education access, healthcare access, and many other pressing needs - they are already using taxpayer money to do this but crucially, these efforts have not been successful because we are missing out on crucial information.

The Voice to Parliament gives the government access to invaluable information that enables it to create and better implement aid, education, healthcare , equal opportunity.

I have been very actively involved in many Reconciliaton efforts for the vast majority of my life -

At 16 I travelled to some of the indigenous rural communities in Australia, met elders and individuals no tourist has access to meet, learnt from them, and saw what was there.

I saw the attempts, the efforts to provide access to Western education, that the rest of the country has, to provide healthcare, housing etc.

They don't work

They are based on western ways of life, ideas of community and interaction.

It's not the same.

They don't work.

Fundamentally because even if well intentioned, your efforts to help can actually harm if you don't have access to crucial information about how indigenous communities live.

We need to accommodate our help, our efforts, our aid to the specific needs and ways of life, values and dynamics of the many indigenous communities, especially rural, that exist across Australia, so that they have access to the same human rights we all do.

The human right to healthcare and education that we all have- it's not accessible in the same ways for indigenous communities.

It's provided, but on western terms- with the western expectation that children will leave their families for 6 months at a time and travel extremely far away to attend school, for example.

This is so backwards and outdated even for western sensibilities, and an incredibly outdated mode of education that is unhealthy emotionally for any child, let alone vulnerable people who have to choose between a western run school and their culture, their families - literally being a part of their community, a present member.

There are better ways to provide access to education than this. Ways that don't disrupt their connection to community, land and culture.

And the best people to ask, to provide information that can properly inform us about these issues, and how best to navigate them, fix them, are the the indigenous Australians themselves- they are the experts.

So that our aid and help and efforts actually do - help. Actually work.

The funds are going there anyway. So we need to put it to use in effective ways.

What we have now doesn't work.

We can only make it better.

Please Vote YES for The Indigenous Voice to Parliament

It is the beginning of lasting, effective positive change for vulnerable communities, and for us all.

[brandyschillace]

As it’s non-binary awareness week, I thought I’d share my bio—an attempt to say where I’ve been and what I’m about. And why I am she/her but mean that in a very plural sort of way.

I grew up in an underground house, next to a graveyard, in abandoned coal lands… with a pet raccoon. Oddly, this tends not to surprise people as much as I think it will. My rural community skirted the poverty line, a place of failed industry and orange rivers, poor health, and poorer access to healthcare. As a result, I spent my childhood reading a lot about disease and going to a lot of funerals. I ended up with a Ph.D. and a career in science history, which is probably a likely thing to happen when you spend your early years in a cemetery.

I’ve worked in an English Department, a History Department, and for a Medical Anthropology journal. I spent five years as a research associate in a medical museum among amputation saws, surgery kits, and smallpox vaccines—and now, in addition to being an author, I’m Editor-in-Chief for BMJ’s Medical Humanities Journal. I tend to fall outside the borders and binaries on every side. It’s not that I eschew being a ‘woman’ but that the box isn’t big enough to contain the selves that are me.

I always liked the line by Walt Whitman: I contain multitudes. Each of us are completely unique sets of data and DNA, blood and bones, bits and pieces of ancient stardust (and some microplastics). We don’t just have fingerprints. We are fingerprints — completely unique phenomenon in the universe, never before and never to be again. I am a truck, a train, a bulldog in a wind-tunnel; I’m also autistic. I live in the middle spaces where the contradictions are, containing bits of astral matter, aspects of both genders and possibly some dragons and vampires. I do history the way most people climb mountains–I get my hands dirty–I end up in catacombs, archives, basements. As you can imagine, this sort of thing doesn’t fit in a box very well. Then again, life is more interesting at the intersections.

[genderqueerpositivity]

There are three days left in this legislative session.

Instead of taking up any real issues--such as the fact that South Carolina is one of only three states without state laws against hate crimes--the legislature is aggressively trying to pass an anti-trans healthcare bill that would also require schools to out trans kids to their parents.

The changes made in the Senate today mean that the bill goes back to the House for approval before it can land on the Governor's desk.

It's a game of trying to run down the clock now.

“There are some things in the nature of creation — male and female is one of them — that gets beyond what you believe and I believe,” Republican Sen. Richard Cash said on the Senate floor before debate began Thursday. “It’s rooted in creation; it’s rooted in the creator and those who opposed that are opposing in some sense the nature of creation itself.”

This bill is Christofascism in action.

Republican Sen. Danny Verdin said polls show voters in South Carolina back the ban. With all senators up for reelection this year, that idea could get tested at the ballot box. “If you put it alongside taxes, if you put it alongside infrastructure, if you put it alongside paying our school teachers or paying our law enforcement officers, this is up there. It’s above them all,” Verdin said.

Actually, as much as 71% of people in SC believe that the government should not ban trans healthcare, and that includes 67% of Republicans.

And you can take it from someone who lives here, we do not need a law specifically targeting the healthcare of the less than 3,000 trans kids in this state. We DO need things like higher pay for teachers, road, bridge, and dam repairs, and greater internet access for rural communities.

But it doesn't even matter, because our Republican legislators are not here to serve the people of this state, they are here to advance an agenda. And unless the clock runs out, they will.