The elephant in the room: a nation of band-aids
December 21st, 2009
The following post by Liz Scherer, Principal of Digital Copy, LLC, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series.
Liz Scherer is a digital copywriter, health reporter, medical writer, marketing and social media consultant, blogger and women’s health advocate. With over 25 years experience in the healthcare arena, Liz has worked in the private and public sectors on behalf of web-based and traditional science publishers, public relations and advertising agencies and non-profits.
There’s an elephant in the room: band-aids.
Poverty and its relationship to the provision of and access to healthcare is a global problem. This month, esteemed Disruptive Women in Healthcare bloggers and guest posters are writing on this critical issue with a unique look at the problems abroad. Yet, this has prompted me to look within, for if we can’t address our own problems, how can we possibly be successful at addressing problems outside our immediate borders?
It’s no secret that the divide in the U.S. comes down to socioeconomic status. And while our representatives in Washington continue to battle it out to devise a healthcare reform bill that, for all intents and purposes, may ultimately serve the power lobbies more than the public, a significant proportion of our population is being pummeled into submission with powerful drugs.
According to an article in the New York Times, children from poor families receive antipsychotic medications four times as often as those from wealthier families. What’s more, it appears that these children are likely to receive a prescription for less serious conditions than would commonly prompt a prescription for a wealthier child. The divide: Medicaid versus private insurance.
The underlying message appears to be that if you need to rely on assistance to access health services, that your problems are likelier to be shoved under the rug and “numbified” rather than addressed in a methodical manner. Although this it not necessarily a revelation, some medical experts appear to be “stunned by the disparity in prescribing patterns.” The winning quote in the NYT’s piece is “if it helps keep them in school, maybe it’s not so bad.”
Maybe it’s not so bad on the surface, but the longer-term prognosis appears quite grim. In this particular situation, statistics suggest that as the Medicaid rolls expand, the scope and expense of antipsychotic prescribing could outgrow the budget.
So I’d like to pose the following question as Disruptive Women in Healthcare explores these issues: if we don’t address the underlying challenges that poverty, broken homes and sub-par education pose at home, and how they breed behavioral and physical health issues, how can we develop adequate solutions for the global population? We have become a nation of Band-aids that only cover the problems, not fix them. Short-sighted? Indeed.
Related posts:
December 21st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
[...] 2009-12-21T09:14:32 RT: Are we a nation of band-aids? My new post on Disruptive Women in HC [link to post] [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
[...] 2009-12-21T09:20:32 RT @LizScherer: RT: Are we a nation of band-aids? My new post on Disruptive Women in HC [link to post] [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 2:37 pm
[...] 2009-12-21T11:36:54 Are we a nation of band-aids? My new post on Disruptive Women in HC [link to post] [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
[...] 2009-12-21T11:36:54 Good post Liz! RT @LizScherer: Are we a nation of band-aids? My new post on Disruptive Women in HC [link to post] [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Twitter Comment
RT @bacigalupe: if we can’t address r own probs, how cn we poss b successful outside r immediate borders? (@LizScherer) [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:59 am
I love the article, and agree with the point of it in terms of bandaids and classism and concerns about disparities in treatment. But the problem is not that Medicaid is inferior insurance. At least in Ky, Medicaid pays better than any private insurance company, for both psychiatric services and psychotherapy.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 am
The most popular book in the world, the Bible, states metaphorically that it is easy to remove a splinter from someone else’s eye, than to remove a limb from your own eye. We have many branches that need trimming in America! An article in Broadsheet-Salon.com raises the fact that America ranks last of 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths. According to this study, the majority of those preventable deaths were women. The study also purports that if America had perfomed as well as France, that 101,000 deaths could have been avoided during the time period studied.
It is admirable that we desire to help developing nations. I have always said we don’t have to go to South America to find poverty. We can go to South Dallas or the south side of Chicago.
Danna Ntaka
December 24th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I don’t see this as ‘either-or’ but as ‘both-and.’
Yes, we have lots more to do in our country, in fact, in all of our towns and neighborhoods — maybe even in our own families. Taking those steps does not preclude us from making efforts to help outside the US.
From an unselfish perspective, people in other nations are part of the same human family and deserving of our concern, attention and where possible, help. Hopefully, we can do that with wisdom, knowing when the help is truly that.
From a selfish perspective, people in other nations have diseases that can arrive in our neighborhods in less 12 hours of flying time. And in some cases, their levels of poverty and dispair give rise to regional and global conflicts that cannot be ignored.
Surely we — collectively — can do both. Even small steps can yield great results as so many projects have already demonstrated.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Great post. Poverty does indeed play a role.
Natural Home Cures