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Elder Voices, Inc
mission is to explore ways of bringing human rights to health care by
offering education, prevention and intervention.
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 includes health care as one of
our rights. Yet millions of people do not live in an environment that supports their basic survival needs.
Twenty-first century
technology offers new ways to provide healthcare services. Our mission includes learning how people and technology can work together to bring the ideals of human rights to the
complex stories of a person’s daily life circumstances. For example, the
use of artificial intelligence is challenging humans to better understand their thinking abilities
and choices of values as they try to discover the right diagnosis and treatment of their health. Our education projects focus on a person’s problem-solving abilities, and how to create guidelines for their health care to share with their health professional. And, how the health professional can include guidelines for human rights in their work.
Our intervention for human rights
violations is looking into how the guidelines used for health care decisions result in helping or harming the person. For example, in the United
States studies have suggested medical errors could be the third leading cause
of death following heart disease and cancer. It is not known how many of these
errors occur because of health professionals who did not respect the person’s
human rights but instead were influenced by discrimination or financial
benefits.
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THE FOUNDERS Kara Bennett, PhD
For several generations my family worked in health care; medical practice,
research, education, mental health, nutrition, physical fitness, and
entertainment for patients. I’ve been involved with mental health, human
rights, education, and entertainment for over forty years. (PhD from UCLA,
Psychologist license in CA, Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity Association) I was fortunate to study and work with an innovative group of educators, research
scientists and practitioners who introduced me to an approach for studying problem-solving
strategies that include the complex dynamics of daily life events. For
instance, my PhD dissertation; “A Construction of a Diagnosis,” investigated
how a neurologist discovers the cause of a patient’s illness. The physician is
asked to “think aloud” as they examine the patient and the interaction is
recorded. Observing the physician’s problem-solving as it happens gives a
chance to discover how they try to fit their medical knowledge to the immediate
experience of the patient’s symptoms. I continued to apply these research methods as an example of Problem Based Learning to many different kinds of
problem-solving situations. Documenting the thoughts and actions
of people as they try to achieve their goals suggested common mental processes
for translating a person’s ideas into action. For Elder Voices education projects this background is adapted for simulated and virtual environments, community theater and storytelling,
to have a place to try out problem-solving possibilities that encourage respect for human
rights. For example, in a virtual or simulated environs
the health professional can explore methods for making a diagnosis and then select the methods that work best for interacting with the real patient. Link to CV
Susan Patrice Weiner, MD, MPH
Dr. Weiner received
her MD and MPH from Tulane University and began practicing medicine in
pediatric neurology. Later she studied at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at
Georgetown University and worked with issues of bioethics and human rights. She worked as a
volunteer physician from 1994 to 2010, helping people without health
insurance in the San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles CA. areas. During this time she was cofounder of Elder
Voices, and hoped to continue this work for many more years. However, she tragically
died in 2012 from a rare cancer, small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. Dr. Weiner will continue to be our guide for exploring the interface of spirit, art, and science to help bring human rights to global health and healing. For example, she found the virtual world environment we had
created for some of our education work about human rights was an uplifting
place to visit during her cancer, and Elder Voices continues to share her
work there.
Besides her medical practice, Susan was a
member of the advisory counsel for the program of Medicine and Philosophy at
the California Pacific Medical Center, and trained with the San Francisco
Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. In
1989 she won the young investigator award from the American Epilepsy Society.
Her publications are in books, medical journals, interviews with health professionals about the philosophy of health and healing.
Link to CV
OUR PUBLICATIONS
VIRTUAL WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION
Bennett, K. (2019). Learning Problem-Solving Strategies in Virtual
Worlds that Encourage People
to Respect Human Rights. In
Recent Advances in Applying Identity and Society Awareness to Virtual Learning. Editors: Stricker, A. G., Calongne, C., Truman, B., & Arenas, F. J. Hershey,
PA: IGI Global. Second Edition Link https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/learning-problem-solving-strategies-in-virtual-worlds-that-encourage-people-to-respect-human-rights/233763
De
Leon, L. & Bennett, K. (2019). Human Rights, Think Aloud Protocols and
Magic Drums: Revealing Character in Pre-Service Teachers. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 30(2), 255-274. Waynesville, NC:
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/180559/
Bennett, K.
(2017). Learning Problem-Solving Strategies in
Virtual Worlds that Encourage People to
Respect Human Rights. In Integrating an Awareness of Selfhood and
Society into Virtual Learning . Editors: Stricker, A. G., Calongne, C., Truman, B., & Arenas, F. J. Hershey, PA: IGI Global First Edition http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/learning-problem-solving-strategies-in-virtual-worlds-that-encourage-people-to-respect-human-rights/174812
Bennett, K. & Patrice, S (2013). Exploring the Virtual World of Second Life to Help bring Human Rights to Health Care. In Women and Second Life: Virtual Identity Work and Play Editors: Diana Baldwin and Julie Achterberg. McFarland and Co:Jefferson, NC http://www.amazon.com/dp/0786470216/ref=rdr_ext_tmb#reader_0786470216
PSYCHOLOGY OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS
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Bennett, K. (1981). A construction of a diagnosis: a study of a physician’s mental strategies for fitting a patient’s symptoms and signs to a disease category. Doctoral Dissertation UCLA, 1981, 300 pages; AAT 8206002 | | Bennett, K. (2000). Perceptions of Lyme Borreliosis |
| Bennett, K. & Barrows, H. (1972). An investigation of the diagnostic problem solving methods used by resident neurologists. Mathematical Biosciences Volume 15, Issues 1-2, October Pages 163-181 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0025556472900715 | | Barrows, H. & Bennett, K. (1972). The diagnostic (problem solving) skill of the neurologist: Experimental studies and their implications for neurological training. Archives of Neurology 1972;26(3):273-277. |
NEUROLOGY RESEARCH
Weiner SP, Painter J, Geva D, Guthrie RD, Scher MS. Neonatal seizures: Electroclinical dissociation. Pediatric Neurology 1991; 7:363-8. Link https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/088789949190067U
Schulz PE, Weiner SP, Belmont JW, Fishman MA. Basal
ganglia calcifications in a case of biotinidase
deficiency. Neurology 1988;38:1326-1328. Link https://n.neurology.org/content/38/8/1326
Weiner SP, Rosenbaum F, Hansen Ie, Fishman MA. A five year old boy presenting with a neurodegenerative process as the initial manifestation of human immunodeficiency
virus infection. Annals of Neurology 1988;24:360
Weiner SP, Zinser WE, Parke JT, Fishman MA. Trismus as the
presenting sign of brainstem glioma . Annals of Neurology 1988;24:360.
Schulz PE, Weiner SP, Haber LM, Armstrong DA, Fishman MA.
Neurological complications of fat emulsion therapy: the fat overload syndrome. Annals
of Neurology 1987; 22:452 Link https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ana.410350521
INTERVIEWS
ABOUT HEALTH AND HEALING
Weiner SP. A Time to Build: A Time to Heal. Dialogues
on the Creation of the Institute for Health and Healing. Ways of the Healer Winter/Spring 1996. California Pacific Medical Center Foundation
Weiner SP. A Tale of Two Sisters. Ways of the Healer Fall
1994/Winter 1995. California Pacific Medical Center Foundation
Weiner SP. Tilling the Soul. Ways of the Healer Winter/Spring 1994. California Pacific Medical Center Foundation
Weiner SP. Aristotle in the Emergency Room. Ways of the Healer Spring 1993.California Pacific Medical Center Foundation
Weiner SP. The Evolution of the
Program in Medicine and Philosophy. Ways of the Healer Winter 1992-1993. California Pacific
Medical Center Foundation
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