Medicine

Health, many people think it means taking care of your body. Taking that gym class or skipping that last donut in an effort to prolong life.

People go to school for years to learn the ins and outs of the body and different ways to heal it. We created a system to train, regulate, and honor these courageous people. Most just want to help, drawn to the profession to be hero’s and save lives. Despite our best efforts and intentions the system we created is flawed.

The system does not give all people health protection, as true healthcare is hidden behind dollar signs. The system has been built on a foundation of classism where only some get better faster healthcare.

This system creates such a disparity that breeds corruption. Doctors are high paid commodities, instead of paragons of medicine. They are sometimes bought and sold instead of supported. Given gifts instead of highly qualified nurses, who are desperately needed, getting drawn into politics just to secure needed resources while red tape endangers life.

We need to create a better system, where all people are paragons of health physically, mentally, and emotionally. This by proxy can only strengthen a society and engender trust in a distrustful world. When your people are healthy so to will your nation be healed.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics need to be supported far more than they are currently. We need to ensure that our society is filled with strong, capable, and healthy people.

When a country or society truly cares about an individual and not just about a tax bracket or a number this will strengthen the country as a whole. This will engender more faith and loyalty than any flag or anthem, and will ensure a strong and prosperous nation.

A nation that has a shortfall in medical professionals should offer free tuition to both new students and patriated doctors and nurses from abroad. This will not only help solve the unemployment crisis, but also help the medical field and education system as a whole.

Once heath is again at the forefront of a society you will have less red tape, death and suffering. This isn’t singularly physical health, but emotional as well. A complete picture of health includes all three.

Mental and emotional health is just as important to a society as the physical. Everyone at one point in their lives has had to struggle with it at some point. Unmanageable grief from a loved ones passing, postpartum depression, anxiety, even more serious issues that can affect your family, friends and neighbors. These issues are heeded with hushed whispers or misinformation, instead of inclusive dialogue that furthers the discussion. Mental health is vast and its definition changes as our society changes, some of it is a natural byproduct of emotion and some simply unresolved trauma. It is not to be feared, hidden, or joked about but supported just the same as physical health.

Being proactive about mental health can potentially prevent mass shootings, suicides, and treatable deaths. It’s time we all take a look at the complete health picture, as an integral part of the human condition. Money and medicine should never mix for there are better ways to make money and not at the expense of your families, friends or neighbors.

Medicine needs to diagnose itself regularly, to ensure that it’s still effective for the communities that surround it and the needs of all people.

“You either create a world for everyone or else you will end up in a world fit for no one."—John Ames Birch