Healthcare Awareness Project for Take Care Utah

Healthcare Awareness Project for Take Care Utah

John C. Thomas

POLS100 at Salt Lake Community College

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Health Awareness Project for Take Care Utah

Introduction:
It is hard to talk about middle ground for something that is fundamentally right
(Teri Reynolds). In Teris statement, she is referring to the health needs of humans; the
birthright of healthcare (Often-times mistakenly equated to health insurance) . This is
an issue that we havent completely figured out in this country .There are many
controversial aspects of nearly every direction we can move towards as a nation . With
the slew of options available, it becomes important to number one, have resources
available to learn about them and number two , to have the means, knowledge, and
assistance (especially in underprivileged circumstances) to make proper healthcare
become available.
It will be very difficult to get this figured out but regardless of the challenge , we
need to be willing to take the proper incremental steps to progress . Furthermore, in
order for us to take this step, it's important for us as a people of this nation to realize our
civic responsibility; because when we are all doing our part as individuals , the
population as a whole tends to progress.

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Analysis:
Take Care Utahs goal is to first of all, inform people with less privileged lifestyles
and the minority population (or simply the uninformed) about the United States
healthcare system options. After that, the organization will assist the signee with the
entire application process along with answering any questions they may have . All of this
is done at no expense to the consumer. All the consumer wants is to gain access to
reliable healthcare at an affordable price; Take Care Utah strives to provide exactly this .
Adam (a classmate) and I, ended up doing this project together. While we didn't
get the opportunity to go through this whole process and practice all of the
organization's goals, we did inform a variety of gatherings about Take Care Utah via
passing out fliers and got some experience informing on the bare essentials of the
organizations purpose. If we improved even one person's life, it was worthwhile.

Discussion:
As I did this project with my classmate, Adam Martian, we intended on
becoming very busy with the workload and consequently having loads of material to
write about but many of the people we came across already had health insurance or
werent interested. This became problematic throughout the whole project; but we did

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learn something. Volunteer work is everywhere and if you really think about it , you may
find that doing volunteer work periodically is arguably one of our civic responsibilities .
Civic responsibility of every American, if practiced and upheld, touches the lives
of everyone they come into contact with. There is a quote (Jennifer Self) that appears in
the Constitution of the United States that says , We the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States."
Practicing civic responsibility ensures that the underlined direction described in
the Constitution is upheld. This becomes important when we are trying to live with a
democracy in this nation because its success relies on our ability to adhere to these
principles. As I wrote earlier, it also ensure our progress as a nation and society.

Conclusion:
When I first thought about what I wanted to do my signature project on , I thought
it would exciting to do something that would give me experiences that I never before . I

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kept this mindset throughout the entire search . After a few moments of searching I
heard about Take Care Utah and decided to give them a shot . My first meeting with a
Take Care Utah representative was with a representative from the Take Care Utah
organization named Filipe. We sat down together and talked about how much time
Adam and I needed to invest into volunteer work and asked a bit about how much
experience I had in communication, particularly in the Spanish language , as we would
end up working with many Hispanics.
He went on to explain that I would need to be trained for a few hours before I
could start working. We began planning to go to schools and shelters to discuss
healthcare options with a variety of people. Filipe asked if I knew how to speak
Spanish, as the majority of people he do not speak English fluently. When I said no,
Filipe abruptly shifted the direction of the conversation to what can you do? , especially
when I told him I was just doing this for a school project and I couldnt continue working
for him past the 12th of December.
Eventually we decided to continue forward as planned , despite my lack of
Spanish speaking abilities. We were going to do some training, followed by some office
work (taking phone calls), and finally some field work. All these possibilities got me
excited and we agreed to meet a second time to provide me with everything I needed

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for the project. At my next meeting with Filipe, I walked in, holding agreement sheets
that I was obligated to sign. He continued to explain that we were going to pass out
fliers! This really shocked me because of my expectations for the project but because of
the research and time invested in this decision , (I needed to decide then or never) I took
the offer anyway.
Although I didnt gain the type of experience I initially anticipated , I did learn a
few new things. I went to different college and cultural events and basically handed out
fliers, informing people about Take Care Utah and a variety of things , like the deadline
for signing up for ObamaCare and the free help that our organization provides . I didn't
see it before but this was an opportunity to learn about the responsibility I have to my
country to contribute.

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References
Teri Reynolds (2010). Dispatches from the Emergency
Room.http://newleftreview.org/II/61/teri-reynolds-dispatches-from-the-emergency-room
Elizabeth Renter (October 6, 2014). Obama care Pros and Cons.
http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/health/2014/10/06/obamacare-pros-and-cons/
Jennifer Self, Graduate Student of Grand Valley University. Civic Responsibility.
http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper11.html