Economic ills get a ‘Recession Rx’ in new Vegas PBS show

Prescription for a recession?

As much as television can play doctor to a diseased economy, a new local show wants us to turn our 401(k) and cough.

"I got laid off, so I know what that can mean," says Cathy Hanson, host of "Recession Rx," debuting 7:30 p.m. Monday on KLVX-TV, Channel 10 (Vegas PBS). "A lot of people have been touched by this economic recession. We want to get people to the resources. We're not solving everybody's problems, but we're setting out to say what's out there."

All our recession's biggest aches and pains -- the mortgage crisis, home foreclosures, unemployment, bankruptcy, health care, job searches and training, legal problems, even psychological issues -- will be diagnosed on "Rx," a half-hour, 13-week series that will also be available on its Web site (www.VegasPBS.org/rx), YouTube and as an Internet stream and podcast.

"We need to educate ourselves about how to navigate through current financial hardships and decisions," said KLVX general manager Tom Axtell in a statement. "The creation of 'Recession Rx' was the direct result of so many within Southern Nevada being affected by the current economic downturn."

Blending in-studio interviews and video reports, "Rx" will be taped rather than broadcast live, but viewer questions and input will be incorporated into the format via solicitations on a Facebook page and the Web site. "We'll have people on from the (Southern Nevada) Mortgage Fraud Task Force, bankers to talk about buying off bad debt, a realty person, HELP of Southern Nevada, but we're not just talking to the experts," Hanson says. "I'll be going to the unemployment office and the library to talk to people."

Among the video reports, she adds, will be stories about an upcoming free vaccination week that will springboard into a discussion of health care options, renters who've been displaced after their landlords faced foreclosure, and upbeat pieces such as those about a woman who'd been saving for years for a house and found a great deal, and a laid-off man with a can-do attitude making all the right moves to re-enter the job market. Social/psychological fallout from the recession, such as depression, suicide, spousal and substance abuse and family living transitions will also be addressed.

"We want to say, 'Here's where to go, here's what out there, here's the steps you need to take,' " Hanson says. "There's all these programs out there, but are Nevadans eligible and what's your shot at getting this money? It all comes back to: What does all this mean to us?"

The economy doctor is in. Open wide and say ... H-E-L-P!

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.