It is easy to feel down and out when you are unemployed, and this negative affect makes it harder to find a job. One way to combat these feelings and maintain a positive outlook and a better sense of self-worth is to give to the community. Donating money may be out of the question, but healthy people can literally give the gift of life by donating blood.
It’s what we call “paying it forward.”
The unemployed professionals who make up ProNet kicked off this week with another successful blood drive, bringing total ProNet donations to 105 units since the events began in July 2009. Twenty-one ProNet members cycled through the United Blood Services bloodmobile parked in the ProNet parking lot at 1200 Terminal Way on July 25.
“It is very uplifting to see the ProNet members, unemployed professionals, give of themselves literally to the community,” remarks ProNet Branch Manager Pieter Droog. “You can see in their eyes and their smiles—they have a sense of accomplishment and purpose. Every blood drive we have had gets a better response than the event before. For me personally, besides giving to the community, the checks they do—blood blood pressure, temperature, and hemoglobin count—is almost like getting a mini physical.”
Experts say nearly 40% of people in the U.S. and other developed countries meet donor requirements, but only 5% to 10% actually give blood. Some may be worried about the procedure, some may be worried about the impact on their health, and some may feel they don’t have the time.
The procedure does involve needles, but is virtually painless once the IV is in place. While some people pump out a pint faster than others, the entire process takes an hour at the outside, including the juice-and-snacks post-donation interval. It is particularly convenient if the bloodmobile is coming right to your office door.
Benefits of donating blood
There is no evidence that donating blood is bad for healthy people, and some indication that it may have some health benefits. These include:
- Lowering iron levels. High blood iron levels can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, because iron accelerates the oxidation process of cholesterol in the body, which damages arteries.
- Reducing cancer risk. According to Miller-Keystone Blood Center, correlational studies associate regular blood donation with lowered risks for certain cancers, including liver, lung, colon, stomach and throat cancers. Risk levels dropped in inverse relation to frequency of blood donation.
- Reducing risk of heart attack. According to Florida Blood Services, people who donate blood regularly over a period of years reduce their risk of heart attacks by 88 percent and their risk of other severe cardiovascular events, such as a stroke, by 33 percent.
- Replenishing blood. According to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, your body replaces the donated blood volume within 48 hours and all of the red blood cells within four to eight weeks.
These apparent benefits do have to be viewed with a grain of salt. People in the studies are not being assigned to donor and non-donor groups randomly. Rather, they are self-selecting into these groups, and the donors are doubtless healthier than average to begin with.
But donors in general have no ill effects, as long as they are properly hydrogenated before giving blood and take it easy for the rest of the day afterward. And we walk away with the knowledge that we have given a very precious gift to the community.
Free mini-physical
Perhaps a more direct benefit for unemployed people without health insurance is the free mini-physical you get in the screening process right before giving blood.
A healthcare professional takes your blood pressure and checks your blood for certain key components. The results can give you an early warning about problems you may not have been aware of, or just affirm your confidence in your continuing good health. You also get some free snacks and beverages!
People with O-negative blood—the “universal donors”—are always in high demand because, in a pinch, their blood can be given to anyone except newborns.
Babies require a subset of O-negative, from individuals who are also CMV-negative. This blood is particularly precious, because the majority of the donor-age population is CMV-positive. The ubiquitous cytomegalovirus is virtually harmless to all but newborns—particularly infants born prematurely, who are routinely given transfusions.
False-positives are common
Prospective donors should know that false-positives are fairly common in the blood screening process, and not be discouraged by one bad experience with them.
Blood must be used when it is fresh, so the screening process for contamination must be rapid and aggressive. A byproduct of this requisite rush is more false positives—some of them for very alarming diseases and conditions. The donor gets a nasty shock, and the false-positive blood doesn’t get used even after the mistake is discovered.
Most of these unlucky donors never come back, presumably because the experience was so unpleasant.
“The impact of a false-positive could be devastating,” Dr. German Leparc, chief medical officer of St. Petersburg-based Florida Blood Services, told the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals.
More eligible people need to donate blood, whether previously false-positive or not. If your health permits, join the job-seeking professionals at ProNet and check with your local blood banks about donating blood or blood products—especially if you are unemployed. We all walk away with the knowledge that we have given a very precious gift to the community.
So follow the ProNet example and give the gift of life if you can—especially if you are unemployed. Find a local blood drive, or start your own, or just go to the local blood bank. They need platelets and plasma as well as blood, and will tell you which type of donation will have the biggest impact.
No amount of money can take the place of actual blood, and almost all of us will need blood products at some point, or have loved ones who do.
Designed for and run by unemployed professionals, ProNet is a program of the non-profit JOIN Inc. There is no cost to the members. If you are an unemployed professional or an employer seeking pre-screened applicants , call (775) 674-5408 today.
Filed under: Staying Positive, Volunteering Tagged: | attitude, self-improvement
