Do you find our current health care system lacking or incomplete? Have you ever wondered how things could be different, especially for those who are struggling just to make ends meet? Are you inspired by the idea of health care as a holistic, community endeavor? Well, I want to share with you a dream my girlfriend and I have, one that we are working towards making a reality, step by step.
Our dream is to develop a community based, wellness center that operates on the principle of whole person health (body, mind, and spirit), and primarily serves individuals and communities that experience social and/or economic barriers under the current system. We aim to create an environment that in, and of itself, fosters wellbeing and healing. Our desire is to uphold traditional medicines and wisdom, while also exploring ways elements of modern, science based medicine can provide additional support. We seek to create a model that breaks down the traditional top-down hierarchy between health care practitioners and patients, and which also utilizes the arts (writing, photography, painting, etc.) and community building (amongst patients and beyond immediate patients) as key components of healing. In addition, we see the center as a potential hub for health care activism, both in terms of advocating for needed reforms to the current mainstream health care system, as well as providing models for systemic change and transformation.
Here’s the thing. Look around the world. From water crises to the Ebola virus, much is threatening human health. And the reality is that Western, science based medicine is often both too expensive, and not cutting it anyway. Furthermore, the many benefits that Western medicine alone can offer are often restricted to people of privileged races and classes. Notice how hundreds of black Africans are dying of Ebola right now, while a pair of white Americans are flown half way across the planet to receive state of the art treatment in Atlanta. This kind of thing happens all the time. It’s probably happening right in your community, where those with means get the best health care, while those who are oppressed or most marginalized receive either only the bare minimum or nothing at all. And even in places where this is less the case, those services are frequently under attack by right wing politicians and their corporate friends.
Beyond this, far too many people have lost touch with, or simply don’t trust anymore, their indigenous medicine traditions, which tend to be more earth friendly, and also more holistic. Plant medicine traditions exist worldwide, and yet globalization is creating numerous threats towards them, both environmentally and in terms of increased trust reduction and anti-plant medicine legislation. In addition, when blending of science-based modern medicine with indigenous forms does happen, it usually doesn’t take long for BigPharma and other moneyed power brokers to turn life-giving work into a profit making venture. And finally, where’s the spirit, the soul, the spiritual part of life in modern medicine? Yes, hospitals usually have chaplain systems, but how often is it that even these spiritual guides are employed only in the most critical cases, where someone’s on death’s door, or near it?
My girlfriend and I want to be part of a movement to change this. We are working our way towards joining all the others out there who are experimenting with new models, seeing the bigger picture connections, and slowly recreating medicine in ways that bring out the best of everything humans have come up with before. You can learn more about us here, and I invite you to be inspired by a few of those who have inspired us along the way.
Photo Credit:
Meet the Healing Giant by Kew on Flickr via Flickr Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
Recent Nathan Thompson Articles:
- A Balm for Your Body and Mind
- The Gifts of Comfrey
- Learning in the Community Garden
- Passionflowers
- The Beautiful, Powerful Coneflower
Nathan,
I like your idea about a health center. You are so right about how western medicine is, including your insight about the ebola virus and how 100s of poor people will die, yet 2 privileged white people were saved. I thought about that too, but no one talks about it mainstream media.
I volunteer at a teaching hospital and it has its faults but at least my doctors are open to complementary treatments. I hear plenty of stories from patients who come to my hospital for second opinions because they felt they weren’t being heard by their original doctor. I agree the patient must be treated as a whole being including mind/spirit.
I think your idea will be successful because many people are disillusioned with what is happening in medicine today, even with Obama Care. Covered California is rife with endless problems. Americans are required to have health insurance but it does nothing to address the quality of health care. The wealthy will continue to get the best treatment while the rest are pushed in to HMOs.