I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Certified Alcohol and other Drug Counselor (CADC). I have worked in health care and with drug users for over a decade.
This blog chronicles what happens on the frontlines of the health care crisis from a social worker’s perspective. Social workers have a code of ethics, which I can tell you, is profoundly challenged every day in health care settings across the country.
I hate our health care system because it puts profits over people. Millions are denied health care in the richest country it the world. According to a study done at Harvard, 45,000 people die every year due to lack of access to medical care. That is a crime against humanity.
I am a founding member of the Chicago Single-Payer Action Network. We are a group organizing on a grassroots level for single-payer, national health care. The private health insurance industry must be abolished once and for all. We believe health care is a human right. Our slogan is, EVERYBODY IN NOBODY OUT!
DISCLAIMER
The persons described and discussed in this Blog, Trauma Observation, are purely fictitious. In order to protect the identity of patients, real names are not used and the contents of this Blog do not discuss or reveal any one person, or any one person’s medical condition. Rather, the people and the accounts described in this Trauma Observation are composites of people I have dealth with and situations I have experienced over the years. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental and unintentional.
The statements and opinions expressed in Trauma Observation, and the content of the Blog, are exclusively the personal opinion of the author. Under no circumstances should the content be attributed to any employer, past, present or future, of the author, unless so stated explicitly by that individual organization.
Trauma Observation 
I’m wit you Ms. Helen. We do need a reform on the health care system. Insurance is nothing but a bunch of corportate heads that sits there and collects money! I don’t see why I should pay for health insurance where after paying them, I don’t have enough to pay my copayments? So what’s the use? I’m tired of slaving away to support the health insurance which doesn’t give you anything back.
I agree with ” every body in nobody out! “.
Ketty
Good morning,
I read your Counterpunch piece. Well said.
http://www.counterpunch.org/redmond12232009.html
Agree with you. Beware our Democrats. Especially the reformers in the party, the Progressive Democrats.
I hate to get started on Rep. John Conyers. He led all of we impeachment activists on a wild goose chase. I think he was Pelosi’s lightning rod for impeachment. Was it his job to keep us occupied and then sell us out? We delivered an impeachment petition with 1.1 million names to him, and beyond having those delivering it arrested, he never mentioned the petition after that day. Kucinich was better, filing some impeachment bills, but his follow up could be best called flaky. And the Progressive Democrats Of America relied on the members of the House Progressive Caucus, in particular Conyers for guidance. Were they part of the scam? For even PDA, electing a majority of Democrats seemed to be the most important goal.
I’m a disgusted 45 year Democratic voter
John H Kennedy, Denver CO
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
.
Dear Helen, If every person in this country would read Howard Zinns book, A peoples history of the united states, they would realize that the corp,millitary,senatoral, industrial complex has ben in control from the begining. We have never ben a democracy. The first hurdle to overcome is the power of the corporations. The high and mighty supreme court is about to grant these barbrous entities the status of personhood, that will grant them all protections that a human has. If we could put them back to the status that they were supposed to have, they wouldnt have this kind of power. Second hurdle is campaign finnance reform. Have public funds used for canidates and outlaw any corp. or group to fund any race. The people would hsve a real voice about healthcare, if this could become a reality. We are living Orwells stories in reality, and the public who get there news from fox are living in a dream of an america that never was, and never will be. I dont know what to do to get myself over the hopelesness that I feel, but your courage eases the pain. Thank you for all you do, and say, Jack.
Powerful stories, Helen.
Speaking truth to power is not only important, but our duty as social workers.
As you eloquently put it, “a social worker is only as good as the resources available to them”. The toolbox looks pretty empty on some particular days.
A social worker at County must be embracing, artistic and persuasive.
Your blog is heartwrenching. At the same time, it is a shot in the arm for treating social work burn-out.
Thank you for your analysis of Alternet’s hit piece by proxy on those of us who do not think the current health care bill should pass.
I particularly enjoyed your precise dissection of Josh Holland’s attack process. I used to post at Alternet until I got into it with Holland over his participation in a series of hit pieces on Obama right before the Iowa caucus. I took exception to something he wrote and after several posts where I refused to let go of it, he banned me.
It’s too bad when a site like Alternet (and I should say there are a number of them including HuffPo) masquerade as progressive but are simply shills for whatever the current Democratic Party line is. It makes it harder to sort through the BS.
You, however, are an expert at that, and thank you for having the focus, tenacity, and heart to grab on tight and hold on.
Best,
Wexler