“Your discussion today will be crucial,” he wrote. A field representative for Sen. Baucus’s Missoula office read his statement to 30 assembled health care professionals and students.

David Forbes, dean of the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Science at the University of Montana, welcomed attendees to the forum, entitled, “Exploring Community Connections to Reduce Health Care Costs through Prevention and Wellness Initiatives”.

“I’d like to see our college and our university be active across all of Montana, he said. “People talk about reducing health care costs; it’d be nice just to reduce the increase.”

The health care bill submitted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is being debated in Congress. Wellness and prevention, newly budgeted in Baucus’s bill, were prominent subjects of the forum.

Jim Porterfield, organizer of Northeast Ohio Health Care Summits and frequent guest lecturer at the University of Montana, promoted his research on a collaborative health care plan that focuses on the patient as its driving force.

The financially-driven model of health care delivery, according to Porterfield, “has almost killed the private practice of medicine” due to rising costs. Waste, according to Porterfield, is due to the over-utilization of extra services, diagnostic tests, surgeries and excessive medication use.

The subsequent panel spoke on “Prevention and Wellness from Academia to Community”.

Faculty from the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Health and Human Performance at UM explained efforts within the university community for providing services for physical therapy, smoking cessation along with pharmaceutical counseling, partner violence intervention, physical fitness and providing care for underserved populations.

“We have begun to make overtures to certain reservations and women’s groups, saying can we train you to deal with these issues,” said Danielle Wozniak, a professor within the school of Social Work.

The School of Public and Community Health Sciences at UM conducted a study on enforcing outdoor smoking bans on college campuses in the spring of 2007, which is being published in the Journal of American College Health.

“We’re actually pioneering a lot of this knowledge that we’re generating on tobacco cessation,” said Karri Harris, an associate professor and one of the administrators of the study.

Panel members and professionals in attendance expressed interest in the creation of a map to represent community health assets. Many participants hoped that Health Department representative Greg Oliver would begin the inventory of these services.

Oliver, health promotion director of the Missoula City-County Health Department, spoke during the second portion of the meeting, entitled, “At the Community Level”. He remarked that populations that require respective services maintain their own arbitrary catalogs of health care providers.

“Problems like obesity, alcoholism and child abuse are tied into a whole system of forces and they’re hard to get a bead on. They’re usually tied to external forces,” Oliver said. “[The city and county] need to strategically invest resources to improve health.”

Many “shovel-ready” prevention programs are prepared to begin operation locally. This makes the Bitterroot a viable candidate for health care investment.

Missoula, along with Helena, is submitting a proposal to receive what Oliver calls a “different kind of stimulus money”. The towns are applying for funds from the federal government to improve policy and cause healthy environmental change.

The federal government will allocate 35 grants nationally based on stringent guidelines.

“There’s a kind of convergence on what the community wants to tackle and it all comes together at a federal level,” Oliver said. “I think our chances are medium… We have twice the number of programs and twice the number of people willing to sign on [than other cities], including community leaders.”

Large employers in the Missoula community are influential buyers and providers of health care. The university and St. Patrick’s hospital hold unique positions locally because of their number of employees and economic power.

Jill Young, director of UM Faculty and Staff Wellness, understands the difficulty of working with members of the community and members of a large institution.

“I felt like I was the only person out there yelling ‘Prevention! Prevention!’ Now it’s a lot better,” Young said. “It involves keeping people happy – keeping low risk low. If we just focus on low risk, we’re just kind of spinning our wheels.”

Susan Mathis, the Cardiac Rehab and Wellness Coordinator at St. Patrick’s Hospital, discussed the success of the hospital’s incentives that promote healthiness among employees.

“They want to take care. They want to take control. And its up to us to tell them what programs are available,” Mathis said.

“They don’t need another talking head telling them what to do,” Young said.

The new UM Youtube episode on H1N1 is here.

An audience of 120 people listened to Jones’ lecture Monday in the University Center theatre and gave him a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

As the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor, Jones brings his expertise to the Kaimin newsroom where Pollner was happiest. Nine professors have been brought to teach at the journalism school due to an endowment created by the family of a recent graduate who died tragically in a motorcycle accident.

“It’s been a very tough thing to reconcile,” Jones said.

Titled, “Accidents”, the lecture drew on Jones’ life, work as a paramedic in grim situations, and his reporting on subjects ranging from disaster recovery operations to the return of a soldier’s body from Iraq.

“They will never read a medical examiner’s report that will tell them the nature and manner of life,” Jones said. “The best response to death is life.”

Pollner’s mother, Alice Thorpe, along with three members of his family, sat just in front of Jones as he gave an emotional and varied speech. Jones’ voice broke as he spoke of children and family members effected by accidents.

Jones’ demeanor and frank discussion was poignant and hopeful. He advised journalism students to work on the craft of journalism and disparaged fiction writing.

“Now is when you have to decide what kind of writer you want to be and it all depends on what kind of attention span you have,” he said. “I would always come back to non-fiction. I think they’re the best stories.”

Jones taught at UM three years ago and returned to accept the Pollner professorship. He writes for ESPN and Esquire, where, he quipped, he is considered a “youth” reporter due to his junior age of 35.

“Students are still learning how the world works. That’s why professors call them dumbasses,” Jones said.

The dean of the University of Montana School of Journalism, Peggy Kuhr, laughed, but still allowed him to receive a journalism degree in addition to the political science degree he received at the University of Montana. Messina spoke informally for about ten minutes Thursday evening in the journalism school.

“She told me, “It’s not a maybe-line, it’s a deadline, and it’s 9 o’clock. And that’s helped me in my current job.”

Known as a “fixer”, Messina is a go-to man on subjects ranging from Congress to media flaps. Journalism students present at the lecture were especially keen to hear about the Obama administration’s relationship with the press.

“The president has done more outreach in the first year than other presidents did in 20,” he said. “He’s a once in a lifetime politician. If it’s a big thing, he writes it.”

Messina served as Barack Obama’s national chief of staff for the presidential campaign. As one of two White House deputy chiefs of staff, Messina handles the domestic side of internal White House administration. His counterpart is Mona Stuphen.

When Messina was quoted during the campaign saying that John McCain was a “schmuck”, Obama told him, “Remember, I make the news, not you.”

Messina answered questions on his opinions on the scope of the campaign, Montana’s influence on his career, the use of anonymous sources and the Obama administration’s reception in Congress.

“We were a bit plaintive and surprised at the level of partisanship. I think its representative of Congress,” he said.

One of Messina’s favorite moments of his career was taking President Obama to fly fish in Montana. Messina considered letting Obama get out of continuing to fish because it started to rain, but, Obama said, it was “so much better than health care.”

Messina is remembered as one of two Washington D.C. insiders who, when called by then-Democratic-candidate Barack Obama, hung up on him thinking it was a joke.

The seriousness of the resources UM Safety provides is difficult to underplay, but getting in touch with a safety officer benefits everybody.

The last third of the mission statement spells out their responsibilities.

PHYSICAL SECURITY – The University of Montana has businesses, housing and schools that require physical security. Our community members should feel safe where they live, learn and work. Our lock shop endeavors to provide needed access while protecting the people and property of The UM community.

On the UM Public Safety website, the main tabs include crime stats and site links from outside the university. A hate crime form, emergency numbers, and the student code of conduct are all listed.

In addition, watch the UM YouTube channel here.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina has agreed to an informal talk with J School students and faculty Thursday, October 8, 2009 from 4-5:30 p.m. in Don Anderson Hall Room 210.

Missoula expects 1,000 doses of the inhaled version, FluMist. Because the inhaled vaccine contains live virus, people with weak immune systems shouldn’t get it.

But, is it possible for those people who inhale it to spread the virus? If healthy college kids who take the mist continue to attend classes, wouldn’t they be more vulnerable to falling ill because of the virus?

I’d like to see how the local outposts of the CDC deal with distributing versions of the vaccine to at-risk and low-risk people.

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Reportedly, 14,000 wolf-hunting permits have been sold in Idaho and 8,800 have been sold in Montana.

There are huge stock populations in these areas. It’s amazing to me that Wyoming doesn’t have more of a problem.

A Salt Lake Tribune columnist, Ken Fischman, reported that the Feds have estimated that there are 846 wolves in Idaho, 497 in Montana and 302 in Wyoming.

There are many energy and highway paths in Wyoming. What happens when energy corridors run through the rest of the remaining wilderness? I’d like to see human beings and wolves stay out of contact then.

Wyoming, at least, still has legal protection for wolves.