Future of Health Care
<bt>A public forum to discuss the future of health care is planned for Monday, May 12, from 7-9 p.m., at the Fairfax County Government Center Board Auditorium, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.
Speakers include: Rep. Pete Stark, ranking member, House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee; Katherine Hanley, chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors; Jane Woods, Secretary for Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Virginia; Victoria Wachino, associate director, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured; Toni Ardabell, chief operating officer, Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children; Jorge Figueredo, executive director, The Hispanic Committee; and John Luehrs, national coordinator for state affairs, AARP.
Topics to be discussed include: increasing cost of prescription drugs and health care; access to health insurance and health care; long-term care needs; future of Medicaid and Medicare; and liability issues facing hospital emergency rooms.
For more information visit the Web site at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/services/dfs/CAAB. To request special accommodations, call Erika Tomko at 703-324-7509, TTY 703-222-9452, or e-mail Erika.Tomko@fairfaxcounty.gov.
<sh>Grief Conference
<bt>AARP Virginia, the Hospices of the Northern Capital Region and the Fairfax County Grief Program will be co-sponsoring a conference, Understanding Grief: Strategies, Challenges and Multicultural Perspectives, May 30, at St. Matthew's United Methodist, 8617 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. The conference is free to the public and a complimentary continental breakfast and lunch will be served. In addition, continuing education credits for professionals will be offered.
The event will offer workshops along two tracks: Exploring the beliefs, support systems and the meaning of spirituality expressed in the Asian, European, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim and African American communities; and understanding the grief process, strategies to survive and heal, obstacles to grieving and healing, complicated relationships/complicated grief, and sharing the lessons of loss.
To register call toll free, 877-926-8300.
<sh>Online Directory Available
<bt>The Human Services Resource Guide directory, a comprehensive directory of services and public, nonprofit and some for-profit service providers, is available online by visiting the Web site at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rim.
The guide contains more than 600 organizations and includes information such as detailed descriptions of the organizations and services, how to access service, eligibility requirements, service locations, hours of operation, income guidelines, contact information and languages on staff.
Organizations interested in being included in the guide are encouraged to mail brochures, fact sheets or other materials to Resource Information Management Services, 6245 Leesburg Pike #320, Falls Church, VA 22044. Staff is available for a training presentation to community groups and associations on how to use the guide. For more information, call 703-533-5718, TTY 711 (Virginia Relay Center), or e-mail wwwrim@fairfaxcounty.gov.
<sh>Online Restaurant Inspection Reports
<bt>Restaurant inspection reports are now available on the Virginia Department of Health's Office of Environmental Health Services Web site at www.vdh.state.va.us.
Only inspections conducted after Jan. 1, 2003 are available on the site. Consumers can expect a seven-day delay between the time an inspection report is entered into the database and the time when it appears on the Web.