Health & Wellness

Alzheimers Patient, Seattle

At a nursing home in Seattle, a wife tries to feed her husband who is lost in the fog of Alzheimers

Rural Health Care, Community Health Center of Central Wyoming

Community Health Center of Central Wyoming, affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) ; rural clinics and universities without medical schools collaborate with the UWSOM to make medical education accessible to students by decentralizing the educational process and share existing facilities and personnel. Dr. Madhu Hooda, MD, confers with a patient of the Health Center.

Program bringing resources to rural medicine

At Community Health Center of Central Wyoming affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine makes medical education accessible to students by decentralizing the educational process and share existing facilities and personnel. Jeremy Morse, a second year resident confers with a patient.

Nursing home Seattle

At Keiro nursing home in Seattle, WA. Tom Kim, a volunteer (center), helps his father Kwan Kim and other Alzheimers patients

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, displays her food bank ID at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, checks the baked goods at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, and perpetually, relentlessly cheerful and outgoing, laughs with a volunteer at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, inspects the offerings at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, accepts some bananas at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. where perishable fruits are given away quickly. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, and perpetually, relentlessly cheerful and outgoing, laughs with a volunteer at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, thanks a volunteer at the Marysville Community Foodbank in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Lynn Smathers, says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

After a visit to a local food bank, Lynn Smathers, 66, in the kitchen of her single-wide mobile home in an age 55 and over mobile home park in Marysville Wa, inspects a can of salmon to ensure it is not past its use date. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Smathers says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

After a visit to a local food bank, Lynn Smathers, 66, in the kitchen of her single-wide mobile home in an age 55 and over mobile home park in Marysville Wa, inspects venison from her freezer. If it were not for the food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Smathers says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."

Lynn Smathers, cancer patient on Food Stamps

Lynn Smathers, 66, poses outside her single-wide mobile home in an age 55 and over mobile home park in Marysville Wa. If it were not for the local food bank and a friend's husband who hunts wild game, Smathers says some months she would go hungry. The food bank has a day reserved for senior citizens and disabled persons. The friend leaves her deer, elk and wild pig meat in a little cooler she keeps outside her trailer at the Mobile Manner trailer park in Marysville, Washington. A lifelong Republican, Smathers worked most of her life in accounting and banking, taking entry level jobs wherever her husband's work took her. In 34 years of marriage, the couple and their two children moved 23 times. After losing a house to foreclosure in Texas, her husband divorced her and Smathers moved to Washington and got a job in a regional bank. In 2009, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through surgery and months of chemotherapy. Even with health insurance, she accrued more than $15,000 in medical bills. Chemotherapy left her weak and she could not carry the heavy bank boxes full of files up and down the stairs to her second floor loan assistance office. She retired on social security and got a job in a 76 gas station to pay off her medical bills. But she broke her arm and her belly surgery scar herniated. She was forced back into the hospital and out of her 76 job. Smathers held garage sales, where she sold off her furniture and a precious collection of porcelain hummingbirds she had carried with her from house to house. She sold her gold jewelry by the ounce to someone who would melt it down and sell it again. She is constantly on EBay, trying to make something off what little she has including two cemetery plots she and her husband purchased in Philadelphia so that they could be buried with a daughter who died in infancy and was buried there. Smathers gets $51 dollars a month in food stamps. Twice a month, she goes to the local food bank. She says she makes due because she's not a big eater. She bakes meat loaf, or macaroni salad and eats it for a week straight. It irks Smathers that she spent her life working, mostly with other people's money, but here she is retired with no savings. On the TV she hears politicians talking about reducing social security, or gutting the food stamp program and it frustrates Smathers. "I think all of the senators and congressmen should have to live a year on food stamps and welfare," she says. "I don’t think they have a clue what people go through. They haven't had to know what its like to stretch a dollar into five dollars, to live on a set amount way below standard."