Blog

Destination: Home is a public health intervention center and shelter designed to be multi-faceted and a leader when it comes to LGBTQIA+ rights and advocacy. What sparked the vision for this intervention is the need for social connection among diverse groups of LGBTQIA+ youth and the homelessness which they face. This center functions as a as a shelter targeting LGBTQIA+ youth within a specific radius. Although it functions as a shelter, there is also internal and external programming and...

Family First: A New Home is a project that aims to create a home away from home that embodies the emotional characteristics of a healthy household environment for those to whom this environment is unavailable. Our project aims to create an after-school program for elementary school-aged children from single-parent households. Our goal is for children and parents from single-parent households to grow in capacities which are unavailable to them. This intervention aims to affect the...

Alcohol abuse in households across the nation is an issue deeply felt by those who are impacted. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse Alcoholism, an estimated 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Furthermore, according to a 2012 study, more than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent who has problems with alcohol abuse and...

Although many organizations providing temporary shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness exist, there is a gap in the Gainesville, Florida community for these services specifically serving families and unaccompanied youth. In 2018 there were an estimated 641 people experiencing homelessness in Alachua County, the majority of whom were on the streets rather than in shelters (NCF Alliance 2018) . In the entirety of Gainesville, Florida, the most recent data from 2012 showed that an...

Abstract: Native American communities in the United States have disproportionately high rates of health disparities such as post-traumatic stress, depression, violence and substance abuse, especially when compared to other demographic groups in the United States 1 . These communities also disproportionately experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with up to 40.3 percent experiencing 2 or more ACEs 3 including childhood physical and sexual abuse, witnessing violence, poverty, racism...

Vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress can occur in populations of workers who are exposed to the traumas that others are experiencing. Critical care nurses caring day after day for suffering individuals, have a unique set of experiences that have an increased risk of developing compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue has been well studied and mimics similarly to Post Traumatic Stress and is often called Secondary Traumatic Stress (Figley, 1995). High Adverse Childhood Experience...

Owsley County, Kentucky is in dire need for a public health intervention. Owsley county is currently experiencing high rates of school drop outs, high percentage of persons living in poverty, and various other poor health outcomes. If there is no intervention, Owsley county will continue to experience such trauma and possibly experience worsened conditions. My idea for intervention will include involvement from the public health sector, health care providers and the school system to decrease...

Soul Sistas There is undoubtable race related trauma in the Black community. However, for Black women, this existence in two minority groups, race and gender, can be even more detrimental. Especially when those identities are comorbid with others including SES, sexuality and ability. Trauma is playing a role in the lives and death of how black people black women navigate the world and there is a necessary shift to be created in communities where black women exist. Essentially black women are...

Level(s) of Social Ecological Model: The first level I will address from the Social Ecological Model will be the individual, or intrapersonal, level. In this level the individual is focused on in terms of past history in which could have influenced the way in which this individual was placed in a particular traumatic situation. This could include personal details such as age, beliefs, societal status, family history of abuse such as physical, mental, alcohol, drugs, etc. (CDC 2019). My...

In the United States, an estimated 9.4% of the adult population has diabetes, and diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death (Statistics, 2018). In addition, about 33% of adults have prediabetes and are at-risk for developing type 2 diabetes (Statistics, 2018). Individuals who have experienced four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a 1.6 odds ratio for developing diabetes compared to their counterparts who have no history of ACEs (Felitti,1998). Type 2 diabetes is...

My grant proposal involves teaching yoga and mindfulness to k-3 elementary schoolers as a way of building resilience and reducing negative behavioral incidence. The project addresses multiple level of the Social Ecological model including the individual level of students looking to impact student coping capacities and behavioral outcomes. At students interpersonal level the collaborative mini yoga and mindfulness classes will facilitate integration with other students. And at the...

Only within the past two years have ACEs gained public recognition in North Carolina sparking program development to address and increase resiliency. Overall, North Carolina’s ACEs ranking is 30th out of 50 (WOCMH, 2017). It appears that little is being done in the medical field in NC to assist medical providers in becoming trauma-informed. By educating patients that childhood trauma may be an underlying cause of their health conditions, they can begin to heal by removing self-blame...