Al's Morning Meeting

Today's special guest columnist for Al's Morning Meeting is Pia Christensen, the managing editor/online services for healthjournalism.org, the Web site for the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ).

Some parts of the AHCJ's Web site are usually only available to AHCJ members, as access to them is one of the perks of being a member. In order for "Al's Morning Meeting" readers to be able to access the information Christensen mentions, she made the links accessible so you can see them. A big thanks to her for doing so.
 

Veterans Struggle to Get Support
Veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan are having trouble getting the support and services they need, according to Tia Christopher, a Navy veteran and program associate for the Iraq Veteran Project of Swords to Plowshares in San Francisco.

Pia Christensen

After she had difficulty getting the support she needed -- and sometimes even getting people to believe she was a veteran -- Christopher wrote a transition manual for veterans and people close to them. "It became clear to me that even the basics -- how to get a VA card, where to get medical help, getting prepared for a possible post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, even what to say, what not to say to a vet -- needed to be spelled out," Christopher said during a recent meeting of the San Fransisco area chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

Christopher said she is particularly concerned about female veterans, whose experiences and health issues are largely underreported and different from those of male soldiers. A survey of Iraq female veterans found many of them are suffering from genital or urinary system problems, digestive illnesses, back pain, arthritis and other muscular ailments.

While at the San Francisco meeting, Christopher and two mental health professionals expressed these sentiments and more during their talk about the health issues veterans face and the stories that are not being reported.

Here are some story ideas that came out of the panel:

• What sort of health care is available to returning veterans?
• What obstacles do they face in receiving care or compensation?"
• How are female veterans' health issues being addressed?
• How many veterans are getting care, and how is the system preparing to handle increasing numbers of vets seeking treatment?
• What is the impact of war on the families of those serving?
• What can parents do when their sons or daughters return but won't seek help?
• How are mental health professionals working to get more veterans into treatment and keep them in treatment?

Here are some additional resources for covering the military and health care.


Oral Health Care Decaying?
Eric Eyre of The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported on the abysmal state of dental health in his state. He found people suffering with toothaches, gaping cavities, abscesses, lip cancer, gum infections and molars cracked off because of an unsuccessful attempt at do-it-yourself dentistry.
While West Virginia may have some of the worst problems with dental health in the country, it's worth looking into the situation in your state. Are people in your area falling behind in caring for their teeth? Is the situation getting worse as the economy deteriorates?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that funding is available for a state-based oral disease prevention program, which will provide about $4.4 million in fiscal year 2008 to fund up to 15 awards to states and/or territories. Find out if your state applied for the program; if so, get a copy of its application. There should be plenty of data and information there to point you toward stories.

In an article and tip sheet for the AHCJ, Eyre describes how he reported on oral health and points journalists to sources for national and state-by-state data.


Preparing for Aging Boomers
The Institute of Medicine released "Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce," a report that finds the health care workforce is too small and critically unprepared to meet the needs of an aging baby boomer population.

David Gulliver of the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla., moderated an AHCJ panel about how retiring boomers will affect the national health care agenda and said "If [this issue] hasn't hit your community yet, you can be sure it will."

USA Today has written about the shortage of surgeons in U.S. hospitals, pointing out that "As the 79 million baby boomers begin entering retirement age, so are their doctors." The Association of American Medical Colleges predicted in a 2006 report that roughly 250,000 active physicians will retire by 2020.

Michael L. Evans of the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College presented some statistics about how the number of patients a nurse cares for impacts the quality of care; when nurses had eight patients instead of four, their patients had a 31 percent higher chance of dying within 30 days of admission.

Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, says less than 1 percent of nurses are certified in geriatrics, a situation he described as a "great untold story."

Here are some more resources for covering issues related to aging.


Organ Transplant Programs
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office [PDF] concluded that while federal agencies have improved oversight of organ transplant programs, there is still progress to be made.
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services oversees transplant programs that receive Medicare reimbursement, while the Health Resources and Services Administration oversees the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which manages the nation's organ allocation system.

A number of reporters have looked into transplant programs in their communities and found that some don't meet federal requirements, including one in Wichita, Kan., and one in Los Angeles. Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of the Los Angeles Times wrote about how they researched and reported an extensive investigation of organ transplant programs.

Here are other stories about transplants that could be localized:

• The Chicago Sun-Times wrote about the lives of six of the estimated 4,700 people in Illinois waiting for a life-saving organ donation.

• The Washington Post reports that more people, including those who need organ transplants, are hitting the lifetime benefits cap of $1 million or more. The cap is a standard part of many insurance policies.
  

• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review presents the problems of transplanting a liver before a patient is sick enough to need it.

• The Wall Street Journal writes about new guidelines for living organ donors proposed by the United Network for Organ Sharing.

If you have any questions about the Association of Health Care Journalists, you can feel free to contact me at pia@healthjournalism.org.