S5 - E18.5 - How Listeners Can Support HOPE, A Unique Support Community For People Who Have Harmed Their Bodies Through Alcohol Use Disorder

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

In this final conversation, Sober Livers leaders Jenn Jones and Beth Lehman share what they hope listeners will take from this discussion of HOPE (Healing Others with Peers and Education) and how they can help this unique support program grow.
The conversation starts with Roger asking what Sober Livers and/or transplant centers can do to help patients learn how to find a living donor. Beth says one key is to make "living liver" synonymous with transplantation, "as with donating a kidney, right?" Jenn adds that an individual who sought a live donor plans to help Sober Livers educate HOPE members on using social media more effectively. She adds that through HOPE, Sober Livers needs to make people who are less social media savvy aware of options and how to pursue them. Also, from a policy perspective, living donor surgery is considered elective for the donor. Until this changes, the process will be exceptionally expensive -- usually prohibitive -- for the donor.

In closing, Roger asked what issues the conversation missed. Beth asks that everyone remember the website soberlivers.org. Jenn comments that the organization does not yet have the funding it needs to expand during the first year. She notes that it is a 501(c)3 whose books are completely independent of the Fatty Liver Foundation and states that moving the program from Zoom to a more secure platform and covering all first-year expenses will cost $60,000. With that, the conversation ends.