U of M School of Public Health Moving Toward a More Diverse Public Health Workforce

Claudia

If I could go back in time, I would have wanted a program like this to be in place.  The University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM SPH) continues to show its commitment to  diversity as it implements a program to help increase diversity in the public health workforce, as well as increase the presence of minority students in higher education .  As an MPH student, I have been exposed to decades of research that continue to show the vast health disparities and health inequities affecting various racial and ethnic minority communities. In classes, we have dialogues and discuss  gaps in health services,  unjust policies, and the many cultural barriers that can come up for public health professionals when serving these communities. There is a great need to provide opportunities for minority students to explore the field of public health and to strengthen efforts to increase minority presence at the graduate level in our nation’s public health schools.

An 10 week summer residential program that exposes undergraduates and recent graduates to public health will be taking place at UM SPH this upcoming summer 2012.  Along with Columbia University , Morehouse College, Kennedy Krieger Institute, UM SPH received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)   in an effort to recruit minority students,  promote health equity, and address health disparities. The Future Public Health Leaders Program (FPHLP) will be recruiting a total of 50 students in the areas of Environmental Health and Health Behavior and Health Education. UM SPH will be following the same model as the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP)  that specifically recruits students in Health Management and Policy.

Participants will receive:

• $3500 stipend and on campus housing
• 8 Week internships in a public health setting
• Transportation costs to and from internship site
• Weekly visits to various public health agencies
• Group learning at UM SPH
• 1 week Group learning at CDC in Atlanta, GA
• Kaplan GRE preparatory course
• Round trip transportation from your home to Ann Arbor, MI and transportation to and from Atlanta, GA

For eligibility and deadlines, visit http://sitemaker.umich.edu/um-fphlp/home

What SPH students are saying about FPHLP:

Ezinne Nwankwo, 1st year HBHE

“Having a diverse public health workforce is crucial to the advancement of public health efforts locally and nationally.  In fact, as public health challenges continue to grow, the need to have a diverse public health workforce becomes essential. The ability to be inclusive can allow for varied approaches to developing effective public health programs and attaining enduring results. The representation of ethnic/racial minorities in student bodies must continuously represent the diverse population in which public health efforts strive to influence.”

Jerin Phillip, 1st year HMP

“One of the major goals of public health work is to eliminate disparities that we find in our current system, especially those along racial and socioeconomic barriers.  As much as we talk about encouraging sensitivity to the needs and perspectives of certain communities, nothing can quite match the level of understanding that comes from growing up and identifying with a community that is on the bottom end of any particular health disparity.  As it so happens in the US, the people with the worst health outcomes, who live under the worst environmental health conditions and receive the worst care, are disproportionately in communities of color.  Encouraging a more diverse public health workforce will help better address health disparities by bringing into the fold people who best understand the cultural context that surround the communities that need the most help.

Rare Disease, Big Burden

Danielle Lepar

This summer I’m doing my internship at the Center for Managing Chronic Disease.  To lay down a little groundwork, chronic disease generally refers to conditions that progress slowly and have prolonged durations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic diseases are responsible for 70% of all deaths in the U.S.- a whopping 1.7 million each year.  The first time I came across these stats, they really shocked me.  And, while this magnitude of mortality is definitely an attention-getter, my recent exploration has revealed the importance of addressing the other (and perhaps under-recognized) dimensions of chronic conditions- quality of life, possibilities for prevention, and self-management to name a few. (I’ll be getting back to these points later.) 

Before I started working on my current project, the term chronic disease triggered a somewhat limited number of conditions to come to mind.  It’s not that I was unaware that other conditions existed, but I mostly thought of a few chronic disease BIGGIES:  heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, you get the idea.  Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) didn’t make the list. 

While IBD- which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis- is rare compared to other conditions, it has the potential to have some pretty serious costs. Here are some key points about IBD that have affected the way I think about disease and burden:

1. Diseases with an early age of onset and that don’t cause a decrease in life expectancy mean that people relapse- and accrue costs- over a longer period of time.

2. Chronic conditions that start during individuals’ teens or twenties, impact them at a critical period of productivity and for developing individuals’ professional life.

3. IBD tends to be more prevalent in Western and industrialized regions.  While treatment innovation may be more available in these places, especially for people with “white collar” jobs, this also means the use of more health care resources and costs.

While the points above deal with a few of the economic costs associated with IBD, the serious psychosocial and quality of life burdens related to IBD should not be forgotten.  To learn more about Crohn’s and colitis visit The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America or hear the stories of people living with Crohn’s at Crohn’s & Me.

Swine Flu

Carrie Rheingans

The swine flue epidemic has brought public health back into the global spotlight. As a public health student, I’ve been following with great interest many news sources to see what’s the latest information available about how this flu is using globalization to its advantage. This new epidemic really is an example of global health, where we must consider the impacts of various aspects of globalization (travel, trade, etc) have on the world’s health.

I keep thinking about how the various fields of public health will have to work together to help stop this epidemic from causing people to panic. Right now, at the beginning, mostly epidemiologists are doing the ground work, finding the new cases and trying see what links exist and how to stop the flu from spreading. It seems almost timely with my epid final coming up on Tuesday… maybe they’ll use the data as one of the problems on the exam?

The World Health Organization has issued statements about the situation, as has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mexican, Canadian and New Zealand Ministries of Health. Here is where health educators could come in to help curb the spread of the flu – remind people of proper flu-season precautions and that there have been no deaths in the US, New Zealand, or Canada. After more data is gathered, biostatisticians could help crunch the numbers that could help direct resources and target health messages. Those in health management are the ones that would allocate the resources and monitor how the work is being done to curb the epidemic. Health policy people and country health officials are advising various global governments right now about whether to import pork from various places (despite the statements by the WHO and other health officials that fully-cooked pork cannot transmit the virus).

I usually explain public health as a field that people don’t really think about when it’s working (for example, not as many cavities nationally since flourine was added to water – a triumph of environmental health). The swine flu epidemic isn’t a failure in public health; it’s an opportunity for us to again prove to the world that we are needed. Working together, including with medical and international relations professionals, public health workers can end these disease outbreaks when they arise, and save as many lives as possible.