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your-dietician · 3 years

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OPEN M continues to serve Akron, Summit County with free medical care, food programs

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OPEN M continues to serve Akron, Summit County with free medical care, food programs

Jackie Chandler has had medical insurance off and on, depending on her jobs over the years.

So when she hasn’t had insurance, she has relied on the free medical care for her high blood pressure and other ailments at Akron’s OPEN M, a Christian-based ministry and nonprofit. Chandler has also used the food pantry services.

On a recent visit to the medical clinic at OPEN M in Akron’s Summit Lake area, Chandler, 70, was so weak from severe pain in her lower back and lack of appetite that the physician who saw her that evening told her she needed to get to the emergency room. But Chandler was too weak to drive herself.

So Dr. Joseph Rinaldi, a cardiologist at Western Reserve Hospital who volunteers once a month at the clinic, drove Chandler to the emergency room.

“I’m just amazed,” said Chandler recently from her hospital room at Summa Health’s Akron City Hospital, where she was on her sixth day treated for a severe urinary tract infection and severe dehydration. “I was in awe in the whole situation.”

OPEN M Executive Director Christine Curry said it is highly unusual for one of the physicians to drive a patient to the hospital, but shows the level of care and compassion of the professionals who come and volunteer their time.

“It’s definitely atypical, however Dr. Rinaldi is extremely dedicated to the patients at Open M. They truly love him and appreciate that one of the best cardiologists in the region is here. For someone with his reputation to show that kind of care and due diligence speaks volume to what we have here,” Curry said.

Rinaldi said it was the first time in his career he’s ever driven a patient to the hospital, though acknowledged he has wheeled a patient or two to the Western Reserve Hospital emergency room from his office in the hospital.

“She came in and she was obviously sick. I was worried she was dehydrated and was having trouble walking,” said Rinaldi. “She really probably shouldn’t have driven herself to the clinic let alone to the emergency room, which is where I thought she should go.”

Rinaldi said the patients seen at the OPEN M medical clinic don’t have insurance so “the last thing I wanted for her was to get a bill for an ambulance. It was near the end of the clinic. it was on my way home. It really wasn’t a big deal.”

Rinaldi wheeled Chandler into the Summa Emergency room and gave the doctors there a little history before he left. He was suspicious she had a urinary tract infection and nothing related to her heart, which is his specialty. Rinaldi was at OPEN M that night for his shift seeing all patients, not just cardiology patients.

Helping the community

The medical clinic, which is open Monday through Thursday by appointment and serves as a patient’s primary care practice, is just one of the free programs offered by OPEN M, which has been serving the greater Akron community for 53 years. It was formed as Opportunity Parish Ecumenical Neighborhood Ministry in 1968 by four churches, and Curry said it has since received supported from additional churches, foundations, nonprofits, corporate partners and thousands of volunteers.

All programs are free and income eligible. To register for one of 10 food service programs offered by OPEN M, contact United Way of Summit and Medina County’s 2-1-1 service (dial 2-1-1 or 330-376–6660). To check eligibility for OPEN M’s medical clinic, call 330-434-0110.

OPEN M serves the Summit Lake community around its headquarters on Prince Street, but clients for the medical clinic and food services come from all over Summit County, Curry said.

A total of 40% percent of the clinic’s active patients are from the Summit Lake neighborhood and the other 60% are from greater Akron and Summit County. Among patients, 43% are white, 42% are black/brown and the rest identify as “other” or are unidentified, Curry said.

“There’s a misnomer out there about uninsured folks and what they look like and people are totally inaccurate,” said Curry, who has been executive director since last year. “Being uninsured is an equal opportunity thing and the world needs to step up and do something about it in this country. We are more than happy to be the go-to place and the only true free clinic in Summit County. We are truly free. We don’t take Medicaid. Our prescriptions are all free. Last year in 2020, we gave out more than $1.5 million in free prescriptions.”

For OPEN M’s food services, 7% of the households were from the Summit Lake neighborhood, 92% were from the rest of Summit County and 1% from outside the county, said Curry. Last year, OPEN M’s food outreach programs gave out $1.25 million worth of food to nearly 14,000 households or more than 37,000 individuals.

Chandler said the medical clinic and food pantry, where she has gotten food staples from OPEN M, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been extremely helpful. The physicians helped her get her high blood pressure under control and she has been able to see specialists like chiropractors and acupuncturists during special clinics.

“It was enormously helpful,” said Chandler, who is sad since she will be transitioning to Medicare and will not be able to utilize the medical clinic but will still use the food services. “They supplied any needs I had whatsoever, including the food pantry. They’re just awesome.”

Food insecurity among senior citizens is on the increase, Curry said, noting that more than 4,000 in Summit County received assistance from OPEN M in 2020.

Serving during the pandemic

OPEN M’s services also did not stop during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Julie Carneal, the organization’s facilities and food services manager.

The medical clinic closed to in-person during the height of the pandemic, but switched to telehealth appointments and continued to dispense patient’s needed medications, Interim Manager Tammy Hicks said. It is now open again to in-person appointments Monday through Thursday, with specialty clinics about nine to 10 times a month.

The food services programs of OPEN M also didn’t stop during the pandemic, when need was great, Carneal said.

The food pantry, which offers food staples once a month with a referral “was one of the ones that never shut down. All of our employees, even though their programs shut down, they worked through the pantry. We weren’t allowed to have volunteers in here [at the height of the pandemic], so we kept it going. We never missed any programs at all,” said Carneal.

OPEN M has or participates in 10 different programs for food distribution, including a new partnership with Door Dash to deliver pantry-type food to shut-ins and the blessing bags, which offer canned foods to get people by overnight and hot meals, offered daily the last two months of the week. There is even available donated dog and cat food from the Humane Society.

OPEN M moved all of its food pickups to a drive-thru system during the pandemic and has areas for those walking up; it will continue that method through the winter, said Carneal,

“We found it is a lot more efficient and less hassle for people standing for any length of time. If they don’t have a car, they come through and stay on benches until we’re ready to serve,” she said.

New stand-alone dental clinic

OPEN M also has a new stand-alone dental clinic named The Harry and Fran Donovan Dental Clinic. OPEN M has had volunteer dentists seeing patients through its medical clinic but the new stand-alone dental clinic with multiple bays offers more space for the specific needs, Curry said. The clinic started taking patients in February.

Curry is looking to hire a dentist and hygienist for 30 hours a month each to work with the volunteer dentists to serve more people.

Until the hires are made, for now, the 450 active OPEN M dental patients are the only ones who can be seen in the clinic, Curry said.

Summit County Councilwoman Veronica Sims, who grew up in the Summit Lake area, volunteered at OPEN M as a teen and whose county ward covers the area, praised the organization for serving its neighborhood and beyond.

“OPEN M has inserted itself in the neighborhood. It’s not something happening as an offshoot. It’s integrally a part of this community,” Sims said.

“I hope through this whole pandemic, in the work that OPEN M has continued to do, that we start to re-evaluate what public health looks like and where does public health meet the community in a real way — so that we’re not doing this kind of recognizant kind of work trying to mobilize within the community when we have these crises,” she said.

Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or [email protected]. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.

How you can help

• OPEN M can accept donated prescriptions, but only if they are still sealed and not expired. It will also take incontinence and wound care supplies. It cannot accept medical supplies like walkers or wheelchairs.

• To volunteer, make a monetary donation or find out other ways to help, go to www.openm.org or call 330-434-0110

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whimsyverse · 7 years

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The Whimsyverse Project Trait Wishlist

So naturally, I have very keen ideas about the personalities of most everyone in the Whimsyverse. If they’re my character, I created them to be a specific way, and if they’re already existing, they’re...well, already existing. Thanks to some talented modders, the trait/career/aspirations lists are more robust than ever...but there’s still some room for improvement, and some of my characters have very specific needs.

I’ve been trying to learn modding, but seeing as I’m starting from literally zero knowledge (like, I don’t understand the basics of how the Sims accesses its code, or even how code functions), it’s very time inefficient (as I mentioned before, I kinda want to finish this project’s current phase and, y’know, start playing eventually), so I’m reaching out to a few talented trait/career/aspiration modders to see if they have any interest in helping...or at least giving me some pointers as to how to get started. I am still hoping to learn - I would never seek out someone to do work for me because I’m too lazy to figure it out myself - but I imagine there might be some people interested in some projects :-)

So I’ll occasionally be posting trait/career/aspiration ideas here and if someone happens to bump into them and thinks it might be fun to make one, all the better. All I ask is that you contact me and coordinate. I would prefer them to be collaborations rather than outright requests, though I’m fine with people wanting to do all the legwork themselves as well, I just want to know when someone is working on something.

I’m also open to suggestions to improve upon the ideas (starting below), if you have a better grasp of the mechanics than I do, or maybe just have an idea of how something could work better in-game.

So here’s the list. I’m just going to post bare minimum descriptions/ideas here. I have actual flavor text and more in-depth descriptions saved in a Google Doc. If you’re interested in seeing them, let me know and I can share access with you (it’s public, and anyone can comment on it, though only I can edit it).

I’ve also headed some of the ideas with Is it possible?: when I have an idea that I’m not sure if it’s possible to work into the code (I would appreciate if someone who knows if something is indeed possible or not could contact me and let me know, even if you’re not interested in making the mod).

I’ve also added OC to some traits that are specifically tailored to some of my OC sims - these traits could easily be used by other players, but they’re specifically designed with a certain character in mind (I’ll list the character if anyone’s interested in looking them up).

Traits

Misophonia (a condition in which someone experiences discomfort at certain sounds)

Debuffs (uncomfortable, tense, angry, etc) when around other sims eating.

What other “sounds” could cause this debuff?

Is it possible?: Difficulty sleeping around other sims.

Is it possible?: Occasionally wakes up in the middle of sleep with a debuff.

Dazed debuff from interrupted sleep.

Positive moodlet when listening to music (not unlike music lover).

This isn’t technically part of misophonia, but as someone who has it, I sometimes find music helps me block out annoying sounds and focus better.

Misanthrope

Basically a more severe loner trait, debuffs/angry/uncomfortable mood when around people but no buffs when alone.

Is it possible?: can the debuff be lessened (but not removed) when around friendly sims?

Slow relationship gain

High relationship loss from mischief/mean interactions

Slow social skill gain

Slow/no social decay

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Note: Yes, this would be a very watered down version of a very serious mental illness. It is not my intention (here or with any of these traits) to make light of a serious condition and I welcome any feedback to be more respectful/accurate to those conditions.

Also, the Sims 4′s relationship mechanics aren’t exactly the best when it comes to simulating something like DID (sometimes I really miss the Sims 2′s asymmetrical relationships, as finicky as they could be)

Occasional strong emotion buffs of all types, which would simulate more erratic, confusing behavior.

Occasional dazed debuffs simulating confusion about what the sim is doing/has done (”how did I get here?”)

High relationship decay as the sim may have met or interacted with other sims while under the influence of another “personality” and may quickly lose those memories.

Is it possible?: to switch traits on the fly temporarily to simulate another “personality”?

Using the “insane” autonomy would work to simulate confusion and seeming irrationality/erratic behavior.

Angelic Voice

Increased singing/charisma/social gains

Powerful mood boost to nearby sims while singing

Smaller version of that mood boost to other sims when speaking to them.

Autonomous singing / singing whims

Is it possible?: to increase fun gains while singing?

Beacon of Hope

OC: This trait was designed specifically for Hope Aveline.

Happiness is the base emotion and it takes a lot for them to be anything but happy.

Happiness buff to nearby sims.

Is it possible?: if this sim feels anything other than happy, other, nearby sims will receive a moodlet for that emotion.

Extremely high charisma/social gains

Is it possible?: to give the sim a similar effect to the “incredibly friendly” reward trait, making it so they’re instantly friends with anyone they meet?

High social decay

Broken

OC: This trait was designed specifically for Vanessa Huntington

Sadness is default emotion and it takes a lot for them to be anything but sad or angry.

Is it possible?: whenever a sim experiences a negative emotion, they receive a moodlet with a +1 of that emotion to intensify it?

Slower social gains, but slower relationship decay

Is it possible?: can the relationship decay be slowed only for friends and higher?

Intense Apathy

OC: This trait was designed specifically for Vincent Dolan

Sims cannot experience any emotions (are always “fine”)

Social gains are extremely decreased

Social decay is frozen

Fun decay is extremely slow, and fun gain is heightened (so they barely have to do anything fun to fulfill their fun needs)

Pursuit of Perfection

OC: This trait was designed specifically for Vincent Dolan

Lowered (physical) need decays across the board

Social, Hunger, Bladder, Hygiene are all 50% lower

Energy decay is 75% slower

Energy gain is lowered by 50% to simulate the extra rest these sims need to recover.

Fun decay is as slow as possible without freezing it (similar to Intense Apathy above)

All skill gains are 50% faster.

Social gain is lowered slightly.

Scheming

Occasional strong, inspired mood called “Scheming”

Very high mischief and logic gains

Is it possible?: sims gain more fun/happiness buffs from mischievous actions/interactions

Happiness buff when performing mean/mischievous interactions with sims (to simulate their “plans” coming to fruition)

Disarming

Lower social loss for mean/mischievous interactions

Is it possible?: improved apology interaction alla the “Sincere” bonus trait

High social gain

Increased charisma gain

Charming

Simply increased relationship and charisma gains

Grease Monkey

Increased handiness gain

Is it possible?: increased fun/happiness gains when doing handiness interactions

Is it possible?: improved repairs/upgrades

Either they take less time or stay fixed longer?

Cruel

Similar to “Mean” trait

Happiness moodlet when being mean or mischeivous

Autonomy/whims for mean/mischief interactions, getting into fights

Buffs/moodlets for winning fights or gaining enemies

(I basically liked the word “cruel” more than “mean”)

Overly Dramatic

I’m not sure how this one would work. I basically want something like the Sims 3 “Dramatic” trait.

“ Your Sim is emotional and finds many sitautions sensational and tragic.”

“Your Sim is likely to react violently when insulted by others.”

“Your Sim is more likely to burst into tears of joy or sorrow than other Sims.”

Is it possible: Maybe the sim simply experiences more intense moods? Like, when they’re happy they gain +1 happy, when they’re angry, they experience +1 anger? etc

Increased social gains for friendly interactions, increased social loss for mean/mischief interactions?

Harder to lose emotions (positive and negative)?

I don’t know how well this would work since a lot of the trait would rely on how the sim acted rather than the buffs/moodlets/autonomy/whims

I welcome any suggestions!

Seen But Not Heard

OC: This trait was designed for Cecil Ashton, Lokandra Proud, Ultari Van der Maar, and Ophelia Masters

All of these characters were either “mute” in their original incarnations or rarely spoke.

Is it possible?: I don’t know how to simulate a sim who can’t speak or speaks less than other sims. I don’t suppose there’s a way to make them perform talking cycles less during interactions

It would still work to just give them low relationship gain, low social need decay / high social need gain, low social autonomy, low charisma / mischief gain.

Arrogant

Low relationship gain, high social need decay, frequent social whims

Snob autonomy / interactions

Is it possible?: I forget if there there’s a “talk about self” interaction anywhere in the code?

If so, adding frequent whims to do it and happiness buffs when doing it would work.

Extremely high relationship loss for mean/mischief interactions.

Is it possible?: can these sims have extreme relationship loss only when receiving mean/mischief interactions?

Is it possible: Confidence/happiness buffs specifically when receiving compliments?

Otherwise other sims being nice to them could just give them confidence buffs with the flavor text “yeah, I am pretty great!”

Negative moodlets when failing

Not sure how to define “failure” interactions

Subservient

???

Absent-Minded

Occasional “dazed” debuff simulating general confusion.

Is it possible?: to drop commands? Like, have a sim occasionally just cancel what they’re doing?

Dreamy:

Naturally dazed by default, difficult to overcome.

Cannot be angry or flirty

High natural energy decay, slightly lowered (90%?) energy gain

Frequent whim to take a nap

Strong happy buff after naps.

In the Moment

OC: This trait is designed for Afagh Vector

These sims live “in the moment.” They have extremely poor memories and are chronically incapable of planning.

High relationship decay

Low logic gain

Happy by default

Devoted

Low relationship gain, but extremely slow relationship decay

Is it possible?: can relationship decay be slowed based on relationship level? Like, 100% (normal) decay for acquaintances, 75% for friends, 50% for good friends, 25% for best friends?

Strong moodlets for the sims and their friends when they’re together.

Serious

Fun decays much slower

Incredibly slow comedy gain

No whims to do fun things

Is it possible?: funny interactions always fail.

Is it possible?: sims gain less/no relationship for funny interactions

Is it possible?: minor negative (dazed?) buff when sims joke with them?

“I don’t get it...”

In the Pursuit of Science

OC: This trait was designed for Jonathan Ferris and Gerter Kier, among others

Extremely increases logic, handiness, programming, and rocket science gains

Frequent inspired and focused buffs

Extremely low relationship gain from friendly/funny interactions

High relationship loss from mischief/mean interactions

Cold

Low social need decay

Low social gains

Experiences no emotion other than “fine”

Extremely low comedy/mischief gains

Philosophical

Bookworm autonomy/whims and buffs from reading

Slightly increases writing skills

Frequently inspired

Is it possible?: Occasionally causes a dazed debuff in people they interact with

Sickly

Is it possible?: Easier to get sick

Is it possible?: sim exhibits symptoms (coughing/vomiting/etc) when not sick?

Extremely increased energy decay

Hunger need decays slower and fills faster

Is it possible?: extremely difficult to gain muscle/fat

Relationship gains slightly increased, improved “friendly” interactions

Nurturing

Relationship gains faster, improved “friendly” interactions

Buffs when around friends (for sim and sim’s friends)

Is it possible?: Some sort of whim/autonomy/buff/whatever when friends are feeling negative emotions - some way for them to help or to encourage them to help

Is it possible?: Debuffs when around sims who are feeling negative emotions

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