We had a wonderful meeting at
the first Empathy Healthcare Café on June 25th, 2009. We received so many comments
like, "great Café", "what's next?" and "how can we keep this going?" Thank
you to everyone that contributed time, energy, ideas, stories, video,
supplies, resources,
etc. to hosting the Café. Below is the video of the Café.
From Joan. "Thank you for attending and creating a special evening. As many of
you mentioned to me the energy and ideas in the room were truly inspiring! The
list that is attached is a compilation of the ideas everyone contributed
during the action item session. There
were many comments, in your reflections and after the close of the Café about
“let’s keep going.” If you would like to get together to put your ideas into
the next phase just respond to this email, and then we can pick a time, and
place to work on an Empathy Grass Roots Movement." Joan Kuenz
June 29, 2009
Dear Edwin:
The Empathy Health care Cafe event was the best I have attended. It was
anchored by Joan, a registered nurse, and more than one other medical
literates were in the "house".
Though I am not a trained nurse, it was my life exposure to medicine by my
mother (a retired registered nurse/nurse practitioner), my deceased father
(medical statistician at New York University Medical Center) and my mother's
father (medical doctor trained in London, who devoted all his life to caring
for the sick and poor in Honduras where I was born and raised).
It is my hope next time you add more time to the event, as we were very much
engaged. And hopefully, more people will attend. Thank you both for a very
informed meeting. Edwin, you did it again and on target. President Obama
should know you were on board from the beginning. Congratulations!
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Cristina Grant Tengeri
Have empathy
included on the debate in environmental issues
Citizen training
Planning
Committee / Follow up where do-able ideas are selected for action
Pass out Empathy
Heart Stickers
Major Empathy
Demonstration- major media attention
Cards or pins to
health care providers that display empathy
Videos
Scholarship for
service
Empathy buddies
to accompany someone having medical interaction
Spread the word
with neighborhoods, families and friends
6. Send me an email with any ideas and comments.
7. See below for the latest comments I found of Barack
Obama talking about the importance of empathy. From the grass roots, let's support
Obama and his call for more empathy in our society.
The
Empathy Healthcare Cafe!
June 25th, 2009, Registration & Networking 6:30 pm, Program 7 -
9 pm
@ Redwoods Gardens
2951 Derby St, Berkeley, CA 94705 How can We Change Healthcare to Address What Obama calls the
Empathy Deficit?
Signup at:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpcqdw
"I often say we’ve got a budget deficit
that’s important, we’ve got a trade deficit that’s critical, but what I
worry about most is our empathy deficit." Barack Obama
How can We Change Healthcare to Address What Obama calls the Empathy
Deficit? Join
the Planning Meetings
June will be a big month for Healthcare since the Obama administration and OFA
are launching events and house parties in preparation for the big Healthcare
discussions in Congress. The Empathy Group will hold an Empathy Healthcare Cafe.
Come join the planning meetings to create this event.
In the Empathy Healthcare Cafe we will share and
video tape personal stories about the relationship between an empathetic society
and healthcare.
"Barack always says that one of our greatest challenges as a
nation is not a deficit of resources - for we are one of the riches
countries in the world; and it’s not deficit of policies, because we have
some of the greatest minds working on these issues. Instead, our greatest
challenge is that we are living in a time when we are suffering from a deep
empathy deficit." Michelle Obama
We hope you will take part and share
your stories and insights and then help find concrete ways to fill the empathy
deficit. Please pass it on.
"We have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy, to
recognize ourselves in each other, to commit ourselves to resisting
injustice and intolerance and indifference, in whatever forms they may take,
whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything
we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda,
those taking place in Darfur. That is my commitment as president. I hope
that is yours as well. It will not be easy." President Obama
To see more of President Obama talking about the importance of empathy see:
Barack Obama and a New Spirit of Empathy (1hr
49 min) Compiled from about 38 of his
speeches and interviews, etc. on the topic of empathy.
