How to Bridge the Gap From College to Career: New Book Maps The Next Great Step
New York, October 5, 2022 — Job openings are near record highs, and unemployment is close to a generational low. But recent college grads face their own unique challenges. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released data that the jobless rate for those ages 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree has surpassed the national average every month since January 2021. What does this mean for parents of new grads? What can these young adults do to prove their worth to prospective employers? And will they ever make enough money to move out of the house?
The competition for finding a job after college can be fierce, but career coach and former Fortune 500 consultant Beth Hendler-Grunt says there is reason to be hopeful.
Her new book, The Next Great Step: The Parents' Guide to Launching Your New Grad Into a Career, provides a proven, step-by-step approach for successfully guiding young adults through the transition from college to career.
Filled with tips, job aids and insightful stories, The Next Great Step addresses everything from how parents can help their young adults get “unstuck” and navigate the hiring process, to how students and grads can stand out from the rest of the graduating class. Hendler-Grunt shares the secrets of how to “network” the right way and excel in interviews, and how parents can offer solid career advice to their grad.
“Navigating the post-college job world is all about developing and implementing the right strategies,” Hendler-Grunt said. “This book is required reading for families looking to navigate a changing world from college-to-career. Companies need new grads. It’s just a matter of connecting the dots.”
About the Author
Beth Hendler-Grunt is the founder and president of Next Great Step. She is a dynamic leader, advisor and facilitator who has extensive experience consulting with startups, Fortune 500 firms, universities and individuals. She founded Next Great Step with the sole focus of guiding college students and recent grads to help them land the job they deserve. Hendler-Grunt leverages techniques and insights from hiring managers and CEOs and brings those secrets to students to help them stand out and get the job. She has enabled hundreds of clients to achieve success, with 90% of her clients landing the job of their choice. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, SiriusXM radio, Kiplinger, CNN, Fortune and many other media outlets. She is also the mom of a recent college grad and college sophomore … so she gets it.
For more information, please visit www.nextgreatstep.com, or follow the author on TikTok (next_great_step), Instagram (next_great_step), Facebook (nextgreatstep) or LinkedIn (bethhendlergrunt).
The Next Great Step: The Parents' Guide to Launching Your New Grad Into a Career
Publisher: Merack Publishing
Release Date: September 20, 2022
978-1-957048-13-0 (Paperback)
978-1-957048-14-7 (eBook)
978-1-957048-15-4 (Hardcover)
Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and many other online retailers
###
Finding Solutions: New Interactive Tool for Families and Friends of a Loved One Living with a Mental Health Disorder
QUEBEC CITY, Oct. 3, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - A diagnosis of mental illness in the family can have the effect of a tsunami; all members can be seriously affected. Every year, in the face of the unknown, many families do not know how to react, seek help, or find resources. To counter this, the Réseau Avant de Craquer network is launching an innovative tool to help them.
Behind every face, a story... In front of every person, a solution!
The Réseau Avant de Craquer network is there to help anyone—a parent, a child, a brother, a sister, a spouse or a friend—who has a loved one living with a mental health disorder—find personalized solutions in one of its 49 associations in Quebec. As part of Mental Illness Awareness Week, from October 2 to 8, the Réseau Avant de Craquer network reminds us that there is a solution for everyone. Every family member or friend of a loved one living with a mental health disorder:
Will react differently
Has a unique background
Must face their own challenges
Must take care of their own mental health
Must discover solutions adapted to their own situation
Through an interactive online journey and the inspiring stories told by Olivia, Christiane, Jade, and Martin, family members and friends can better understand mental illness and the solutions offered by the associations of the Réseau Avant de Craquer network. The Finding Solutions tool includes:
Four powerful testimonies affected family members and friends can relate to
Twelve information capsules with two experts from the Réseau Avant de Craquer network to learn how to better react
One complete resource bank with 36 practical tools
One hour of videos and resources to better understand mental illness
Quotes:
"As people close to someone living with a mental illness, we all have different ways of coping with their challenges. In my case, I needed to feel useful for my mother. But how can you help someone who sometimes refuses to be helped? It's really hard to tailor our support to their needs and our ability to manage the pressure of a difficult situation. Don't hesitate to reach out. The Réseau Avant de Craquer network can help you see things more clearly. The solutions are right in front of you!" — Jean-Philippe Dion, Réseau Avant de Craquer network spokesperson.
"With the interactive Finding Solutions tool, we want to send a strong signal to family members and friends of a loved one living with a mental health disorder that there are possible and positive solutions. Specialized resources and qualified workers can help them find personalized solutions. The mission of our 49 associations located throughout Quebec is to provide support to family members and friends who are helping a loved one living with a mental illness while making sure they don't forget their own needs."— René Cloutier, Executive Director, Réseau Avant de Craquer.
Active for 37 years, the Réseau Avant de Craquer network brings together 49 associations located throughout Quebec. Its mission is to provide support to family members and friends of a loved one living with a mental illness by offering a range of free services, including psychosocial support, information, training, self-help groups, and respite care. With its unique expertise, the Réseau Avant de Craquer network remains the only group in Quebec exclusively dedicated to family members and friends of a loved one living with a mental illness. Its member associations support more than 20,000 affected family members and friends.
SOURCE Réseau Avant de Craquer
Whirlpool Brand and Magnusmode Collaborate to Assist Autistic and Neurodiverse Canadians Navigate Home-based Skills
Whirlpool brand and Magnusmode announce collaboration during Autism Acceptance Month, launching 10 Home Care digital guides, making domestic activities more accessible for autistic and neurodiverse people.
TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2022 /CNW/ - Today, Whirlpool brand announces collaboration with Magnusmode®, a social enterprise leveraging technology to help autistic and neurodiverse people gain independence in their daily lives. To help make everyday chores around the home more accessible, Whirlpool brand and Magnusmode are launching 10 new Home Care digital guides ('Card Decks') in Magnusmode's app, MagnusCards®.
MagnusCards is a life skills library that provides step-by-step instructions and visual cues for everyday tasks and experiences with collectible Card Decks. Using proven educational methods, every Card Deck is carefully crafted as a how-to guide for day-to-day tasks like brushing teeth, taking public transit, going grocery shopping, personal care, and much more. Whirlpool brand's new Card Decks will be the first in the app's 'Home Care' category.
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Whirlpool brand to provide Home Care Card Decks for autistic and neurodiverse Canadians," says Nadia Hamilton, Founder and President of Magnusmode. "Having support for daily living activities removes barriers to independence in the home, and empowers people to care for their personal space, their family, and themselves."
As the pandemic exacerbated the need for virtual care for home-based skills, Magnusmode and Whirlpool brand worked to develop the Home Care Card Decks which break down and simplify kitchen and laundry tasks. The Card Decks cover practical life skills such as loading the dishwasher, how to store and organize food in the refrigerator, washing clothes in a washer, how to read laundry symbols, and more.
"MagnusCards provide the opportunity to show people that you can cook on the stove or do laundry, and do it successfully," says Kathy, parent of a Magnusmode app user. "The collaboration between the Whirlpool brand and MagnusCards has made me feel that my daughter Rachel will be able to manage, she will have a good life and she will be able to do things because she can learn them."
With 1-2%* of the Canadian population on the autism spectrum, these 10 Home Care Card Decks provide the tools for hundreds of thousands of Canadians to live with greater independence.
"Whirlpool brand is committed to helping families thrive," says Janice Ryder, Senior Manager of Brand Experience at Whirlpool Canada. "As the Exclusive Homecare Sponsor of Magnusmode in Canada, we see this partnership as a natural fit for the brand, putting our brand purpose into action to serve Canadians better."
MagnusCards by Magnusmode is available to download for free in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Magnusmode's mission is to create practical tools that improve everyday experiences and enable people with neurodiverse abilities to participate in the world in ways that are meaningful to them. Founder Nadia Hamilton was inspired by her autistic brother to create Magnusmode and the award-winning app, MagnusCards. MagnusCards is an innovative app that provides digital, step-by-step visual guides (in the form of collectible Card Decks) to support home and community living for autistic and neurodiverse people worldwide. Each Card Deck is sponsored by enterprise clients including Trader Joe's, CIBC, Kraft Heinz, M&T Bank, New York City Transit, Colgate-Palmolive, San Francisco International Airport, A&W, and WestJet who offer MagnusCards to make their products and services autism-friendly. Companies across North America have joined the Inclusion Revolution!
About Whirlpool Brand
For more than one hundred years, Whirlpool brand has been inspired by how people care for their families. Whirlpool brand is designing home appliances that are focused on improving how families give and get the care they need with the latest technologies and innovations – whether that means flexible refrigerator storage for all types of family needs, induction technology for efficient cooking and easier cleaning, or laundry pairs that allow you to customize the way you wash and offer the latest in connected technologies. Whirlpool Canada and its Whirlpool brand are part of Whirlpool Corporation, a leading appliance manufacturer committed to being the best global kitchen and laundry company, in constant pursuit of improving life at home. For more information on Whirlpool, please visit whirlpool.ca/everydaycare or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/whirlpoolcanada or Twitter at @whirlpool_ca. Additional information about the company can be found at whirlpoolcorp.com.
*According to the Canadian Medical Association and National Autism Spectrum Disorder Surveillance System
SOURCE Whirlpool Canada LP
'Don't let our children fall through the cracks!' – Women physicians urge Ontario government to take additional steps to fix crisis with school vaccinations and increase HPV immunization
Shots missed during pandemic need to be caught up quickly to prevent future serious illnesses, including meningitis and cancer
TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2022 /CNW/ - The Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) is calling on the Government of Ontario to take additional steps to further expand programs to alleviate the crisis of missed routine immunizations of school children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
School vaccinations are used to prevent many serious illnesses such as meningitis and cancer, not only during school years, but throughout an individual's life. One of the important vaccines is against human papillomavirus (HPV) which is the cause of nine out of 10 cases of cervical cancer in women, and causes other cancers in both men and women.1
However, as of the 2020-21 school year, only one per cent of 12-year-olds in Ontario were up to date with their immunization against HPV, due in large part to school vaccination programs being disrupted by the pandemic. The HPV vaccination rate is the lowest of the three major school-based vaccination programs monitored by Public Health Ontario. The others, for hepatitis B and meningococcal meningitis (MCV4), are both at 17 per cent.2
By comparison, the rates for 17-year-olds who received school-based vaccinations prior to the pandemic were 94 per cent for MCV4, 77 per cent for hepatitis B and 63 per cent for HPV, indicating how much work is needed to catch up.3 The latter rate of HPV vaccination was well below Canada's international commitment of achieving a target of 90 per cent vaccination of young people for HPV.
The week of October 3 is HPV Prevention Week in Canada and the FMWC is encouraging the Ontario government to act: "Don't let our children fall through the cracks – help prevent HPV and cancer now!" The government has put in place a preliminary plan and invested in public health to help address missed vaccinations. However, more can be done and the FMWC is calling upon the Ontario government to better support health system stakeholders to ensure all eligible school children are able to receive HPV vaccinations.
The great speed of and the lessons from the success of the COVID-19 vaccination program should be leveraged to solve this new public health vaccination issue, including wider access to vaccines in non-traditional locations, strong public communications and an enhanced immunization registry accessible to all health care providers like the COVAX system.
All of these tools should be harnessed again for HPV vaccinations and the FMWC is calling for the government to implement the following key steps in collaboration with health system stakeholders:
Adopt HPV vaccination targets and monitor: Set clear catch-up goals and ensure effective tracking of progress to achieve them.
Facilitate access to HPV vaccinations and track: Expand the HPV vaccination program to high schools to allow students who missed shots to catch up, allow pharmacists to deliver the vaccinations and track progress through a new centralized electronic immunization registry.
Communicate: Implement a robust and coordinated communications plan to increase public awareness of the need for vaccinations and how to get them.
"Building on the success of the COVID-19 vaccination program, we can do better and ensure children are caught up with the vaccines they missed during the pandemic," said Dr. Vivien Brown, a Toronto family physician who is Chair of the HPV Immunization Task Force and Board Member of Immunize Canada. "We have an opportunity to achieve a high HPV immunization rate. This will protect our children and our healthcare system from paying a very heavy price in the future. If we immunize now, we prevent cancer and other serious diseases."
It appears Ontarians are anxious to be given the tools to meet this challenge. A recent survey of Ontario parents with children aged 10 to 18 showed they are worried about the issue with more than three-quarters (77 per cent) saying they are somewhat or very concerned about the vaccines their children have missed at school.4
"While COVID-19 was the cause of the slipping in our HPV and other school vaccination programs, it also shows us what we need to do, and can do, to solve it," said Liz Ellwood, a cervical cancer survivor from Ottawa and long-time advocate for HPV education and vaccination. "We really can spare our children from having HPV-related cancers if the Ontario government, the medical community, schools and parents all work together and urgently to ensure they get vaccinated as they should."
As part of HPV Prevention Week, the FMWC is supporting, along with Merck Canada Inc., a Longwoods Leadership Discussion with clinicians and public health experts on this important public health issue on Monday, October 3, 1:30-2:30pm (EDT). For more information and to register to this event, which will be moderated by The Globe and Mail's health news reporter Kelly Grant, visit: https://bit.ly/3xGcx2u. A recording of the event will also be posted to Longwoods YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/longwoodstv
About the Federation of Medical Women of Canada
The Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) is a national organization committed to the professional, social and personal advancement of women physicians and to the promotion of the well-being of women both in the medical profession and in society at large. Founded almost 100 years ago and with branches across the country, FMWC seeks to be the networking and professional development home for all Canadian women in the medical profession while being the preeminent advocate for women's health across Canada. For details visit fmwc.ca.
Medical organizations call for new funding for mental health and addictions
TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2022 /CNW/ - The provincial government should invest $37.5 million immediately and $75 million annually for 10 years to help primary care providers treat people with moderate to severe depression and anxiety through the expansion of team-based care, the Ontario Medical Association and the Primary Care Collaborative recommend.
The recommendation is part of a four-point plan to strengthen mental health and addiction services within primary care settings. A recent Angus Reid poll found one in three Canadians is struggling with their mental health. Rates of new mental health and addictions diagnoses are rising, exacerbated by the pandemic, yet many Ontarians have trouble finding care in their communities.
The Primary Care Collaborative and the OMA note that while it is urgent to address Ontario's mental health challenges, the scope of the issue is overwhelming and the solutions are complex. This plan focuses on issues that are prevalent in Ontario and where primary care providers could make a difference if they had more support.
The requested funds would be used to embed much-needed mental health supports in interprofessional teams of primary care providers with expertise who could offer treatment locally for moderate to severe depression and anxiety.
"About three-quarters of Canadians rely on their primary care provider to treat their mental health needs and it's significant care, especially in communities where there are no or few mental health specialists or wait times are long," said OMA President Dr. Rose Zacharias.
"If we created and funded these interprofessional teams for moderate to severe depression and anxiety, we could help seven to 10 per cent of Ontarians. Otherwise, these patients suffer alone or use hospitals that are not equipped to provide the specialized support they require."
The plan also recommends the Ontario government:
Expand Health Connect Ontario (formerly Telehealth) to allow primary care doctors and their patients to better navigate the mental health system, preventing unnecessary emergency visits and delays in care
Expand access to supervised consumption and treatment sites and other evidence-based harm reduction programs
Implement an Indigenous-led mental health and wellness strategy to address the health inequities and challenges Indigenous Peoples experience
Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table reported in September 2021 that since the onset of the pandemic, rates of emergency medical services for suspected opioid overdose have increased by 57 per cent and rates of fatal opioid overdose have increased by 60 per cent.
One in four Ontarians who died of an opioid overdose during the pandemic had an interaction with the health-care system in the week prior to death, suggesting potential missed opportunities for overdose prevention. In addition to allowing people to use substances safely, supervised consumption and treatment sites provide the opportunity for multiple contacts with health-care staff, social workers and other professionals. This public health crisis must be addressed by providing much-needed supports in the community where people access care and those supports must be in primary care.
Throughout this pandemic, Indigenous Peoples with chronic conditions have consistently had worse physical, mental and social health than other Canadians. Low income, food insecurity, disrupted family dynamics, lack of immediate and ongoing social support, and increased substance use are among the most significant factors contributing to deteriorated mental wellness among Indigenous Peoples and communities.
"For most Ontarians, primary care is the first point of contact for people with mental health and addictions issues," said the partners of the Primary Care Collaborative. "People underestimate the role that primary care providers play in providing this first point of contact as well as ongoing supports in many forms, including medication monitoring, counselling, referrals and other services. People in Ontario form trusting and continuous relationships with their family physician, nurse practitioner or primary care team, which enables this continuity of care.
"While primary care provides these services, clinicians are chronically underequipped to do so in a meaningful way and have not seen the investments they need to provide mental health and addictions support for their patients," the collaborative said. "The modest requests for funding in our four-point plan will ensure that people in Ontario continue to have access to mental health and addictions supports when they need them and from the providers that they trust."
About the OMA
The Ontario Medical Association represents Ontario's 43,000-plus physicians, medical students and retired physicians, advocating for and supporting doctors while strengthening the leadership role of doctors in caring for patients. Our vision is to be the trusted voice in transforming Ontario's health-care system.
About the Primary Care Collaborative
The Primary Care Collaborative is an alliance of primary care organizations that joined together to collaborate on strengthening primary care as we move toward recovering from the pandemic. It is made up of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council, the Alliance for Healthier Communities, the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association, the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the OMA's Section on General and Family Practice.
SOURCE Ontario Medical Association
Health Care Sharing Ministries offer members freedom and significant cost savings
Katy Talento: ‘People need to know that a million Americans are avoiding secret hospital price-gouging by switching to a Health Care Sharing Ministry’
WASHINGTON D.C. — Americans who notice that hospitals and health insurance carriers collude to take advantage of patients are responding to this arrangement by deciding to join a Health Care Sharing Ministry.
Stories abound about hospitals overcharging patients and insurance carriers. For instance, one woman needed a biopsy when she felt a strange lump in her breast. After the hospital refused to give her a price upfront, the hospital’s online “Patient Payment Estimator” showed her that an uninsured patient would owe about $1,400 for the procedure. Assuming that since she had insurance her price would be cheaper, she went ahead with the procedure, only to find out that her insurance was charged $17,979, including lab work, pharmacy charges, and sterile supplies. Her insurance in-network negotiated rate was $8,424.14, of which the insurance company paid the hospital $3,254.47. The patient was billed a staggering $5,169.67, the balance of her deductible.
“Why are we taken aback at the unfair predatory pricing in hospital bills, not to mention other medical services?” said Katy Talento, executive director of Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (The Alliance, ahcsm.org). “You get what you pay for. Insurers pay hospitals to deliver high-priced stuff to sick people. So it’s no surprise that we get more and higher-priced stuff done to sicker and sicker people. Until we rebuild a system where we pay doctors and hospitals to keep people healthy, millions of patients every year will continue to be victims of price-gouging, inappropriate care and worse clinical outcomes.”
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for uninsured patients — or any patient willing to pay a cash price — to be charged far less for a procedure than patients with health insurance. For Americans with high-deductible plans, using insurance can lead to a far bigger expense than if they had been uninsured or just paid cash in advance.
Cash prices paid by many Health Care Sharing Ministry members are almost always lower than prices charged to patients with health care insurance.
“Cash prices, especially those negotiated by a Health Care Sharing Ministry, can often be much lower than prices charged to insurance plans,” Talento said. “People need to know that tens of thousands of Christians are reducing hospital overcharges by switching to a Health Care Sharing Ministry where they pay cash prices for services and enjoy a supportive faith community to stand with them in their hour of need.”
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries is a 501(c)(6) trade organization representing the common interests of Health Care Sharing Ministry organizations which are facilitating the sharing of health care needs (financial, emotional, and spiritual) by individuals and families, and their participants. The Alliance engages with federal and state regulators, members of the media, and the Christian community to provide accurate and timely information on medical cost sharing.
To learn more about the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, visit www.ahcsm.org or follow the ministry on Facebook or Twitter.
Blown Into Now Bridges the Worlds of Life and Loss
San Francisco, Calif., October 3, 2022 ― Mylo Schaaf’s new book, Blown Into Now: Poems for a Journey, takes readers on an odyssey through shade and light, offering glimpses into the stages of grief Schaaf went through when her son died suddenly at age 24. She offers the profound manifestations of his presence that she witnessed following his passing.
“Poems demanded to be written,” Schaaf said. “They brought relief and healing, as did hills warm with grass, tree spirits and arms of sky.”
Blown Into Now offers 45 remarkable poems, each paired with a striking photograph taken by her late son, Alex Lowenstein, who was a mountaineer, world traveler and adventurer, and veteran.
“The path is not all sadness,” she said during a recent interview. “It goes sort of up and down as you suppose any path would, but it eventually heads toward joy and toward understanding.”
In Blown Into Now, Schaaf carries readers from deep sadness and loss to comfort and support, finally edging toward joy. Her melodic words become a guidebook, allowing those who grieve to witness a spectrum of responses, to understand what might give relief, and to know how to look for the signposts that will guide them down the path toward healing.
To those who must endure such a shocking new reality, she aims to bring compassion, beauty and spiritual connection.
Her poems reveal a mother’s great heart and the love she shares with her son for granite peaks and untracked desert. Each photograph provides a pause from grief and allows us a glimpse of something we want and cannot name.
About the Author
Mylo Schaaf trained as a journalist, editor and physician, before taking a left turn into poetry. Before everything changed, she was a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, mentoring and teaching students in international, low-resource settings. Her commitment to global health grew out of her work and connection with India, the Americas, Liberia, Haiti and China. Then one day, a shocking phone call revealed her son’s death and collapsed this pursuit of engagement and action. Each long day would slowly disappear, and Schaaf found understanding and release when she began to write. Over the years poems have continued to emerge, as the tangles of days slip into light.
For more information, please visit https://www.myloschaaf.com, or follow the author on Instagram at writermyloschaaf.
Blown Into Now – Poems for a Journey
Publisher: Blue Light Press
ISBN: 979-8-9864093-0-6 (soft cover, available now)
A COTA Family is Celebrating Their Daughter’s Now Healthy Liver and Their Donor Family’s Selfless Decision
October 3, 2022-- October is Liver Awareness Month, which is the month touted by the American Liver Foundation to raise public awareness of the importance of liver health. More than 30 million Americans, or one in 10 Americans, suffer with some form of liver disease. This October an Oregon transplant family is celebrating their daughter’s now healthy liver and is extremely grateful for the family who donated their child’s organ to save her life.
The Saemenes Family of Albany, Oregon, had no clue when the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading across the United States that safeguarding their family from the virus would not be the biggest medical challenge they would face in 2020.
Mom Jessye remembers the day in late February 2020 when she drove their then eight-year-old daughter, Delia, to get blood work done. Delia had been complaining about stomach pains. There was a suspicion she had food allergies that blood work would help pin down. Jessye had been noticing that Delia’s skin had become pale and there were dark circles around her eyes. However, the tests did not show any allergies and so the family of six continued navigating the unfolding pandemic. On March 19, 2020, while all the social and professional aspects of the family’s lives were in chaos, Jessye took Delia to the doctor because her stomach was bloated. The medical team reviewed the blood work taken earlier, examined her belly and immediately sent Jessye and Delia to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Emergency Room in Portland, which was about an hour away from the family’s home. Imagine Jessye’s shock hearing this, “Your daughter is in liver failure and needs a life-saving transplant. We need to life-flight you and your daughter to Palo Alto, California.” Dad Nick was at home, now working remotely as a graphic designer for Oregon State University, along with the family’s other three children who were attending school from home as well.
Delia and Jessye were life-flighted to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, California, within a couple of hours. Their home in Albany was 603 miles from Palo Alto, or a nine-hour drive. Jessye remembers, “Finding out your eight-year-old needs a liver transplant is a very stressful thing. Finding out your child needs a liver transplant IMMEDIATELY … in a different state … during a pandemic … without any warning or preparation is mind-blowing agony.”
Delia spent March 20th enduring many medical tests, pricks and pokes. And for the next three weeks, there were more tests, frequent blood draws and multiple transfers from the main floor to the PICU at Lucile Packard. Jessye, a pastor of the Hub City Church back in Albany, worked hard to remain strong for their frightened girl. She prayed and talked constantly to Dad Nick and their other children via telephone.
Jessye also had a conversation with two transplant social workers during these weeks of waiting for information about next steps in their journey. The social workers recommended she call the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to learn more about how the organization might be able to help reduce some of the family’s mounting stress and anxiety. Jessye called COTA on March 25th and instantly knew they had to start working with the organization. The family’s agreement arrived at COTA’s headquarters the next day and the Saemenes family officially became part of the COTA Family.
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) uniquely understands that parents who care for a child or young adult before, during and after a life-saving transplant have enough to deal with, so COTA’s model shifts the responsibility for fundraising to a team of trained volunteers. COTA is a 501(c)3 charity so all contributions to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, and COTA funds are available for a lifetime.
Soon after the Saemenes paperwork was received, a COTA fundraising specialist trained the family’s volunteers via telephone due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Due to the family’s urgent situation (facing an expensive transplant hundreds miles away from their home), fundraising for transplant-related expenses needed to get quickly underway. The COTA staff member shared information about COTA’s fundraising strategies (virtual and face-to-face), fundraising templates, guidance and support, and the no-cost website they would be provided. COTA in honor of Team Delia was launched; the team of volunteers quickly got to work planning and orchestrating COTA fundraisers.
“Everything happened so very fast. We had no idea what insurance would cover, no idea how much everything was going to cost, and we had loads of lovely, wonderful people offering to help us … but we had no idea how to best go about dealing with the offers of assistance,” Jessye said. “COTA stepped in and took a huge burden off our shoulders; the lifting of that weight was palpable. It was such a relief to let our family and friends know that 100% of the money donated to COTA for Team Delia would be used for transplant-related expenses.”
Once settled at Delia’s hospital bedside in California and waiting for ‘the call,’ Jessye started to blog (with the help of friends and family members back home in Oregon) on the COTA-provided website.
March 28, 2020: It’s been over a week now that we have been here. I don’t even remember last Saturday. Everything was such a blur, yet here we are finding ourselves in a second weekend. We have hunkered down with Little House in the Big Woods and coloring … This thing I am in, it’s dark. It’s heavy and it’s freakishly hard, but I am trying to find all of the beautiful moments I can to ‘treasure up’ in my heart and carry away from this place and this time. I keep thinking of Bilbo from The Hobbit as he climbs the tree off the path. He is at the top of the tree, and all looks hopeless, but he does not know he isn’t looking at the end. He is still too deep in. I keep thinking of Bilbo’s bravery and his intense desire for home even as he continues to walk the path forward.
April 1, 2020: Because of the COVID-19 situation, many of the consultations with the doctors have been moved to online video calls to protect Delia. This has the benefit of allowing Nick to participate from home in Oregon in almost all of the discussions about her procedures and treatments.
April 2, 2020: This morning was rough; it felt bleak and grey again. Both of us woke up tired, grouchy and just done with this whole situation. Today marks two weeks of unexpected separation and sadness … and we are both exhausted, homesick and just done. Luckily, we received some more packages today with letters and pictures and beauty and more chocolate. It reminded us both that, while we are by ourselves, we are not alone.
April 5, 2020: Hospital restrictions tightened quite a bit over the weekend and now everyone has to wear a mask all the time. (Delia and I do not when we are in her room.) I have been taking the stairs as much as possible and I nearly had a panic attack the other day because every time I inhaled while trying to climb quickly, the fabric of my mask sucked into my mouth and my body was convinced it was suffocating. So I am now taking the stairs a lot slower and my one option for cardiac exercise is on hold.
April 6, 2020: Delia’s 1A transplant status means we could get offers at any time for a new liver. Because of Delia’s condition and because COVID-19 has brought a lower number of available donors, they have decided to expedite having me evaluated as her living donor. Overall, I am doing extremely well with this. Last weekend I had sort of hit a wall and could not wrap my head around doing this any longer; waiting is so very difficult for me. Now we have direction, I have purpose and action and something to do that feels good. There’s still so much out of my control but for right now, this feels right, and I am at peace.
On April 8, 2020, Delia’s liver numbers dropped enough that she was moved to the top of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) waiting list for a new liver. Incredibly a liver match was found within 24 hours. Delia’s dad was able to fly to Palo Alto and be with his little girl for two hours before she was taken into the lengthy and complicated transplant surgery. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only one parent was allowed to wait with her until the team came to take her into the operating room. This did not help an entirely emotional and fear-filled time for Mom, Dad and Delia.
April 8, 2020: Delia has a liver coming in tonight. To the family of the donor, if you ever read this, know Delia’s community is remembering you in prayer tonight and in the coming weeks. It is not lost on us that this night is very different for you.
Delia received her life-saving liver transplant on April 9, 2020, which was three weeks after arriving at Lucile Packard. While those three weeks felt like a lifetime to Jessye, Nick and Delia they were all extremely grateful that it was only three weeks. One week post-transplant on April 16th the family experienced a scare when Delia had to be taken to surgery and reopened for a reconstruction surgery to better connect her bile duct to her new liver. On April 24th she was discharged from Lucile Packard to an Air BnB in close proximity to the hospital for check-ups and blood tests. On May 25th, Delia and Jessye were allowed to return to the family’s home in Oregon -- much to the delight of Delia’s siblings, Elie, Lainey and James. Friends, family members and church members reached out in a variety of ways and offered a myriad of support and assistance.
“Once we returned home, I also received telephone calls and emails from COTA staff just to check in and see how we were doing and how they could help,” Jessye said. “Every COTA person I have talked to has been friendly and helpful. I cannot even imagine going through all of this without their resources, guidance and support.”
The COTA for Team Delia did an incredible job of fundraising for transplant-related expenses. In November 2020 the family was notified that COTA had awarded a Challenge Grant based on the team’s successful fundraising efforts.
“COTA stepped into our lives during the most traumatic, confusing moments we had ever experienced,” Jessye said. “We were not aware our daughter was in severe liver failure until we were life flighted to a transplant center 600 miles from our home. We cannot say enough good things about COTA. Knowing that COTA funds are available for a lifetime of transplant-related expenses gives us a sense of peace. Delia’s health issues will grow with her; it is such relief to know COTA will grow with her as well.”
March 19, 2021: It has been one year. The strange thing about having our big Life Changing Event happen during a worldwide pandemic is that for almost everyone, this week has been a delineation of Before and After. This year has sucked. And while I have withdrawn and grieved and processed, I have also been able to participate in mass grieving. The world is a different place than it was a year ago. Today will be a day of processing all that we have lost; the life without blood draws and liver numbers, the freedom of not having medication alarms structuring my day, the freedom of not having a child who is immunocompromised, the child whose life ended so my child’s life did not … but it will also be a time of gratitude. You all were good to us. I have never felt as loved as I did those two months in the hospital. In the worst time of our life, our community showed up and loved us well. So thank you.
Delia is doing well post transplant. She is in the 6th grade, loves reading and is a budding author works on her book every chance she gets. In July, she showed her rabbit in the 4H county fair and won Best in Show, which was a big milestone. She also loves dogs, cats, and kitten YouTube videos. Delia is an artist who loves playing outside and building Legos. Jessye describes her daughter as a child of contradictions and surprises. She is independent but snuggly, she is very shy but also unbelievably verbose. Delia is patient and easy going until she loses it and then she is capable of epic tantrums. She is logical and practical, but also imaginative and creative. Delia is so incredibly brave. “I wish I had not had the opportunity yet to know just how very brave she is, but I have been humbled and honored to see what an incredible kid we have,” Jessye said.
October is Liver Awareness Month. This month is set aside to recognize to the importance of liver health and the causes of liver disease. A healthy liver serves many vital functions, including breaking down, balancing and creating nutrients from food, storing energy, cleaning the blood, regulating blood clotting and fighting infections. There are more than 100 different liver diseases caused by viruses, genetics, autoimmune disease, excessive alcohol use, poor diet and obesity and reactions to medications, street drugs, or toxic chemicals. Many people with liver disease do not look or feel sick and are unaware that damage is occurring. Symptoms of liver disease can include nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain, fatigue, yellow-colored skin and eyes, dark urine and weight loss; however, symptoms can vary depending on the specific disease or cause of damage.
For more information about the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), or to find a COTA family in your area, please email kim@cota.org.
Newborn’s First 1,000 Days Crucial to Preventing Diseases, Allergies — New Book
Philadelphia, Oct. 3, 2022 — Expectant moms are advised to eat well, exercise, take vitamins, abstain from caffeine and do everything possible to ensure the optimal health of their babies. Yet, children born today are sicker than in any past generation. Food allergies, asthma and other chronic health conditions affect up to 30 percent of kids across the country. Why?
In The Baby and the Biome: How the Tiny World Inside Your Child Holds the Secret to Their Health (Avery, an imprint of Penguin/Random House; September 6, 2022; Hardcover; ISBN: 9780593421024), author Meenal Lele reveals the answer—and it’s not bad genes or bad parenting. As a medical researcher with a chemical engineer’s degree from Wharton, her firsthand experience as an “allergy mom,” Lele sheds light on the key role of a newborn’s microbiome (the mix of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live on us and in us) in either preventing or provoking diseases of the immune system, which include not only food allergies and asthma but also eczema, ADHD, IBS, type 2 diabetes, Crohn’s disease and more.
“Immune disease needs a revolution in thinking—and an accessible way for parents to understand it,” Lele asserts. Interweaving the story of her firstborn son Leo’s life-threatening struggles with food allergies and asthma with significant, potentially life-saving scientific findings, Lele aims to lead that revolution by educating parents about how to prioritize and strengthen their baby’s microbiome by protecting the delicate skin, gut and lung barriers.
In accessible language and a reassuring tone, The Baby and the Biome combines medical insights with practical advice on a more informed, healthier approach to the ABCDEs—Antibiotic use, Baby Care, Diet and Environment—during a newborn’s first thousand days, and helps parents raise kids in this toxin-filled world. You’ll learn:
- How to nurture your baby’s biome during pregnancy, practice good biome care from the moment of birth and, if possible, choose breastfeeding over formula to support immunity—but only exclusively for the first two months of your baby’s life.
- Why many standard practices endorsed by pediatricians—wash your baby daily, wait three days between introducing your baby to new foods and more—are not backed by science and might actively hurt your child’s immune defenses.
- Why eczema, which affects about 25 percent of infants, is not just “a little rash” but both a serious warning sign and direct cause of increasingly worse immune conditions to come—plus, clinically proven, actionable ways to treat it.
- Why antibiotics commonly prescribed for ear infections and fever are often unnecessary and can actually make a child sick longer and cause diarrhea, among other complications—plus, examples of when antibiotics are essential.
- Why to avoid using creams and lotions, including sunscreen, on your baby’s skin—and tips for minimizing diaper rash, including using cloth diapers (which are also better for the environment than super-absorbent disposable diapers).
- Why giving your baby regular exposure to the most common food allergens, including peanuts and eggs, is a vital practice for developing a healthy, disease-free immune system—and how to do it safely and stress-free.
- The importance of feeding your baby a good and diverse diet, with priority on avoiding added sugar and processed foods, which contain preservatives, dyes, synthetic fats and emulsifying agents that are poisonous to the gut barrier.
- The biome-friendly benefits of letting your baby play and crawl around in good dirt, whether in your own backyard or a natural park with real grass, trees and mud, as opposed to a playground built on artificial turf.
- Tips for cleaning your home, dishes and clothes, as well as your family’s hair and bodies, to prevent immune disorders—plus, the potential long-term dangers of our national obsession with antibacterial cleansers … and much more.
About the Author
Meenal Lele is a mom to two boys, medical researcher and chemical engineer with a degree from the Wharton School. She is the founder and CEO of Lil Mixins, a company devoted to educating parents about how to prevent their children from developing food allergies. She lives in Philadelphia, PA, with her family.
Parents: Learn How to Navigate the Four Freedoms of Adolescence
Austin, TX, Oct. 3, 2022 —There’s a reason the road through adolescence is rocky — it’s supposed to be. Children must pass through “four unfolding freedoms” in order to become competent, independent and confident adults, according to psychologist and parenting expert Dr. Carl Pickhardt.
“When parents choose to have a child, they have agreed to have an adolescent,” Dr. Pickhardt says. “So effective parenting partly depends on being able to anticipate common teenage changes.”
In his new book, Holding On While Letting Go: Parenting Your Child Through the Four Freedoms of Adolescence, Dr. Pickhardt shares these four unfolding freedoms and helps parents navigate these challenging times.
The four unfolding freedoms include:
1. Freedom from rejection of childhood, around the late elementary school years, when they want to stop acting and being treated as children. 2. Freedom of association with peers, around the middle school years, when they want to form a second family of friends. 3. Freedom for older experimentation, around the high school years, when they want to try more grown-up activities. 4. Freedom to claim emancipation, around the college age years, when they decide to become their own ruling authority.
“Counseling with many families over many years, I believe there is a continuing need for parents to be informed about common changes that adolescence brings for the teenager and for themselves,” said Dr. Pickhardt. “I hope this book serves that purpose.”
Dr. Pickhardt’s message is clear: with each successive push for freedom, both parents and teens need to learn how to do less holding on to each other while doing more letting go. Readers will learn the way with compassion, experience and time-tested guidance.
About the Author Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D., is a noted psychologist, speaker and parenting expert, now retired from private counseling practice. He received his B.A. and M.Ed. from Harvard, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the American and Texas Psychological Associations. He writes a popular parenting advice column for Psychology Today and has written some of the most practical and helpful books about important parenting issues, including: The Connected Father, Stop the Screaming, The Future of Your Only Child and Why Good Kids Act Cruel. A prolific author, he continues to write three distinct kinds of books: illustrated psychology, coming of age fiction and nonfiction parenting advice. Holding On While Letting Go is his 17th parenting book. For a complete list of his books, see his website: http://www.carlpickhardt.com/.
Holding On While Letting Go: Parenting Your Child Through the Four Freedoms of Adolescence Publisher: HCI Books Release Date: October 2, 2022 ISBN-10: 0757324231 ISBN-13: 9780757324239 Trade Paperback, 336 pages Available for pre-order on Amazon.com
TRAIN IT RIGHT NEWSLETTER
Sign Up and get a free 7 day Train it Right HIIT Program!
