Author Interview

Q:

How did you get the idea for "Hidden Hurt"?

A:

The story came as a natural outgrowth of other work photographer Michael Williamson and I had done in exploring the challenges of the lives of people without adequate medical and dental insurance. After reporting on the death of a Maryland boy from an untreated dental abscess, I spent quite a bit of time writing about the shortcomings of the state's Medicaid system, which left many children without care, and I came to appreciate how the barriers to care can differ in urban and rural areas. Michael and I saw covering a long weekend at a Remote Area Medical clinic as a way of presenting and unfolding the drama of the unmet health care needs of an isolated place.

Q:

How did you do the reporting for "Hidden Hurt"?

A:

I started making contacts with people months in advance—doctors, nurses, volunteers—and tried to do as much as possible to prepare for what we would be witnessing at the clinic. Then, about a month before the clinic, we made a trip out to the area and spent a couple of days with the nurses at the Health Wagon, who allowed us to ride along with them on their rural route and meet some of their patients and get a deeper sense of the history of the community and the culture of the people there.

Q:

Was there a conscious decision not to follow a single character through the whole piece?

A:

Some characters, including Linda Yates, were extremely important to the story. Linda who was looking for answers about the diabetes that had taken such a tragic toll on her family, helped us explore the difficulties faced by people in remote areas in coping with chronic diseases that are quite manageable in places where care is more readily available. But the clinic itself seemed to provide a larger narrative arc that was compelling in its own way and that prevailed over all the characters that were involved.

Q:

You left the Post last year and currently work with Street Sense, a newspaper that focuses on and is often sold by the poor and homeless. Did your work with Street Sense change the narrative approach to "Hidden Hurt"?

A:

I believe the folks at Street Sense have, by example, made me a stronger writer and storyteller. They have certainly deepened my understanding of the toll [that] poverty takes on people's lives. They have had an impact on everything I do.