Originally published Monday, May 29th, 2017
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| www.thehospitalhandbook.com |
Memorial weekend is here; when, as a society we remember
those who have given their lives in service to our country. This long weekend may we remember the fallen
as we support the living.
As a military
family with several Blue Stars, my mission has been to help make accessible
non-drug, non-surgery options (acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, etc) for
health and wellness to servicemembers, veterans, and their families. Having acupuncture (which is part of East Asian
Medicine) and other non-drug, non-surgery options available in medicine centers
and hospital facilities to complement conventional care will help shorten inpatient stay length,
decrease pain, improve function, and decrease overall health care costs.
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| www.thehospitalhandbook.com |
This mission has taken several forms over the past decade
or so.
Most recently this has been in building a set of
resources, called The Hospital Practice
Handbook Project, to make it easier for facilities and their hospital
administrators to hire acupuncturists into their systems and thus have
Integrative Medicine (IM) professionals on staff.
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| www.thehospitalhandbook.com |
For patients to have access to integrative medicine, you need to hire IM practitioners into the facility.
Why? Because, I
found that one of the major barriers to getting access to IM is getting IM
professionals hired into the system.
People have best access to care when it is delivered in places they are
already going, whether it is a mobile wellness clinic at the community center or the VFW or the local medical facility.
In particular,
servicemembers and their families have best access and greatest potential for team care coordination when it is available
in their facility (MTF). The
next-best is having it covered by TriCare out-in-town by trained and qualified
providers.
Patients have the best access and greatest potential for team care coordination when IM (including acupuncture) is available in their usual health care facility.
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| www.thehospitalhandbook.com |
The Hospital
Practice Handbook Project resource is for all hospital-based practice IM
practitioners, whether you work in a civilian, DoD, or VA facility. These resources are general and
collaborative. They are not
facility-specific. They are
profession-specific; specific to Integrative Medicine professionals, with
emphasis on East Asian Medicine professionals.
Contribute to the work of building this stepping-stone
resource over the barriers into health care facilities at the Hospital Practice Handbook Project website.
This work supports the movement of integrative medicine as part of our modern health care system.
*Blue Stars—each blue star represents one family member
serving in the military. A blue star
banner or flag can have up to 5 stars.
If a servicemember dies, a smaller gold star is placed on top of the
blue star.
For a Quick List
of My Favorite Veteran and Military Family Non-Profit Organizations to Donate
to this Memorial Weekend
See this blogpost on the De-Stress Vets blog. These are nonprofits that support veterans, active duty military, and their families.
- Blue Star Mothers and the Sew Much Comfort program to create adaptive clothing for injured servicemembers.
- The NMCRS Visiting Nurse program You can donate to this program on thiswebpage.
- The American Red Cross’s work with military families and emergency messages.
- AWB’s Military Stress Recovery Project
- The MOAA Military Family Initiative, which advocates for military families. Also a strong advocate for military families who have children with special needs (EFMP).
- A reminder of the history behind the VFW’s buddy poppy program.
--Megan
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