8
Wednesday, June 10, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
much red tape, burnout, and
patients not feeling heard.
This can result in the very
place that should be making
you feel <well= resulting in
disempowerment and even
trauma.
I do prescribe pharmaceu-
ticals. Yes, medication can
sometimes be a worthwhile
tool. And yes, I often feel
like I am medicating soci-
etal shortcomings rather than
actual pathology.
In the era of COVID and
the horrific circumstances
of George Floyd9s murder,
the realities of inequities
and gross discrimination that
continue in both subtle and
overt ways to pollute our
Constitution and cause divi-
sion, have been ushered to
the forefront of our national
conversation.
While I like to think I am
a proponent of social justice
and advocacy, in recent days,
I have been convinced of the
gravity of my own privilege
and how it has veiled me in
many ways from confronting
the hardships and injustice
impacting so many. My ten-
dency is to want to compart-
mentalize the hate, to escape
to the luxury of denial, to
tear up and express brief
bouts of anger without last-
ing action, to voice opposi-
tion to discrimination, but
rest easy in my white, upper
middle-class comforts.
The wounds of our coun-
try will never heal with the
thin Band-aids representing
short-lived motivations from
a rally, supportive sentiments
Your Story
MATTERS
Audry Van Houweling, PMHNP
Columnist
Our health
depends on
justice and
equality
Working in functional
medicine, a form of medi-
cine that examines root
causes and dedicated to a
holistic vision of wellness,
it is not enough to talk about
nutrition, exercise, medita-
tion, and gut health. I would
be negligent as a practitioner
to dismiss the broader forces
inequity, discrimination, and
socioeconomic status have
upon the wellness of individ-
uals and communities.
Mainstream medicine
continues to be driven by
insurance and pharmaceuti-
cal companies forging a nar-
row path by which <health-
care= must take place. This
forces healthcare institutions
to play the game of profit and
economic stability, which
results in rushed office vis-
its, unending paperwork, too
without action, and promises
not upheld. Change must
come with a national reckon-
ing of our failures to uphold
the Constitution, apologies
married with sustained, sys-
temic action, and the emo-
tionally charged work of
confronting our personal nar-
ratives that uphold the often
quiet and subconscious, but
oh-so-powerful schemas that
allow for discrimination,
inequity, and hate to exist too
often without penalty.
True, restorative justice
has become more and more
elusive.
My best definition of
justice is that it is the inter-
section between grace and
accountability. Under this
definition, justice allows
grace for the complexities
behind certain actions and
behaviors, while also mak-
ing clear how certain actions
harm ourselves and others.
Locking a man up in a cell
without addressing roots of
trauma, fractured self-worth,
and missed opportunities is
<justice= without grace. This
breeds resentment and mis-
trust. In our broken crimi-
nal justice system, wealth
and power have too often
allowed for criminal acts
to be baptized free without
regard to accountability.
This allows for entitlement
and reinforces perceived
superiority.
While we may reminisce
about the pre-COVID days
when things were <nor-
mal,= in my home state of
Oregon alone, suicide had
become the greatest killer
among youth ages 10-24,
over 500,000 residents had
food insecurity, we placed
No. 44 out of 50 among
national public school rank-
ings, had one of the nation9s
leading rates of homeless-
ness 4 over two times the
national average, and despite
stereotypes of progressivism,
Oregon9s history has deep
roots of racism that continue
to haunt the present day.
Native Americans and
African Americans have the
highest rates of poverty by
race (25.4 percent and 20.8
percent respectively) fol-
lowed by Hispanics, Whites,
and Asians. The emotional
stigma and burden of pov-
erty is significant on its own.
Poverty often comes with
limitations to accessing qual-
ity healthcare and implement
healthy behaviors. Accessing
healthy food, finding reliable
transportation, funding med-
ical care, finding a safe place
to exercise, taking time away
from work for appointments,
social and geographical iso-
lation, and facing stereotypes
and bias within the health-
care system are all potential
barriers.
With the time demands
on mainstream medicine,
healthcare providers rarely
have the time to address or
even acknowledge such com-
plexities and they are pushed
further downstream from
the driving factors of ill-
ness. It has created a flood of
chronic illness and a scourge
of mistrust and hopelessness.
We keep throwing down
sandbags when we really
need to turn off the hose.
We must look towards
a model of care that rein-
forces healthy communities,
thereby acknowledging indi-
vidual wellness is intimately
intertwined with the wellness
of a community.
To untangle the roots,
we must take time to come
together, listen, share sto-
ries, allow for vulnerability,
hold each other accountable,
and support one another.
Especially in mental health
where privacy is understand-
ably a mandate, we must
also recognize how keeping
our struggles in isolation
from one another may be
reinforcing stigma, stress,
and fear. In some ways, a
culture of too much privacy
can limit the healing that can
take place when we allow for
connection.
For our individual and
collective wellness, we must
continue to mobilize, to
innovate, to advocate. The
mass protests and despera-
tion of COVID is not simply
what is now, but a buildup
of what has been for far too
long. Ultimately, as isolated
as we may find ourselves
these days, we continue to be
interconnected. Your strug-
gle has a ripple effect beyond
yourself. Your neighbor9s
struggle has a ripple effect
that may impact you. True
wellness will never be solved
in your 15-minute doctor
visit, but by the security of
human-human connection.
Serving th e Sisters, Camp Sherman and Black Butte Ranch Areas
Ponderosa Properties
R E A L T O R S
541-549-2002
A N D
1-800-650-6766
P R O P E R T Y
L
LLC
M A N A G E M E N T
www. P onderosa P roperties.com
221 S. Ash St., Sisters
The Locals’ Choice
for Real Estate
Sales
Kevin R. Dyer
541-480-7552
Rad Dyer
541-480-8853
CRS, GRI,
Principal Broker
ABR, CCIM, CRB, CRS,
GRI,
Principal Broker
Carol Davis
541-410-1556
ABR, GRI, Broker
Catherine Black
541-480-1929
Shane Lundgren
541-588-9226
Debbie Dyer
541-480-1650
Greg Davidge
808-281-2676
Jackie Herring
541-480-3157
Guy Lauziere
541-410-9241
CRS, Broker, 40+ Years
Realtor Emeritus
Broker
GRI, Broker
Broker
Broker
Broker