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Buy tickets for the entire 2012 Health Care series and save $20!

CityClub Members: $120 | Guests & Co-Promoters: $140 | General Public: $160

CityClub’s 2012 healthcare series will address the unsustainable rise of healthcare costs for our country, for employers and for individuals.We will look at major factors that drive up healthcare costs and ask: What are we paying for? What should we be paying for? Can we afford it?  And, how can we fix it?

If you know you love the CityClub health care series, buy your tickets now and save $20! If it turns out you can’t join us once a final date is announced, you are welcome and encouraged to send a friend or colleague in your place.

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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Health Care Series: Got Stress?

In response to a question from moderator Laura Musikanski, Executive Director of Sustainable Seattle about the role of technology in stress, panelist David Levy, Professor at the University of Washington Information School said the following:

"…We have been participating in the West in an acceleration that has been going on for more than 100 years. And I think we’re at the point now where we’re really at a position to see a philosophy of life that goes along with industrialization, which I will call “more, faster, better”… it’s our shared public idea that real and meaningful life is concerned with efficient production… It is our consumer society suggesting that more production, more consumption is what makes for the good life… What’s been happening over the last 10 years or longer is that more and more of these technologies, powerful and wonderful though they are, have been insinuating themselves with the same spirit of “more, faster, better” into all corners of our lives. ….It’s not specifically about the web or cell phones or smart phones. But I think something that’s very interesting about what’s going on today is, in effect we have created this economic machine - some larger sense of ‘we’ – that has been cranked faster and faster. And we’re now at a point collectively where we can see how certain flaws in that original design of the engineers of 100 years ago affects the quality of life. I love my laptop. I love my iphone. I’m certainly not a Luddite here to say that there aren’t wonderful things about these technologies. But I think the stress that we are feeling overall is not the stress per se of the technologies, it’s the stress of the expectation and the assumptions about how we are expected to be living our lives. Those assumptions are affecting how much vacation we take, what happens when we walk into the office and whether we feel like we need to check email constantly… it’s all of those things."

Listen to the full audio version of the program here.

The stress experts in Seattle are coming together on Wednesday, November 30th for a special look at stress and the influences it has on our lives and health. How can we combat the negative impacts and ultimately reduce the stress in our lives?

One big thing we can do is - relax. Come relax with us on Wednesday, November 30th at noon. We can all work together to find solutions to stress in our communities and our lives. Hear from an exciting line-up of panelists and combat this epidemic in our communities.

Stress is truly an epidemic in our country. The American Medical Association states that:

• Stress is the cause of 80 to 85 percent of all human illness and disease.
• Over two-thirds of office visits to physicians are for stress related illness.
• Stress is a major contributing factor either directly or indirectly to coronary artery disease, cancer, respiratory disorders, accidental injuries, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide; the six leading causes of death in the United States.

–Every week, 95 million Americans suffer some kind of stress related symptom for which they take medication. (holistic-online)

The stress experts in Seattle are coming together on Wednesday, November 30th for a special look at stress and the influences it has on our lives and health. We seek to find out what the major stressors are that people in our community experience. How can we combat the negative impacts and ultimately reduce the stress in our lives? Register today!

Join us just in time for the holidays and hear from our excellent line-up of panelists:

John DeGraff, National Coordinator, Take Back Your Time -

"There are those who will say that with our struggling economy, we can't afford vacations. But the productivity and health numbers show that, in fact, we can't afford NOT to ensure vacation time for American workers." - John DeGraff

David Levy, Professor, University of Washington Information School -

"What are the measurements and requirements of well-being in the workplace? How do we even begin to talk about that? What about someone who answers all his email and makes all his sales calls, but develops a heart problem? What about that?" - David Levy

Marlena Sessions, CEO, Workforce Development Council 

"The Self-Sufficiency Standards shows that 1 in 5 Washington households lacks sufficient income to cover basic expenses...a broad and diverse set of Washington families is experiencing economic stress." - Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County.

Susan B. Winston, LICSW; Director of Counseling Services, Sound Mental Health

"The stigma surrounding mental health in this community is a silent epidemic. It prevents people from seeking support and services, it impacts life in the workplace and in the classroom and it marginalizes individuals in the community. We hope to begin to tackle these issues by engaging the community in rational thoughtful dialog, coupled with education about available resources" - Sound Mental Health 

Moderated by:  

Laura Musikanski, Executive Director, Sustainable Seattle

On the Happiness Initiative: “You get what you measure, and this initiative helps us measure more of the things that are most important for happiness. The important thing is to get more of what matters and not simply more.”  - Laura Musikanski

Are you focused? Are you planning to read this entire blog post? How many other browsers do you have open? How stressed out do you feel?

Just to think about the the subject of destraction and the stress that comes with the constant barrage of technology fed information makes me feel stressed out.

How do we deal with stress? What is the impact of stress on a person's health and on their over-all well-being?

As we all know, in the face-paced world of technology today we are hard-pressed to opt-out of the tech spaces where we,  "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Google, skim, scan, text-message, and instant-message, half-engaged in "hmmm...what?" conversations as we madly multitask" (more on UW blog post).

Writer, researcher, and one of the panelists on the subject at our upcoming event, Got Stress?, David Levy, examines an interesting concept - contemplative multitasking.

What is this concept? How can it help to alleviate stress? Can it make you healthier?

Join us for an engaging conversation on Thursday, November 30th called Got Stress? -  just in time for the holidays - where we will examine stress through the lense of health. What is stress all about? How does it effect you? What is the toll of stress on society as a whole? What are some tools we can use to manage it individually and as a community?

Register today!

Think back to your most recent health crisis. Did you turn to the internet for advice? Did you feel confident about the resources you were able to find?

In his recent book, The Web-Savvy Patient, Andrew Schorr discusses his own journey to health through the internet and shares best practices for others as they navigate the web in search of answers.  Mr. Schorr will  moderate our upcoming program, next week, on October 13th called, Health by the Numbers. Join us for an interactive discussion and an opportunity to find out key ways that each of us can take the initiative as a patient to influence health care costs and in many cases save lives.

In a recent article from the New York Times, Jane Brody highlights Schorr's work and how each of us might take similar steps in a health crisis.

"'Many doctors warn patients that they have to be careful of health information on the Web,' Mr. Schorr wrote in his book. 'That is true. But patient-to-patient connections online have helped me, and they can help you, too. So can online connections with medical experts and medical information. You just need a helping hand from a savvy guide to help you navigate the Web.'

It is just such a no-nonsense guide that he and Ms. Thomas have provided. In it, they discuss the kinds of useful information that can be gleaned online, at no cost, by anyone with a serious medical condition, and they describe the hallmarks of bogus advice and commercially sponsored information that may or may not be helpful."

Two key points that Brody highlights in Schorr's work are the value of connecting with online patient communities and the importance of creating a digital medical record that can easily be shared with your health care professionals. Read more here.

Be part of the interactive event in Downtown Seattle, on October 13th. Join us for a free diabetes screening and get to know your blood glouse, blood pressure, and body mass index numbers. Then be part of the discussion on what your numbers mean and how they compare with national numbers. What can we as patients do to influence health care spending nationally?

Sign up for a sreening by calling: (206) 682-7395

Register for the event, today! Click here.

Know your numbers for a healthier you! As part of the health care event on October 13th you can sign up for a free screening. Find out your blood pressure, blood glucose, and body mass index numbers.

The screenings are happening at the convenient downtown location - Rainier Square at 1333 Fifth Ave.  Sign up at whatever time works for you between 9am and 11:30am.

Call us or email us to schedule your free health screening today and don't miss out on this great opportunity!

(206) 682 - 7395  

lsteece@seattlecityclub.org

How can becoming a proactive participant in your health impact the bottom line in healthcare costs for the nation?

Next month, join us for an exciting health care forum and sign up for a free appointment for a 15 minute health assessment. Learn your numbers and the implications.

The Living Well Alliance and Pacific Medical Centers will provide diabetes screenings for blood glucose, blood pressure, and body mass index. Call our office to sign up for your screening and be part of the CityClub Health care event on October 13, Health by the Numbers.

206.682.7395

"Although diabetes is a silent disease that can go undiagnosed until it's too advanced for prevention, it can easily be managed through lifestyle and treatment. That's why we're committed to providing free diabetes screenings to companies throughout the Puget Sound area." - The Living Well Alliance.

After your free screening join us for lunch in the afternoon as we discuss what your numbers mean and the implications on the local and national level.

Sign up for your screening and be part of the discussion! Register today.

"...to say instead of I have pain - I pain. And then we embrace the idea that everyone pains in a different way. Some ways are very destructive and not helpful for the person and for their nucleolus and immediate environment. Others do it very well.

And that helps us, not only understand that we pain in different ways, but also that we can have variable responses [to treatments] just like Sweetwater explained....and just like Dan said it is contextual.....

So, I would say that...we should really concentrate on two things...from a clinical perspective...to embrace to the en-active approach ...what is our role [as a patient] in an active and en-active role to impact our environment. And from a research perspective to improve our heuristics - when we hear singular stories that are very interesting versus when we want to go into population base research to come up with policy and guidelines...to help multiple people."  

- Dr. Alex Cahana, MD, DAAPM, MEthics; Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine, University of Washington Medical Center (panelist )

View the live Twitter feed from the event @CityClubLive, hashtag, #wellness  

To listen to the program click here!  

There were many important issues on the table - at risk of losing funding during the recent budget negotiations. Our own volunteer, Collin Tong, wrote about the possibility of losing vital medical interpretation for non-english speakers. The proposal would have directly effected 70,000 people in our state.

“It’s unfortunate that the state is thinking of cutting funding for medical interpretation. This service helps me to communicate with my doctor. Without interpretation, the doctor and I cannot understand each other, and this can lead to costly mistakes.”

[Hyun Ja Kang, patient who regularly used interpretation during cancer treatment] (From Collin Tong, International Examiner) Read more here.

What Health Care Initiatives survived and what failed during the recent budget negotiations? See the Washington State Hospital Association website for more details.  What does this mean for Health Services in our state? Where do we go from here? How can we plan for budget sustainability that does not mean costly cuts to state-funded programs for our most vulnerable? Add your voice to the conversation.

Join us on June 22nd in a community forum to address budget sustainability in our state: The State Budget - Searching for Long-Term Sustainability.

Register today! We want to hear from you in this important conversation.