PORCHLIGHT: SHEDDING LIGHT ON HOMELESSNESS

GUESTS: Steve Schooler, Executive Director, Porchlight
Diane Ballweg, Chair, Madison Cares Capital Campaign

Who cares about the homeless? Porchlight does and is tackling the chronic issue of homelessness and mental illness with renewed vigor. Porchlight is our community's link to the homeless, providing emergency shelter, food, employment services, counseling and affordable transitional and permanent housing to homeless people in the Dane County area. The needs are great, and no one knows better than Steve Schooler and Diane Ballweg who are working to raise awareness and money to build a facility to provide affordable housing and professional case management for the area homeless. They share their story on this program.

For more information, go to: www.porchlightinc.org, or call 608-257-2534

MANAGING THE PAIN

Guest: Kim Litwack, PhD, RN Nurse Practitioner with Advanced Pain Management

Pain is one of the most frequent complaints encountered by healthcare professionals. Almost 35% of Americans suffer from chronic pain and almost 50 million people are partially or totally disabled by it. Sadly, many people live with pain not knowing that innovative treatments to manage pain are continuing to emerge. Kim Litwack discusses some of the most common causes of pain and describes the individual approaches to managing pain that are now available.

For more information on pain management, go to www.apmhealth.com

MENDING A BROKEN HEART

Guest: Amish Raval, MD, Interventional Cardiologist, UW Health

Having a broken heart, as in cardiovascular disease, is the #1 killer in the United States of both men and women. Much progress has been made in treating the many forms of this disease, and the lifestyle choices we make - diet, exercise, not smoking - have a big impact on preventing heart disease. For those patients who have advanced disease with no further options, revolutionary new treatments using stem cells, genes, and growth factors are being researched to treat their chronic angina, congestive heart failure, heart attacks, and peripheral artery disease.

On this program, Dr. Amish Raval discusses what we know about the management of cardiovascular disease and his research using regenerative medicine to find new options for patients with advanced heart and vascular disease.For more information, contact The Options Clinic, Dept. of Cardiology at UW Health: (608) 262-2290

ADDRESSING MENTAL ILLNESS AS A BRAIN DISEASE (Part 2 of a series on Mental Illness)

GUESTS: Nancy Abraham
Dylan Abraham

When Nancy Abraham's son, Dylan, was diagnosed with schizophrenia 37 years ago, Nancy had no where to turn for help or support. So she began creating a support group that would envelope all the others in her same situation. Her organizational efforts began in Dane County, extended to the state of Wisconsin and then led Nancy to become one of the co-founders of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Nancy talks about how society views mental illness today and the changes in perception and treatment that are so critically needed.

For more information, contact NAMI at www.NAMI.org, or call the Dane County office, 608-249-7188. For immediate help, call the Crisis Line, 280-2600.