Driving? Turn the Phone Off!

Andy

Driving is debatably the biggest public safety and public health issue of our nation. It is the leading cause of death among Americans ages 1 to 34, and the leading cause of long-term disability for all (McMillin, 2010). Statistically speaking, it is the single most dangerous activity most of us will do today. Skydiving or flying are insurmountably much safer activities, despite what our society believes. So why as a nation do we allow any mobile phone use in the car by the driver, something that drastically increases the probability of an automobile accident to persist?

As noted in the NYTimes article, “AT&T Chief Speaks Out on Texting at the Wheel”, research has shown that texting while driving increases ones risk of a crash beyond that of even an impaired driver with a 0.8 blood alcohol level (Richtel, 2012). A large majority of the population believes the BAC legal limit driving law to be a necessary piece of legislation. It only seems obvious to ban something more dangerous than something that is already banned.

Now some of you will say, texting is regulated in some states. This is obvious, however I’m wondering if we need a ban of total mobile phone use by the driver in the car. Plain and simple, mobile phones distract a driver in numerous ways. Manual manipulation of the phone such as texting or dialing significantly detracts from the time spent viewing the road. Unless you were blessed with the ability to use your two eyes independently, this presents a huge problem. In addition, there exist many distracting effects of the phone conversation through emotion or cognitive reasoning. Studies have shown that splitting cognition between two events greatly reduces the efficiency of any single activity. This is evidence to support the ban of total mobile phone use in the car, since the duration of a typical phone conversation can be up to two orders of magnitude greater than the time required to dial or answer the phone (Strayer, 2003).

Someone dies in a highway crash every 13 minutes (American Osteopathic Association). We must pass legislation that bans mobile phone and other electronic devices use while driving. Is even one life worth a text or phone call? What if that life was yours or your loved ones? The phone call can wait, especially if it’s your last.

Andy Mychkovsky is a first year HMP student at the School of Public Health.

Student Handbook for Global Engagement

Carrie Rheingans

Since September 2009, I’ve been working with over 30 other U-M students from schools and departments as diverse as engineering, public health, philosophy, economics, social work, medicine and nursing to create the campus-wide Student Handbook for Global Engagement as part of our work as Student Associates of the Center for Global Health. After a year of meetings and revisions, we published the first edition in August 2010, using a Creative Commons license instead of copyrighting the Handbook. We published using the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License, meaning that others may edit the work and use it as long as they attribute the appropriate sections to us, that they don’t make money on the resulting work (just like us), and that they share their work using the same Creative Commons license as we did.

Creative Commons - Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike

Since we finished the Handbook, we’ve been trying to distribute it across the nation and globe for others to use. We’ve presented at multiple conferences, and will continue to do so. Eventually, we hope that this Handbook could be part of the basic training students will have to complete before departing for global work. We’re currently working with University of Michigan offices, such as the Center for Global and Intercultural Studies and the Open.Michigan office, to get the Handbook distributed across U-M campus.

The Handbook has been recognized both at the U-M Center for Global Health’s Student Global Health Day and at the 138th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, and was first presented at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Annual Meeting in Seattle in September 2010. Please consider downloading a copy and distributing it at your university or institution!

Student Global Health Day poster with many of the contributors

The Agrarian Adventure!

Tiffany Yang

For one of my classes last semester we were required to do a community service-learning project and see how nutrition (teaching, implementation in school foodservice, etc.) works in the real world. I chose to work with The Agrarian Adventure because I thought that their goals and objectives were spot on with what I believed in.

The Agrarian Adventure seeks to educate kids about where their food comes from (i.e. not a shrink-wrapped or boxed package that itself comes from a box) and how their body is affected by the foods they eat. In order to reach these goals, the Agrarian Adventure has partnered up with Ann Arbor public schools (notably, Tappan Middle School) to set up an after school food and garden club, an organic schoolyard garden, and find ways to integrate ideas about food into the school curriculum.

We believe that it is best to teach the message about good, sustainable food early on to kids and not to adults. Why don’t we just sit the parents down? Well, it’d be hard to get all of them to commit to a time frame. Plus, as an adult, you’re pretty set in your ways. As a kid, even though you may not have control over everything your family buys, you may be able to persuade them to try a new vegetable or food preparation that you learned in school. In fact, at the annual Harvest Dinner that the food and garden club holds every year where the menu is designed and made with food harvested from the garden and prepared and served by the students, I had parents tell me how their kid (normally a picky eater/vegetable hater) would demand that they buy [insert random vegetable] because their kid grew it/ate it at club. How great is that? It just warms my heart to know that being active in the production of your own food can erase any (ok, most) preconceived hatred of said food.

This is true even for me. Two weeks ago we were slated to make a butternut squash, carrot, and ginger soup (both the squash and carrots were harvested from the garden in the fall and stored). That did not sound appetizing to me even though I consider myself to have a very open mind in trying foods. When the pots were on the stove and I stared into the sad murky abyss that was the soup, I wasn’t sure I could keep up my chipper face to the kids about how great the soup was going to be because, honestly, it did look kind of gross. But we ladled it out and I gingerly sipped a spoonful. It was good! That just shows you how much things can change when you get over your doubts. I ended up having 2 “bowls” (we had mugs for bowls) of the soup. It was that good.

As you could probably tell from above, my involvement was with the after school food and garden club. We would go outside when the weather was nice to harvest vegetables, do some planting, or just some garden clean up. Staying indoors meant learning kitchen skills (such as knife safety) or learning how to cook (or, rather, how to teach kids how to cook). I’ve heard past volunteers say that the hour spent at the after school club was the “fastest hour of the week” and they were definitely not joking. It was a whirr of activity from prepping for the arrival of kids to getting them settled, introducing the activities of the day and why they are important to actually carrying out the activities and cleaning up. It was so exciting to see these kids try new foods and gain a sense of pride in producing and cooking their own food. So exciting, in fact, that I’ve decided to keep volunteering this semester and, hopefully, will be able to continue volunteering.

I firmly believe in food and health education, especially taught in a way where kids have control over the activities (such as gardening and cooking). With the increasing rise in obesity throughout the United States, it is especially important that there are programs in place to teach kids about food and its effect on your body. Michelle Obama’s stance is a take in the right direction and I strongly applaud her for that. I can only hope that more programs like The Agrarian Adventure are implemented throughout the country and that we, the nation as a whole, can learn to cast off processed foods in favor of real foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables that actually have the capability of nourishing our bodies.

Mystery Meat

Tiffany Yang

What are kids eating in school?

I remember as a kid getting one of those trays with a carton of milk, a main dish (no vegetarian options back then, at least at my school), a side of carrot sticks or mushy peas, and maybe some canned fruit cocktail. All of it was up to nutrition standards set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National School Lunch Program (which public and not-for-profit private schools can choose to participate in) so I was definitely getting my caloric, vitamin, etc. needs. However, the food was not appetizing at all. OK. I take that back a little bit. It was a little exciting to me because I never got to eat “American” food at home so it was interesting (for a while) to eat fruit cocktail (yuck) and salibury steak (….).

Maybe I have strange notions about how things would have changed from when I was a child to what kids are eating these days, but it looks like not much has changed. This blog follows a teacher as she bravely eats what is being served in the school cafeteria. And it is not pretty. She concedes that most nutrition guidelines are being met with the lunches, but that they are just horrible. Some foods aren’t even completely thawed before they’re served (like the fruit cups) and everything seems to be packaged individually. This really confuses/angers me. When I had lunch, we got everything plopped onto a compartmentalized tray. It looks like this school just has one smooth tray and everything is in their own little shrink-wrapped or packaged bundle. This is a ridiculous waste of non-recyclable products (styrofoam, saran-wrap, plastic containers and trays, etc.). I guess I can kind of see them trying to reduce cross-contamination of foods when you have a big vat of it, but, honestly, I think individual packages are are such a waste (especially when you have a huge school population and this is happening everyday).

There are some advocates for reforming school meals, though, and they are starting to get some attention in the media. Jamie Oliver, a chef, is advocating meals that are less processed, freshly prepared,and local if possible. Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse fame, basically started the local farm to school idea with the edible schoolyard project where kids help grow foods that can be used in their school. Ann Arbor public schools picked up on this idea a few years ago and integrated The Agrarian Adventure into their school. The Agrarian Adventure consists of programs that expose, teach, and encourage students to gain knowledge about the where their food comes from, how to create a relationship with the foods they eat, and understanding the impact food has on their health. As for their school lunches, The Agrarian Adventure helped foster a collaboration between the public schools and the Ann Arbor Farm-to-School program to bring local fruits and vegetables to the school lunches.

So, while my school lunches were pretty dreary and many current school lunches are unappetizing, the hope is that proper nutrition as well as acceptable taste, texture, and (hopefully) environmental concerns such as packaging, local, sustainable, organic, etc., can play a bigger role in the foods that students are eating everyday.

World AIDS Day 2009

Carrie Rheingans

Today is World AIDS Day: a day where 5,500 people will die of AIDS and 8,200 more will become infected with HIV – 152 of them in the United States of America. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS just released a report that says that AIDS is the leading cause of death globally in women of reproductive age. We know that HIV is a worldwide crisis, already devastating countries across the globe and poised to ravage others… unless we continue to work to stop AIDS. If you’re a regular blog reader, you know I’m not a person who just spews statistics; you know I like action (see previous posts about work with youth in the USA, youth in Peru, outreach in the USA and Peru, and advocacy). So for this World AIDS Day, I want to share with you some things you can do to help stop AIDS.

1. Volunteer in your local community. The HIV/AIDS Resource Center is Ann Arbor’s local AIDS service organization and is always accepting volunteers. You can also contact the Washtenaw Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (WIHAN) to volunteer. You can find non-governmental organizations around the world in the Global South through the International AIDS Alliance.
2. Educate yourself and spread your knowledge. Correct myths and discriminatory and stigmatizing language when  you hear it. Good resources: UNAIDS - Kaiser Family Foundation – CDC - MDCH - Avert – AIDS.gov – google.org
3. Get yourself tested for HIV. Free testing is offered all week in the local community (see complete listing here), or you can text your zip code to “KNOWIT” (566948) to find a local testing site.
   

   KNOW YOUR STATUS!

4. Support organizations serving people living with HIV by donating directly to them rather than buying some product that only contributes a minuscule portion of its profits. Your donation goes further when it goes directly to the organization.
5. Write a letter to the editor of your local media source, call into radio stations, and send emails to friends, family and colleagues with things people can do. Describe the epidemic in your local community and challenge people to act. Call on elected officials to fund important services that keep people alive.
6. Attend World AIDS Day and World AIDS Week educational  and action events near you. The Ann Arbor area has many events going on this week – see a complete listing on the World AIDS Week website.
7. Be creative and use your skills to make a difference in your community!

 

Carrie in front of the AIDS memorial in Durban, South Africa

Michigan Community Conversation for a National AIDS Strategy

Carrie Rheingans

Michigan got its chance to give feedback to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy on Wednesday, 18 November 2009. From across the state, providers, people living with HIV, and people affected by HIV came and gave their recommendations, suggestions, and demands on video tape and in writing.

I was the statewide organizer for this event as part of my social work internship at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center (HARC). This experience was the perfect combination of public health and social work that I hope to gain from my dual degree program (MPH/MSW). When the nationwide community conversations were announced, many people across Michigan wondered why we didn’t have one scheduled near us, especially considering the fact that some zip codes in Detroit have higher HIV prevalence than some countries that receive emergency money form the United States government. The Campaign to End AIDS contacted me after hearing from a few outspoken Michiganders and we did a lot of grassroots organizing in a few short weeks to pull off this successful event. See the Between the Lines article and the Michigan Messenger article for further coverage.

The conversation was only two hours long, and the majority of the time was occupied by community members speaking about what they wanted in a National AIDS Strategy. The night started with welcomes from Craig Covey, Ferndale mayor (Ferndale is the city where the event was held) and longtime staff member of the Michigan AIDS Coalition, Christine Campbell and Larry Bryant of the Campaign to End AIDS, and Charles Pugh, President-elect of the Detroit City Council. Charles also moderated the event.

Below are some of the things people told the White House:

“When is the last time we got together as a community of loving, living people when funders weren’t making us?”

“We need quality healthcare for LGBT people living with HIV and AIDS – we need to strengthen doctor-patient relationships because people are not comfortable coming out to their doctors”

“Viagra and Cialis have aided in the resurgence of sexually transmitted infections in senior housing complexes. We need more education and prevention in these locations”

“The church, rid of stigma, denial and fear, becomes a change agent”

“my barrier [to being an AIDS advocate] is childcare”

“I wanted post-exposure prophylaxis and the nurse didn’t even know what it was!”

“We need the same laws coast to coast – enough with a patchwork of different laws about HIV”

“I missed class tonight to be here on my birthday to tell you that we need rec centers for our kids to have something safe to do after school”

“Michigan prisons don’t hand out condoms or test for HIV when people are released – but we know that people are still having sex and they need to get tested because they might need to get right into care”

It was great to hear people from as far away as Kalamazoo, Flint and Lansing gathering to speak out about such an important issue.

Larry Bryant from the Campaign to End AIDS introduces the event as moderator and President-elect of the Detroit City Council Charles Pugh looks on

White House Office of National AIDS Policy Coming to Michigan!

Carrie Rheingans

The White House Office of National AIDS Policy is coming to Michigan to host a Community Conversation, in which they will receive feedback and testimonies of people affected by HIV about what should be included in a national AIDS strategy. The Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA), the Black AIDS Institute, and the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) are also supporting the event. I’ve worked with C2EA for the last two years, particularly with their Youth Caucus and the Youth Action Institute, and I will be the Michigan-based contact person. See my previous SPH blog posts about this year’s YAI here and here.

The event will allow people to provide 1-2 minute testimonies about their experiences with HIV (as someone living with HIV, affected by HIV, or working in the field), and what they think should be included in a national AIDS strategy. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a program through which the US government supports work to turn the tide against the AIDS epidemics in various hard-hit countries. One requirement to receive PEPFAR money is that each country must have a national AIDS strategy – which the USA itself doesn’t even have! These community conversations, happening all over the country, will help inform the eventual national USA AIDS strategy here at home.

You can give testimony yourself at the event:

FREE ADMISSION

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Affirmations Community Center

290 West Nine Mile Road

Ferndale, MI 48220

(248) 398-7105

For more info, please contact me at crheinga@gmail.com or leave a message at 734-572-9355 x238

You can also give testimony online. Please register for the event here. Naturally, I’m very excited about this opportunity! Very rarely does such an easy opportunity for policy advocacy happen, and even more rarely can I work on it as part of my social work internship! This opportunity gives me a chance to flex both my public health and social work muscles!

Class Project for Community Organizing for Health Education

Carrie Rheingans

Last night, my group performed two skits for our Community Organizing for Health Education class (HBHE 640) with MOSES (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength) at the Central United Methodist Church in Detroit. We had a blast and wanted to share them with you!

U.S. One of Twelve Countries…

Carrie Rheingans

The United States is one of twelve countries that ban people living with HIV from entering the country. This is on my mind because I am writing a paper for my social work class about welfare policies, and I recently heard a story on National Public Radio about the topic. I’ve worked with the Campaign to End AIDS for the last two years to try to get this ban overturned.

Originally, when AIDS was first discovered (1981, then called the highly-stigmatizing GRID, or gay-related immune deficiency), there was great fear of it in this country. The US made its entry policy in the late 80′s (1987), when the fear was still going strong. To this day, we still have the same restrictions (with one amendment to make it a more streamlined process), and people can even be deported or denied citizenship if they become infected with HIV while here as an immigrant. The historic claim is that the ban protects the public’s health by not unnecessarily increasing the number of people in this country living with HIV (and the US has restrictions based on many other diseases too). Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act reads, in part:

(a) Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission.-Except as otherwise provided in this Act, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

(1) Health-related grounds.-

(A) In general.-Any alien-

(i) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to have a communicable disease of public health significance, which shall include infection with the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome

My problem with this is that the people I know living with HIV aren’t planning to purposefully go around and infect others, and in fact, take great care with the health of their partners. Additionally, there are other, much more virulent and transmissible, diseases that do not bar entry, such as the novel H1N1 flu or tuberculosis. This act also specifically mentions the “etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome”, which is known to be HIV. I’m glad that the U.S. is working to remove HIV from the list of diseases that are considered “dangerous contagious disease[s]”.

YAI Was a Success!

Carrie Rheingans

Helping to plan the Youth Action Institute (YAI) was part of my internship at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center. Last week was a complete success in training another batch of youth AIDS activists and organizers! Running from June 22 – June 27, over 20 youth from across the country and the globe attended the 2009 YAI. The highlight of the week was the Friday demonstration against budget cuts in the city of San Francisco and the state of California. Throughout the week, participants had the opportunity to attend workshops that focused on specific skills needed to carry out an action, and many of the skills were tied to planning the demonstration.

We met with Angela Green, the director of the Iris Center in San Francisco, on Monday afternoon. She described the work of the Iris Center and the difficulties they will have providing services if more budget cuts go through. After an energetic brainstorming session, the entire group decided we’d do a demonstration at the end of the week as the first step in many throughout the summer to protest the budget cuts. We ended up changing our training schedule to fit around what we needed to do to plan the demonstration. I still got to lead my session about social media and how it can be used to organize groups for actions, events, and longer-term projects. We also incorporated the policy advocacy workshop session about powermapping from my previous post about that. The youth really liked seeing the visual representation about how to target specific people to get specific changes in policies.

Using the powermapping technique I learned from the HBHE policy advocacy workshop in February!

The group was a little excited and a little scared about what was going to happen on Friday at the demonstration. Some had never taken part in any such action and some were worried that we’d be an epic fail. Fortunately, the demonstration was very successful. Angela was there with us on Friday, and many people in the plaza where we demonstrated asked for more information and wanted to get involved. Overall, it was a great week!

Representing those who couldn't be there with us. T-shirts read: "HIV Cut$ Kill"

Yours truly at the demonstration. We got a lot of honks!