Blah Blah Health Care Reform Blah Blah

By Dean L. Johnson, Vice President

Community Relations

Seems to me there's plenty of nonsense reporting and self-interested revelations surrounding the health insurance reform act passed earlier this year. If the mass media is your only source of information about what the act does and how it might affect you, your family, your business or your employer, then you've been shortchanged. 2 column articles and 30 second sound bites can't do it justice. Mostly, they do an injustice. Your most likely to find out somebody's beef with the bill. You're leastly likely to find out how it will affect you.

There is another way. An industry selling manuals, articles and slideshows centered on "what's in the bill" instantly materialized and continues to grow. I've had no less than four documents explaining the reform package in my briefcase at any one time for the past two months. I've read health insurance reform papers on planes, on trains, on buses and in automobiles.Most of them are large. Many of them are barely comprehensible. Nearly all are focused on how the bill affects a particular segment of the health care industry.

There's not a lot out there that delivers comprehensive, easy to understand and unbiased information to Joe and Jane Public, who need to understand what this bill does for and to them.

Fortunately, in Kentucky, we have a resource that fits the need. It's a ten page, easy-to-follow piece created by a coalition of organizations called Kentucky Voices for Health. It's simply titled: "The New Health Reform Law: What it Means to Kentuckians." Want to know if you'll be eligible for a subsidy to pay your insurance? It's in there. Wondering if your employer will have to provide you with insurance coverage? It's in there. Looking for small business assistance? It's in there. Worried about how the law affects Medicare recipients? The answers are in there.

Want to know how you can get one? It's in here: http://www.kyvoicesforhealth.com/.

Happy Birthday, Seven Counties!

Seven Counties Services celebrated its 32nd birthday on August 1…but celebrate may be the wrong word. In fact, I didn’t hear any of my colleagues mention it, even once! In years past, Seven Counties’ birthday was a big deal to many of us…it meant another year of growth, another year in the business and health communities, another year of providing community residents with high quality behavioral health, developmental and intellectual, and substance abuse services.

There’s nothing different about this year; Seven Counties is still providing services – now to more than 32,000 people every year. The organization is solid financially, has good name-recognition in the community and a national reputation for excellence, innovation and quality. It’s a great place to work, and staff (according to a recently completed independently-conducted staff survey) feel personally satisfied about the work they do in helping Seven Counties achieve its mission.

Our President/Chief Executive Office Dr. Howard Bracco was recently named the recipient of the Center for Non-Profit Excellence’s Lifetime Achievement Award, marking his 32 years of serving this community through his leadership of Seven Counties. Last year, our Vice President of Finance and Administration, Vicki Knable, was named the Business First Non-Profit CFO of the Year. Seven Counties routinely tops the Business First’s list of top non-profit organizations in the region. A number of our programs have won recognitions recently for quality and excellence. While Seven Counties will certainly continue to seek excellence in all areas of operations and staffing, I’d say we’ve done pretty well thus far.

So, with all these successes, why didn’t we celebrate our birthday this year? Perhaps, like a lot of people, it gets to the point where the actual number doesn’t seem important – it’s the quality that matters. Perhaps staff no longer feel we must prove ourselves within the community. Again, we don’t want to rest on our laurels – far from it; we want to keep pushing the envelope to identify better ways of helping people achieve recovery, but perhaps we don’t feel that we have quite as much to prove, considering our great track record for…uhmm… 32 years.

So, just in case you missed it (and I believe nearly everyone did), Happy Birthday, Seven Counties.

A Vacation Full of Brain Food

By Dean Johnson, VP Community Relations

I took a vacation last week - sort of. Technically, it was five days of vacation. In reality, it was five days of very hard labor.

I spent a week in Vermont on a "Volunteer Vacation" helping to build the Cross-Vermont Trail, a four-season, multi-use trail that will eventually run from one side of the state to the other.

Trail building in southeast Vermont involves three basic activities - digging ditches, moving boulders and crushing granite. Since I was working with an organization dedicated to low-impact trail building techniques, that meant doing all three with hand tools - shovels, rock bars (picture a six foot crowbar on steroids), picks and sledge hammers. No machines - just human bodies at work.

I got more exercise in the course of two hours than I normally get in two days - and I exercise regularly. By the end of the week, I was about as "bone weary" as I can ever remember being.

But I was also happy. I felt very accomplished. I felt satisfied. And I felt like I had done something worthwhile for a bunch of folks I'll never meet. My mind and mood seemed to be at their zenith, while my body was in the depths of despair.

Maybe I did more than I should have, but all that exercise had a positive effect on my brain. Not a big surprise. Years ago, Duke University researchers discovered that exercise has antidepressant properties. Others revealed the benefit of exercise to brain functioning and its ability to ward off dimentia. Theories on the science behind these effects vary, but the conclusion is undeniable.

Exercise is brain food. In Vermont, it's nearly as good as the seafood.

Six - An Unlucky Number for KY

Maybe it’s only a coincidence, but yesterday I ran across two seemingly unrelated items that grouped Kentucky as one of six states with a certain distinction – and, now don’t be surprised - neither are positive recognitions.

First, my inbox contained an e-mail forwarded from a colleague that, among of things, recounted the results of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) project called Grading of the States. Each year, NAMI looks at states’ efforts in promoting and supporting effective programs and treatments for individuals with mental illnesses. I imagine few were surprised to find that, in 2009, Kentucky received the same mark it has received nearly every year the grades have been awarded - we were one of six states to receive an “F.”

Next, I was catching up on my periodical reading on the bus ride home and discovered, thanks to a LEO investigative reporter, that our commonwealth ranks sixth (from the bottom, not the top) in the percentage of women serving in the state legislature. We share a dismal rate of female representation in our General Assembly with Pennsylvania (surprise), Alabama, South Carolina, Oklahoma and “thank God for” Mississippi.

Think there’s a connection? I can tell you that research overwhelmingly supports the contention that women are the primary health care decision makers in every family. Whether it’s a concern over an earache or a suspicion of addiction, it’s the women who speak up and take action. Interestingly, it’s also women who are the first to read their children’s school report cards.

Would more women in the legislature (there are 21 females and 117 males in the KY General Assembly) make a difference? Would an “F” still be acceptable, as it has been for many years?

I wonder.

Dean L. Johnson, VP, Community Relations

The Unspoken Truth

By Dean L. Johnson, V.P. Community Relations

Healing travels many roads and by way of many modes. Art and performance are two of the more powerful vehicles that drive recovery for those who have survived the pain and trauma of personal violence, abuse, incest.

This past weekend, Seven Counties was honored to be the presenting sponsor of an exhibition of art and performance that was both powerful and groundbreaking. More than 300 individuals in our community experienced (and created) visual arts, performance arts, films, music, lectures and discussions all centered on one goal - to end personal violence against persons everywhere. Granted, it's a lofty goal - but oh what a start 18 contributing artists, nine dancers, poets, musicians and others made.

In the words of the world's best known anthropologist, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. "

Due to the success of Unspoken Truth (the title refers to the silence within families that is too often the response to violence and abuse), the visual arts will remain at the Huff Gallery at the Spalding University Library in downtown Louisville until August 10th. Take a few moments in one of your days and experience what one attendee described as "the most powerful hour of my life."

You can find more information at http://unspokentruthexhibit.wordpress.com/

Tax Reform is Desperately Needed in Kentucky !

The Commonwealth of Kentucky approved its budget for FY ’11, and it leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not criticizing the legislators, since they have only so much to work with. Let’s face it. There just aren’t sufficient dollars to pay for everything the state needs. Now is the time for state tax reform to increase revenues; currently, the tax burden falls on the middle class and working poor. Folks who earn between $15,000 and $47,000 pay nearly 11% in state and local taxes – while the wealthiest citizens pay only 6.1% of their income in state and local taxes!

Desperately needing some of that additional funding are community mental health centers in Kentucky, which are struggling to meet the demand for services.

Did you know that Kentucky was ranked 42nd in the country in funding mental health services in 2006? In its report, Grading the States 2006, the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) ranked Kentucky 42nd in per capita spending on mental health ($51.27), with total mental health spending at $210,000,000. By comparison, Indiana’s ranking in 2006 was 28th in per capita spending on mental health ($72.37); its total mental health spending was $448,000,000.

In NAMI’s 2009 Grading the States Report, it’s noted that little progress has been made in Kentucky. It reports, “The community mental health centers haven’t received a cost-of-living increase in their state contracts in 12 years.”

Without greater funding, more stress is put on other areas. Without outpatient treatment, folks end up in hospitals, where costs are greater. Seven Counties’ costs per day, including outpatient and medication services, are about $204 a day; the average cost for one day of treatment in a psychiatric hospital is $700 per day.

Without outpatient treatment, jails fill up with individuals whose major crime is that they have a mental illness. Between July 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010, Seven Counties – using a $183,000 grant – saved Metro Corrections $1,726,289 (figuring the cost of one day in jail is $68.00) by keeping individuals out of jail. Think how many people could be diverted from jail if more funding were available!

Until the state makes a committed investment to bolster its community mental health centers, everyone will be paying a higher price in emergency, inpatient and corrections services. Contact your state legislators and let them know that tax reform is needed now – not only for mental health but for all the other areas where Kentucky is coming up short.

Let's Talk About It! by Dean Johnson, Vice President - Community Relations

Mental health can be a tough subject to talk about. Admittedly, it’s not usually in the top ten on the water cooler or cocktail party conversation menus. But it needs to be. Mental illness issues affect us all in some way, shape or form. National statistics say that about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Look around you – right now. See three other people? Get the picture?

Human experience tells us that when we don’t talk about something, we generally get it all wrong.

Misconceptions about mental illnesses are abundant. No, they are not character flaws. No, you can’t just make yourself feel better. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not “just a mood thing.” And all the will power in the world isn’t going to make you better without professional help to go with it.

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. They do to the mind what diabetes, heart disease and cancers can do to the body.

Remember a few years back when Tom Cruise said on national television that Brooke Shields – who had just gone public about her battle with post partum depression – should just take some vitamins and “get over it”? He claimed there was no such thing as depression. He was wrong.

Fortunately, Brooke sought treatment (and she did, actually, “get over it”, but not by her own will alone).

Not talking about something has another negative consequence – stigma. Research shows that the stigma associated with mental illnesses is the number one reason people don’t seek treatment. People are afraid – of judgment, of misunderstanding, of loss of friendships and loss of love. Just imagine the health of our country today if the same stigma and reluctance to seek treatment was associated with cancer or heart disease? What a tragedy we’ve created – because we do not talk about it.

Glenn Close, who has a sister with bi-polar disorder, has become an active stigma fighter lately. The actress says, “There is nothing to hide…We are all connected, and none of us should ever feel marginalized, stigmatized and alone.”

Mental illness is just an illness, although a serious one. It can be treated with therapy and, when needed, medication. So, let’s talk about it. Let’s be open about it. Let’s make it not just OK, but the expectation – that people with mental illnesses will be treated and they will recover.