Watch the movie here.
This movie illustrates some of the hidden consequences of working with granite–the bread and butter of Elberton, Georgia.
Special thanks to the Smith family and to Dr. Richard Schuster. Thanks especially to Amanda Evans for calling my attention to this issue.
For those of you playing the home game, AHCJ stands for the Association of Health Care Journalists. I am one of those…sort of.
The group had a meeting in Philadelphia last week, where topics ranged from HIV vaccines to how to get published in Self Magazine.
Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot about scientific developments and freelance writing. Did you know that a patient diagnosed with both HIV and leukemia was cured of both with a CCR5-negative bone marrow transplant? If I told you what that meant, you’d think it was really exciting too.
But the most important things learned were about the way people communicate. Many scientists speak to the press as if the press is composed of other scientists. Many members of the press enjoy acting like they know what those scientists are talking about. Sessions filled with copious acronyms are referred to as “alphabet soup.”
I realize now that the best thing I can do in those situations is the best thing I can do in any situation (but rarely think to do)–be myself.
It’s okay that I don’t know off of the top of my head what PCORI** stands for or remember the term chronic traumatic encephalopathy. People of a certain intelligence level aren’t born with this information on hand. They learn it through experience.
So it behooves me to be excited about things, and not be afraid to ask questions. People want to talk about their causes, and they’re not all out to punish others for their lack of awareness.
So next time you find yourself drowning in alphabet soup, remember that you are who you are and what’s in your brain is valid stuff–even if you do have chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
**that’s Patient-Centered Research Outcomes Institute… obviously.
I have a confession to make. I’m a journalism purist. I don’t like to read news online, the verb “tweet” incites my gag reflex, and (clearly) updating a blog falls to the bottom of my priority list by default.
Essentially, I’m one of the lofty-idealed authors of The Elements of Journalism hidden inside the body of a twenty-something raised in a chatroom.
However, I’ve found that social networking can be very useful in the hunt for elusive points of view.
For example, I wrote a story last year about the availability of the HPV vaccine to teenage girls without parental permission. I had plenty of sources on hand in support of the vaccine for their daughters, but I didn’t know anyone who had opposed it outspokenly.
What was I supposed to do–approach some random woman in the grocery store, ask her about her daughter’s cervix, rinse and repeat?
Facebook really came in handy in this case. I simply posed the question in my status and BOOM! Fascinating viewpoints abounded, no awkward grocery run necessary (To see the results, click here.)
For some reason, I wrongly assumed that social networking wouldn’t help me when reporting in a rural county. I certainly misjudged the good people of Elbert County, thinking they wouldn’t have an online presence.
They do. Way too late in the semester, I came across a Facebook page created for the rantings and ravings of Elbertonians.
Had I known about this earlier on, I probably would have compiled my beat report from it. Elberton residents share their point of view on all issues germane to their town, and they do so in abundance.
Just when I thought hope was gone for my investigative piece, there they were with helpful comments about the granite industry and offers to interview their dads and friends who’d been injured or sick. One user asked me if I liked older men, but, honestly, that happens to me a lot.
So while my virtual generation irritates me a bit with their twittering and tumbling, they’ve shown me that this journalism gig isn’t nearly as hard as I’ve been making it.
And if the “older men,” help to get my stories where they need to be, then I “like” them just fine… only in a Facebook thumbs up sort of way.
Here’s a blog I wrote for the 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit:
Inclusion of Public Health in Community Hazard, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment: A State, Local, Territorial Pilot Review and Options for Future Consideration
By Chelsea Toledo
Participants in Wednesday’s session, “Inclusion of Public Health in Community Hazard, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment: A State, Local, Territorial Pilot Review and Options for Future Consideration,” discussed the rationale and practical applications for the 62 Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grants awarded nationwide.
Christa-Marie Singleton, MD, MPH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Associate Director of Science, and Shakir McLean, a pre-medical student at the University of Delaware, presented and facilitated the discussion. McLean and Singleton shared their considerations in choosing the PHEP awardees, who are charged with identifying risks for human health threats in their communities.
“A key piece of PHEP begins with that risk assessment,” said Singleton. Not only should risk be assessed, the CDC now encourages PHEP awardees to define risk as it pertains to their communities.
For instance, a public health planner can call upon mathematical formulas to help define (and prioritize) risks, such as “Risk = Hazard x Vulnerability – Absorptive Capability of Jurisdiction.”
“When you don’t have a definition of risk, it’s very hard to prioritize what needs prioritizing,” said McLean.
During the summer of 2010, McLean assessed the plans awardees already had in place, assigning a rating from 0 to 4, ranging from preliminary plans to well-developed plans. While no awardee received a score of 4, McLean noted that the best plans identified vulnerable populations. Some called upon Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, such as ESRI mapping, to locate persons requiring extra care.
“You will adjust your mass care planning based upon that risk assessment,” said Singleton.
As for the risks themselves, the CDC now encourages communities to identify and plan for the most salient hazards. For instance, it is no longer considered crucial for Great Plains communities to create scenarios for a hurricane. “We’re not focusing as much on those planning scenarios anymore, because they don’t fit,” said Singleton.
The presenters called attention to the exemplary plan put forth by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which they deemed amenable for local use or by small states.
Kimberly Shoaf, Assistant Director for the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters said, “There are pieces that are very objective, and then the part that’s really important in community engagement…when, not if, this happens to us, who do you turn to? How do you want us to work for you?”
Singleton and McLean also advocated for community involvement in PHEP planning, but they acknowledged the difficulties in garnering participation. “The key piece that we did not see in our plans,is that community has to have a voice in your project,” said Singleton.
In focusing on the needs of community members, Singleton and McLean hope that plans will be better suited to communities and, thus, better executed. “The community’s expectations have to be met. Once you do that you’ll have greater adherence to the policy you’re setting forth,” said McLean.
For more information
View UCLA’s Public Health Incident Command System at www.cphd.ucla.edu.
See GIS in action at http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc96/TO50/PAP028/P28.HTM
Today I had the pleasure of speaking to Alexa Curtis, a nurse in Sacramento who just had an article published in the Journal of Rural Health. Curtis has worked with rural teens and is concerned with the lack of data about their access to services to address high-risk behaviors.
Without such data, difficulties arise in persuading the powers that be that resources should be available to prevent such behaviors.
However, data collection for minors is tricky. For this research, subjects could only participate with parental permission. Curtis believes that the subjects participating didn’t represent the high level of at-risk teens she’s come across in rural California.
However, the data does show that rural teens (especially those belonging to minorities) engage in risk behaviors such as unprotected sex, diets high in fat and sugar, and using drugs and alcohol.
On top of the lack of data, Curtis suggested that another factor impedes the availability of teen prevention programs in rural areas: social conservatism.
The attitude that other kids are having sex, not mine… that preventing pregnancy encourages promiscuity… that treating young people for drug addiction reflects poorly on parents… all these factors (and more) stand in the way of connecting kids to the resources to help keep them safe.
So even though Athens-Clarke County is the poorest county in the country, we might not be the worst off.
We have Teen Matters, a concept Curtis found astounding and was certain would never fly where she comes from. Our schools just implemented the progressive FLASH curriculum for sex ed.
Not too shabby, Athens.
How does the rural Elbert County stack up? We shall find out soon…
This semester, my Health and Medical Journalism (HMJ) classmates and I were each assigned a county in Northeast Georgia to cover.
I got Elbert County, which is, in three words, pretty far away. I can’t seem to take a reporting trip without running into some sort of travel drama. The first time around, I purchased two books from a local bookstore and made a point of talking up the owner. After that, she tracked me down and called me a bunch… because my credit card didn’t go through.
When I went to interview a foster mother, I immediately started crying after the interview, and on the way home I saw a dead dog that looked exactly like one of mine.
This last time was the best. I plugged my interviewee’s address into my GPS, which then decided to prank me. Not only did it lose signal several times, but every turn I was instructed to make was left. I’m no math whiz, but doesn’t that trajectory point me back to wear I started?
Worse, I was directed to a 5-mile-long dirt road full of deer. Then, a pack of dogs ran in front of my car and wouldn’t move until I got out and pushed them aside.
…My social worker friend was horrified upon hearing that, convinced that I’d put myself in the same line of danger as the retired math professor and his wife who’d been eaten by dogs.
In all seriousness, I’m very glad to have been given this assignment. I can see why health problems are prevalent in rural areas. There’s little access to preventative care and little attention to the problems residents face (i.e. radon poisoning, pulmonary disease, at-risk behavior among teens, etc.)
I feel like reporting on such issues gives me the chance to do some good (which is why I decided to become a journalist in the first place).
So next time I’m on a driving adventure to Elbert County, I’ll remember how I could be covering cat fashion shows.
And unlike wild dogs, I’m allergic to cats.
View the Soundslides presentation here.
The presentation reveals that young women in Athens have free access to the HPV vaccine–without parental permission. Not all parents are thrilled about this.
Special thanks to Tamika Martin, Nikki Fuentes, Michele Rojo, and Shannen Gamboa.
On September 9th, Health Educator Tonya Chambers obliged my myriad questions at the Teen Matters clinic on the East Side. Located directly across from Cedar Shoals High School, Teen Matters is best known for providing confidential treatments and free contraception to local teens. However, the center provides so much more.
First and foremost, the center stresses–in posters, in brochures, and in clinicians’ admonishment–that no birth control method is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy and STD’s except for abstinence. The message, reinforced by the screening of MTV’s “Teen Mom” on the waiting room widescreen, comes off loud and clear in the Office of Public Affairs brochure. The pamphlet warns teens that their “teen years, which should be a time of freedom and joy, can fill up with dirty diapers, work, and responsibilities that you’re not ready for.”
It was clear from my visit that preventing teen pregnancy was item number one on Teen Matters’ agenda. However, the steps the center is taking to prevent high-risk HPV (and the cancers which can result from it) are truly remarkable.
Ms. Chambers, who is available Monday through Friday to Cedar Shoals students in their guidance office, informed me that teens in both middle and high school can receive the Gardasil vaccine at the center free of charge and without parental permission.
Did you catch that? ATHENS TEENS HAVE ACCESS TO THE GARDASIL VACCINE WITHOUT PAYING A CENT AND WITHOUT HAVING TO TELL THEIR PARENTS!!!!
The impact of this service could be huge. According to Gardasil’s website, 75-85% of sexually active people will get HPV in their lifetime. Of those cases, a fraction will escalate into more serious diseases, such as genital warts or cervical cancer. If teens–both male and female–have access to HPV prevention, the pervasiveness of cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers could greatly subside.
It’s not all good news. Current policy does not require that PAP smears be given to patients under 21. Ms. Chambers justified the policy, stating that most HPV infections occur in people who have been sexually active for three or more years. In her view, most teens do not fall into that category.
Regardless of when they start having sex, young women need to get into the habit of getting regular PAP smears. Even if they do have the vaccine, they are still susceptible to 20% of the cancer-causing strains of HPV. If they can get the perceived prevention without the discomfort of the test, what message does that send?
Another potential pitfall in the availability of Gardasil is parental disapproval. According to data collected in 2007, 65% of adult citizens in Athens believe that the community would fail to get behind providing teens with birth control. However, 75% of those same respondents claimed to support providing teens with birth control.
If we are to extend those data (germane to the topic of teen pregnancy) to HPV prevention, parental disapproval becomes a non-issue. Ms. Chambers explained that parents acknowledge that kids are having sex, just not their own kids. They’re all for preventing teen pregnancy and STD’s, just for their next door neighbor’s kid, who, unlike theirs, is having sex. “It’s a perception issue,” she said.
My mission, of course, is to direct proportional attention to HPV-related cancers as is given to teen pregnancy in Clarke County. We preach to kids that a pregnancy can change their life. A cancer can end it.
Though it boasts the state’s top public university, Athens Clarke-County holds one of the state’s highest poverty rates. Consequently, many Athens women suffer from pernicious–though preventable–health issues, including but not limited to cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and high-risk pregnancy. This blog serves to monitor developments in those areas, focusing most heavily on HPV and cervical cancer.
I chose this template because it resembles a health journal. It is clean (some might say sterile) and official-looking.
To my readers– I invite any comments or leads germane to my endeavor. Help me help women in Athens.
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