Year: 2020

Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation, in partnership with Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, awarded over $3 million in grants to 36 Illinois Federally Qualified Health Centers and other public health clinics that deliver vital health care services. Sixteen of those grant recipients are in the Chicago metro area. The Foundations developed the grant opportunity to help offset costs associated with reopening and continuing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants of up to $100,000 were available to Illinois health centers and clinics that integrate oral health into a primary health care setting. Grants were focused on these health centers and clinics because they offer crucial services to Illinois residents who are underserved and may face obstacles to receiving needed care. Among the 16 grant recipients from the Chicago metro area include: 

Alivio Medical Center, Chicago — $100,000
This grant will go toward general operating support for children’s oral health services. Funding will be used to support staffing, as well as personal protective equipment for the dental department. Alivio provides health care to the uninsured and underinsured, including many from the Latino community.

Howard Brown Health Center, Chicago — $59,986
Howard Brown Health Center delivers health services to patients in areas disproportionately affected by health disparities at 11 clinical sites throughout Chicago, with a focus on the LGBTQ community, its allies and people with HIV/AIDS. This grant will support staff and construction costs for the health center’s newly opened pediatric dental suite in Englewood, as well as costs for personal protective equipment.

Erie Family Health Foundation, Inc., Chicago — $100,000
Erie Family Health Foundation, Inc. will use its funding to help rebuild its capacity to pre-pandemic levels and continue to provide services to its pediatric patients, many who are from low-income families. Their goal is to reach 60% of that capacity this year, serving a minimum of 6,354 children annually.

Lawndale Christian Health Center, Chicago — $50,000
Lawndale Christian Health Center is the medical home to more than 65,000 low-income patients, including 19,500 children, and offers a variety of services, including dental care. Grant funds will help support staff and operations.  

As we head into the holiday season, starting with Halloween, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is issuing guidance to help people celebrate safely as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.  Guidelines include following the 3 W’s – Wash your hands. Watch your distance. Wear your mask. If you think you could have COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone who has COVID-19, do not participate in any in-person Halloween activities.

Trick-or-treating
– Anyone participating in trick-or-treating, including those passing out candy, should maintain 6-feet of social distance and wear proper face coverings.
– Consider leaving individually wrapped candy (spaced apart) on a table in driveways or in front of walkways, sidewalks, or any outdoor space where 6-feet of distance can be maintained.
– A Halloween costume mask is not a substitute for a cloth mask. Ensure that breathing is not impaired if a cloth mask is worn under a costume mask.  If so, discard the costume mask.

Haunted Houses
– Halloween haunted houses currently are not allowed in Restore Illinois Phase 4 Guidelines.
– Consider open-air, one-way haunted forests or haunted walks where 6-feet of distance can be maintained and face coverings are used.

Adult costume parties, social gatherings, Halloween parties at bars
– Gatherings of more than 50 people or 50 percent or more of a building’s maximum occupancy are prohibited. (Lower limits may apply for regions in additional mitigation.)
– The more time you spend at a gathering, the closer the contact, the more people, the higher your risk of exposure to COVID-19.

For more information on safety tips, visit www.dph.illinois.gov

Have good hair care and hygiene habits. When washing hair, massage your scalp, rinse well with cold water, and avoid pulling back on your hair because that can put traction on the follicles. The same goes for combing. It’s less stressful on the follicles to wash and comb your hair forward, toward your face, instead of toward the back of your scalp and neck. Also, long hair weighs more, so on its own, it can put more traction on the follicles. Regularly brushing hair, however, is actually good for it— brushing massages the scalp and helps improve blood flow and circulation. Brushing your hair once a day, especially with a brush that can stimulate the scalp, is almost as good as shampooing your hair. That’s partly because brushing can help remove dirt from the scalp. It’s also important to keep your combs and hairbrushes clean. The condition of your hair should also be in balance—not too oily, not too dry. Also avoid overuse of a hair dryer on your hair— that can make it weak and brittle, which can lead to more hair loss.

Watch your nutrition. Some fad diets may have a nutritional impact on hair loss. In my opinion, it’s really important to eat a healthy balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. Also take a multivitamin that includes vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E, along with the minerals zinc, iodine, and iron. You may want to also take a supplemental B-complex vitamin, although most multivitamins have sufficient amounts of Bs. And, if not in the multivitamin, also supplement with biotin, a coenzyme that helps the function of B-complex vitamins.

Avoid unhealthy environments. Avoid radiation exposure and air pollution that may be contributing to hair loss. More specifically, avoid smoking, not only because of its negative health effects but also because it can affect hair loss. If you can identify some of the potential causes for hair loss that may not specifically be male pattern baldness, you may find successful treatment through a hair care professional, a dermatologist that specializes in scalp conditions, or a plastic surgeon or other hair transplant specialist who also treats these conditions.

Dr. Patrick Angelos (drpatrickangelos.com), author of The Science and Art of Hair Restoration: A Patient’s Guide, is a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon whose primary surgical interests include hair restoration and facial plastic surgery.

By Maeve Raphelson, LCSW

Counseling can be many things. It can be a place where you let go of all the stressful things impacting you in the world, of your anxieties, or where you talk to another person about how to solve personal or family problems. In reality, there is not space here to list all the possibilities for counseling.
What happens in counseling? All counselors have a different style, but typically it begins with talking about what is going on and concerns and later the client, with their counselor, create goals that they want to accomplish in counseling. In later sessions, they talk more about what is going on, what happened before and coping skills to confront difficulties and be successful.

Is counseling just for crazy people? Of course not! We all have problems—it can be changes in the present, trauma, or losses from the past, or worries about the future.
How is counseling different during the coronavirus? Adaptations that medical offices can make are more difficult for counseling. For example, you cannot see facial expressions with a mask. And although you can often sit six feet apart, typical sessions last an hour and the distance is not sufficient in that time. Therefore, the majority of counselors are using video chat or talk with their clients on the phone. One advantage of this is that it matters less where your counselor’s office is, you can meet in your home, in your car, and wherever to have a connection. There is so much stressful stuff in the world today, why not get some help in confronting it?

If you have questions or want more information, you can contact me at maeve@chicagoiipc.com.