Readers crave quick information about wellness and illness. After 13 years at a city magazine, Ellen can deliver service journalism: how to sleep better, brighten your smile, choose a therapist, and so on. ER or urgent care? What’s a child life specialist? And Ellen’s profiled a boy who regained his sight, a young man who survived an aortic dissection, a woman who fought off nicotine addiction in public ….
Ellen has written about all this and more. Pdfs are available for most or all of these. Especially where there’s no link, please ask for a pdf:
Service Journalism
- Getting through an MRI, now faster and easier (Chicago Health)
- The many health benefits of volunteering (Next Avenue)
- What is high-functioning anxiety and how to cope (PsyCom)
- How to talk to a relative or friend about suicide (Chicago Health)
- Does Lamictal cause weight gain? (PsyCom)
- Trait vs. state anxiety and how to handle them well (PsyCom)
- SI joint surgery: options and recovery times (Spine Universe)
- Fentanyl test strips are saving people from opioid overdoses (Chicago Health)
- Depression and fatigue: how to treat these common, commingled conditions (PsyCom)
- The importance of downsizing early, plus resources (Caregiving)
- UTIs and dementia in elderly patients (Caregiving)
- How to get better sleep (The Washingtonian; National Sleep Foundation)
- How to save a life (The Washingtonian)
- How to brighten your smile (The Washingtonian)
- How to decide between the ER and urgent care (USA Today Guide to Kids’ Health)
- How to handle and prevent heart failure (Sister2Sister)
- How to survive an emergency (The Washingtonian)
- How to care for your eyes (The Washingtonian)
- How to choose a therapist (The Washingtonian)
- How to fly in good health (The Washingtonian)
- Pros and cons of egg substitutes (Journal newspapers)
- How to beat hormonal sleep problems (National Sleep Foundation)
- Foods that help prevent cancer (The Washingtonian)
Features and Other Health Coverage
- Confusions and anxieties of a newly empty nest (AARP)
- “Six Tough-to-Diagnose Diseases“ (Chicago Health)
- “Soft Touch, High Tech”: Pediatric hospitals get children well fast (USA Today Guide to Kids’ Health)
- “Saving Tom Kadisch”: A young man experiences aortic dissection in the middle of the night (Bethesda Magazine)
- “Merry Crisis and Happy Blue Year”: Ever wonder who takes calls at the suicide hotline at 2:09 am? (Washington City Paper)
- “Headache From Hell”: Migraines are devastating, maddening, and often misdiagnosed. One woman’s saga plus guidance for others (The Washingtonian)
- “Blind Faith”: A boy born blind gains his sight when a young doctor takes a chance (Baltimore)
- “Medical Mysteries”: To solve tough cases, doctors often have to play detective (The Washingtonian)
Selected People in Healthcare
- Dr. Dan Reidenberg, suicide prevention expert (Minnesota Alumni)
- Cathy Ochs, a physician assistant fighting for integrative medicine (American Academy of Physician Assistants)
- Carolyn Richar, executive director, Capital Caring, which serves 7,000 hospice patients a year (Arlington Magazine)
- Jatrice Martel Gaiter, CEO, Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington (The Washingtonian)
- Laura Sachs, children’s therapist, Wendt Center for Loss and Healing (Washington Post Magazine)
- Jennifer Yezek, Marshall Islands health educator (Washington Post Express)
- A father-daughter physician team, the Drs. Oboler (The Washingtonian)
- Surgeon Antonio Pereira, a real Cordon Bleu chef by night (The Washingtonian)
- Henry Pierce, addict turned addiction counselor (Washington Post Magazine)