At a recent meeting I had the privilege of spending some time with a colleague from a large health care institution. She is a highly accomplished and impactful individual where she works, possesses a PhD, and is an excellent pragmatic thinker. As we discussed issues that were on our minds, she mentioned that her most pressing concern was the fact that when she was with her significant other or close friends, their time frequently defaulted to relatively frivolous activity on their smart phones. She recognized that the cost of this ‘convenience’ was great in terms of the richness and depth of
CORRECTIONS, SIU MEDICINE PARTNER TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN STATE FACILITIES by Lauren Crocks More than 76,000 Illinoisans live behind bars, and nearly 41,000 of those individuals call state prisons home. Like the more than 2.2 million justice-involved individuals in the United States, many suffer from a complex combination of anxiety, post-traumatic stress and a range of chronic health conditions, including hypertension and arthritis. In an effort to improve health care delivery in correctional facilities and meet its mission, SIU School of Medicine is partnering with the Illinois
Community health worker programs are improving lives in Illinois neighborhoods On a gray February afternoon, Tami Langford is interviewing a new client in a busy office space at the Third Presbyterian Church in Springfield. Verlon Melton had been released from prison the previous spring and is now working in retail and raising his 3-year-old daughter as a single parent. He’d hoped to move into an apartment in the Enos Park neighborhood, where Langford serves as one of SIU Medicine’s community health workers. The man politely answers questions on a range of subjects. Eventually, Langford asks,
