Reaching For The Gold, November 5, 2013
Our two guests today have one major thing in common. They are working to nudge people past old boundaries, encouraging them to see things from a fresh perspective.
Heidi Barham is working with other members of Hospice of the Western Reserve's African American Outreach Committee to help people realize hospices are much more than simply a place where people go to die. By her accounting, these facilities can be life enhancing, as they give patients whom modern medicine might no longer benefit a chance to grow in unexpected ways. They can, Ms. Barham notes, also help people to leave a legacy, possibly in the form of a video that depicts them playing the piano.
Many people view bullying as simply being part of childhood, something that people have no choice but to tolerate and that might even benefit them by making them tougher. But Linda Cuilbreth considers bullying to be a much mroe serious matter than that line of reasoning might indicate. She maintains that it can scar people for life. And more to the point, she believes it does not have to happen. She has been spreading this message through her best selling book and through her speaking engagements.
Guest, Heidi Barham
Heidi Barham thinks of hospices as being much more than simply places where people go to die. By her accounting, they can prove life-enhancing for patients who might no longer benefit from medical intervention, providing them with art therapy, music therapy, spiritual consultation and a chance to leave a legacy perhaps in the form of a video that shows them playing the piano.
Ms. Barham, chair of African American Outreach Committee for the Hospice of the Western Reserve, is working alongside other members of that committee to spread that message at health fairs and other similar events. She realizes that it might take quite a while for that message to have its full impact. But she is pleased that increasingly more African Americans are utilizing the hospices where she works. And she is also encouraged when she receives calls from people, some of the prominent, who had previously spoken against hospice care but have changed their attitude when they saw home much it benefitted a loved one.
Guest, Linda Culbreth
Bullying was once considered nothing more than a normal part of childhood, something that children must simply learn to tolerate. But Linda Culbreth is working to help people understand that bullying is a more serious matter than is commonly assumed, having the potential to scare people for life. And more to the point, she maintains that it does not have to happen.
She has spread this message through her book best selling book, Bullies + Teen Dating = Bullying, and by developing an anti-bullying program that involves teens, parents and educators. Linda has also spoken to thousands of people throughout the country about these matters.
Reaching For The Gold
A publishing journalist and a college instructor Harriet finds that these two careers have much in common as they both demand honing communication skills every day. Harriet instructs her students almost exclusively online and her writing is published in print and over the web. Times change but the need to speak to your audience by being concise, yet intriguing, is key.
