Social Justice makes my head hurt...

So I've had some pretty awesome opportunities of late to educate myself on different justice issues, which is GREAT yet overwhelming. Here's what's been on my mind the past week:

Food Justice:

I lead community night last week and decided to have all my roommates watch Food Inc., followed by a discussion of how we can buy better food. This movie is SO GOOD! Granted I am thoroughly disgusted with the American food industry, but I feel so much more enlightened and educated about what I am putting into my body - and what I want to stop putting in my body. I was already interested in food justice; I like supporting local and organic products and I have mixed feelings about GMO's, but for the sake of buying the most with our money, we haven't really payed attention to that this year. I also shared an article about the external costs of cheap food. This is one way where you can really vote with you dollar and affect a positive change for worker's rights, environmental health, animal rights, and our own personal health.

NW Environmental Health Conference 2010:

I received an e-mail at work about this conference and immediately asked my supervisor if I could go and represent Wallace. It was a day long conference for health care providers, non-profit organizations and advocates in the Portland area to discuss the state of environmental health and how it affects on health in our area (hosted by the OHSU School of Nursing). I spent the day listening to doctors (most belonging to Physicians for Social Responsibility), nurses (most with PhD's), researchers, public health advocates and naturopaths speak on a variety of topics including: Global Warming, the effects of built environment vs. natural environment, projects with immigrant populations to reduce household contaminants, and how to incorporate environmentalism into your practice. I don't quite know why I hadn't drawn the connection between environmental and health advocacy - but it makes so much sense! We are essentially killing ourselves the more and more we kill our environment. I am inspired to make a difference.

Changing needs at Work:

I spent all day yesterday having the same conversation over and over again in the office. The line out our door is getting longer, the people are more upset and desperate, and their problems are more complicated. We can usually see about 20 patients a night, but we are now turning away just as many. One of the doctors on Monday night comment about how our capacity to treat patients will be lower as we continue to see more people with Diabetes and Hypertension along with a laundry list of other issues. It is time consuming and work intensive. So what do we do? We can't just be a portal for referrals. Primary care referrals are a great asset, but not an obligation - and if we start handing them out like candy, our resources will be tapped out. So do we stick to basic urgent care or expand our scope to fit the needs of our community? Do we do appointments and stop being the only clinic in east county with same-day provider visits? My head hurts....

In Summary

Everything is connected: eat local and by organic, ride a bike, plant a tree, lobby for better healthcare!