How to Conduct a RHCD Teach In

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Recommendations by Karen Shore, Ph.D., President of The National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc.

Click here for ideas for RHCD events

Contact any consumer organization or professional (health care professional from any field of care, health care lawyers, corporations, teaching institutions, etc.) with an interest in quality health care and in finding a better solution than corporate managed care. Ask them to cooperate with your organization to hold a Teach-In on why we need to replace corporate managed care with a better system and what ideas could be used to do so. Get as many groups together as possible.

Once you have a few groups together, find a hall in which to hold the event. If you can get one donated, great; if not, do your best. School, university, hospital or church/synagogue/mosque auditoriums, etc. are good places.

Find a few speakers: local activists, consumers or their loved ones who have been hurt by managed care organizations, consumer advocates, federal or state legislators, health care policy experts, concerned professionals, well-known people who care or who have a relative with serious health care needs, authors and reporters who have written about the MC industry, etc. Remember that RHCD is an event at which all political points of view are welcome, as we begin a national dialogue on alternatives to corporate managed health care. Teach-ins can either promote one particular point of view, if that particular event's sponsors agree on a particular solution, or the Teach-In can invite speakers from a variety of political perspectives. The Cosponsors of RHCD itself, The National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers and Physicians Who Care (and any other organization that becomes a cosponsor) will exert no control over how you wish to run your Teach-In. It is yours to create your own platform to promote your own ideas and make your own wishes and those of your organizations known.

The date is April 1, 2000. Remember to hire the hall for a few hours surrounding the noon hour so that you and your audience can engage in the "Minute of Silence" at Noon to remember and honor the injured patient who was harmed by a managed care organization's policies and decisions. We suggest allotting a minimum of 3 hours, up to 5 or 6, depending on your purposes. Consider making refreshments available for the price of attendance or for sale.

If you and the organizations you get together wish to do an "Hour of Protest" instead of a Teach-In, find a good site (outdoors is good; in front of a State Capitol; in front of the Capitol Building in Wash DC; in front of a monument to freedom or quality health care; in front of a hospital or large medical center; in front of the headquarters of an HMO or other managed care organization, etc.). You will probably need a permit from the city or town. Arrange it for April 1 from 11:30 - 12:30 so that you can incorporate the Minute of Silence.

Publicity: Have volunteers call begin calling your local newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and magazines. Have each cooperating organization do a mailing to their members. One mailing soon to let people know RHCD is coming, to mark their calendars, and to ask if people might want to contribute a story about poor HMO care or to speak on alternatives to corporate managed care. Arrange with local clinician's offices (doctors, nursing practices, mental health professionals, physical therapists, chiropractors, dentists, etc.) to send them a flyer with details about local events...in late February and have them keep a fresh supply in their office waiting room up through April 1.

In all publicity, mailings, etc...remember to inform people about local sites for Teach-Ins, Hour of Protest, AND...to tell all citizens: A) to start wearing a GREEN RIBBON that symbolizes a desire for a better more pro-patient, pro-quality system of insurance and health care, and B) that on April 1, anyone who is not able to attend a Teach-In or Hour of Protest can simply stand wherever they are at Noon on April 1, or go outside to be seen publicly, wearing a GREEN RIBBON and carrying any sign they wish that states their desire to end managed care and replace it with a better system.

Remember: RHCD is for people to state and promote their own ideas for an alternative to the current system of corporate managed health care. All are invited to participate in the beginning of a national dialogue on alternatives to managed care. Thus, their signs can make their wishes known.

Below is a message from from Ron Bronow, M.D., President of Physicians Who Care. He sent it to people who are organizing a Teach-In in Los Angeles with PWC. This is how Ron is envisioning that Teach-In. You can take ideas from it if you wish...or create your own ideas and format for your own Teach-In and e-mail them to me (KShore@AOL.COM). Good ideas will be spread around.

Below is Ron Bronow's message about how the L.A. Teach-In will be organized:

As you know, Rescue Health Care Day will be a nation wide protest against corporate HMOs and the beginning of a dialogue on how they can be replaced by a high quality pro patient system. The Los Angeles event is sponsored by Physicians Who Care. It will be entitled, "Blow the Whistle on Managed Care" The program will begin with a videotape, showing photos and videotapes of patients who have been victims of the system, with voice-overs from families and key people who will document the stories. The tape will end with messages from Karen Shore and me. This tape will be shown at the meetings across the country, sent to the media and to Congress, and be put on our web pages. We will then pass out police whistles. We'll have an open mike for patients to tell their stories (we should probably limit the time to around one minute) After each story, the audience will blow their whistles. Interspersed with these patient protests, many of you will give presentations which we will discuss Sept. 12 The meeting will end with Michael Moore's devastating protest against Humana, which was aired on TNT. Following this we will have a minute of silence, probably outdoors, where everybody will join hands (like Hands Across America) to commemorate the victims of corporate managed care. We will pass out a packet to the audience for them to send information to their elected representatives or to take other action.

Obviously, to pull this off successfully, we will need maximum media coverage--radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, talk shows, etc. We need publicists or PR people who would work pro bono (if possible) They would get full credit for their efforts. We need to mobilize all of our resources to bring in the largest possible audience and then decide, based on the estimated size of the audience, where to have the event. The theater at Paramount studios or the Directors Guild hold around 500 people. High school auditoriums hold a lot more. We could also consider using a church. We need your input. Should we have the audience display signs? We will have a tribute book, like at charity events, which will be our source of funds for RHCD. People (individuals and groups) will buy ads publicizing their participation and to give their message. This ad book will be distributed to meetings across the country. RHCD is a collaboration between clinicians, patient advocates, physician unions and many others. We need your ideas and your maximum efforts.

Best regards to all...Here's to changing the country!!

Karen Shore, Ph.D.
President
National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers
P O Box 438, Commack, NY 11725
1-888-SAY-NO-MC or 516-424-5232
Fax: 516-549-3942
NCMHPC@AOL.COM
http://www.NoManagedCare.org