Compassion

Project Altuism Compassion Empathy .pdf

Re: Launch of “Project Compassion” at the Kettle Friendship Society.

(Please access this document online for accessing links www.bit.ly/ProjectCompassion)

1. With the objective of enhancement of the level of compassion practiced by the lower mainland community I write to solicit the assistance and guidance of the community of the Kettle Society to launch and maintain on an ongoing basis a deeper insightful campaign the time of which is now upon entire humanity in light of the impending ecological unsustainability crisis called climate change and the Non Communicable Disease (NCD) epidemic with the dementia tsunami in tow which is going to hit the human race big time in the decades to come. I am guided by Roman Krznaric’s views of How to start an empathy revolution; and the views of pediatric rheumatologist, serves as the Clinical Director of Service Dr. Paul Rosen, as outlined in his TED talk Empathy The next revolution in health care?

2. I am of the view that with Tamara Taggart as a person to give voice to the otherwise voiceless mental health issue afflicted individuals and an extensive experience with the care of that category of individuals the Kettle Society is uniquely equipped to launch this campaign which is likely to get replicated such that the propose Project Compassion which has the potential to become a blue print for entire human race. I would like to insure the presence of Tamara Taggart at the launch when I propose to show for viewing of the audience 24 November 2014 TED talk by her named Two conversations that changed my life where she points to the glaring contrast between the posture of the doctors in two major events in her life. Compassion was largely absent or merely pretended in the first instance.

3. The focus of this or the intended target population is intended to be the healthcare providers and other social support providers including the charities specially those who aim to serve the needs of individuals afflicted with mental health issues or other serious disabilities. While they are in the business of compassion, my personal experience leads me to conclude that they themselves have a long way to go in attaining a level of compassion that I would categorize as satisfactory. Currently I would be forced to give them a failing grade such that there is massive room for improvement. With some provisos I can probably say that even of the Kettle Society as well. It troubles me to observe relatively able-bodied people snatching food from the hands of those who are less physically agile to snatch a better food item. Greed is the opposite of compassion and generosity and in the coming years as world faces food shortages, we better learn to better share food, water and every other resource as all of them are on course to vanish.

4. The individuals or the care giving families benefit little from pity shown to them by stating the fact of being sorry about their situation and dropping the conversation. That borders on cruelty as Tamara outlines it. Nine-year-old Vivienne Harr in her talk Be one person [ www.bit.ly/beoneperson] says “Compassion is not compassion without action.” Most of the empathy or compassion is false or faked. I understand this is a harsh statement and would tend to offend many. But without admitting that there is a problem we cannot cure it. The denial of several of the social issues has blocked their being remedied.

5. An educational and research psychologist Michele Borba who asserts that Empathy is a Verb [www.bit.ly/empathyisaverb] shares her decade-long discovery journey to how to optimize human potential. The best news is: applying simple strategies together we can revolutionize society and build the best investment for our future: human capital. Creating a world-permeating ethos of compassion. There are several others like

6. The best gift to give to a homeless, destitute, prisoner, a bed ridden person, a wheel chair bound person, a person with mental health issues or dementia is to give him a chance to be heard. We have become so lousy at our time management, largely through fidgeting with the iphones and other digital gismos that we have no time for each other. We not only allow others especially the seniors with disabilities to be harmed we also harm ourselves.

7. There in fact remains no choice for humanity to shun greed and committing to generosity in a major way failing which we are capable or making the live of each other a living hell and take the entire human species close to the brink of extinction. So, we better begin to behave a lot better about giving up selfishness. Telling others who face hardship and challenges that “I am too busy” or I do not have time is an expression of selfish and even unethical conduct of criminal negligence where there is a duty of care upon the healthcare providers and that is rampant in the society already and the bulk of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) epidemic and dementia tsunami is yet to hit the humanity by 2050.

8. As we promote compassion, we need to recognize two types of Compassion Fatigue. First version is relevant to the corporate and private donors to charity who stop donating given their limitations and the large number of donation seekers. Canada has recently hosted a few hundred Syrian refugees, but the spectre of a few million coming knocking at our doors from Bangladesh as their country is taken over by the seawater would be another story entirely. India is already building tall walls to prevent their invasion. Time is not far as we begin to turn the homeless, hungry and destitute away as we have little left to feed our own dependents. We need to prepare for that type of situation evolving beyond 2035 when the era of climate refugees begins.

9. The other type of Compassion Fatigue or Compassion Exhaustion advocated by Patricia Smith the founder of the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project© is where caregivers are too busy caring for others that they end up neglecting their own emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Studies confirm that caregivers play host to a high level of compassion fatigue. Foolishness or stupidity of the healthcare providers and the community lies in allowing the caregivers to be so burdened and exhausted that they fall ill and become additional (avoidable) burden on the healthcare system. While to the doctors and nurses it might seem like a self-gratifying chore successfully dodged, or even having saved a penny in healthcare costs by not delivering the required services and downloading it on to the family the stupidity of that empty sharpness lies in the fact that in due course it comes to haunt the system with triple the cost.

10. In my respectful opinion direly needed launch of “Project Compassion” at the Kettle Friendship Society has already been painfully and seriously delayed. With due respect to all the positive commentary about the compassion and high-quality care that staff and management at the Kettle provides to those who avail of the services here, I must also point out that they are far from adequate and no excuse is valid in that regard. I am in a position to support this assertion of serious gaps through providing cogent personally experienced evidence of substantially substandard care or paucity of compassion. (only if so requested).

11. Dr. Lucie Wilk in her TED talk What medicine can learn from art and Dr. Alia Crum in her TED talk Change your attitude mindset, change the game speak of power of belief or faith. I have coined a term Alia Crum Effect and the magic of Lucywilkure This can be used to inflict the type of healing that has been attributed to Jesus which is in realty compassion mediated. That is a superb approach of cost saving which systematic neglect of patients which is wide spread already is not because it backfires.

12. It would hurt me profoundly if the launch of this project is interpreted as a tactic used by me solely for personal gains while the fact that a general elevation of level of compassion would certainly benefit my mother and me as a collateral event or a side effect. That is not the primary driver behind this concept. It is the 7the community enhancement project that I have developed and there is hope that the previous six that for now stand shelved away due to lack of compassion in the community would see the light of day at some point as the level of compassion among the community generally and the healthcare providers specially rises from the current dismal levels.

List of selected talks on Compassion and Empathy on YouTube

· 365 grateful project by Hailey Bartholomew

· A Dynamic Model of Empathy: by Jock McKeen

· A good day’s work requires empathy by Jackie Acho

· A radical experiment in empathy: by Sam Richards

· Be one person by Vivienne Harr – author of Compassion is not compassion without action

· CCARE Science of Compassion 2014: Welcome & Opening Remarks, James R. Doty, MD

· Connect (socialize) or Die by Dr. Starla Fitch

· Creating a world-permeating ethos of compassion: by James Doty

· Drowning in Empathy: The Cost of Vicarious Trauma by Amy Cunningham

· Empathy in digital age by Dr. Katri Saarikivi

· Empathy is a Verb by Michele Borba