VOTE!!

.If you haven’t voted yet - GO NOW!! Bring a book, bring your notes, bring a friend, bring a camp stool - but do it.

As a social worker in health care, I want you to understand the most influential voice in the direction of your health care is YOURS. It isn’t uncommon for people to feel overwhelmed at a medical appointment or to feel like you are not being heard. But you should always remember you have rights and that you, in collaboration with your physician, chart the course of your health and your treatment!

“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes” - Maggie Kuhn

Healthcare is on the ballot in every election, without a doubt. It’s fair for you to ask any candidate if they plan to protect your health care, and how they are going to do it. Will they vote to protect people with pre-existing conditions? Will they support Medicaid and Medicare benefits? (Important for everyone but particularly for those diagnosed when they are still working) Will they work to fund respite services? Will they advocate for funding for researching through the National Institute of Health (NIH) Will they commit to voting to support FUNDING for services and research?

YOU can help your favorite politicians by educating them to be good advocates and good spokes people - and in turn they will come to value you and your voice on the issues. Ultimately, it brings our country to a place where it values and cares for everyone.

So get out and vote! While these days may seem dark and harsh, we are better together! Keep coming back to Parkinson’s Place Las Vegas, because we’ll be here.

“Tomorrow’s elections might be the most important of our lifetimes. The health care of millions is on the ballot. Making sure working families get a fair shake is on the ballot. The character of our country is on the ballot.

“When we've been at such crossroads before, Americans have made the right choice. Not because we sat back and waited for history to happen -- but because we marched, and mobilized, and voted. We made history happen.

“If you take that power and vote, something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens.”

“If you take that power and vote, something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens. And with each new step we take in the direction of fairness, and justice, and equality, and opportunity, hope spreads. Go vote!” ~ President Obama

See you at the polls!

Ruth Almen