Hiya Pinkies, Please welcome back to the mainstage Pink God, wise healer, and good friend Fred Krazeise, here with a piece he wrote over the summer (but is just as timely now – if not more so) about health care and wellness in the US. Thank you as always, Fred, for your wisdom and insight.
Senator Tom Harkin (D, Iowa) is channeling my thoughts. At least I’d like to think so. In a blunt and candid op-ed article written for Yahoo News, Shifting America from sick care to genuine wellness, Harkin writes:
The fact is, we currently do not have a health care system in the United States; we have a sick care system. If you’re sick, you get care, whether through insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, community health centers, emergency rooms, or charity. The problem is that this is all about patching things up after people develop serious illnesses and chronic conditions.
We spend a staggering $2.3 trillion annually on health care – 16.5 percent of our GDP and far more than any other country spends on health care – yet the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among nations, on par with Serbia.
We spend twice as much per capita on health care as European countries, but we are twice as sick with chronic disease.
Bravo Senator Harkin. Yes, yes, and yes! Finally, someone with influence (Harkin is chairman of the Senate panel that funds medical research, health care and education initiatives), actually gets it. While more than 50 million Americans are without basic medical care (see It’s Time to Fight for Healthcare Reform), and it is high time we have universal healthcare coverage in this country, we would only be throwing good money after bad if we didn’t address preventative care.
Just what is this sickness paradigm that Harkin writes about in his article? I go back to John Travis, MD, who in the 1970’s created the Wellness Inventory, a holistic assessment and life-balance program designed to help people gain personal insight into their state of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
More than 30 years ago Dr. Travis laid out 3 key concepts concerning wellness. The first concept, called “The Wellness Continuum,” states that wellness is a process, and never a static state. We have been conditioned and trained to think of wellness in terms of illness and assume that the absence of illness indicates wellness. There are actually many degrees of wellness, just as there are many degrees of illness. The Illness-Wellness Continuum shown in the picture below illustrates the relationship of the treatment paradigm to the wellness paradigm.
Moving from the center to the left shows a progressively worsening state of health. Moving to the right of center indicates increasing levels of health and wellbeing. The treatment paradigm, or “sick care” as Sen. Harkin calls it (drugs, surgery, psychotherapy, herbs, and so on) can bring you up to the neutral point, where the symptoms of disease have been alleviated. That is all it is designed to do.
The Wellness Paradigm, on the other hand, which can be utilized at any point on the continuum, helps you move toward higher levels of wellness. The wellness paradigm directs you beyond neutral and encourages you to move as far toward wellness as possible. On the left side of the continuum, it is not meant to replace the treatment paradigm, but to work in harmony with it. If you are ill, then treatment is important, but don’t stop at the neutral point.
And that is also Harkin’s point. As the Senate moves to craft a comprehensive health reform bill, Harkin views this legislation “as our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society – a society that is focused on prevention, good nutrition, fitness, and public health.”
We also have to realize that wellness and prevention must be truly comprehensive. It is not only about what goes on in a doctor’s office. It encompasses workplace wellness programs, community-wide wellness programs, building bike paths and walking trails, getting junk food out of our schools, making school breakfasts and lunches more nutritious, increasing the amount of physical activity our children get, and so much more.
Bravo again Senator!
Wellness is not a static state. High-level wellness involves giving good care to your physical self, using your mind constructively, expressing your emotions effectively, being creatively involved with those around you, and being concerned about your physical, psychological, and spiritual environments. In fact, it’s not so much where you are on the continuum, but which direction you’re facing. High-level wellness does not preclude periods of illness and weakness, nor does it attempt to deny that death is a natural part of life.
Finally, there may be hope that our leaders in Washington will actually do the right thing and create a comprehensive healthcare plan that addresses both sides of the Wellness Continuum. Let’s hope so.
Senator Harkin writes, “Winston Churchill famously said that “Americans always do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” Well, we’ve tried everything else, and it has led us to bad health and the brink of bankruptcy.
Comprehensive health reform legislation is our opportunity to change the paradigm. We are going to extend health insurance to every American. And we are going to give our citizens access to a 21st century health care system – one that is focused on helping us to live healthy, active, happy lives.”
Amen, Senator! Amen! This reform cannot happen soon enough.
If you would like to ready to bring back more balance into your life, consider taking the Wellness Inventory yourself.
Take care of yourselves,
Fred
