Walden’s Dedication to Service is Multifaceted
The challenges facing Walden can be a double headed beast. In addition to accomplishing their primary goal of assisting community members in need, Walden board members must work with government and local businesses to attain funding.
Walden is a supporting leg of the $4 million Health Enterprise Zone program centered in Lexington Park, MD. This level of participation in community health is a continuation of 40 years of work that has involved Medicaid and other state, private, and military insurance programs in order to help the widest range of patients possible. As former Walden Board of Directors President, Ken Farquhar notes in his video below the “fluid” nature of Walden as it consistently provides behavioral health services to a broadening demographic.
The ability of Walden to provide a comprehensive array of crisis, behavioral health, trauma and recovery services, often at little to no cost for those seeking help is a point of pride with Walden board members. Many outpatient recovery care facilities offer only self-payment and private health insurance payment options, leaving many people unable to afford or seek treatment.
“As I worked with the Walden staff what I realized was… that the funding was always an uncertainty,” said Ken Farquhar, former Walden board president. “So what that required was that the staff had to be fluid, they had to adjust accordingly to [what was changing]. They were innovative, they were fiercely loyal, they were absolutely dedicated to what they were doing.”
The staff continues to show the same dedication to their cause, and fierce drive to ensure that those seeking help with nowhere else to turn can always find the support they need at Walden.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd31ZxUsyWY]
Walden is terrific. Their struggles for funding points to why we need a Single Payer solution for our public healthcare problems. It would be a relief for businesses to not have to consider that as a cost of doing business. Workers would be free to move around. When it comes to providing healthcare, it should not be a matter of having money or not. It should be a public trust, that we care for everyone, equally. Entities like Walden are necessary to serve those left out of our sadly deficient system as it stand now. Like many things we should hold in common, such as energy, clean water and air, healthcare should be considered a human right, we have a way to go. Now we have to fight greed to keep for all of us what should be our human rights. People struggling with addiction and overwhelming circumstances in their lives need a hand. It benefits all of us to make sure these people can find healing and success. Insurance companies should not be in the health business. They drive the costs up. If someone wants private health insurance let there be a two tiered system. Even Medicare could be more effieciently run if done by government employees, who are not seeking the assurance of their company’s expanded bottom line.