Blue Star Mothers and the Sew Much Comfort Program
Blue Star Mothers's program, Sew Much Comfort, creates adaptive clothing for injured servicemembers and
veterans who request it, whether still in hospital or recovering at home.
NMCRS Visiting Nurse Program
The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) Visiting Nurse program does home visits for
postpartum mothers and children as well as adults and has a specific program
for combat-casualty-assistance. Our NMCRS visiting nurse, Christine,
through her frequent visits, noticed something about my daughter in 2010, made
a few referrals, and saved my daughter's life. Donate
to NMCRS visiting nurse program here.
Red Cross and service to Military
The Red Cross has a special program
of chapters in military facilities that provide needed volunteer services and
special groups that deploy with troops when needed. The "Red Cross
Message" system is still the best, most consistent emergency message
system to get word to your deployed soldier/sailor/Marine/airman and vice
versa. Donate to the Red Cross to support this resource for our military
families and learn more about Red Cross programs.
AWB's Military Stress Relief Project
Red Cross volunteers
are a well-known and welcome sight during a disaster. Responding to a
disaster is important and heart-wrenching work. What support is there for
disaster relief workers? Acupuncturists without Borders (AWB) has been providing
relief to those affected by the trauma of natural disasters, including relief
workers (Red Cross, National Guard). AWB also has a branch of work that
specializes in creating and supporting Military Stress Recovery Clinics (MSRP).
Learn more and donate
to AWB to support their disaster relief work and the Military Stress
Recovery Project Clinics (stress relief, improved sleep for veterans and their
families).
MOAA Supports Military Families
MOAA, the Military Officer Association, has been a strong advocacy
group to support the needs of military families and has particularly taken on
important work getting support for medical and school needs for Exceptional Family Members (children and dependent adults of servicemembers who have
significant medical and health needs). Check out the
MOAA Foundation site for different ways to
donate.
VFW
The history of the VFW's “buddy poppy” to remember our fallen servicemembers.
Peace to you as you remember and honor our fallen servicemembers this weekend. Thank you for supporting the organizations listed above who continue to serve and support military families and veterans.
Megan Kingsley Gale, MSAOM, Dipl. O.M. (NCCAOM)
My mission has been to help make accessible non-drug, non-surgery options (acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, etc.)
for health and wellness to servicemembers, veterans, and their
families. Having acupuncture (which is part of East Asian Medicine) and other non-drug, non-surgery options available in medical center and hospital facilities to complement conventional care will help shorten inpatient stay length, decrease pain, improve function, and decrease overall health care costs.
This mission has taken several forms over the past decade or
so.
Most recently this has been in building a set of resources
to make it easier for facilities and their hospital administrators to hire
acupuncturists into their systems and thus have Integrative Medicine (IM)
professionals on staff. Why? Because, I found that one of the major
barriers to getting access to IM is getting IM professionals hired into the
system. People have best access to care when it is delivered in places they are already going, whether it is a mobile wellness clinic at the community center or the VFW or the local medical facility. In particular, servicemembers and their families have best access and greatest potential for team care coordination when it is available in their facility (MTF). The next-best is having it covered by TriCare out-in-town by trained and qualified providers.
Contribute to my work of building this stepping-stone resource over the barriers into the health care facilities at the Hospital Practice Handbook website.
To see the resource I have been building to support this work, see the blog and the spring fundraising page. This work supports the movement of integrative medicine as a part of modern medicine.
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