Two hundred and forty years ago, America turned the world upside down by declaring its own right to be a free and independent country. A country freed from the tyranny of a government that didn’t recognize the rights of its own colonist citizens in Parliament.
It was an astounding moment in history, to challenge the world’s greatest super power at the time with nothing resembling an organized army and no navy of which to speak. The resolve of a few brave men who stood in the face of overwhelming odds changed the world forever.
When I think back on the movement to go up against an immovable object that was the British government at the time, I can only imagine the bravery found in the hearts of the rebels. These weren’t people who just stood back and spouted words to make themselves feel good. They were people willing to lay down their lives to see those words take shape into something greater than them. To change the lives of millions in order to ensure their children and grandchildren would grow up in a better world.
Are things really so different today?
A New Movement Against Another Immovable Object: America’s Broken Healthcare System
In colonial times, the better world imagined was a country that had a representative government. The movement sought — against all odds — to go against all common sense to take on a broken system. Through sacrifice, resources, and time, they not only won, but they changed the face of the world in doing so (leading to the eventual fall of the French aristocracy as well).
Today, there is a movement afoot to change healthcare in America, to have it recognize the awesome power that resides within a true partnership between patients and their healthcare providers. The movement is captured within a single non-profit organization, The Society for Participatory Medicine.
I encourage you to check out the organization and consider joining us today (annual dues are a mere $30 a year).
We hope to change the face of healthcare in America to ensure that every patient’s voice is heard. Not as mere naive observers in their health care (and mental health care), but as active, equal participants in such care, making informed decisions along with their clinical care team.
Independence in America took twelve long years to attain after that initial declaration of independence in 1776. It claimed the lives of thousands of people in the process.
The healthcare system in America remains broken, and thousands suffer sub-par care, suffer in pain, and even die while trying to get treatment. It’s time more of us took a stand and said enough is enough. It’s not alright that there’s no psychiatrist available to see new patients for months. It’s not alright we use emergency rooms as inpatient care beds for people with severe, chronic mental illness.
This Independence Day, join us in a call for change and become an e-patient today.
I wish you and yours a happy and safe Independence Day! Enjoy!
from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/07/04/happy-independence-day-2016/
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