¶ … Mama Might Be Better off Dead For the past several decades, health care reform has been on the top of the political lip service agenda. Presidential candidates debate heatedly over which types of Medicare or Medicaid reforms should be instated and purport to want "universal health care." They call out for assistance to low-income families and claim that no American citizen should go without health care services. Yet through all their platitudes one thing remains painfully clear: they really just don't care. Not only has little been done to ensure that every American, regardless of race, receives the best health care services available but the situation seems to be getting worse as the income disparity gap widens with every successive year. In her 1993 book Mama Might be Better Off Dead, Laurie Kaye Abraham illustrates the impact of America's failing health care system by focusing on one family. The Banes' are poor, and they happen to be African-American: what will turn out to be two strikes against them in their pursuit of adequate -- not even exceptional -- health care. Abraham offers in intimate view of the Banes' lives, four generations of men and women who suffer from various ailments and who have found it nearly impossible to receive medical attention to meet their needs. By showing the effects of what Abraham calls the "healthcare nonsystem" on one family alone, Mama Might be Better off Dead emerges as a powerful reminder of one of the hugest domestic political issues of recent...
In fact, Mama Might be Better off Dead alludes to the notion that health care shouldn't even come under the general political rubric but has rather become more of a human rights issue. The eerie title of Abraham's book shows how in many cases the American health care system only responds to the rich or to the nearly dead.
(Archie-Booker, Cervero, and Langone, 1999) This study concludes that: "...power relations manifested themselves concretely through these factors in the social and organizational context, which by defining African-American learners as generic entities, produced undifferentiated educational programs." (Archie-Booker, Cervero, and Langone, 1999) The work of Gilbert and Wright reports a study conducted through collecting a series of articles in which African-American women were interviewed concerning living with AIDS. They write in their
Diversity of Aging Population -- Innovative Healthcare Over the past several decades there has been an avalanche of research and scholarly narratives focusing on the aging of millions of Americans -- among them the "baby boomers" that were born between 1946 and 1964 -- including their numbers and their health vis-a-vis the impact on the sometimes struggling healthcare system. But there has been a dearth of research on how American healthcare
PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AFFECTING African-American STUDENTS PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AFFECTING African-American STUDENTS "They never want to hear what I have to say…it doesn't matter who started a fight, or what a teacher said to you that made you mad. You might have something heavy going on at home but no one asks. They're not interested. They just want you out of the school." 17-year-old 11th grade African-American female student, NYC (Sullivan, 2007, p. iii). In New York City, one of
" (AAFP, nd) The Health Maintenance Organization further should "…negotiate with both public and private payers for adequate reimbursement or direct payment to cover the expenses of interpreter services so that they can establish services without burdening physicians…" and the private industry should be "…engaged by medical organizations, including the AAFP, and patient advocacy groups to consider innovative ways to provide interpreter services to both employees and the medically underserved." (AAFP,
Foster care is a harsh reality for many children in our society. After reading Chapter 15, answer the following questions: How is the effectiveness of Foster Care often inhibited? At Coachella Valley California, three factors prohibit the effectiveness of foster care: communities, children, and families. Communities: the families of children placed in foster care live in an environment characterized by structural deficiencies and poverty, or basic needs believed to characterize stable communities. Often,
Hawaiian elder care professionals improve patient eldercare services to Japanese nationals, taking into consideration Japanese cultural norms and expectations Caregiving for elderly parents in Japan Japan has witnessed a significant growth in its elder population. In the year 1950, 4.9% of the Japanese population was aged 65 years and above. This figure increased to 14.8% (1995). By 2025, it is estimated to grow to 25.8% (Yamamoto & Wallhagen, 1997). Japan's 'very
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