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February 2020

Feb 14
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LifeCare Alliance Partnership with Broadway Cares Supports HIV Services

By Featured News, POHC

LifeCare Alliance’s Project OpenHand-Columbus program provides nutritionally appropriate meals to central Ohio individuals living with HIV and/or AIDS as well as medical nutritional therapy to those with a dual-diagnosis of HIV and diabetes. With these services, clients can free up expenses to address the costs of maintaining their disease and live life more abundantly.

With Project OpenHand-Columbus’s focus on helping the low-income as well as under or uninsured HIV/AIDS population, we have found clients face multiple barriers to accessing food and nutrition, including, but not limited to, financial, cognitive, physical/mobility and support system. In 2019, 90% of program clients were living on an annual income of less than $20,000.

With limited income, clients are typically unable to obtain food meeting their dietary, medical, or cultural needs. When clients have a dual diagnosis of HIV/AIDS and diabetes, they have further complications addressing their health and ability to pay for medications, treatment, housing, and groceries. Even though significant medical advances have turned HIV/AIDS diagnoses from being death sentences to being treated more like a chronic illness, some clients are still socially isolated with a fractured family system, leaving them alone in combating their disease.

We would not be able to serve those with HIV/AIDS without the help of supporters like Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS helps men, women, and children across the country receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance. Since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses through donations collected in those red buckets. If you have ever been to a Broadway touring production at your local theatre, you probably have seen red buckets at the exits/entrances of the different seating areas and have witnessed cast members from the production talk about Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. If you live in central Ohio and have attended a show at the Palace or Ohio Theatres, you probably have heard them give a shout-out to LifeCare Alliance and Project OpenHand-Columbus!

Without funding partners like the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, LifeCare Alliance would not be able to serve our central Ohio neighbors with responsive, compassionate, and quality care.

To find out how you can make an impact in our Project OpenHand-Columbus clients lives, click here:

Learn more about Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by visiting https://broadwaycares.org/

Feb 14
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Dunlap children playing video games

Dealing with Mom Guilt During Diabetes Journey

By Central Ohio Diabetes Association, Featured News, It Takes a Family

You know what comes with a child who is diabetic. MOM GUILT. And I guess it’s more so parent guilt, but as mom’s we like to feel like we’re special.

But that guilt starts when you are presented with the diagnosis. The thoughts start running through your head, “what did I do wrong?” “Was it something I did when I was pregnant?” “I should have caught it sooner, maybe we could have done something!” All of those thoughts we know LOGICALLY are all untrue. But emotions are so much stronger than logic sometimes, and we feel like we have put our child in this position.

Then, there is the guilt around watching them poked and prodded every day. My son, Logan, wanted nothing to do with an insulin pump for almost two years after he was diagnosed. I think mostly because he saw his daddy take shots and prick his finger every day, so that was “normal” to him, he wasn’t about to try something unknown right now. And Logan was amazing and at six years old refused to allow anyone else do his shots but him. But the pit in my throat each time I had to wake him up because he fell asleep early to take his insulin, and the meltdowns that would ensue were perfect for the “mom guilt” to build up.

Or, when he wanted to go to a friend’s house, and I had to talk to the parents and explain that he was diabetic and that he couldn’t really have any snacks. And then the guilt of almost getting his sugar higher than I would like it, just to avoid him going low when I wasn’t around. Guilt, Guilt, Guilt.

But…when those moment of guilt came up, there were almost always moments of intense PRIDE. I am proud of Logan because he still gets up every day to be a regular kid. The only person that is going to give him limitations is me, and he is sure to tell me that too! He was giving himself 5-6 shots a DAY at the age of SIX!!! How could I NOT be proud of that kid!

So, when those emotions come; when the guilt, or the anger or sadness come up, remember:

You get to choose how you feel.

You get to choose whether or not you want to feel that way.

And no matter what you choose, it doesn’t make you any less of an amazing parent.

You get to choose how long you feel that way. When you are thinking how it’s not fair, and that makes you feel sad or guilty.

How willing would you be to try something different?

What if you thought: “how can I make my son/daughter know I love them today?” How does that make you feel?

I would encourage you to go with that. It’s going to do you both a lot of good.

About

Family photo of Dunlap family

This blog post is PART TWO of IT TAKES A FAMILY: LIFE WITH TYPE 1, written by Lindsay Dunlap.

The Dunlap family lives with two generations of T1D, and Lindsay is graciously sharing their experience with us. If you’d like to connect with Lindsay, she’d be happy to talk about the highs and lows with you at lindsay@lindsaydunlapcoaching.com.

Learn More

Click here to learn more about the Central Ohio Diabetes Association, including support for families through programs such as Camp Hamwi.

Feb 04
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Community Wellness Center client Fleeter

Wellness Centers link clients with accessible, affordable care

By Featured News, Wellness

This year, LifeCare Alliance will celebrate 50 years of providing wellness services, a milestone that is significant for the Agency as well as tens of thousands of clients who have been served over the decades.

Community Wellness Centers, located throughout Franklin County, have a wide reach for clients such as Ms. Fleeter, who regularly visits the Community Wellness Center at Marion-Franklin Community Center.

Ms. Fleeter has been a client for more than six years and attends exercise classes taught by Registered Nurse Barb Parker, has her blood pressure checked, and receives foot care services that prevent her from more-frequent visits to her podiatrist.

Ms. Fleeter has formed a bond with Nurse Barb. “I think she’s so nice,” she said. “She’s really sweet. I like her.”

The exercise classes taught by Nurse Barb are especially beneficial, Ms. Fleeter says.

“It helps me because my fingers sometimes get stiff. Barbara tells us plenty of things to do to loosen up your hands. ‘You’ve got to use them,’ she says. Best thing she says for your hands is washing dishes. Well, I say I sure do enough of those!”

Ms. Fleeter, who says she worked as a chef at a local hospital for more than 35 years, visits the Community Wellness Center as much as twice a week. Without the Community Wellness Center, she would need to make more frequent visits to her doctor, which would cost more money. Ms. Fleeter is also concerned about driving a longer distance because with freeway construction, driving to the doctor’s office can be confusing.

But it’s the trust Ms. Fleeter puts in Nurse Barb that keeps her coming back. Sometimes, she says, she finds herself sharing more with Nurse Barb than she does with her doctor.

“I think Barbara is  greater than my doctor!” she says.

To learn more about LifeCare Alliance’s Community Wellness Centers, visit https://www.lifecarealliance.org/programs/wellness/wellness-centers/.

Learn more

Click here to learn more about LifeCare Alliance’s wellness services, including Community Wellness Centers.