Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Return the reporter's phone call, or pay the price

Excerpt from: McKnight's (click for full article)

 

Messaging will make or break an organization and in today's digital world, messaging takes many forms. We live in a universe where communicating never stops and you cannot hide from it. You can't control it. But you can be prepared for managing it.

News alert to all decision makers in the long-term care industry:  Prepare to communicate during a crisis BEFORE a crisis communicates for you.

The best people to help you handle this are the professionals trained in communications, journalism, public relations. They understand how the reporters work in today's digital world of instantaneous sound bytes, tweets, posts, B-roll and images. 

The rapidly expanding LTC industry must recognize that avoiding talking to and working with their local media as well as the regional, national and even international media is a detriment to the well-being of not only the elders we are committing to serving. There is a definite impact that can be attributed to the branding, marketing, and the bottom line.

Speakeasy

Excerpt from: The Wall Street Journal (click for full article)

 

This site lists interesting daily arts and entertainment pieces.

The Sick Turn To Crowd Funding To Pay Medical Bills

Excerpt from: NPR (click for full article)

Patti's comment: Very interesting concept.

 

Surely you've heard of crowd funding sites like Kickstarter that have helped thousands of filmmakers, musicians and painters leverage Facebook and Twitter to raise money for creative projects.

But crowd funding isn't just for hipsters anymore; it's moving into all kinds of other spheres, from startups to research to personal causes. And increasingly, people felled by illness or injury are using these sites to raise money for their health care.

One site that's capitalized on personal-cause crowd funding is GoFundMe. CEO Brad Damphousse says in 2012 alone, the site's users have raised more than $6 million for medical causes, and Medical, Illness & Healing is the site's most popular category, attracting 17 percent of the site's total donations.

Damphousse says most users raise funds through people they know and their friends because the site makes it easy for them to broadcast their cause on Facebook and Twitter. And the bigger the social network, the easier it is to reach the goal. But not everyone succeeds. People with small social networks tend to have more trouble meeting their fundraising goals, he says. When Shots reviewed the site, it appeared that the people who are closest to their goals have at least 200 Facebook friends.

 

Statement from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on World Polio Day

Excerpt from: HHS.gov (click for full statement)

 

As we observe World Polio Day today, we can consider that, although many Americans may think of polio as a scourge that affected children long ago, this paralyzing disease continues to threaten many children in the world.  Polio continues to kill, and those who live can face a lifetime often marked by limited mobility, employment and marriage prospects, as well as social stigma.  World Polio Day is held each year on Oct. 24 in commemoration of the birth of Dr. Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against polio.

Since 1988, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has worked as a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. HHS joins Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the U.S. Agency for International Development, in the drive to end polio.  We are committed to eradicating polio and providing a legacy of freedom from fear of polio for future generations.

The results of the global polio eradication effort have been inspiring, and have led to the lowest number of polio cases to date. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide.  As of Oct. 16, there were 171 cases in 2012. Polio was once a disease of large-scale outbreaks, but the determination of polio eradication workers has led to the disease remaining endemic in only three countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

Reading Playboy

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

A momentous event: I have purchased my first Playboy magazine, my first pornography of any kind. I put it on my credit card at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport. Don Peteroy, a dear friend of my dear friend Tara, won Playboy’s annual college fiction contest, and his winning short story was published in October’s magazine. I had been working up the courage all month to actually purchase the damn thing—I’m a firm believer that writers need to support one another, and Don is an amazing writer, and well, it just felt like something I should do.

But not in small-town Marquette. I couldn’t overcome the thought of running into someone I knew while buying it—or worse, having to hand my money to one of Zac’s students, many of whom seem to work as cashiers. I’m a feminist for god’s sake—how was I going to explain that?

Politico Accuses the Post and Times of Media Bias: Reporters Detect a Disturbance in the Force

Excerpt from Media & Communications Policy: (click for entire article)

Every once in a while something happens in medialand that stirs up reporters. The most recent example occurred last Thursday when the editors of Politico accused the Washington Post and the New York Times of bias in their coverage of the presidential campaign.

Under a headline that read, “To GOP, blatant bias in vetting,” the authors added their own commentary in ways that suggested that Republican critics of media coverage of the presidential campaign are right.

“Republicans cry ‘bias’ so often,” they wrote, “it feels like a campaign theme.  It is, largely because it fires up conservatives….  But it is also because it often rings true, even to people who don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh – or Haley Barbour.”

We Can End the R-Word in Movies and TV

Excerpt from Bella Online: (click for entire article)

March 7, 2012 is international Spread the Word to End the Word Day. In an effort to ban one word from everyday life, movies and television shows, individuals and organizations are speaking out about the effects of hate language on the safety, well-being, and opportunities of children, teens and adults with developmental delays and intellectual disabilities.

As citizens, customers, family members and neighbors, people with intellectual disabilities are encouraging all efforts to eliminate the use of this hate language from thoughtless neighbors as well as bullies in their environment. I believe we can make a stronger effort to raise awareness in the media, audiences and advertisers so that respectful language is substituted for hate language.

I am frustrated going to the movies with my son and being ambushed by the R-word when we are just settling in with our popcorn. When it happens, I go to the ticket booth and demand a refund. Using hate language in a movie does mean you are condoning the use of those words. Movies are vehicles for spreading the hate language among those who take on the language and attitudes of characters they admire or want to emulate - and many adolescents do identify with characters that the hate language fits. We have no lack of evidence that children, adults and the elderly also identify with characters who use hate language as part of their depiction of toughness or being 'cool.'

Jon Stewart on FCC v. Fox and Hosana-Tabor

Excerpt from Constitutional Law Prof Blog: (click for entire article)

Need a bit of humor?  The latest episode of The Daily Show had some provocative comedy related to constitutional law developments earlier this month.

On the FCC v. Fox oral arguments, Stewart made somewhat implicit comparisons between sex and violence.

Naming and shaming the journalists & editors who demonise people with disabilities

Excerpt from Richard Wilson's Blog: (click for entire article)

There was a sickening article in today’s Observer from Ian Birrell on the real-life effects of the recent media coverage on people living on disability benefit:

    “Polls have found substantial increases in the number of disabled people experiencing aggression and abuse, with evidence that the attitudes of the rest of society towards them are worsening. Many disabled people were already scared to go out after dark or travel on public transport such is their justified fear of encountering hostility.

    …Unfortunately, much blame rests on the shoulders of the media and certain parts of government. There has been a new dialogue over disability, characterised by the constant drip-drip of stories implying vast numbers of disability claimants are bogus, that benefits are doled out without proper checks and taxpayers fund free cars for thousands of children with minor behavioural disorders.

Why Jon Stewart is the Most Trusted Man in America

Excerpt from Psychology Today: (click for entire article)

A recent TIME magazine on-line poll asked Americans who the most trusted newsman in America following the passing of Walter Cronkite. The shocking winner was Comedy Central "fake news" anchor, Jon Stewart, beating out real news anchors Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, and Katie Couric.

How can a cable television comedian be the most trusted man in U.S. media? The answer is in the psychology of trust.

Research in communication and psychology clearly shows that to be trusted a communicator has to be seen as knowledgeable and credible. Surface characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, being expressive and articulate, also are connected to perceptions of trust. Jon Stewart has the basics - he's articulate, expressive and appears knowledgeable.