Patient Education
Family Health Radio
Family Health was produced at the WOUB Center for Public Media with support from the Osteopathic communit for 30 years and went off the air in July 2012. The series reached 11 million listeners on more than 250 domestic stations and an international audience in about 180 nations via the American Forces Network Radio.
The program's format consists of simple and effective- daily segments of two and a half minutes, with practical, easy-to-understand answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about health and health care. The host, Harold C. Thompson III, D.O., assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, also included timely, practical, and consumer-orientated information about how to evaluate health information on the internet. Family Health Radio was supported in part by the Ohio Osteopathic Association.
Featured programs:
Every Patient Counts
America's health care system is in crisis. In communities nationwide, citizens are losing access to quality medical care, and no one is immune. Before our health care system flatlines, we must take action to ensure that our lawmakers know Every Patient Counts.
Cancer Survivorship Resource Guide
The Ohio Osteopathic Association is a member of Partners for Cancer Control, which is a statewide coalition of organizations working to reduce the burden of cancer among Ohioans. Click here www.ooanet.org/pdf/cancersurvivorshipresource.pdf for a PDF of the coalition's Cancer Survivorship Resource Guide, listing national, state and local resources available to patients and their families. For additional information visit the coalitions website at www.ohiocancercontrol.org
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute has a new, reliable source for risk information about six common cancers, steps to reduce risk, tips for understanding cancer news stories, and tools to use with doctors to manage cancer risk. Find the site at http://www.cancer.gov/.
Risk Calculator for Death Due to Diseases and Enviormental Hazzards
Exposures to behaviors and our environment offer all sorts of risks. Use the American Council on Science and Health Riskometer to see a full spectrum of exposures that caused American deaths with the actual number of deaths attributed to each exposure for the base year 2002. You can also see the odds of dying from the 15 leading causes of death. Click here for more information http://riskometer.org/index.html.
Pain Management
The Purdue Web Site -- www.PartnersAgainstPain.com -- contains useful information for patients and caregivers in the following categories: (1) Pain Assessment/Measurement/Scales, (2) Pain Documentation/ Journals, (3) Pain Advocacy, and (4) Pain Resources.
Ohio Tobacco Quit Line
The Ohio Tobacco Quit Line is Housed at the Ohio Department of Health and available to uninsured Ohioans, Medicaid recipients, pregnant women, and member of the Ohio Tobacco Collaborative to provide invaluable assistance to smokers who want to kick the tobacco habit. The Quit Line is staffed Monday through Friday from 9 am to 11 pm, and from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Voice mail services are available 24/7, and all messages are returned within 24 to 48 hours.
The Tobacco Collaborative was created as a way to help health plans and employers comply with federal legislative mandates to provide tobacco cessation benefits while helping public health maintain tobacco cessation infrastructure in the face of budget cuts. The Tobacco Collaborative Overview provides additional specifics regarding the cost and services offered by the program. For additional resources for employers and insurers on tobacco cessation and health reform, click here.
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Advance Directives and End of Life Planning
The decisions a person makes regarding their healthcare preferences and treatment wishes at the end of life are extremely important. As a result, the Midwest Care Alliance (formerly the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization), in collaboration with the Ohio State Bar Association, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Osteopathic Association and the Ohio State Medical Association have published two documents to help patients have discussions and complete forms on how to deal with life threatening situations when a patient cannot speak for him/herself.
Conversations That Light the Way is a workbook designed to assist you in making choices about the kind of health care you want as you journey through the final phases of life. Although this subject can be uncomfortable for many people to address, it is important that each person has the opportunity to make these important choices for themselves. The workbook contains questions, prompts and information designed to help you consider and discuss choices at the end of life. You may want to revisit this workbook over the years as these conversations take time and your decisions and choices may change.
The complete advance directive booklet, Choices: Living Well at the End of Life, and companion guide, Conversations That Light the Way, can be obtained from the Midwest Care Alliance by clicking here: http://associationdatabase.com/aws/OHPCO/pt/sp/livingwills
Ohio Legal Services offers a self-guided interview to prepare your personalized Ohio Advance Directive on line. A new Spanish version is also available. To utilize this tool, click here.
For additional information, see the articles below and visit these web sites:
More Resources and Information
It's Never too Early to Start Your End-of-Life Planningby John C. Wolf, DOThe natural consequence of being born is death. Most of us will have at least some advanced warning before we die from diseases such as heart disease or cancer. Some of us will die suddenly and unexpectedly. It's never too early to start end of life planning. Details > | Bringing Cultural and Spiritual Sensitivity to End-of-Life CareThe ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity that gives America its own unique background is also adding a new dimension to the special needs that healthcare practitioners must address when providing end-of-life care to members of these different communities. Details > |
Managing Pain Effectively to Assure Quality of Life at End of LifeEffectively managing the physical pain associated with terminal illness does not extend a dying person's life. However, lessening that pain can enhance the quality of life at the end of life by enabling people to coherently discuss a child's future, put their affairs in order, or perhaps even visit a special place one last time. Details > | Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment for PainOMT is effective as an adjunctive therapy to help control and ease somatic pain that many people suffer from during the final stages of life. Somatic pain includes that of the muscles, skin, bone, and other soft tissues. Details > |
Osteopathic Medicine and End-of-Life CareAs the average life expectancy in the US increases and the number of older Americans continues to rise, more and more adults, their families, and healthcare professionals are addressing the many issues and decisions surrounding "end-of-life" care and support. Details > | Selecting and Financing End-of-Life Care ProgramsTypically, hospice care at the end of life is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance companies, and managed care organizations. Community contributions, memorial donations, and other gifts often make free care possible for patients without sufficient funds, and some programs charge patients according to their ability to pay. Details > |
A Message from Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) . . .Hospice Care Enhances Dignity and Peace As Life Nears Its EndHospice care, a fully reimbursable Medicare Part A benefits option for beneficiaries and providers since 1983, offers the services designed to address the physical and emotional pain through effective palliative treatment when cure is not possible. Details > |
