A student's concern about the issue of elder abuse

      In this reflection paper I will be talking about Elderly Abuse happening in nursing homes and addressing what has or hasn’t changed.  Additionally, I will be sharing personal experiences and examples from scholarly articles that I’ve researched.  Growing up I was always in and out nursing homes because my Nana was sick throughout the entirety of my life.  Almost every family visit consisted of my family and I visiting my Nana in a nursing home facility. 

     My Nana was being mistreated while in the nursing home, which resulted in bed sores, and open wounds that had to be addressed.  Every time my Nana complained, the staff never did anything about it.  The CNAs and nursing staff were not turning her in the bed the way they were supposed to, nor coming in and checking on her regularly. Due to this mistreatment, my Nana suffered both emotional and physical neglect and abuse resulting in severe bed sores that later got infected, which caused even more health issues for her. 

      My grandfather and the rest of my family made a decision to move our beloved Nana to a different nursing home; one that at first was doing everything right, or so it seemed.   As weeks began to go by, the nursing staff at this second home started engaging in the same kind of poor work habits, and showed the lack of ethical behavior that had occurred in the first nursing home; such as, not turning my Nana multiple times throughout the day, and failing to come into her room to check on her as often as necessary to prevent pressure sores on her body and her feet.  

      Seeing the effects of elder abuse on my Nana as a kid and continuing to see this type of mistreatment of my Nana as I got older made me want to do more for people who are going through this. This is actually one of the main reasons I wanted to be a social worker. I truly enjoy advocating for what’s right and advocating for people who cannot advocate for themselves.  

While researching two sources to include in my reflection, I came across several articles about elderly abuse in nursing homes and how it has changed, as well as what has not changed. My goal is to help others become aware of what is going on in some nursing homes, and to help prevent these things from happening in the future to our loved ones and the loved ones of others.

      The first source I have found is called, Nursing Aides’ Attitudes of Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes: The Effect of Work Stressors and Burnout by Shiri Shinan-Altman (2009). The second source that I found is called Justification for Punishing Crimes against the Elderly: Perceptions of Police Chiefs, Nursing Home Professionals, and Students by, Brian K. Payne (2003). I came across a lot of good information in both articles that I could speak on but I am only going to bring up a few points.

    Shinan-Altman (2009) reported that the World Health Organization defined elder abuse as “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust and which causes harm or distress to an older person”.  I found that this definition also included three forms of abuse, which are sexual, physical and psychological abuse. My Nana was suffering from physical and psychological abuse by the nursing staff at the nursing home, so this really stood out to me. 

      Abuse happening to the elderly has now become a social problem according to the article. I think it is important for employees and their employer to recognize when someone is bringing their outside problems to the workplace in an effort to prevent mistreatment of elderly patients.  Shinan-Altman’s article discussed stressors, staff burnout, and how sometimes outside stress gets brought inside the workplace, which is often taken out on patients (Shinan-Altman, 2009). This is not okay! People in nursing homes already go through so much, like coping with having to be there in the first place. My Nana was not a fan of going to a skilled nursing facility,  let alone being mistreated by the CNAs or other nursing staff because of an outside problem. 

   As I took a look at Payne’s article, I noticed some of the same things I saw in Shinan-Altman’s article, as well as some things that were new.  I learned that regularly cases like this do not get reported and nothing is done. This also reminded me of my Nana, because as many times as we said something and reported them, it still did not change the manner in which she was handled.  The administration had excuse after excuse, like staff being short, not enough nurses to pass meds, cleaning staff, and so much more.  Just thinking about my experience and writing about it, brings me to tears. We even hired someone to sit in her room until my grandfather got off work.  But we were only able to afford so many hours per day. 

       The lack of staffing, the numerous falls, the staff’s failure to feed my Nana, who couldn’t feed herself, and had a note above her stating “must feed this patient”, and other concerning issues, all contributed to us moving her from nursing home to a third nursing home, and then another. It makes you wonder if any good nursing facilities really exist, especially since my grandparents were wealthy and able to afford what was supposed to be quality care.  

Payne (2003) states, “Early statistics suggested that 1 to 2 million people are victims of elder abuse each year” (p. 34). It is extremely sad that the above mentioned statistic is the unfortunate reality faced by many of our loved ones who are supposed to be taken care of.   The thought of my parents aging and declining in their ability to care for themselves to a point where even my ability to take care of them becomes inadequate scares me based on the literature and our family’s past experiences. My hope is that people like myself can hopefully make a difference when it comes to taking care of people they way they deserve to be cared for when you reach a stage in your life that requires being cared for. 

     A frightening revelation for me from Payne’s (2003) article was that although some “criminal acts against the elderly are considered cases of elderly abuse, not all cases that cause emotional harm to the elderly violate the criminal statues” (p, 35).  Although the criminal justice system can help with trying to prevent or minimize elder abuse, the fact is that “offenders are often overly stressed with increasing caregiving required by the victim which leads to abuse” (Payne, 2003).  

     I love my grandfather, and I know he loved my Nana, but I was often frustrated with him as he often raised his voice at my Nana. My mother went to help as often as she could trying to balance her role as a wife, mother, and daughter. She even tried to get custody of her Mother to bring her to Springfield with us. But with her mother being married, the police said if she took her mother without Nana’s husbands’ consent, it would be considered kidnapping.  Then there goes her degree and certifications to be gainfully employed to take care of her immediate family.  These are issues I would like to help other families navigate finding a legal recourse that would benefit all parties, and more importantly, their loved one in need of quality care. 

     In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that there isn’t enough being done in the world today to help prevent elderly abuse from happening. The stress of caring for a loved one who requires nursing care in a skilled nursing facility, and the limited resources and staffing available in skilled nursing facilities needs to be addressed in a manner that doesn’t cause harm to elderly patients and promotes an increased understanding of human behavior and consequences associated with abuse for caregivers (Payne, 2003).   This can be achieved by current and future social workers like myself by advocating for what is right.

Reference Page

Payne, B. (2003).  Justification for punishing crimes against the Elderly: Perceptions 

        of police chiefs, nursing home professionals, and students. Journal of Offender

        Rehabilitation, 38(1), pp. 33-51. 

        https://doi.org/10.1080/08946566.2011.558798

Shinan-Altman, S.  & Cohen, M. (2009). Nursing Aides’ Attitudes to Elder Abuse in 

         Nursing Homes: The Effect of Work Stressors and Burnout. The Gerontologist, 

        49( 5), pp. 674–684.

         https://doi-org.ezproxy.uis.edu/10.1093/geront/gnp093

Much of the state budget goes to human services.  Many of those human services involve the treatment and care of persons who are elderly or disabled. These persons depend on staff to take are of them, and if the budgets for such care become slashed, what do you think will happen?  I wish people who complain about Illinois spending would look at the state budget and point out where we can cut money that will not result in a deterioration in services for the elderly, the persons with disabilities, or persons with mental illnesses. Will people still be kept clean, and fed, and cared for?  Will overworked and overstressed family members still get respite care?  The state’s budget going to health services generally cannot be cut, and neither can child protective services (because our state operates child protective services under a court order that forces those services to be delivered at a certain level of quality). Cuts to K-12 education are unpopular, and the state has already cut the higher education by more than half since I was hired by the University of Illinois over 20 years ago.  It is the human services that get cut.  I wish people would read your reaction essay and then look over the state budget when they object to the spending in the state of Illinois.  They usually do not know what they are talking about.

Prisons are not Adequate Providers of Mental Health Services

  I will always remember when I first learned about mental illness and the affects it has on the individual suffering with it. I was in the 7^th grade and was utterly fascinated to learn about the types of illnesses, but yet so saddened to hear about the treatment they receive. After learning I had friends and family members who suffered from mental health issues, I had a strong urge to become an advocate about emotional health. I try to keep myself educated on pressing issues which deal with mental health and treatment. Therefore, I was extremely upset to learn about the mentally ill being placed in prisons.

Prison is not a mental health facility, so the individuals who suffer with these problems do not belong there. According to Carolyn Zezima’s (2020) article titled “Incarcerated with Mental Illness”,  at least more than two million people with mental health issues are arrested yearly, and that many of the ill may stay in jail longer than someone who does not have a mental illness. “Roughly 9% of the population (more than 210,000 individuals) experiences serious mental illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression and fewer than 13% of these individuals receive care in the public mental health system” (Zezima, para. 4). This is extremely disheartening to learn about, especially since prisons seem to contain more people with poor emotional states than psychiatric facilities do. “Experts say jails and prisons have become the nation’s largest psychiatric facilities” (Zezima, para. 1). Furthermore, the problem with the mentally ill being incarcerated deals with treatments. These individuals either receive poor treatment, or no treatment at all. 

I remember reading an article in a social problems class I took at the college I transferred from, and this article described about penitentiaries using solitary confinement as a punishment. This is when they isolate the prisoners from others, and it is honestly horrible, especially for persons suffering from serious mentally illness. The way solitary confinement affects persons with mentally illness are very severe. According to Teddy Basham-Witherington’s article “Class Action Hero: Denied Mental Health Care, Patrice Makes a Stand for Human Rights”, Patrice Daniels was a mentally ill inmate, and he was placed in solitary confinement many times. Daniels discusses how he “feared his own mind” as his symptoms worsened, and even got charged for illegal contraband when he harmed himself (Basham-Washington, 2018). This honestly makes me really mad when I read about this because Daniels was crying for help, but the guards completely ignored him. Daniels’ illness continued to go untreated as he was constantly denied treatment by the Illinois Department of Corrections (Basham-Washington, 2018). Being denied treatment is wrong on numerous levels, and is honestly a violation of human rights. Therefore, the mentally ill do not belong in prisons.

Moreover, I feel that in order to address this problem is to advocate for the mentally ill. I feel that more people need to actually educate themselves on mental illness. There are people in this world that associate mental illness with being violent, and the shootings that have occurred in the past have not helped resolve this issue. This is why people need to get rid of that stigma and realize that not everyone who suffers from an emotional problem is “violent” or “crazy”. In addition, a huge number of the homeless population deal with poor mental states and go untreated. So, I believe that there needs to be better funding for mental health facilities and maybe better funding could grant easier access to treatment for these individuals.

References

Basham-Witherington, T. (2018, October 05). Class Action Hero: Denied Mental Health Care, 

     Patrice Makes A Stand for Human Rights. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from 

     https://www.impactfund.org/social-justice-blog/ patrice? 

     gclid=Cj0KCQjwk8b7BRCaARIsAARRTL4wmQTSWHcMrYU8shnpH7m

     Q3Gf_NUfNT1NyjxdmU77TR8nRFenljJcaAs5PEALw_wcB

Zezima Carolyn Zezima, C. (2020, August 12). Incarcerated with Mental Illness: How to Reduce 

     the Number of People with Mental Health Issues in Prison. Retrieved September 29, 2020, 

     from https://www.psycom.net/how-to-reduce-mental-illness-in-prisons

I find it a nightmarish wonder that we are still using solitary confinement with prisoners. The “skilled tormenters” of Illinois are still applying tortures that we have known do no good since the 1820s!

From my cousin George Ives’ book about penal methods written by him over 110 years ago:

...Thus the new torture was begun; but the “reformers” reached a deeper level of horror when in 1818 the legislature of Pennsylvania resolved to construct a penitentiary for enforcing solitary confinement without even work ! At another prison a trial of solitary confinement was made upon eighty convicts. In 1822 they were shut up for ten months each in a little cell 7 feet long by 3-1/2 feet broad, and were not allowed to leave it at any time or for any purpose. ...

...But the new torture, solitary confinement, was never meant to be applied that way, and never was by the skilled tormentors. In the experiments just glanced at, the zeal of the too ardent disciples of “discipline” defeated their object. Death and insanity were so wholesale and universal that no amount of figures and “philanthropy” could explain staring facts out of the way.... 

Student points out that Planned Parenthood provides important services

 The effects of defunding Planned Parenthood are more than simply taking away the access to safe abortions. The organization does much more than abortions; it allows teenagers and adults to have preventative care.   The United States has a tremendous need for safe and affordable healthcare for the citizens.  Politicians are letting their own views about abortion cloud their judgment. They refuse to see how vital this organization has been for so many people. 

Planned Parenthood has a vast array of services that are offered.  There is STD testing available, LGBTQ services, men’s reproductive healthcare and much more.  As a society we have allowed the conversation of sexual or reproductive health to be a taboo topic. By removing Planned Parenthood teens and young adults will have one less resource to use to keep them safe. They offer hormonal therapy for transgender people; this allows those that are transitioning to stay away from potentially bad products that would be bought off the street.  The website offers multiple resources and reading material for gender identity and transitioning.  They do not focus only on medical health; there is also a focus on mental health as well. The information on the website is free and it allows the individual to learn more in an environment they know is safe.

During one of my classes this week I was hit with the realization our schools and families are failing our children.  We have young adults that do not know about the risks of STDs or the different types of STDs that are out there.  It is not acceptable for parents to send their children out in the world without the proper guidance.  How can we allow them to go out into the world without giving them some of the most basic information to keep them safe? They preform breast exams and offer help to enroll in health insurance. 

In their annual report for 2018-2019 Planned Parenthood reveals that their staff and volunteers served 2.4 million patients with 9.8 million services provided.  They assisted in over 2.5 million individuals getting birth control information and services. (Parenthood) Almost 400,000 unplanned pregnancies were avoided. Over 520,000 breast exams were done. 70,000 women were able to have early detection for cancer or any abnormalities identified. (Parenthood) These numbers talk and they make it known how important this organization is. 

How can we allow others to decide what we do with our own bodies? It doesn’t make sense to me.  I will stand with any woman or man who needs a helping hand to find their way to achieve their goal. Whether its transitioning or to find a place to have a medically safe abortion.  Without the option for safe services people will look elsewhere and the risk of causing severe medical harm is high.  Buying shots off the street or allowing a non-medical professional to do an abortion is setting our citizens up for terrible outcomes. 

Parenthood, P. (n.d.). "Defunding" Planned Parenthood, Defined. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.istandwithpp.org/defund-defined

Parenthood, P. (n.d.). Our Services: Affordable Healthcare & Sex Education. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-care/our-services

Parenthood, P. (n.d.). Planned Parenthood Annual Report. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/facts-figures/annual-report

From this class, you know that about 10.5% of the population is poor, and we have a couple million adults living in such abject poverty that they live on less than $2 a day.  Surely it makes sense to help such persons avoid becoming pregnant or sick. The sexual health services and preventive health services provided by Planned Parenthood do a great service to all of society.  My wife and I used Planned Parenthood services when we were young and in college and poor. 

A student is horrified by treatment of undocumented immigrant children

The treatment of immigrants coming to the US from South America has been vile and disturbing for a very long time in America. However, with this most recent presidency, I feel it has reached a peak with how terrible it has been. 

While I was attending Lincoln Land Community College, in one of my classes there was a debate occurring and the topic was illegal immigration. This discussion/ debate began because this was right around the time that two children died within ICE custody, and it was a big news topic. One of the students in my class stated that it was not “our” (I’m assuming he meant the country’s or maybe ICE’s) job to keep these children alive, and that if their parents really wanted a better life for their children, they wouldn’t have crossed the border illegally. To know that this individual thought this way, and believed in this logic so strongly that he was willing to say it aloud, absolutely astonished me. He was discussing human life, a child’s life, that was taken because of our country’s negligence, and truly believed that the child’s death was within reason. 

To further this astonishment, I watched on TV as a Justice Department Lawyer argued that the children in ICE detention centers should not be entitled to soap, toothbrushes, or blankets while in their custody. The federal government was arguing to not give these human beings such important necessities including soap. This presidential administration has completely dehumanized these immigrants and this thought process obviously has spread to some of the American people, such as the boy in my LLCC class. 

In 2019, the US held a record number of migrant children in its custody. Nearly 70,000 children of immigrants were kept within US custody in 2019, which is more than any other country in the world. (AP News). It is an embarrassment to this country that we are so wealthy yet refuse to treat immigrants like human beings, because we disapprove of how they got here. To further the embarrassment, the president continues to go on live TV spewing hateful rhetoric towards those in South America, most famously claiming that Mexicans are rapists and criminals. 

We have to do better for our Latinx brothers and sisters, which includes making a lot of policy change. I believe one of the most important policy changes that needs to happen is making the process of becoming a US citizen more accessible, faster, and easier to navigate. I also believe enabling an easier process of renewing visas would help with those who become undocumented because of expired visas. These processes would allow immigrants who would like to come to America to easily become documented, lessening the need for ICE presence and detaining/ separating families. 

Link for Undocumented Children Statistics: https://apnews.com/article/015702afdb4d4fbf85cf5070cd2c6824

  I hoped the professor at Lincoln Land informed your class that the state does have a responsibility to keep persons who are in custody alive. In fact, the government does not have a duty to save the lives of citizens, unless the government has taken custody of citizens or foreigners (e.g., into state custody as children removed from parents or prisoners or detained undocumented immigrants). See the cases decided by the Supreme Court such as DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales, for the opinions.  Children apprehended and put in custody because they are undocumented foreigners absolutely are the responsibility of our government and ICE. 

  We should always be concerned when we see dehumanization.  When people dehumanize others, that is a step toward genocide.  All humans are born equal in dignity and rights. Dehumanization undermines our recognition of this fact.  When people start to describe others as vermin or cockroaches or rats, they are moving toward a call for the extermination of those others.  When people say that persons in detention do not deserve soap or blankets while is custody, they are moving toward the rejection of the humanity of those persons. 

  

Growing Up Poor In America

 Growing Up Poor In America

I loved every minute of this documentary [Frontline Season 2020 Episode 3]. I chose to write about this documentary for my reflection essay because as soon as COVID-19 spread I instantly wondered about the children that were already struggling. I think about the children whose only source of structure is school. Going to school everyday is some children’s only safe haven from their unstable households. 

    I wish I could do more to help these families. My heart broke for each family. I could not imagine going through those struggles as a child. I noticed that all 3 families had a running theme; they are all single mothers raising their children on their own. I feel for the mothers because it has to be a pretty awful feeling to not be able and support your children. I am not yet a parent but I imagine you would want to give everything you possibly can to your children. It would be heartbreaking to watch your children go hungry and not get an education that they deserve. The poorer neighborhoods often do not get as good funding for the children in attendance. 

    I grew up in a small town and my school did not adequately prepare me for my future in the slightest. However, I know that it still could have been worse. The family’s story that touched me the most was Shawn’s. I cannot believe how mature and grown up he acted for his age, it was so impressive. In a way it is sad because he feels he has to act that way because of his situation, so essentially he got his childhood robbed from him. He is such a good big brother to his baby sister and he helped his mom out whenever he could. I actually cried for him when he found out his favorite teacher passed away. This family has a trailer of their own and got some government assistance for food and bills. The mother just has to keep working at the Salvation Army in order to keep her benefits rolling in. 

    Kaila and Kyah do not even have a home to call their own. The documentary did not specify where they were living. They are all living with someone in one bedroom to the 3 of them. Their mom had a job lined up until COVID-19 hit. She was able to get some assistance because of that; but it just had not kicked in yet. They took advantage of their local food pantry as well as food stamps, so they did not go hungry. I really liked how Kyah said that “nobody wishes to be poor. Even though it may seem like it, it just means they accepted it.” Both girls seemed very wise for their age, most likely because they had to grow up faster than most kids due to their home life. The daughters seemed very grateful for what they had, even though it was obvious they wished they had more. It was hard to hear how they are already struggling with depression at such a young age. 

    Depression was also a running theme. Every child mentioned the feeling of overwhelming sadness or helplessness. Laikyn and Miracle also had a home that was theirs. Their mother had a job at a gas station and got some government assistance. It just is not enough to realistically support three people. She seemed to know exactly how to stretch it to get the most out of it and make it last the whole month. Laikyn was struggling very much with school due to ADD. I can attest how difficult it is for these kids to do school while not in their normal routines. I work at a daycare and virtual learning just does not work for most children. I understand that it is what must be done, but it definitely does not provide an ideal learning environment. 

    Miracle wanted to break the cycle and be the first in her family to go to college. I just do not think she comprehends how difficult that will be. I hope she buckles down and does it to get the life she deserves and wants. All of these families were just handed bad cards. Each mother was willing and wanting to work in order to provide for their children. It is not an issue of laziness but an issue of policies and the pandemic. We need more and better policies for these families but to get that we need better funding. These children are wasted potential because they know how to work harder than most and they have big dreams. How can we help them? 

A reflection on sex education

 I am passionate about comprehensive sex education in schools, and often talk about it. Sex education in school itself is already a controversial and uncomfortable conversation, but why? I believe the conversation about sex education should not be uncomfortable, but obviously will be when talking to elementary-aged children. Besides comprehensive sex education, there is also the other option which is abstinence-based education. The main difference between the two is that one talks about many different aspects of sex education and focuses on the education and safe practices while the other option puts abstinence as the main focal point to not have sex. The two different approaches are still being debated on whether sex education should be provided and if so, what method will they be teaching? This conversation is an important one, which is why I am talking about it today. 

Comprehensive sex education is an education program that talks about multiple aspects of sex. When the average person thinks about sex, you usually think of a consensual act done between a male and a female. Even though this is the typical scenario, there are many people who do not experience that. Comprehensive sex education would start in the beginning of elementary school which is why many parents do not support this approach. The point to starting so early is to educate young children on appropriate terminology of body parts and the difference between good touch and bad touch. This basically is trying to protect young children against getting hurt and being afraid to tell someone about it. In many child sexual abuse cases, the perpetrator often uses pet names or “cute” names for body parts. When a child uses these names to detectives or even their parents, it often gets skewed and is more difficult to determine. Starting comprehensive sex education at an early age could educate children to look for certain things and how to communicate. 

Abstinence-only sex education has a main focal point which is abstinence. In many examples of abstinence-only education, the education does not start until eighth grade. Unfortunately, the education seems to happen too late because a lot of children are already going through puberty. Besides that, the only education you receive is that you should wait until marriage to have sex and about sexually transmitted diseases. The education that is provided about waiting until marriage for sex usually consists of an abstinence pledge and scaring children about the horrors of getting pregnant and the consequences of unintended pregnancies. After getting scared about having sex, then the abstinence-only educators show graphic images of STDs and talk about the road to curing these. Abstinence-only sex education only focuses on the negatives of sex and does not think of the real-world. 

In my experience, my high school did abstinence-based sex education. It started in ninth grade, and the educator fit all into one semester. In the one semester, we covered an abstinence pledge, STDs, and contraception. I was surprised that we covered more than just condoms and talked about their effectiveness. While I was taking it, I did not think much about it. Now looking back, it was not the best and makes sense why it does not work.

Unwanted pregnancies are a problem, and we need good programs that prevent these, especially among younger persons.  Being pressured into sex and being psychologically coerced into pushing relationships in a sexual direction is another problem.  And, of course, sexually transmitted diseases are a terrible problem. So, you would imagine that our society would honestly try to find the sort of educational interventions that are most effective at preventing these things, and then implement those.  Since our society leaves decisions about educational content largely to local school district boards and principals and teachers, there is little or state governments and the federal government to do. The federal government can give grants to states or local school districts that implement approved programs, and deny grant money to school districts that defy federal or state recommendations, but that is the main way we get policy set in this area.

It has been years (over a decade) since I reviewed the evidence for abstinence only sex education (which is not at all what I received in middle school in 1979-1982). It was not the most effective intervention for preventing onset of sexual behavior or intercourse. It had an effect, and it seemed to mainly work by helping a minority of kids take on a sort of self-concept of themselves as being different from the mainstream, and this “specialness” was part of what helped them delay sex. The sex education I received in public schools was all about the plumbing and biology and so forth.  I still remember the question I asked as a sixth or seventh grader after one of the sessions of sex education (which I had mainly learned as a 6-year-old and 7-year-old at home).  I asked about what percentage of the time when a man ejaculated inside during ovulation would the egg be fertilized and develop into a baby?  I guessed it could not possibly be 100%, but wondered if it was something like 20% or 50% or 75% or what.  I don’t think my teacher knew the answer.  Come to think of it, I still don’t know the answer. I have been interested in miscarriages and natural pregnancy terminations (our third son died of a miscarriage before he was born), and so I know that a very high percentage of fertilizations do not end in a live birth.  It seems in many cases, the zygote only develops to the blastula stage (if it even gets that far) and gets flushed out with menstrual blood before the mother ever guesses she was “pregnant”, and was she pregnant? Does one become pregnant when one has a fertilized egg inside, or should we define pregnancy as starting around the 14th to 21st day (Carnegie stage 6 or 7), when the embryo really starts to take form in the uterine lining?  

  The more important questions of the role of sex in relationships, how to deal with sexual desire, how to be respectful of the wishes of others, and how to deal with jealousy, or sexual self-concept, or sexual orientation, or gender identity, or any of those very important topics, was ignored.  And, also, I think even in progressive American schools it would be rare to teach important lessons about how to give sexual satisfaction to partners, how to have a satisfying sex life, and how to avoid sexual infidelity or understand why people cheat, and things of that nature. Sexual complaints are a huge factor in marital dissatisfaction, and sexual infidelity contributes to many divorces.  I believe these sorts of things have been taught in public schools in the UK, Scandinavia, France, etc., but not so much in America.

Student is disturbed by police brutality

 Police Brutality has been on my mind for quite a long time. Minority groups are being targeted the most when it comes to these issues, and yet America finds it as an issue within’ the group and not the police. After watching Frontline: Policing the Police 2020, 

I can’t stop thinking about how this really has been going on for a lifetime and not just as a 2020 thing. I knew discrimination existed towards the minority groups because it’s been going on everyday and even if it’s not being seen, it’s happening somewhere, whether it’s in America or another country, it’s happening. It got a lot more serious this year because of George Floyd, but no matter what, there is still no justice. 

Can we go back in time for a minute? I know this doesn’t have anything to do with police, but if we look at the Emmitt Till case, the two men who beat him, they didn’t get sentenced to life; they didn’t get charged; and yet later, we find out that the woman died? That’s injustice right there. [Carolyn Bryant Donham, who made a false accusation against Emmitt Till, did not die (she could still be alive, for all I know)]

If we look at Rodney King, he got beat by police officers and why? If we look at Oscar Grant, where is his justice? We have so many people in this world who deal with police brutality, and I honestly could name them, but it’ll take up my whole paper. I have a friend who died because of Police Brutality. His story didn’t make it worldwide, but my city was truly hurt when this occurred, living in Peoria, we would never think such a thing would happen and it did. 

I honestly didn’t know Newark, New Jersey was dealing with such a tremendous Police Brutality, and when something was finally going to be done to stop it, Donald Trump said “no.” He really said that Police Officers should not be careful when putting “criminals” in the car and then the people dressed in military clothes in the background clapping proudly. That is definitely not okay and if they think it’s okay, it’s because they’ll never know how it feels to be a minority in those types of situations. I know this is supposed to be Police Brutality, but I’m just expressing how I feel overall about these types of situations. 

I don’t think this will ever end just because our country is being led by a President who doesn’t really care about anyone, except for those that are on his level. The election is giving me hope that Joe Biden hopefully does find a way to stop these Police Brutalities, but if Trump wins again, there most likely won’t be any changes and it will end up getting worse. 

I have had conversations with friends and students in law enforcement, and family members who have been in law enforcement, and with criminologists who are friends.  I think that we are devoting a lot of resources to a system of justice and police and corrections that should be protecting us and making us safe, but it is not really doing this effectively or efficiently.  I am not sure that reforms will be able to solve the problem. I think my cousin George Ives addressed this well over a hundred years ago when he pointed to the fact that too few people really want to understand why crime occurs and then create systems to prevent crime.  Most people are happier to create and sustain a system devoted to finding persons who commit crime and then punishing them. This is a devastating decision, because we could save far more money and lives by putting more resources into preventing crime, rather than putting so much into the system we have now.  And yet, I do not know how we will make the transition. 

I agree with your perception that there is a widespread and deep problem of police and prosecutors being unfair. It is worth acknowledging that there are many good people in law enforcement who are well-intentioned and doing the best they can, but making that observation does not really help move us toward a solution to the problem at hand; that our overall policing and prosecution and corrections system is failing us. 

It is probably also just hair-splitting to point out that many abuses by police that are attributed to racism are probably more centrally caused by brutality and a general disregard for the rights of citizens in the police officers.  That is, many police may be just as likely, or perhaps even more likely, to kill white Americans than African-Americans. This is argued by some who say that there are far more police interactions with African-Americans, largely because police mainly interact with poor persons, and African-Americans have a higher poverty rate (18.8% compared to 9.1% for white Americans). I think this argument as been rebutted by Ulrich Schimmack and Rickard Carlsson’s analysis of fatal use of force against non-suicidal young men who are not mentally ill (lots of fatal use of force by police against white Americans involves police killing older guys who are suicidal or suffering from serious mental illness). They have confirmed that police officers are more likely to shoot younger Black men who are non-suicidal and not suffering from a mental illness. And yet, there are some serious debates about how much we can attribute police use of force to racism and how much we can attribute to the sort of bad policing and police brutality that we could all be subject to, regardless of our race. I know there are many studies where criminal attributes and crime attributes have been controlled, and these show that judges and juries and prosecutors all give out harsher sentences to Black Americans compared to white Americans. It is difficult to argue against those facts.  But, if we are facing two serious problems: widespread bad policing and widespread prejudices in law enforcement workers and prosecutors, then do we really need to argue much about which is worse or which problem needs to be addressed first?  Both problems are serious, and both need to be addressed immediately.

For psychological reasons, I do not think Donald Trump would have been interested in transforming our law-enforcement system.  His father instilled so much anger in him, that the retribution and punishment model of approaching the world seems highly central to his core values. Biden may be different, but I wonder at this ability, or the ability of his Vice President, to bring together an alliance of criminologists, law enforcement professionals, mayors, and leadership in the Department of Justice to give us the revolution in our approach to crime that could significantly improve the situation.  I fear we are stuck with incremental reforms that are unlikely to make substantial changes.  

How to Help the Homeless

 There are many homeless people around the Springfield area. According to a WICS report, at one given time there are at least 271 homeless people in Springfield. [the January 2020 point-in-time census of persons living in emergency/transitional shelter and unsheltered counted 294 homeless persons in Sangamon County]  It seems that at almost every major intersection there is an individual a sign asking for help. I will sometimes give cash but it is not something I can do every time. So I did some research to see what other things can be done to help those experiencing homelessness without giving money all the time. I found there are several different ways we can help. The number one thing we can do as a community is contact our legislatures and demand that they do something to help the homeless.  There is no reason we should have any homeless people. I myself am not sure what the answer is but there has to be something we can all do. There are many buildings and homes just sitting empty that we should somehow be able to utilize to provide temporary housing to individuals.  Most would rather not be homeless and for some reason or another have fallen upon hard times and need help temporarily. Until something is done to help the homeless get back on their feet there are several more things we can do as community members to help make their life a little easier.

• Smile, make eye contact and talk to them and get to know them and their story. Human contact is one of the most basic needs that we all need and can give. They might just want someone to talk to.
• Offer to help in anyway you can. Offer food, water, personal items and if needed, cash. We really don’t know someone else’s story and they know what they need at the moment.
• Call the Homeless Hotline if there is one available. In Springfield you can contact Ministries Emergency Shelter at 217-753-3939. There are several others too. 
• If the person appears to be in distress see if you can get them an ambulance
• Educate yourself on the homeless.

[To learn about what you can do, and follow the homelessness issue in Springfield, I recommend the website of the Heartland Continuum of Care at https://heartlandcontinuum.com/]

Something I am going to do is start carrying bags with me that has personal items in it, a list of shelters in Springfield and a small gift card to a restaurant where they can get a meal. 

Helping the current homeless population would only be the beginning, we also need to prevent it from  continuing to happen. We need to have services in place that are available to anyone before they become homeless.  Some of those services would be:

• Have affordable housing available to provide to someone that will become homeless
• Have other services available such as job training, provided daycare so parents can actively look for work
• Intervention/Prevention programs to help financially 

The homeless population is growing and will continue to grow in the future for different reason. Many people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, businesses have closed and people can’t  afford to pay their house payment or rent. We have to do something.  We live in a country that is rich in resources and we should be able to provide affordable housing so no one has to be homeless. 

This is a great reaction essay with a sharp focus on a single issue and an orientation toward solutions.  

The coordinator of the Heartland Continuum of Care was recently asked what would be most helpful, and he was also asked what is preventing us from solving the problem, since we do know how to solve the homelessness problem, as you have outlined in your reaction essay.  He said we lack resources.  Specifically, to move to a housing-first model for everyone, and a permanent supportive housing model for those who need that (which is probably all homeless persons with substance addictions or mental illnesses or co-morbid conditions, which is probably about 40% of all who become homeless in a year, and probably well over half of all who are homeless at any given point-in-time).  In either case, we need housing units where we can permanently place people, and we don't have enough of those.  The Landlord Association is willing to work with the Heartland Continuum of Care and make many units available, but we need more, and once those units are available, we need the money to pay the rent for those places. Could churches, the city government, the current homeless shelters (Helping Hands, Contact Ministries, Inner City mission, etc.) take on new roles as "landlords" for persons in permanent supportive housing or just supportive housing?  In any event, the point is that we do not have the resource: neither do we have funds to provide the rents or acquire the properties we need to house all the homeless, nor do we have the funding to pay the salaries of the persons who would provide wrap-around support and sobriety support and mental health services, or those who would coordinate the volunteers, who would be checking in with people in permanent supportive housing. 

The implication is that we ought to:

Push the city government and the 20+ entities in the Heartland Continuum of Care and the local religious congregations that help support the various services for the homeless to unify in applications for city, state, and federal aid to help us get the resources to supply housing and services for permanent supportive housing.

Support the efforts of Mayor Langfelder and the City Council to allocate more money to addressing the problems of Springfield residents who lack housing. 

Give money to whatever entity is collecting all the resources and coordinating the project of getting all this housing available, and to the services and shelters that currently feed and house the homeless when they run out of their SNAP benefits or monthly assistance—if they even receive those benefits (e.g., St. John's Breadline, Fifth Street Renaissance, the Salvation Army, Helping Hands, Contact Ministries, Inner City Mission, Central Illinois Food Bank, etc.).

Advocate for things that will prevent homelessness:
 affordable housing, 
more housing choice vouchers, 
rules forcing landlords to accept clients who use housing choice vouchers, 
more public housing units, 
more state-or-city equivalents of the federal public housing program, 
more subsidies and laws (especially zoning law modifications) that would create more affordable housing and land trusts, and distribute such housing equitably around a metropolitan area. 

Promote an understanding of housing as a human right.

Promote an understanding that it probably saves money (for hospital emergency rooms, local business owners, police departments, local jails) if persons experiencing homelessness are housed in permanent housing rather than put in transitional or emergency shelters, or left unsheltered.  Since the costs of police and local businesses and local hospitals are passed on to all of us in higher taxes and higher insurance premiums and higher prices in stores, we're paying for homelessness either way, and it just makes more sense to take care of this issue in the way that costs the least (providing permanent housing to everyone) while also meeting our obligations to see that everyone's human rights are protected.

As for the panhandlers, I would never give them money.  If someone comes to me and asks for help, I would usually refer them to Fifth Street Renaissance for breakfast and St. John's Breadline for lunch. Men could seek housing at the Helping Hands shelter or the Warming Shelter (in winter), and women could also seek shelter at Contact Ministries. The shelters typically provide dinner.  Give money or food to the shelters, so they can provide the meals to the 50-60 persons who eat dinner each night. I ask persons who work at the food banks, the homeless shelters, and the Fifth Street Renaissance about the panhandlers at the intersections with their cardboard signs, and they say they don't recognize those persons as clients. I expect that it's a difficult life to work as a panhandler and stand at intersections with a sign asking for money for food, and I expect only desperate people would seek their income in that line of work, so I understand why your sympathies and compassion might lead you to give them something. I just would rather give money to the entities that are providing direct services to persons who are really homeless while also working to solve the problem of homelessness in our community.