I think about health disparities, health equity and health inequities every day – in my professional and personal life. As a public health professional, I know the definition of these terms and I understand how they impact my life, the life of my friends, my family, my co-workers and other North Carolinians. What I struggle […]
equity
Lessons Learned Series: Recommendations for Providers (Part 4)
Providers are delivering care within a contained framework that is pressed for time, prohibiting the average provider from really building a relationship with patients. In a perfect world one that we can absolutely develop for generations to come – providers and patients would have a relationship similar to that of the case management relationship shared […]
Lessons Learned Series: Voluntary Kinship (Part 3)
In Part II of the Lessons Learned Series: Defining Support, I shared a snapshot of a collection of conversations from Young Families Connect participants and recent conversations with willing participants (signed consent) who shared how they would like to be supported as new moms by their medical providers. I wrapped up the last blog by […]
Lessons Learned Series: Defining Support (Part 2)
Women of childbearing age in local community based programs* are unapologetically sharing their stories with their peers and community influencers (i.e. doulas, care management team and volunteers). These women represent the Young Families Connect program and a collection of other programs housed at the YWCA Greensboro. For the last two years, I have been the […]
Lessons Learned Series: Strategies to Care for Young Families in the Rural South (Part 1)
Local community organizations across the Southeast are opening safe spaces for women of childbearing age to share their stories about preconception and perinatal health care. These are informal storytellers – everyday folks who share common threads, including motherhood and participation in a community infant mortality reduction program. However, these programs aren’t administered as a publicly […]
Identity and the Inauguration
The transfer of power from President Obama to President Trump today has made me reflect on my different identities. As a cis woman and feminist, my heart is heavy as the biggest glass ceiling in our country remains intact. The promise of a Cabinet with half of the seats filled by females is lost. As a […]
The Privilege of a Snow Day
It is a mix of snow and sleet paired with freezing temperatures…in the South. Our world is shut down. It is lovely. It is Saturday and we suddenly have a weekend without obligations. An excuse to stay in sweats, work on small projects, actually talk to family, stay up late watching movies, even bake […]
Let us continue to do the good work
This seismic election has left our nation on a spectrum of emotions ranging from anger to jubilation and everywhere in-between. No matter where you might personally fall on the spectrum, let us continue to do the work that this coalition has set out to do together because you matter and the work you do matters!
Optimism with a Twist
I am a die-hard optimist. I am not only a “glass half full” kind of gal, I am a “glass is half full with half the calories OR I’m already partially hydrated”. I have always had a sunny outlook on life – to the point of being referred to as Pollyanna during a Fellowship interview (which […]