Next Call Date:
Thursday, October 18th
At 5:00pm Eastern Time
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Vets Project Informational Conference Call on October 1, 2007
Highlights
- Who is doing what and where
- Questions and Answers
- Diana Fried's Comments
- Articles and links
Who is Doing What and Where?
Karen Garber - Washington, DC
- Had a few meetings so far with various people at each.
- Clinic planned for Vets Day - Joanne Wu in Tacoma Park, MD will host event at her clinic.
Kirk Moulton - Chicago, IL
- Going to do a vets day event in conjunction with Whole Foods Market (next door to his clinic)
- Hopes to do a big push with the media in next month or so.
Jean Dombroski - Rochester, NY
- Has
an opportunity to do a Vets Day Event in conjunction with a local
photographer friend's Opening for a show of his photos from a recent
trip to Iraq.
Christine Lee - Framingham, MA
- Looking to start a Vets Clinic in Marlboro, MA - has some interest brewing there.
- Plans to hold something for Vets Day at her office.
Jennifer Downs - Baltimore, MD
- No site yet but many options opening up.
- 6 people on board for the Baltimore area clinic.
- Plan to launch on Vets Day with a fundraising event.
- They have made commitment to each cover 1 week once they find a site.
- They have found that military sites are not willing to host this type of clinic.
Diane McCarty - Colorado Springs, CO
- Hopes to get something going for vets day.
- Spoke w/publisher of military newspaper in her area and they expressed interest in doing a piece on her event.
Ellen Leonard - Grants Pass, OR
- Started a Vets clinic in April out of her clinic - Sat. mornings from 10-12 - sometimes full sometimes no one.
- Invited
to join military health fair next spring - they want to know that
outside groups are going to stay committed to the Veterans community
before accepting them into their organizations.
- Has County Board member she is doing outreach with.
Questions and Answers:
Q: If someone donates items or funds to a particular Clinic, can we get receipts to them for tax deduction?
A: If
someone makes out a check to AWB and gives it to a Clinic then you send
the check to us and we will send the donor a thank you letter which
acts as a receipt for tax deduction purposes. If someone wants to
donate items (aka: in-kind" donations) then you need to contact
Executive Assistant Sarah Tewhey at: info@acuwithoutborders.org to get details on the process.
Q: Do you have literature to display at clinic sites?
A: The
Veterans Project One Pager is a great intro to what the project is
about and can be on display at clinics as well as our AWB brochures
(available for a small processing fee) and an 'About AWB' document
that you can print out yourself. Contact Gretchen to get any of these
items: veterans@acuwithoutborders.org
There was an excellent article in the Military Officers Association
Newsletter in June about the use of alternative therapies to treat
PTSD. This would be a great article to have on hand for outreach as
well as on display at your clinic site. The link to the article is at
the bottom of this email and you can get a PDF copy of it from Gretchen
if you want to have it on file for printing and emailing. There
is a Patient Welcome/Information Sheet available in the Field Manual
and each clinic should have cards and/or flyers from treating
acupuncturists and information on local vets resources available for
clients.
Q: If we are not an "AWB Approved" clinic then can we still the AWB name on literature?
A: We
are not doing "AWB Approved" sites anymore. This is our new Grassroots
approach and you can just use the wording we sent out in the Legal and
Financial notes document. Please request this from Gretchen ( veterans@acuwithoutborders.org ) if you have not received it.
Q: Have you had any problems with the political charge around returning soldiers, veterans and PTSD?
A: Not
really. Remember that we are about treating the trauma experienced by
vets, their families and communities - by treating individuals we
impact the community. Best to stay out of the politics since that is
not what our mission is.
Q: Do you keep track of how people are feeling with treatments?
A: Post-Treatment
Evaluation forms will be available for all ongoing clinics. AWB will
be collecting these forms for research purposes so we encourage all
clinics to participate in this data collection process.
In
ABQ we have found that personal relationships are developed with
regulars and tracking their progress is not that difficult as a
result. There really is no time for full intake and interview in this
type of setting.
An additional option is to have a guestbook for patients to report anything they want to in.
Q: Is there a recommended treatment course length you suggest?
A: AWB
recommends doing ongoing clinics allowing people to choose for
themselves how many times they think they need to come for treatment.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for scheduling Vets Clinics?
A: ABQ
clinic runs from 5:30-7pm every Monday. We suggest anything that
doesn't conflict with working hours, so - evenings & weekends.
This is up to you and your group in the end, of course, but try to find
times that will work for everyone.
Q: Are you doing anything in particular when someone presents with issues other than PTSD?
A: NADA
protocol seems to do wonders for other things as well. We
encourage you all to do NADA only for the following reasons:
- It makes your records easy to keep
- It is tremendously powerful as a group form of treatment for everyone to get the same treatment.
- If you do other points you have to record the patients name and have individual consent forms and files on them.
- If
you set a precedent of offering unique treatments people may wonder
"why so and so is getting that but I am not," and the clinic
environment becomes a much more complicated place.
- Simplicity makes all the difference for you and your patients when doing community style treatments.
- Feel free to have your business cards available for a patient who may want a more comprehensive treatment.
- If you participate in our national data collection it is necessary that everyone gets only the NADA protocol in your clinic.
Audrey Rice - Baltimore, MD: Treated
80 people using nothing but the NADA protocol at the VA. Every
one of them said their pain was gone after treatment!
Q: Do you want us to stay strict to the NADA protocol if we are associated as a vets clinic with AWB?
A: It is totally up to you ultimately, but for all the reasons already mentioned we highly recommend it.
Q: Is there any reason I should not do this clinic alone in my private clinic? Should I bring others into it?
A: We
definitely recommend that everyone try to collaborate with others on
the project if possible. It is a great way to hook up with and network
within the acupuncture community (which does not happen often as we get
stuck in our own offices doing our own thing.) We also recommend
having more than one person on hand for safety reasons - the ABQ clinic
always has two people on staff in case of any kind of emergency.
Lastly, having multiple people increases your outreach ability.
Gretchen Lorenson - Admin. Assist. AWB, ABQ, NM
One
of our volunteers in LA was able to make contact with a local gov.
official who is very supportive of his project and has offered him a
site for his clinic. Don't forget to do outreach to local officials
too.
Diana Fried's Comments:
- We
will do national publicity for Vets Day so please be sure to send us
details if you are putting on an event so that we can include the
information in our PR work.
- If you are in a big city - we can help with PR to big city newspapers.
- Do outreach to local businesses for support of your clinic and the national effort.
- Local
government officials are a great resource. They want the publicity and
this is a great cause for them to hook up with. They can help you in
any number of ways from media to fundraising and site venues. Don't
forget to reach out to officials on the local (city/town councilors),
state (representatives, mayors, governors), national (senators and
congresspeople) level.
- If
you prepare any literature or documents of your own for your clinic and
you use AWB's name on it anywhere make sure that you include the
paragraph from the Legal and Financial Notes on your document (this is
a legal necessity for AWB's protection)
- Give
your Vets Clinic a name that is, perhaps different from your private
practices so that your whole group can take ownership of the project.
It is a good idea to include "Vets Clinic" in the title.
- Briefly,
if you do fundraising and want to be able to use some of the funds for
your Vets Clinic costs, you can enter into a financial agreement with
us that allows us to cut you a check for 50% of any funds raised in
AWB's name for the Veterans Project by you and sent to us.
- Field
Manual is almost ready. It is large and IN PROCESS! We hope to have it
out by the end of the week (sorry about the delay but we are trying to
make sure it is as comprehensive as possible before beginning to
distribute it.) This will be a "working document" with updates and
addenda as we learn and grow together in this process.
The Field Manual for the Veterans Project will information on the following: - General philosophy of project
- Overview of how to do a clinic
- Copies of forms needed from clinical perspective
The
Manual will be available electronically for free to AWB training
attendees and for a preparation fee of $75.00 if you have not been to a
training.
A Few Important Articles Regarding Veterans:
Article From
the Military Officers Association of America Newsletter about treating
PTSD with alternative therapies including Acupuncture.
NY Times article on the psychological impact on soldiers of long term deployment in Iraq.
Financial difficulties faced by returning wounded soldiers.
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