Ezra showing off his Fiona Mask from the Cincinnati Zoo
This is the first of three columns in a back-to-school mental health series.
“Mask debates have returned to school board meetings. Many districts are mandating masks for everyone in the classroom, prompting the mental health cry of “these poor children” all over social media.”
Read the full column at the link below
Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School, by
I sat with my son in the school cafeteria. Wearing masks, we waited to meet his kindergarten teacher.
Read the second in the series at the link below
Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones, by
My daughter was a junior in high school when her therapist called me into her office. I bounced my toddler on my knee and tried to absorb what the therapist was saying.
“Beyond the pandemic deniers, the pushback to getting vaccinated boils down to fear. Fear of rare side effects. Fear of missing work. Mistrust in the vaccine’s speedy approval process, big government, corporate medicine or overall long-term unknowns. This fear prompts justifications for concerns and then settles on a decision that the vaccine is just not worth the trouble. But it is.”
Read the whole column at the link below
Vaccines: They’re Worth the Trouble, by
Shots are a part of my life. I self-inject medication once a week to manage my psoriatic arthritis.
“Though I appreciated that particular priest, I no longer consider myself Catholic. The recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a great example as to why. The bishops voted to draft guidelines for receiving the Eucharist with the goal of ultimately preventing lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, from receiving Communion if they supported a woman’s right to choose. Catholic leaders are exerting their power through public shame, hoping to influence decisions of our supposedly secular legislature.
“It is the same powerplay that Catholic bishops in New York state exhibited in1967 that resulted in something unexpected from their religious peers. It’s a nugget of little-known history that would serve Catholics a great reminder.”
Read the full column at the link below
Abortion and the Catholic Currency of Shame, by
One day in Catholic school, Sister Mary Francis pointed her finger like a gun at my classmate and said shooting her was no different than abortion. Both, she said, were intentional murder.
Life doesn’t happen inside neat little schedules. Plus, my zest for life doesn’t quite match the illness’s demand that I slow down.
Click Below to Read the Full Column
What’d I Miss? Where Chronic Illness and Mental Health Intersect
I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, an autoimmune disease that, when left untreated, can be debilitating. There is no cure. My diagnosis was not a death sentence, but my mobility slowed as the disease progressed.
In this article for Subaru Drive magazine I take the reader through our backyard conservation projects to remove grass, establish pollinator gardens, install rain gardens, and turn our turf lawn into a clover lawn.
I like a lush, inviting yard. Grass? Not so much. Grass isn’t “green” – it’s wasteful, costing homeowners time, money and energy in an endless cycle of planting, watering and cutting. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that landscape irrigation accounts for nearly one-third of all residential water use, totaling almost 9 billion gallons per day. Grass is actually considered America’s largest irrigated “crop,” beating out even corn.
Read the full article below.
Subaru Drive
Substituting clover for grass, along with a few other eco-tweaks, can turn your outdoor space into a paradise for birds and bees.
For a simple step-by-step guide to install your own pollinator garden click the link below!
Subaru Drive
How To Create a Pollinator Garden in 5 Steps
Read more articles by Bonnie on the environment HERE
This is my first piece for Healthline on a topic I’ve not really written about – my health. I’ve not really considered writing about Psoriatic Arthritis It all started with this tweet – a callout for a writer who also had PsA:
I didn’t know what Healthline was looking for in particular when it came to Psoriatic Arthritis but I sent an email and learned they wanted someone to write about “Things I Wish People Understood About Psoriatic Arthritis.”
I was really apprehensive about taking this assignment because I did not want to write an article that prompted pity or came across as wanting anyone to feel sorry for me but I also wanted to be honest about autoimmune disease and PsA in particular. There’s a balance there. There’s also a vulnerability.
“There’s no runny nose to signal to everyone else that I’m constantly in the midst of battle. I’ve always wanted a T-shirt that read, “I’m so bad, I kick my own ass.”
Needless to say, I wrote the article 8 Things I Wish People Understood About Psoriatic Arthritis and I do hope you’ll read it. Linked below:
8 Things I Wish People Understood About Psoriatic Arthritis
PsA is an unpredictable and often invisible illness that is hard to manage — and even harder to understand.
For more articles from Bonnie on Health check out her Clips Page Here or click on the recommended articles below:
‘Survival no longer a given:’ Mom with autoimmune disease asks everyone to get a flu shot
By getting a flu shot, you can “help me protect myself and my family. It means everything to me, really,” said a mom with an autoimmune disease.
Opinion: Tattooing over scars helps with trauma, healing; Kentucky’s ban a loss of that control
For so many people who decide to turn a scar into a beautiful tattoo, it gives them some sort of control over their trauma. It helps the healing.
Gamer Girls: Online Sexism And Video Game Safety for Young Girls
After a seven-month legal battle, the courts ruled and then Ohio Department of Health continued to stall. I was super frustrated. Each email from ODH angered me. You see, I was a wrier on the Eye on Ohio project that aimed to report hospital capacity numbers for the public during this COVID-19 pandemic. Our whole team was tired and frustrated for having to continue to argue with the ODH lawyer to gain access to what the courts had confirmed was public record.
I decided to write an op-ed. I am a freelance writer but I’m also a columnist on the Editorial Board of the Cincinnati Enquirer. So, I wrote the op-ed linked below to specifically call out the Socrates Tuch, the ODH Lawyer who insisted on giving us a hard time. The op-ed appeared on Saturday, November 21, 2020.
Read that Op-Ed Here:
Opinion: Ohio Department of Health needs to release hospital data
Despite a court order, Ohio Department of Health officials are slow to release data on the number of beds and ventilators available across the state.
The following Monday, November 23, 2020, ODH Press Secretary Melanie Amato sent an email that stated:
Here is the latest information on your public records request. Moving forward, please send your requests to me for I will be supplying you with the information. Please stop sending to the legal counsel for they have other things to continue to work on. I appreciate the help.
Melanie Amato
Magically the data we requested started rolling in and Socrates Tuch was taken out of the loop.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of an op-ed column.
Now, the citizens of Ohio have a clear understanding of what the hospitals in their state are facing with COVID-19. Click the link below to check on the capacity of each hospital that is reporting data. It will help individual communities cope with what’s happening in their area.
Ohio’s Hospital Capacity Data in Ten Charts
Interactive: Explore Newly Released Hospital Data This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism. Please join our free mailing list as this helps us provide more public service reporting. Updated: Additional data from Nov. 21-24 released on Nov. 27. Ohio’…
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is an award-winning freelance writer and columnist. She is the Communications Director for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, member of the Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial Board, and a board member for the Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She lives with her family in Northern Kentucky. Find her on social media @WriterBonnie.
“They’ll understand when they’re older.” It’s meant to be comforting: When our kids are parents struggling to do the right thing, they’ll realize how tough it all is. But the part no one tells you is that just because they may one day understand that you did the best you could, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll agree with your decisions.
A lot of recent conversations with my 19-year-old daughter have revolved around parenting decisions I made in her childhood that she disagrees with. She feels some have even caused lasting damage. Ouch. That hurts. I love my children, but love doesn’t make anyone a perfect parent. We’re all still human, just doing the best we can. I know my intentions, but I also know that I still don’t agree with every parenting decision my parents made. My goal was to be better than my parents, but I’m not any better—I’m just different.
Read what learned from the experts in my latest column below:
When Teens Question Their Parents, It’s All Part of Growing Up – Your Teen Mag
It’s uncomfortable and it hurts, but teens inevitably question and sometimes reject their parents’ ideas. It’s all part of growing up.
Read more of my work on child development and parenting
Video Game Safety For Girls
How do girl gamers deal with online harassment? And how can parents help?
Staying Home: Hard but Necessary for Teenagers
Quarantine may cause asymptomatic teens to have mental health concerns. How to talk about COVID-19 and balance your teen’s choices and feelings.
Despite an October 20 court order issued by the Ohio Court of Claims, the Ohio Department of Health still had not released complete records as of late Wednesday night, claiming they needed several days to release information from a database that is updated daily. Read the full story below.
Ohio Department of Health delays full records release despite court order
33 hospitals report they have no critical care bed and/or medical/surgery bed for adult patients on October 30 This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism. Please join our free mailing list as this helps us provide more public service reporting. Despit…
This came after winning the court battle for access to important hospital data. Read that story below:
After seven month legal battle, Eye on Ohio wins public records lawsuit over hospital capacity numbers
Court of Claims Rules that the Ohio Department of Health must disclose the number of beds and other equipment available This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism. Please join our free mailing list as this helps us provide more public service reportin…
This all started seven months ago when we first tried to report data in real time as a service to the public during a pandemic. Our attempts were blocked by ODH. Read that story below
Ohio hospitals remain mum on changes to local bed and ventilator counts; uncertainty affects local patients
The Ohio Department of Health gets daily updates on the total number of beds and ventilators that could be available for COVID-19 patients at hospitals throughout the state. But so far the agency hasn’t provided any hospital-by-hospital breakdown, and the agencies that collect capacity information o…
Read more pandemic Coverage from Bonnie Jean Feldkamp HERE.
