Episode 15
Original Cablecast: December 3, 2007
- Spreading the Word on Food: Many Brooklynites can’t afford to pay for decent food, but Diaspora Community Services is determined to tell people about the Food Stamp program, and get them enrolled. One of their clients tells his very compelling story.
- Live Light, Live Right: Are there more overweight kids in Brooklyn than in America as a whole? The answer is yes. Brookdale Hospital runs a program designed to get children eating right and, just as important, moving.
- MRSA & the Flu: Just The Facts: Our host, Dr. Monica Sweeney, talks with two Infectious Diseases specialists about the myths and realities of MRSA staph infection., the flu season & flu vaccines, and more. Guests are Dr. Jack DeHovitz of SUNY Downstate and Dr. Scott Harper of the NYC Dep’t of Health & Mental Hygiene.
- A Daughter’s Story: A young woman tells the agonizing story of how she grew up in the midst of domestic violence…how it eventually led to murder and suicide…and how victims have more control than they often realize.
Episode 14
Original Cablecast: November 6, 2007
- A Senior Among Seniors: One of the hardest things for the elderly to deal with is loneliness. Tanya Gilgeous is in her last year at Clara Barton High School., but thanks to an intergenerational care program run by New York City, she brightens up the lives of the seniors at a Brooklyn residential center.
- Back on His Feet: Victor Hall may have lost a leg to amputation, but hard work and the staff at Kingsbrook Rehabilitation Center have him walking – and driving – again.
- Diversity Divide: Brooklyn may be a wonderland of many cultures, but getting healthcare to all those different ethnic groups presents its own challenges. Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to long-time Brooklyn physician Dr. Stanley Sherbell, Exec. VP of Medical Affairs at NY Methodist Hospital.
- Too Young For This!: Most 21-year-olds hardly think about their own mortality. Matt Zachary had to face cancer – a brain tumor -- but today, through his internet talk show and other projects, he helps thousands of young people with cancer reach out to one another.
Episode 13
Original Cablecast: October 2, 2007
- Sleep Disorder Lab: A visit to Brooklyn Hospital, where patients with trouble sleeping find out if those problems are tied to serious medical conditions.
- Street Screening: How to get proper medical care to those who really need it. The ScanVan, a mobile facility run by Project Renewal, screens for breast cancer and tuberculosis in poor and homeless Brooklynites.
- TB in Brooklyn: Tuberculosis is still here, especially prevalent among immigrant and minority groups. Host Monica Sweeney talks with Dr. Beth Raucher of Maimonides and Dr. Adam Karpati, head of the Brooklyn division for NYC’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
- Living with Lupus: This autoimmune disease, whose victims are overwhelmingly female, is still not very well understood. One single mother in Bay Ridge tells us how she copes, first and foremost with courage.
Episode 12
Original Cablecast: August 7, 2007
Pregnancy
- Prepping for Parenthood: Funny how we get trained for every job but the most important one: being a parent. Suny downstate offers a starter course.
- Why Prenatal Care Matters: There are many reasons why a baby is born prematurely, some of them still not understood. But one of them is a lack of good prenatal care. We start off at th e brooklyn hospital neonatal intensive care unit.
- Born in Brooklyn: Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to Dr. Sandra McCalla, an Obstetrician from Maimonides, and Ngozi Moses of the Brooklyn Prenatal Network. The subject: how to make sure brooklyn has healthier babies.
- Getting Help at Home: Wwhen a first-time mother goes home, she doesn’t always feel completely confident about caring for her newborn. One Brooklyn program is trying to smooth the way - and do a lot more besides.
Episode 11
Original Cablecast: July 3, 2007
Dental Care
- Oral healthcare is too often overlooked. The major obstacles are fear and expense. But a checkup not only preserves teeth and gums; sometimes it reveals serious medical symptoms.
- Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to Dr. Bernard Tolpin of Lutheran Family Health Centers about a range of dental-related topics.
- Poor or non-existent dental insurance is a problem faced by many Brooklyn residents. But a lower cost option for dental care is offered at Interfaith Medical Center.
- They may still have baby teeth, but that’s the best time for a bunch of preschoolers to learn the best way to brush!
Episode 10
Original Cablecast: June 5, 2007
Stroke
- When a Call Comes In: Find out what EMT’s are trained to do in the event of a stroke incident - and how to recognize symptoms yourself.
- A Stroke of Luck: How an elected official from Brooklyn, NYS Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, survived to describe what happened during and after his own stroke.
- Jeffrey Farkas, MD: Host Monica Sweeney, MD, interviews Dr. Farkas a neurointerventional radiologist at Maimonides Medical Center. Among the advances in stroke treatment they discuss: the one that saved Steve Cymbrowitz’s life.
- Winning Back Their Lives: Perhaps the most frightening aspect of a stroke is how it can leave a victim so badly damaged. But stroke rehabilitation is far beyond what it used to be. A doctor, a patient, and the road back...
Episode 9
Original Cablecast: April 3, 2007
Aging
- Adult Day Care: TCaregivers can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to Adult Day Care Programs that offer alternatives to long- term institutional care. Selena Walker, 74 receives physical therapy and participates in group activities 6 days a week.
- Estate Planning and End of Life Issues: Host Dr. Monica Sweeney, MD talks to an elder law attorney, Aytan Bellin of Petroff & Bellin, LLP about the potential situations that may arise in someone’s ‘later years’. It is recommended to discuss legal issues related to health care, long term care, and trusts with your family early on before anything happens.
- Tele-Medicine: Witness the new way doctors are checking in with their patients. Monitoring blood pressure and weight via the telephone line can help reduce the amount of trips to the hospital and can help spot changes in health before it becomes a problem.
- Senior to Senior: Henry Street Settlement’s Senior Companion Program pairs healthy adult volunteers with homebound seniors. We journey with Mary, a senior companion volunteer, who help bring a little sunshine to Celia, who is 90 years old.
Episode 8
Original Cablecast: March 6, 2007
Asthma
- Some Room to Breathe: : The non-profit group "Make the Road by Walking" conducts a detailed home assessment, looking for the asthma triggers that are making a 13-year-old girl sick. Plus "The Rule of Twos," a brief and simple set of rules that will help you know if your asthma is being properly controlled.
- Asthma, Day Care, & More: Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to Kathy Garrett-Szymanski, Asthma Action Coordinator at Long Island College Hospital, about efforts to fight asthma early -- at day-care centers, where staff and parents are getting trained to recognize and deal with symptoms.
- All in the Fingertips: Find out if shiatsu massage therapy works as an additional asthma treatment, beyond the recommended medical therapy. In other words, does it help, or just feel nice?
Episode 7
Original Cablecast: February 6, 2007
HIV & AIDS
- HIV Testing - the Frontline Troops: Education and testing come first when we go traveling with the mobile unit team from Project StreetBeat, visit Lutheran’s Caribbean American Family Health Center, and get filled in on the "Safe Sex License" by its Brooklyn-based creator, Eli Dancy.
- Mary and Robert Lee: A profile of two people living with the virus: we learn how they contracted it, and how it’s affected their lives.
- A Passionate Panel: Host Dr. Monica Sweeney - just named New York City’s next Assistant Commissioner for HIV/AIDS - leads a wide-ranging panel discussion on everything from treatment to how the deep-seated stigma of being positive makes it even tougher to deal with.
Episode 6
Original Cablecast: January 2, 2007
Chronic Disease
- Bodega Blues: Bodega vs supermarket: a nutritionist and a diabetic go shopping to show you why one is so much healthier than the other.
- Interview Dr. Mary Bassett: The Deputy Commissioner of NYC’s Bureau of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention talks about what we’re doing (and not doing) to curb chronic diseases.
- In Her Own Voice: Linda Swalling describes her tough battle with head-and-neck cancer which may have been caused by second-hand smoke.
- Discipline & Determination: Hypertension has Brooklyn jazz pianist Ed Stoute in dialysis three times a week - but that’s not keeping him from making music.
Episode 5
Original Cablecast: December 11, 2006
Heart Disease
- This month's episode takes aim at heart disease, our number-one killer. We ask: can cultural backgrounds affect how you perceive and react to danger - including heart attack symptoms? We look in on a new program training Brooklyn community members to become health advocates and sit in as they learn about coronary disease. And we profile a heart attack survivor who’s not only learned to live with his condition, but works as an EMT – for two different hospitals.
Episode 4
Original Cablecast: November 7, 2006
Substance Abuse
- This episode looks at substance abuse, both trials and treatments. We meet a former crack addict who's been clean for 16 years — and is still fighting to stay that way; a woman who's been using drugs most of her life and how they helped lead her into the ordeal of domestic violence; and learn what a group of junior high school kids know about drugs.
Episode 3
Original Cablecast: October 3 , 2006
Nursing
- Knock, Knock! Nurse!: Whoever the patient, whatever the medical issue or its treatment, there’s almost always one common denominator: a nurse. But what’s it like to be a visiting nurse in Brooklyn, bringing health care directly to your door?
- Why So Few Nurses?: In Brooklyn, as well as across the country, there’s a growing nursing shortage. Why? In a conversation with host Monica Sweeney, MD, a nursing administrator and a staff nurse from Lutheran Medical Center discuss the problem-and the many opportunities offered by a nursing career.
- Health On Wheels: Inside a medical clinic that’s sometimes hard to find-but only because it moves around so much. It runs on dedication and diesel, and these nurses are always on the go, treating patients and training new nurses.
Episode 2
Original Cablecast: September 1, 2006
Cancer
- Your Head in Their Hands: Cancer -- in all its many forms -- kills several thousand Brooklynites every year, and cigarette smoking is a leading cause. One local program figures if you won’t quit because the Surgeon General and your doctor tell you to, maybe you’ll listen to someone else, someone you trust enough to put your head in their hands.
- First the Patient, then the Disease: Cancer, whether it’s linked to smoking or not, often calls for a whole range of complex and high-tech treatments. Patients can easily start to feel overwhelmed. One state-of-the-art facility in Brooklyn makes that concern a priority.
- Cancer Overview: A look at how Brooklyn’s battle with cancer is going, with Dr. Adam Karpati, Assistant Commissioner for New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Director of the Brooklyn District Public Health Office.
- In Her Own Voice: Meet one of the thousands of Brooklynites who get cancer every year and have to figure out how to live their lives with it. Linda Swalling is blessed with enough inner strength to fight back -- long and hard.
Episode 1
Original Cablecast: August 8, 2006
Diabetes
- Mr. Chan and Dr. Lu: Diabetes is exploding in Brooklyn. Why is Type 2 diabetes hitting the local Asian community so hard? And why is it so crucial to develop a relationship with a primary care provider?
- Bodega Blues: No wonder diabetes is so prevalent in many low income Brooklyn neighborhoods: just try buying healthy foods! Go shopping with Ego, a registered nutritionist, and Linda, a diabetic fighting a weight problem. First they try a bodega, then a supermarket-night and day when it comes to a healthy selection. Great tips on how to read labels, portion sizes, and more.
- Diabetes Data: What is diabetes, what does it do, and what first steps can you take to control it? Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to a certified diabetes educator from Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center.
- Rose Jackman Makes You Dance: Whatever can get you moving, get you up off the couch and using your muscles, will help in the battle against diabetes. Meet a woman who inspires other women to fight for their own health.