Happy New Year, everyone!
This month is our annual health care issue, and boy are there a lot of health care concerns as we kick off 2025.
This year, we focused on older adults and their challenges such as keeping active and preparing for the future. Erin Wheeler wrote about the importance of physical activity; she interviewed our editor, who talks about what happens when exercise is set aside as a reaction to an unsettling diagnosis. Deb Risden has written a personal story about the importance of addressing health care needs and legal processes when dealing with decisions related to our family members. She takes us on a journey of what she experienced with her mother.
Jon Huang has reviewed a book that is all about ultra-processed foods. Next month, Jon also wrote about the challenges of eating healthy on a limited budget.
We’ve also added some short takes in health care with information from trusted sources and covered things like technology trends in health care, innovations in mental health and robotic-assisted surgery.
Our columnists have jumped on board with our health care issue, too. Terry Stokka veered from land and water to talk about his experience as a person with limited hearing. In Yesteryear, Coben Scott provides us with a glimpse on how our ancestors dealt with medical problems in the old days. I think there must have been a lot of whiskey involved. Bill Radford brings in veterinary medicine and introduces us to a veterinarian who specializes in goats and other camelids. Mark Stoller has just started a new career in the health care field, but he has already experienced firsthand the daunting cycle of people who cannot afford their drugs.
And thank you to El Paso County Public Health for their monthly columns — this month, they’ve presented options for dealing with mental illness.
I think it’s going to be an awakening for our health care system this year. Americans are frustrated with the system. Health care has tested my patience and disappointed me in so many ways as I help my dad navigate the “system” the past few years.
If RFK Jr. is approved as the head of Health and Human Services, I am certain there will be outrage and applause, which will feed this already divisive country. All I know is that we need to, as Taylor would say, “shake it up” when it comes to the health care industry.
If you have resolutions this year, I wish you success! My resolution is to keep the NFH in your view!
See you in February,
Michelle
Correction: Last month, we published an article about the Pikes Peak Workforce Center Job Fair. In that article, we mistakenly referred to Becca Tonn, the communications director for the PPWFC, in two references in the story as Becky. Her actual name is Becca. Please accept our apology for the mistake.
In the Exchange Club articles, published in the NFH in the last couple of months, we misspelled Don Koveleski’s name. His last name is Koveleski, not Koveliski. We apologize to Don for the mistake.
