"Uncharitable Behavior: The Dismantling of Louisiana’s Charity Hospital and Public Mental Health Safety Net"

From:

 Saturday, January 12, 2013

Featuring:

K. Brad Ott

Advocates for Louisiana Public Healthcare

Long-time New Orleans progressive community social justice activist K. Brad Ott suffered a DVT/Stroke in October 2003 from sitting too long on a trip. Paralysis that occurred was substantially reversed (as well as discovery of a congenital heart defect!) thanks to the quick intervention of Rev. Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital Emergency Department. Out of this experience he became an advocate for the uninsured and to support Louisiana's iconic but much-neglected public Charity Hospital system.

Ott served as Legislative Chair for Advocates for Louisiana Public Healthcare (ALPH) in its original incarnation between 2004-2005. He was also appointed Consumer Representative representing the uninsured in Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes under Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's Health Care Reform regional consortium process. Following Hurricane Katrina, he co-founded the Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital and served as its co-chair from 2007-2011. Most recently he co-founded the Committee to Save Southeast Louisiana Hospital (Save SELH) and serves on its labor/legal subcommittee. And to challenge the recently proposed LSU Charity system privatization, he has revived Advocates for Louisiana Public Healthcare.

Returning to the University of New Orleans under a partial Louisiana Rehabilitation Services grant, Brad completed his Sociology Bachelor of Arts degree in 2007 and his Master of Arts degree in 2012. His Master's thesis on the closure of New Orleans' Charity Hospital currently is amongst the most requested articles in the "Health Services Administration Commons": 

http://network.bepress.com/medicine-and-health-sciences/public-health/health-services-administration/. 

To read his thesis, go to http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1472/.