How Information Therapy helped me get better medical care !

HOW INFORMATION THERAPY

HELPED ME GET BETTER MEDICAL CARE

“ An excellent place to be if you really want to empower yourself and not let the doctor take you for a ride. This is the place to be. Keep it going. – wrote a reporter from a leading Mumbai newspaper.

“The concept of self health education must catch on!” – writes a well known Doctor.

These are only a couple of compliments being regularly received by us from our readers and speakers at Health Education Library for People – HELP.

At HELP we have made it our goal to provide the best health information for every patron every day. The words of our readers say it best. Their stories are really the story of our Library. All the formal awards and accolades just can't tell the HELP story better than the words of our readers.

When one is very ill and things look their worst, nothing seems more inspiring than reading about how other patients survived against the odds and coped with their situations. There are as many different ways to survive as there are patients, and so we can learn something different from each one. At the same time certain similarities, certain patterns emerge.

Now, you can actually tell us how Information Therapy has helped you look after yourself or your family members, your acquaintances etc to help each other.

Perhaps you have a story to contribute. You need not be a "miracle cure" to contribute here - all you need is the desire to use your experiences to help someone else.

Some of the people have voluntarily come forward to share their experiences with HELP. Their ‘stories’ have helped us to provide better information to other, newer readers. Each of these stories illustrates the way someone was helped to overcome and defy the odds and shows how people have redesigned their lives to be meaningful and fulfilling following what could have been a life-shattering event. Their stories are tributes to the ability of people to triumph over adversity and to succeed when life is at its hardest. You will be amazed at their courage, energized by their achievements, and awed at the miracles they managed to accomplish. Some of these stories will bring a tear, some a smile, but all will inspire you with the knowledge and confidence that ‘ordinary day-to-day miracles’ do happen. Some were born with disabling conditions, others suffered illness, some were injured, and some experienced the ordinary conditions of old age. All of them required help to learn or relearn the skills they needed for the job of living, and with the aid of a good book, a CD, or a HELP Talk, they all found the strength and courage to do so.

Nowadays there are so many tragic and angry stories about healthcare--not just in Mumbai and rest of India, but everywhere. What we are looking for are stories that show the humanity within the medical system… stories of hope that were made possible by services offered by Doctors, Nurses, Emergency Medical personnel or HELP Library.

These stories could also be about those times that a medical professional has allowed compassion to be their guide and have "bent the rules" “gone out of their way” in order for you or your loved one to experience a joyful moment, something meaningful. These events are the sorts of things that never seem to make it into the local newspapers---but we tell our readers and the world and we will never forget them.

We now INVITE you to share your story with us. The best of your stories will be posted on our website – with your permission of course! The best story of course deserves to receive a prize – we will send you a copy of our publication – The Healthwise Handbook – so remember to send us your address.

Guidelines:

Your story should clearly and concisely state your experience.

1. You could avoid the diagnostic test details and mention only the main problem.
2. Names of Doctors/Hospitals may be avoided to protect privacy.
3. Nature of research conducted by you to help yourself – this could also include any second opinions, research from books, visits to quacks etc and their effect on the problem.
4. The story could be in the form of a skit, poem, or plain essay.
5. You may protect your identity/privacy by writing in the third person.
6. Stories should REACH US BY 5^th May’08 either by email: [email protected] or [email protected] or by post/courier at the following address: