RWL Newsletter #120
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! We had our first (hopefully) annual Innovations in Healthy Aging: An Applied Research Summit featuring researchers from UNH who work on issues of aging and long term care, as well as long term care practitioners. The long term care field is such a great opportunity for young people. The amount of responsibility that a new grad can have early in their career is really remarkable. We had a great conference and are already looking forward to next year! (image is Stacy Driscoll from UNH Institute on Disability demonstrating various tools that can help people with disabilities live more independently)
Two weeks left to the semester and so much to do! Ahh! Is my hair on fire? My hair is on fire!
Anyway, here’s this week’s links:
Read
What: NPR, A Good Life And A Good Death: What Is Palliative Care?
Why: Nice article about palliative care. I was disappointed I couldn’t find the audio clip (if any of you have better luck, please send it my way). My father was board certified in palliative medicine early on and did much of this work with the hospice in his county. I also had a great conversation about palliative care with a hospital chaplain at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center some time ago. From the articl
In my medical training, there were so much focus on the technical and scientific aspects. But as I was learning those things, I was not also learning how to talk with someone who has a serious diagnosis. How do you explain to them how their life might change? How do you ask, if this is not something that we can cure, "What would be really important to you in the time that you have?" And this language was not given to me in medical training.
Watch
What: TEDxMidAtlanticSalon, How words change minds: The science of storytelling | Nat Kendall-Taylor, (15 min)
Why: This talk highlights how our minds are vulnerable to narrative tricks like framing. Kendall-Taylor talks about how using empathy in an advertising message about addiction reduces support for funding for treatment. This is counterintuitive from what we instinctively would expect. This is a very useful talk for those of you who are concerned about public health messaging.
Listen
What: Reason Podcast, Emily Oster Will Help You Be a Better, More Statistically Literate Parent (40 min)
https://reason.com/podcast/emily-oster-will-help-you-be-a-better-more-statistically-literate-parent/
Why: This is a fun discussion of parenting first, and statistical studies second. For those of you with kids, this will resonate: the studies say lay your kid on her/his back, no lay your kid on her/his stomach, no sleep with your kid, no don’t sleep with your kid… For those of you who do statistics or teach statistics, this should also be humorous, maybe painfully so. Might be a good public health/biostats assignment.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau