Flu season is almost here (typically about November to March)! And students at the University of Michigan, and more specifically the School of Public Health (SPH), have a number of ways to get the flu shot if they wish. After having seen the movie “Contagion” this past week, I may never skip an opportunity to get vaccinated for any condition EVER again.
But that’s just me- Even before “Contagion,” I have been pretty persistent about getting the vaccine each year. For my HBEHED 624: Needs Assessment class, my group and I are developing an online questionnaire to assess why county employees in Cameron County, TX, get flu shots for themselves and their families or do not. The vaccine is offered at no cost to county workers at an annual employee health fair. So in the spirit of that, I have only ONE question for you:
Just trying to get the ball rolling – If you’re not sure about getting a flu shot, what are the barriers and what are the benefits to getting vaccinated? If you’ve decided not to get it, why not? If you are getting the vaccine or have already gotten it, why did you decide to? These are some of the ideas we are asking about in our survey to the county employees in Texas. We are hoping to uncover why there is relatively low participation at the free flu clinic at the health fair for the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services.
Back to Michigan – SPH will be holding one flu vaccine clinic for students this year. If you cannot make it to this particular clinic, you can get vaccinated at the University Health Service as well. Here is the clinic info:
Date: Tuesday, October 4
Time: 11:00am – 1:30pm
Location: Lobby of SPH II (in front of auditorium)
Fee: $30 (this may differ based on your health insurance status)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Be creative and use your skills to make a difference in your community!
Carrie in front of the AIDS memorial in Durban, South Africa
I learned a lot during the process of finding my international field experience/internship in Peru last year. Although most funding sources don’t require you to submit applications until January and February, it’s a good idea to start looking for international placement options now (November). Most public health departments require an internship, and some programs require an international internship. I’ll be doing a social work internship in China and Bangladesh this summer. The Office of Global Activities at the School of Social Work has some programs that students can apply to, which is how I found the internship in China. I found the internship in Bangladesh through a friend whose family works in the field of microfinance in Dhaka. The organization is the Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women. I’ve communicated a couple times via email and Skype with my Bangladeshi preceptor/supervisor, and we’ve determined the main projects I’ll be working on.
Some steps for finding an international internship (NOT necessarily in any specific order):
Think about what skills you want to learn or develop. You can base this on your department’s competencies, theories you learned in class that you now want practical knowledge of, or skills outside your academic training – maybe skills outside your department. Your internship is supposed to be the practical/skill-based portion of your academic degree.
Think about a region or culture you’d like to learn more about. Do you see yourself working in a specific region upon graduation? Do you have language skills you want to develop – or do you want to learn a new language? Do you need a placement in which you can speak English? Remember that while it’s summer in Michigan, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere. Consider major holidays that take place in certain regions of the world – for example, Ramadan will start either 11 or 12 August, depending on the exact location. This could affect your internship in some countries.
Think about what contacts you have in global locations – family, friends, colleagues. Your professors are a major asset here, and from my experience, they want to help you, so contact them! Talk to your adviser about his/her specialty/ies and see what suggestions s/he has. Contact speakers you might have heard and found interesting on campus.
Visit the many campus offices and websites (many listed below) that might have any contacts. Consider working through a volunteer organization (though these often aren’t as flexible for academic purposes and have set programs to offer).
Consider your budget and the amount of time you will be able to spend applying for campus and other funding. Most students get mostly funded, but it does take time to apply. I’ll write another post later about funding your international field experience/internship.
Contact potential international sites. Discuss with them what you are hoping to gain from your experience and what you hope you can contribute to their organization. Remember to be patient and flexible when contacting potential sites. Also remember to be mindful that the skills you want to develop may not be feasible at some organizations. For example, some organizations may not have computers with SPSS – or even have computers!
Students who’ve already done international internships, please leave other tips below in the comments. Students seeking international internships, please leave questions below in the comments!
I got a root canal in Peru. Yes, it’s a story for my grandchildren… not really. It is the simple fact that I can’t actually afford dental care in the US, even when I had insurance! You can learn more about the root canal(‘endodontic therapy’) process on Wikipedia (I trust Wikipedia for non-partisan things of this nature).
Two years ago, I had a full-time job at a local non-profit, which included dental insurance. I’m very good at my dental care at home, and I take my 6-month visits very seriously. I think I might have missed only one in the last ten years, even when I didn’t have insurance. When I had insurance, they told me I grind my teeth at night and need to get an occlusal guard for when I sleep… for $600! And my insurance covered… 0%. Great.
Well, after the insurance ran out and I was a student again (in, ahem, public health), I was back in the no-dental-insurance club. Naturally, that’s when it was discovered that I needed to replace some old fillings… for something like $250. Too much for a poor student! When I got here to Peru, I ended up getting X-rays to see how close the fillings had decayed to the tooth nerves and it was not good. Time for a root canal!
I ended up getting the following: one crown, two fillings, one occlusal guard, and one root canal. At my dentist in Ann Arbor, this would have come to $2,388 out-of-pocket. Here in Lima, it was s./1795 (currency is nuevo soles, about s./3 = $1) which is about $600. This is a 75% discount! What makes it so expensive in the US? The dentist who specialized in root canals was trained in Canada! I’m sure he has tons of debt from it, which he must pay off. Yet it still costs 75% less. Why?
In the middle of my root canal (endodontic therapy) with Dr. Carlos
It was bound to happen – I got sick in Peru. After four days in which I couldn’t be far from a bathroom, I went to the clinic down the street to see what the heck I had. They sent me to the emergency room because there was a long line for the general doctor, which freaked me out at first because I wasn’t really listening and all I heard was ‘emergency’. I went with the mother of the family I’m staying with, so I asked her to clarify as we were walking down the stairs to the ER. The health insurance that was mandatory for me to purchase for the FELA trip will end up covering all the expenses, but I have to pay for everything first and get reimbursed. Fortunately it wasn’t very expensive – I don’t know what I would have done if I needed an appendectomy or something!
The health clinic was pretty new-looking and was way bigger than I was expecting. One thing I noticed was that there doesn’t seem to be such a focus on confidentiality here as my experiences in the US. For example, the mother of the family went into the examining room with me and heard me answer all the questions. I didn’t mind in this specific case, but there are some cases I could imagine a young person would NOT want their mother in the examining room with them! Also, I heard some doctors talking about other patients, just to get advice. It really creeped me out. When I was in the examining room, I was looking out the windows and noticed that one didn’t close all the way and had a gap. This was at about ground-level, which means that all the lovely exhaust that coats Lima was getting in. I wondered to myself how many people leave feeling sicker, and realized that this wasn’t as bad as many healthcare locations around the globe.
The verdict was just that I had traveler’s diarrhea (was bound to happen, especially since I attempt to be a vegetarian) and the doctor perscribed a familiar, bright pink, viscous liquid to settle my stomach and told me to take ciprofloxocin for four days. I had been prescribed this by the UM university health service during my travel appointment before I left the States, so I had it on hand already and had actually started my first day’s worth of doses.
What stories do you have of getting sick while traveling? Any advice for other travelers? Leave it in the comments please!
Nationally, Relay for Life is a 24-hour “relay” that raises money for the American Cancer Society. At the University of Michigan, over 2,000 students and community members participate by creating teams to raise money before the relay itself and to walk around the Palmer Field track for the 24 hours of the relay. U-M’s Relay for Life group is one of the 1000+ student groups at U-M. Naturally, the School of Public Health had a team for this weekend’s event! The School of Public Health team, organized through the Public Health Student Assembly’s Community Service Committee, raised nearly $3000 for the ACS.
Students in SPH have interests across a variety of health topics, from infectious diseases to chronic diseases to social factors that affect health outcomes to managing health systems and more. Relay for Life is one way for students to get involved in a campus-wide activity to promote one of the many health issues facing the state, country and world.
View from afar of the Relay for Life festivities
One of the many a capella groups at U-M providing entertainment for Relay for Life
American Cancer Society flags along the relay route
There are many things I like about living in Ann Arbor, from restaurants to outdoor space. One great thing about this city is its support of public art. There are murals and mosaics all over downtown, and there are many public art events throughout the year. In 2007, one of my friends (who was a School of Social Work student at the time) was involved in the creation of FestiFools. FestiFools also partners with both the undergraduate living-learning community the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program (LHSP) and the School of Art and Design.
Two SPH students taking a study break and helping at the FestiFools studio
FestiFools is Ann Arbor’s family-friendly version of Mardi Gras with an April Fools Day theme. Undergraduate students from across the university (primarily non-art students) enroll in the semester-long course, taught by Mark Tucker of LHSP, to learn how to make a 14-foot tall papier-mache puppet from scratch. Additionally art students in Nick Tobier’s course at the School of Art and Design also construct enormous puppet creations for the FestiFools event. The climax of all the students’ work is to showcase the puppets on Main Street near April Fools Day for the general public to enjoy. FestiFools is always looking for volunteers to help sculpt, papier-mache, paint and especially carry the puppets around on FestiFools day (April 5th – THIS Sunday!). Recently, some SPH students went to the studio to help out, and more will be there this Sunday. It makes for a great study break! Check out more photos of puppets-in-progress by Myra Klarman, the official photographer of FestiFools.
Why post this in a blog about public health? I believe that one indicator of a truly healthy community is the quality (and even quantity) of its arts. Ann Arbor is generally a pretty healthy community (I’ll write more about all the natural foods options and exercising opportunities in other posts), with a lot of community involvement. Art allows us to express our feelings – our hopes, desires, fears, joys, and challenges, and brings us together as a community. What are your favorite types of art?
In the real world, many public health activities are the result of the hard work of interdisciplinary teams. The educational process at U-M SPH is no different. Some classes, like introductory biostatistics and epidemiology, don’t use formal groups for assignments, but many people find it useful to do homework and study for exams in group settings.
Facilitation Group, December 2008
Last semester, I took a special topics class on group facilitation in public health practice. Throughout the semester, different students practiced facilitating the whole class through some situation, mostly based on the experiences of members of the groups. Most groups did role-plays and assigned roles to the rest of the class so we knew how to participate. For one of my group’s presentations, we took a news story about some people not getting properly diagnosed with HIV in another country. Our group acted as if we were a group of international facilitators from the U-M School of Public Health going to the Ministry of Health of the country of interest. We decided to get dressed up in nice pants and collared shirts, but to still represent U-M… we had fun with it and the presentation ended up going really well!
For one of the introductory Health Behavior & Health Education classes (651), we work in groups to create a draft funding proposal. This really mirrors the real world, because there are often a variety of health experts, from epidemiologists to biostatisticians, on the team writing the grant proposal. For 651, my4-person group has spent many hours together editing our proposal, from grammar to content to the images used. Going in to the project, we did not anticipate that the work would take so much time – so for next year’s students: plan ahead and prepare to meet together A LOT! The silver lining is that our group gets along really well together and we often meet at each others’ houses – and our team has good cooks! FYI: food makes group work go by more quickly
Most departments at U-M SPH have an internship or field placement requirement (Epidemiology, Health Management and Policy and Health Behavior and Health Education). I’m doing a split field placement with part of my placement being at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center (HARC) in Ypsilanti, Michigan and the other part at Via Libre, an AIDS organization in Lima, Peru. I’ll be going to Via Libre through the Field Experience in Latin America (FELA) program at SPH.
Carrie Rheingans
This post is just about my work at HARC (I’ll write about Via Libre once I get there in July). I’m a member of HARC’s Prevention Team, doing outreach, education, and HIV testing, counseling and referrals. I’ve been affiliated with HARC since September 2004, when I was first a volunteer there through Project Community, a community-based sociology program at U-M. Since that time, I’ve volunteered in the office, on the mobile outreach unit (a UPS-sized van), the HIV testing clinic and at other community locations. For a year and a half, I was a full-time staff member doing fund development and community events. Since August, I’ve officially been the AmeriCorps member and my main job responsibilities are to provide HIV testing, make presentations at community events, help with volunteer coordination, and support the Education & Marketing Committee of the Board of Directors. I also represent HARC on the Spanish Healthcare Outreach Collaborative, a group of providers from local health and community organizations that have services in Spanish.
I’m doing this field placement through a National Direct AmeriCorps Program adminsistered through the National AIDS Fund. There are teams in seven total cities in the U.S.: Detroit, Charlotte (NC), Chicago (IL), Santa Fe/Albuquerque (NM), Washington, D.C., Indianapolis (IN), and Tulsa (OK). It’s a full-time program, so I’m serving at HARC full-time while also attending classes full-time. Yes, it’s difficult, but it’s worth it! To learn more about all the teams, check out our group blog.
Team Detroit in Santa Fe for pre-service training in August
UM SPH offers many opportunities for additional learning outside the classroom. I recently attended a one-day workshop on policy advocacy.
Power mapping activity
The workshop was based on workshops last summer in Detroit that a few SPH students helped create. We had two members of the Detroit communities that had the workshops over the summer as our guest presenters. Over the summer, there were a few day-long workshops for community members, but the planning team combined everything into a one-day workshop for us. Most activities were hands-on, so we could practice the ideas we were learning that day.
Carrie Rheingans
My favorite session was the power mapping session, where we learned how to assess who has the power to make policy changes and how we can influence them. The group I was working with for the day was focused on a smoking intervention with smoking staff members at a hypothetical hospital. One thing that we really took home from the session was that we need to especially work on collaborating with those who aren’t necessarily on our side already and how to bring them over to our side of the issue. In the picture above, the map is set up with the y-axis showing amount of power someone has to affect the policy, and the x-axis shows how much various people are on board with the proposed polilcy change (all the way to the left are strong supporters and all the way to the right are strong opposition members).
SPH often has these types of workshops about topics that students request. Last academic year, a professor created a day-long facilitation workshop, and the students liked it so much that he created a whole course this past fall semester about facilitation in public health. Who knows – maybe we’ll have a policy advocacy course in the near future!
