New Choices Program Helps Exton Homemaker Re-enter the Job Market
Her husband, who had just retired as an officer in the Navy, decided to move the family here from Texas. Kathleen Reed thought her major problems would involve things like learning her way around Main Line back roads or finding where the best schools were. Instead, three months after making the move, her husband filed for divorce. It was a double shock for the Exton resident, who had dropped out of college to get married and had not worked outside the home for 13 years. Now she suddenly had to support herself and her two school-aged children.
"I felt like a deer caught in the high beams," she recalls. "I had no family here and only one good friend. I didn't know what I was going to do for money or where to look for a job. Even though I had been an accountant before I got married, the computer age changed all that."
The attorney she consulted informed her that her skills were "null and void," and she should expect a lower standard of living from now on. The attorney did her one favor, however. He advised her about the New Choices career guidance and job re-entry program. She signed up.
News of Delaware County, April 2004
| Tips to recognize—and respond to—domestic violence
A mother of young children in Eugene, Ore., complained of worsening, recurring headaches. Prior blood work, a trial course of migraine therapy and a consult with a neurologist provided no answers. She had already taken so many sick days that she lost her job.
"I asked if she had ever been forced to do something sexual against her will," said Arlene Bradley, FACP, clinical director of women's health at the Veterans Affairs Roseburg Healthcare System in Oregon. The patient said she would rather not talk about it, but she admitted to nightmares, anxiety, abdominal pain, weight gain and dysmenorrhea. Dr. Bradley, who also is the College's representative to the AMA National Advisory Council on Family Violence, scheduled another appointment.
"At the next visit, I discussed her symptoms in a nonjudgmental way, explaining that she might be experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Dr. Bradley recalled. “I told her it is real--and treatable." The patient then admitted that her father had repeatedly abused her as a child, and that she now had to rely on him to care for her own children when she worked.
Dr. Bradley referred the patient for mental health therapy and suggested self-control activities such as keeping a headache diary. The patient eventually confronted her father, who moved out of town. The headaches abated and the patient was able to function normally again.
"The body keeps score," said Dr. Bradley. "Patients don't understand why they have headaches or gastrointestinal problems. It's up to us to find the source of the problem."
ACP Observer, March 2001
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