Community Health, 14SS
During this past spring semester, I took the seminar "Community Health and Minorities: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". A lot of what I want to do with environmental science is related to health issues caused by environmental problems, predominantly in disadvantaged communities. Similar to issues with healthcare access and quality, disadvantaged communities and minorities tend to be burdened more often by environmental problems and suffer the consequences of environmental degradation more heavily than other communities--a problem environmentalists refer to with the term "environmental justice". I thought this course would be an interesting insight into the inequalities in community health and some of the problems the Cincinnati community is facing health-wise. What I didn't know before coming to class on the first day was that the experiential component of the class was weekly visits to a local drug treatment center* every Tuesday. That being said, it wasn't an unpleasant surprise, and made me look forward to the class even more. Though I know I am part of the Cincinnati community, it's often hard to relate to community members since we are so separated over here at UC. I was excited at the opportunity to learn firsthand about the drug addiction problem in our community and to help the patients of the center as an educator and a support system for them. Due to all of the snow day, -20 degree weather craziness though, we weren't able to start our meetings at the center until a little over a month into the class. This led to a change in the structure of the class which included less patient interaction over our visits, and instead split our time mainly into education/interaction time and observation time. We also spent an hour of each class learning about the center and what they accomplish there from the manager, who acted as our mentor through our experience.
My favorite part of the experience, and also the part that gave me the most anxiety besides the observed drug test, was teaching the educational groups, which were focused on teaching patients about health issues. I was nervous about this part because I was unsure of how the patients would react to our presentations. I know that it can be somewhat boring to sit and listen to a presentation about health, especially when your attendance is mandatory. The manager told us before hand that they were excited to have us visiting because it gave them a break from their routine and because many of them thought it was just cool that we would take the time to come teach them, but I didn't realize how right she was until the educational groups. We integrated a lot of interactive activities into our presentations which allowed the patients to test their knowledge on our topics through competition with one another, which they seemed to really enjoy. It was great to see their competitive spirit help them learn about the health topics.
Though I didn't necessarily enjoy the observation portion as much as I did the actual interaction with patients, I learned a lot from that part of the experience as well. I was surprised to find that a few of the staff members themselves are recovered drug addicts, and I think that shows the level of dedication this center has to helping people with drug addiction issues get on their feet and live healthy and productive lives. I was also really impressed with the narcan and suboxone programs that the center has implemented. Heroin abuse has reached epidemic levels in Cincinnati, and these programs are both aimed towards helping people survive and recover from opiate addiction. Narcan is a drug administered through a nasal spray that counters the effects of opiate overdose. The center is trying to increase access to this drug in the community because if people who know opiate addicts or are addicts that use with other people have access to and are trained to administer the drug, it will reduce the number of deaths by overdose. The program has actually already saved three lives in the community that they know of. Suboxone, on the other hand, is an opiate blocker which helps get rid of cravings for recovering addicts. Methadone was the main drug previously used for this, but it is much more dangerous than suboxone for a number of reasons, mainly that people have to increase their dose and reliance on methadone through their life, while patients only use suboxone for a few years before they are completely weaned off of it. The center has a suboxone clinic where patients can get their suboxone prescriptions and attend their monthly counseling meetings that are a requirement for the program. They also have resources for sponsorships and weekly meetings, which are also required as part of the program.
I chose the information pamphlets on narcan and suboxone that we received from the treatment center as my artifacts for this experience. They represent how I was able to better understand the specific issues that Cincinnati is facing with drug addiction and how I am know knowledgeable enough to be an advocate for treatment centers like the one we visited. By knowing the problems in my community and being educated on what I can do to help, I can lend my voice to efforts to tackle drug addiction in Cincinnati. I will be able now to share this knowledge with others in the hopes that they will become more aware of the drug problems in Cincinnati and potential solutions as well as in the hopes of destroying the stigma that accompanies drug addiction in the community. I also chose to include (right below this paragraph) my reflective essay from the class, as it is a good summary of my experiences there and what I learned from the visits. It also includes pieces from the interviews I conducted with the staff on our observation days.
My favorite part of the experience, and also the part that gave me the most anxiety besides the observed drug test, was teaching the educational groups, which were focused on teaching patients about health issues. I was nervous about this part because I was unsure of how the patients would react to our presentations. I know that it can be somewhat boring to sit and listen to a presentation about health, especially when your attendance is mandatory. The manager told us before hand that they were excited to have us visiting because it gave them a break from their routine and because many of them thought it was just cool that we would take the time to come teach them, but I didn't realize how right she was until the educational groups. We integrated a lot of interactive activities into our presentations which allowed the patients to test their knowledge on our topics through competition with one another, which they seemed to really enjoy. It was great to see their competitive spirit help them learn about the health topics.
Though I didn't necessarily enjoy the observation portion as much as I did the actual interaction with patients, I learned a lot from that part of the experience as well. I was surprised to find that a few of the staff members themselves are recovered drug addicts, and I think that shows the level of dedication this center has to helping people with drug addiction issues get on their feet and live healthy and productive lives. I was also really impressed with the narcan and suboxone programs that the center has implemented. Heroin abuse has reached epidemic levels in Cincinnati, and these programs are both aimed towards helping people survive and recover from opiate addiction. Narcan is a drug administered through a nasal spray that counters the effects of opiate overdose. The center is trying to increase access to this drug in the community because if people who know opiate addicts or are addicts that use with other people have access to and are trained to administer the drug, it will reduce the number of deaths by overdose. The program has actually already saved three lives in the community that they know of. Suboxone, on the other hand, is an opiate blocker which helps get rid of cravings for recovering addicts. Methadone was the main drug previously used for this, but it is much more dangerous than suboxone for a number of reasons, mainly that people have to increase their dose and reliance on methadone through their life, while patients only use suboxone for a few years before they are completely weaned off of it. The center has a suboxone clinic where patients can get their suboxone prescriptions and attend their monthly counseling meetings that are a requirement for the program. They also have resources for sponsorships and weekly meetings, which are also required as part of the program.
I chose the information pamphlets on narcan and suboxone that we received from the treatment center as my artifacts for this experience. They represent how I was able to better understand the specific issues that Cincinnati is facing with drug addiction and how I am know knowledgeable enough to be an advocate for treatment centers like the one we visited. By knowing the problems in my community and being educated on what I can do to help, I can lend my voice to efforts to tackle drug addiction in Cincinnati. I will be able now to share this knowledge with others in the hopes that they will become more aware of the drug problems in Cincinnati and potential solutions as well as in the hopes of destroying the stigma that accompanies drug addiction in the community. I also chose to include (right below this paragraph) my reflective essay from the class, as it is a good summary of my experiences there and what I learned from the visits. It also includes pieces from the interviews I conducted with the staff on our observation days.
Community Health Final Essay |
Overall, this class provided me with much more knowledge and experience than I initially expected. The class itself met my expectations of learning about community health and inequalities in America through time, but the experiential aspect exceeded those expectations greatly. The only thing I wish is that we would have gotten more time to talk with the patients individually, though I understand that the days we had cancelled for inclement weather made that nearly impossible. Even without that, I feel as if I was able to understand the patients and the struggles they face through the time I did get to spend with them. I also feel like my views on drug addiction and understanding of our community has changed for the better. Though I may be separated from the community somewhat by being at UC, I realize that it doesn't mean that I am not a part of the larger Cincinnati community. I have some responsibility to advocate for community members that are facing challenges like drug addiction and to make efforts to improve the health of my community. I hope that this class is offered again in the future through our Honors Program and that our partnership with the drug treatment center will become even stronger. This experience was both an excellent way to get to know the Cincinnati community and to become more knowledgeable about the health disparities that our community is facing.
*The manager of the treatment center asked that we not put the actual name of the center in our reflections just as a precaution with their privacy laws
*The manager of the treatment center asked that we not put the actual name of the center in our reflections just as a precaution with their privacy laws
Below is also a portion of one of the slideshow presentations that we used in our education sessions. We presented on STIs, and I was in charge of finding and sharing information about testing and treatment resources in the Cincinnati area as well as the testing/treatment processes. The goal in this was to help the patients realize the range of options that they really do have as far as STI testing and treatment goes in this area, and that there are affordable options out there for them. We also wanted to make the processes of testing and treatment seem less intimidating for the patients so that they wouldn't be as apprehensive to utilize these resources.