- Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Susan Madera,
I'm the Academic Specialist
for High Impact Practices
from the Office of Academic Affairs.
I want to thank you for
coming today and welcome you
to this wonderful event.
This event is one of many associated with
The Common Read of the text
that you see right there,
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,
by Rebecca Skloot.
I know that there is so
much to be shared today,
and we're gonna get directly to it.
And I wish you a lot of
luck in your presentations,
I know they're gonna be wonderful.
So, let me do my job,
and that is to introduce
one of your wonderful
faculty members here,
and this is Professor Lorraine Cupelli.
- Thank you very much.
(applause)
- Hi, good afternoon,
and welcome to this Common Read event.
It's gonna be very exciting,
you're in for a really good treat.
It really very nicely
tailgates into the presentation
that we have this morning
on health disparity.
It feeds right into that.
I want to introduce the
other faculty that has
been involved in this
Common Read project with us.
Professor Koalilo,
Dr. Blake Campbell,
and Professor Rome.
(applause)
So I'm not used to
talking into a microphone.
Anyway, the nursing faculty
across the nursing curriculum
have used this Common Read
as a vehicle for nursing students
to integrate the knowledge,
the skills, and attitudes
of a Professional Registered
Nurse as an advocate,
a caregiver, an educator.
The nursing students
from different semesters
will present on several
of the socio-cultural
and health related issues
identified in the story
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,
and that unfortunately is still apparent
in today's society, as we
know, as health disparities,
especially among the
vulnerable populations.
The focus is for them to
really advocate and teach
the college and general community
about health promotion
and illness prevention
as it relates to their topic
with emphasis to the
vulnerable populations.
We will begin with the new
nursing students from the
first semester as written on your agenda.
There'll be four groups of
the NU101 nursing students,
then to be followed by the
third semester nursing students,
particular to the topic
that's on their agenda.
I would like to thank and
acknowledge Susan Madera
for spear-heading this Common Read event.
It helps really impact the deep learning
and increases the the
retention of information,
and it also helps them
really assimilate their role
as a nurse.
They'll be out when they graduate,
speaking to communities,
possibly speaking to families,
speaking to the staff on their floor,
because they'll all become
managers and supervisors, right?
And I also want to
acknowledge Connie Williams,
our librarian, who is
instrumental in compiling
multiple resources for
the nursing students
to perform their research.
So without further delay,
I'd like to introduce the first group,
which is Kunjal Tiswal,
Jennifer Kahn, Deepir Pursad,
and Benjamin Yoder.
(applause)
- Good afternoon everyone,
thank you for attending our presentations.
My group and I will be presenting
the Human Papilloma Virus
and Cervical Cancer.
Now I'm sure all of us are very thankful
that over the time scientists
have been able to discover
treatments, cures, vaccines,
for many of the severe illnesses such as
polio, herpes, leukemia, flu, Parkinson's,
and many others.
Now researchers all over
the world have been able
to make this possible through
a specific type of a cell
known as HeLa cells.
Now, not very many people
know where these cells
actually come from or whom
they've been provided by.
Just this past month, we
celebrated Black History Month.
We honored many of the
courageous individuals
such as Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Rosa Parks, Jesse Owens, and many others,
but none seemed to mention the one person
who is responsible for
many medical breakthroughs.
This one person is Henrietta Lacks.
Henrietta Lacks was born in the 1920s.
She grew up at a time of segregation,
at a time when ethical
principles were not yet
in practice in medicine.
She had visited a doctor because
she had discovered a knot
in her abdominal region.
For this knot she had
been, seeing the doctor,
and unfortunately her
cells were taken from her
during this time without her notification.
She had been diagnosed
with cervical cancer,
a disease that took her
life, unfortunately,
but made her cells immortal.
Cervical cancer is a disease
that is sexual transmitted
but is most commonly linked
with a virus known as
the Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV.
Now, this virus was actually
not even first discovered
in humans at all.
In the 1930s, Dr. Richard
Shope had discovered
the papilloma virus in a rabbit
at the Rockefeller University,
and it wasn't until 1976
that HPV was actually linked
as a precursor to cervical cancer.
Now since the 1950s the
percent of women that have been
diagnosed with cervical
cancer has decreased,
but the numbers are not low enough
that we can eradicate this.
Since 2002, cervical cancer
screening in New York City
has increased by 32%, but
unfortunately the mortality rate
has remained steady.
This is according to
the Department of Health
of New York City.
Now the question here is, why
is this disease so severe,
what exactly is HPV, and
how can we prevent this?
Members of my group will
help shine some light
on this information and will
further go into details.
I'd like to introduce
Benjamin to talk about
this information first.
(applause)
- Okay, hello.
The first thing I'm going
to do is show a short video.
- [Female Narrator] What
if you quit your job
to be an actor?
What if you go back to school?
What if you travel abroad?
What if you meet someone?
What if he gives you HPV
and it doesn't go away?
What if years later it
turns into cervical cancer?
What if you couldn't have kids?
What if you get really sick?
Cervical cancer is caused by certain types
of HPV.
Why risk it?
Talk to your doctor to find out how
you can help protect yourself.
(solemn music)
- [Female Narrator] Every
day, about 12,000 people
ages 15 to 24 are infected with HPV.
That's like one major college
campus per day, every day.
For most, HPV will clear on it's own,
but when it doesn't, certain types of HPV
can cause cervical cancer.
Other types can cause genital warts.
There's no way to predict who
will or won't clear the virus.
Each day in the United States,
30 women are diagnosed
with cervical cancer.
That's about 11,000 women per year,
and it's estimated that each minute
in the United States, there's
a new case of genital warts.
- Okay, so, for such a
common problem like HPV,
there are a lot of sobering facts about it
that you may not have known before,
like the video mentioned, there are about
12,000 people between the ages
of 15-24 that are diagnosed
with HPV each day, so to
put that into perspective,
our college campus here
has an enrollment of about
16,000 students, total.
So that's like, 3/4 of our student body
becoming infected each day with HPV.
There are about 40 types of HPV,
that can infect the genital areas
of males and females alike,
and it can also infect
your mouth and throat.
HPV is the most common
sexually transmitted virus
in the United States and
more than half of all
sexually active men and women will get HPV
at some point during their life.
So that's like half
the people in this room
getting HPV.
Currently there are about
20 million Americans
that have HPV and six million
more get HPV every year.
Many people will never
actually know that they have
the HPV virus because their
immune systems can fight it off
and it will clear the virus
and they'll never actually know
they had it, but even if you didn't know
that you had it, the HPV
can still be transmitted
on to other people.
So you might not know you have it
but you can still be transmitting it.
And also smoking increases the likelihood
that the HPV virus will develop
into a more serious problem
like cancer.
We've all heard of HIV, but
HPV is different than HIV.
HIV we know is something
that's in the blood
and it can cause AIDS.
But HPV is also a sexually
transmitted disease,
but it is transmitted
through sexual contact,
but it causes different
things like genital warts
and different types of cancer.
And instead of being in the blood,
it's actually on the skin surfaces
in the genital areas.
So you might be wondering
how you can get HPV,
or how you can not get HPV.
It's passed on through genital contact,
mostly during intercourse,
but it doesn't have to be intercourse,
it can gust be genital to genital contact,
or through oral sex.
Many people get HPV and
oropharyngeal cancer
that is partially caused at least by HPV.
Also pregnant women can
pass HPV on to their child
during childbirth, but it's
very rare that that happens.
And you might be wondering
how common is HPV
and the health related
problems that it brings?
Every year, there are
about 360,000 new cases
of genital warts in the US.
So hopefully you don't know
from personal experience,
but from the pictures
they don't look too great.
There are about 12,000 new
cases of cervical cancer
in the US each year and that
results in about 4,000 deaths.
There are 2100 cases of vulvar cancer,
and 500 vaginal cancers,
600 penile cancers,
2800 anal cancer in women and 1500 in men,
and then about 8,000
oropharyngeal cancers.
And the oropharyngeal
cancers are linked to HPV
but they're not sure
always is caused by smoking
or HPV or a combination.
So, like Kunjal stated,
HPV was first linked
to cervical cancer in the
1970s but it was first found
in humans in the 1950s.
And so Henrietta Lacks was
an African American woman,
and so I did some looking,
some research on the
statistics for African American women.
Nationally, and in New York
City, African American women
die from cervical cancer
at much higher rates
than White, Hispanic, and Asian women.
In 2008 New York City
black women died at a rate
of two and a half times
that of White women.
And I have a slide.
So you can see here that
the Hispanic population,
or Hispanic women actually,
are diagnosed with more
new cases of cervical cancer
than African American women
but the death rate is much
higher in African American
women than in Hispanics.
And actually, as I mentioned,
not sure if I made that clear,
cervical cancer is
almost exclusively caused
by the HPV virus, so
I'm not sure if I made
a good transition there.
So, regardless of race
and ethnicity, New Yorkers
living in the poorest neighborhoods
have the highest overall
rates of newly diagnosed
cases of cervical cancer and deaths.
So, there's no real solid
research on exactly why that is,
but it seems to be most
linked with lack of education
and lack of access to healthcare.
So the way to battle this obviously, then,
is to bring more awareness
to especially young people,
and also to make
healthcare more accessible.
So while there is no actual cure for HPV,
there are different things
you can do to prevent it,
and my classmate Jennifer
is going to tell us how.
(applause)
- It doesn't look good.
Good afternoon, my name is Jennifer Kahn,
and today I will be
discussing how to prevent HPV.
So abstinence it is an
absolute way to prevent HPV,
however for most adults,
it may result unrealistic,
absolute abstinence, so
therefore you must know
that there are other ways
that you can prevent HPV
and there are also factors
that may lower the risk
of getting HPV.
The HPV vaccine, aside from abstinence,
it is an effective way of preventing HPV.
The vaccine is given in three doses.
The first dose is at the
moment that you get it,
the second dose would be one to two months
after the first dose,
and the third dose would be six
months after the first dose.
It is important that you
get the whole three doses
for the whole therapeutic effect,
so you want to get the three
doses and even if you miss one,
you want to catch up on
that at least if it's within
a year.
If it's more than a year then probably
you are going to have to
start from the beginning
the three doses.
The vaccine targets the
ages of nine through 26,
girls and boys, because
HPV is not just a matter
for women right now, it is also for men.
So we are targeting the ages from 19 to 26
and the purpose of this, is because
we want to protect boys and girls from
the exposure of HPV, so
we want to protect them
before they become sexually active.
In the same way, HPV
vaccine doesn't protect you
against all the different strains of HPV,
but it protects you against
four major ones that are
commonly associated with
the 75% of cervical cancer
and 90% of genital warts.
Using, making use of
safe sexual practices,
also may lower the risk of getting HPV.
When we talk about safe sexual practices,
most of us think about condoms.
But it's important to remember that
HPV, as my colleague says before,
it is not an STD that necessarily
needs body fluid contact.
So HPV can be getted by genital contact.
Sexual activity with some people who has
few or none sex partners
also may significantly
reduce the risk for getting HPV.
Stop smoking.
As is known, smoking
harms all your body cells.
So if you are someone who has HPV,
you have a higher risk of
developing cervical cancer
than a non-smoker.
Circumcision is one of the
factors that may influence
as well, it doesn't mean
that it's gonna prevent HPV,
but if you are a male
and you are circumcised,
then you can have a
lower risk of getting HPV
since the penile foreskin
is a moister environment
for bacteria and viruses to grow.
So this would reduce the risk as well.
In the same way as HPV is
a precursor for other types
of cancers, by preventing
HPV we can prevent cancer.
In women being proactive
towards their health
and visiting regularly their
gynecologist once a year,
and by performing Pap
Smears, they can lower
the chances and early
detection of this virus.
Pap smears are one of
the best ways to detect
changes and abnormalities in the cervix,
so it's important for
you to get your checks.
There are reasons why some
races might have more frequency
or more tendency to perform
Pap smears than others.
Here in the chart we will
see that Non-Hispanic White,
Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic,
and Hispanic-Asians.
Some of the reasons that,
and they all have different
reasons for not getting Pap smears,
some of them are that they
never thought about it,
they were never taught about it,
and others that they thought
that they didn't need it,
or that they didn't have
any problems because HPV
you cannot have any symptoms,
it doesn't need to present
any symptoms for you to have it.
Some of them are thinking
that it's too expensive,
because that's a reality
between different races,
and that we are living today.
In the same way, for males,
they can have the throat test,
they can perform rectal or anal
tests which is colonoscopy,
and penile tests.
The colonoscopy, it starts
at 50 so it is better
you know we have all of
these different resources
and we have different ways to be tested.
So today, I'm going to
introduce my colleague Deepa,
who is going to be explaining
the different resources
that we have for HPV.
(applause)
- So by now I'm sure many of you realize
how important it is to get
screened and vaccinated
for HPV.
And we know not everyone
has health insurance
or can afford paying for these
things out of their pockets.
However, there are clinics
that offers HPV testing
and shots absolutely free.
At the end of our
presentation today we will be
handing out a pamphlet with
a list of support groups
and local clinics that you can go to.
Dealing with HPV can be stressful,
depressing, and shocking,
but you need to remember you're not alone.
Although you might not feel
comfortable discussing your
problems with your family and friends,
there are special support
groups that you can go to
to both give and receive emotional support
from people facing the same
exact problems you are.
The great thing about
support groups is no one
is going to judge you,
and it's a great way
of finding yourself again
and building your confidence
back up.
Sometimes you might be
feeling down and depressed
and you just need someone to talk to.
Here at Queensborough Community College,
we have a wonderful counseling
center where everything
is confidential and free.
And for those of you
who are not comfortable
sitting face to face
discussing your problems,
there are online support groups, such as
cancercompass.com or HPVsupport.com.
No matter your personality,
preference, or condition,
there is something for everyone.
Remember, there is life after HPV.
And that brings us to the end
of our presentation today.
In just a moment, I will be passing out
a very short simple quiz.
We ask you to complete and
return it, hopefully before
the next presentation
starts, but if you can't,
it's absolutely fine,
just pass it to the front.
And above, is a list of
our sources that we used.
It's also on the pamphlets
that we will be handing out
if anyone would like to
do any further research.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Gina and I am joined
by my fellow nursing classmates
to educate you on poverty
and the impact on health,
college students and the
challenges of maintaining health.
Koala will begin by
introducing Henrietta Lacks.
- Good afternoon everyone.
Henrietta Lacks is a
name you should all know.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
is a story about a true woman
with a middle classification
who made one of the greatest
medical contributions ever.
Her cells, taken for a
cervical cancer biopsy,
became the first immortal human cell
that reproduced tremendously in labs.
How would you feel if someone told you
that the mother cell is still around
and helped contribute to medical research.
Her cells are one of the main reasons why
we have so many vaccines like Polio.
It has uncovered secrets
of cancer and viruses,
it helped determine the number
of chromosomes in our bodies
and with it helped find
out about several types of
generic diseases and
lead advances in cloning,
gene-mapping, and in-vitro fertilization.
Henrietta Lacks' cells, known as HeLa,
are little miracles being
used all around the world.
The author, Rebecca Skloot,
takes us on an unexpected journey from
where Henrietta used to live,
to the Johns Hopkins Hospital,
in 1950s, where her cells
were taken and grown in labs
without her or her family's knowledge.
This book is not only about science,
it's about the story of
human beings that have
to struggle and mostly every poor family
to survive during a time
when a lot of discrimination
existed and where medical
research were done on humans
without their consent.
It helped us understand
not only the importance
of health prevention and
care, but also of our rights,
as individuals, to decide
about our own bodies.
The lack of money shouldn't
be a reason why so many
of us can't receive the right healthcare.
We are all students who
are trying to progress
in our education, to find better
jobs, and at the same time
be able to afford health
insurance for ourselves
and for our families.
One of the things that caught
my attention in this book,
was that not only poor
people but many others,
lack the possibilities to
obtain the right healthcare.
Now after many years,
we are big example of many
disadvantaged in our country.
Some people describe poverty
as a lack of necessary
materials such as food,
water, clothing and shelter.
Well, yes, all of them are
needed for basic standard
of living, but having
limited access to healthcare
makes a person poor too,
because the relationship between
these two is a complex one.
Many factors such as poor
diet, poor living condition,
lack of education, and daily
stress can cause a negative
impact on our health.
Poverty impacted Henrietta's health then,
and now is impacting us as students.
We need to promote health
and prevent illness
by doing such things as exercise,
improving nutrition, stress reduction,
and by obtaining low cost health insurance
and visiting low cost clinics,
something my classmates will
encourage and give information.
Next, my classmate Gina
will discuss and provide
data about this big problem among us.
(applause)
- I will start by showing a short video.
- This seems like an
impossible choice for a local
college student, you
either pay for school,
or you pay for your healthcare.
- And this one is especially difficult
because the student we're talking about
has medical needs.
As Chief Correspondent Joe
Shortsleeve tells us tonight,
she is not alone.
- Twenty-four hours a day
it's giving me small pieces
of insulin every hour.
- [Joe] A diabetic
since she was nine,
Katie Slow of Chelmsford
uses an insulin pump to
regulate her blood sugar,
a life saving but expensive device.
- It's almost a thousand dollars
a month to keep her alive.
- [Joe] And that's why her mom,
a single mother of three, was grateful
to be covered under MassHealth,
but something changed when Katie returned
from her freshman year at UMASS.
- People were calling me going,
"You don't have insurance,
are you gonna pay for this."
- [Joe] The problem?
Katie turned 19, and
that's when MassHealth
pulls the plug on
full-time college students.
They just cut her off?
- They just cut her off.
- [Joe] Did you know that
she was gonna be cut off?
- No.
- [Joe] She was uninsured,
with just a few days
of insulin for her pump.
- Without it she dies.
Literally, dies.
- It's scary.
- The state does provide
help for people like Katie,
it's called the Health Safety Net,
and it will provide her with insulin.
It just won't cover her
pump delivery system.
- So it means she goes back to injections.
It means her control over diabetes
is nowhere near as effective,
and long-term, she could
have major complications,
from blindness to kidney failure.
- Well its not a problem
that can be easily solved
or quickly solved, unfortunately.
- [Joe] According to the
state, Katie is not covered
because as a full-time student
she's eligible for health
insurance through UMASS,
but the nearly $3,000
price tag is not covered
by Katie's financial aid.
Her mom, who shares her
home with another family
to make ends meet, says
she can't afford it.
State Senator Richard Moore
heads up the Committee
on Healthcare Financing.
So 19 year old, full time
students on Medicaid,
all find themselves in this situation?
- We presume that's the case.
- [Joe] Katie could be eligible
for more help if she
were a part time student,
but that would mean the end
of her college financial aid package.
- It's not a good choice to have to choose
between full time college
and health coverage,
and so we need to really
take a look at this.
- [Joe] Katie says she doesn't
want to depend on the state,
and for that, she needs to go to college.
- Get through my major,
graduate, and get a job that
I can sustain myself on.
- Under national healthcare reform,
students from families
with private insurance
are covered until age 26
on their parent's policies,
but Katie and countless other students,
are on their own.
Joe Shortsleeve, WBZ News.
- Okay, so, by a show of hands in here,
how many people are uninsured?
Okay.
And how many people in here are limited
to their coverage, some just have medical,
they don't have dental
or optical, anybody?
Okay.
And, well for me, I
graduated from C.W. Post
three years ago with an education degree,
and I could not find a job,
and I lost my health insurance.
And when I first graduated, I thought,
well when I was in college, I thought
once I graduate I'll be able to find a job
and I'll get health insurance
and my life is going to be all perfect,
but as we get older we
realize that's not the case.
Health insurance is extremely expensive
and with all your daily expenses,
how can anyone afford it?
In the video you see a 19 year old girl
who is struggling with
a decision on her health
and her college career.
Many people like Katie
Slow are facing challenges.
Diabetes is the seventh or
eighth leading cause of death
in the age group between 18 and 25.
I can't imagine having to
choose between healthcare
and my college career.
Back in the 1950s, mainly
the people affected
were the uneducated,
the poor, or minorities.
Today, 20% of all college students
are uninsured, and in 2011
53% of young college graduates
in America were either
unemployed or under employed.
The average annual premiums
for health insurance
for single coverage is nearly $6000.
And the average cost in
student loans are $27,000.
But if you're unemployed,
or under employed
like the 53% of college graduates,
how can someone afford paying that
on top of the daily requirements.
Some facts that are important
to know about healthcare
are that in 2014, most
people will be required
to have health insurance or
they will have to pay a penalty.
People between ages 19-29 are
one of the largest populations
in the US without health insurance.
People between 19 and 29
are less likely than those
between 30 and 64 to work for companies
that offer health benefits.
Fifteen percent of
young adults suffer from
one in six health conditions.
Some examples are arthritis,
asthma, heart disease,
and like Katie Slow, diabetes.
One in four of all HIV and AIDS diagnoses
were among the adults between 20 and 29,
and more than once third of
women between ages 20 and 29
are infected with HPV, which
causes cervical cancer.
And finally, 28% of young
adults are overweight,
and 24 are obese.
In the last 30 years this age group
has increased in obesity three fold.
And as we all know, obesity can lead
to many different health
diseases including diabetes.
As you can see, our age
group suffers tremendously
from many different diseases.
Without health insurance
it may be a little harder
to maintain and receive
appropriate healthcare.
However, there are many
ways to prevent illnesses.
My class mate Ziering will
explain the importance
of nutrition and explain why the sayings,
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away,"
and "You are what you eat," are true.
(applause)
- Hi everyone.
Today I'm going to talk about nutrition.
According to WHO, nutrition
is the intake of food,
considered in relation to
the body's dietary needs.
Good nutrition, physical activities,
and healthy body weights are essential
for a person's overall
health and well-being.
Together this can decrease a
person's risk of developing
serious health conditions
such as high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, diabetes,
heart disease, a stroke,
and cancer.
Most Americans however,
do not eat healthful diet
and are not physically
active at levels needed
to maintain proper health.
Fewer than one in three adults
and even lower proportion
of adolescents eat the
recommended amount of vegetables
each day.
Majority of adults, 81.6%
and adolescents, 81.8%,
do not get the recommended
amount of physical activities.
Therefore, to encourage health
conscious eating habits,
I want to share my daily food plan
with calorie calculating
method, tips to improve healthy
eating habits, and list
of healthy eating foods
from our own QCC cafeteria.
(audience laughs)
First of all, I have the daily food plan,
which tells us what and how much to eat
within our calorie allowance.
In order to calculate
the calorie allowance
I'm using the Harris-Benedict formula.
And I have it on my handout,
it's on the second page.
I'll give you at the end.
(clears throat)
After that, after calculating
your calories per day
you can go to the website,
choosemyplate.com, .gov,
which has the daily food plan,
and I also have that sample on my handout.
And it has the website name too.
You might not be able to follow everything
that is on the daily food
plan, but if you try it,
it can definitely help
you minimize the risk
of health problems.
I have some more tips to
improve health eating habits.
Eat less.
Take your time to eat food
that will make you feel
like you have ate enough.
Eat more vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, fat free
or one percent milk and dairy products.
These foods have the
nutrients you need for health,
including potassium, calcium,
vitamin D, and fiber.
Make them the basis for meals and snacks
for fewer calories and
less saturated fats.
Choose red, orange, dark
green vegetables like
tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli
along with other vegetables for your meal.
Eat whole wheat bread
instead of white bread,
brown rice instead of white rice,
cut back on foods high in solid fats,
added sugars and salt.
Choose food that has a label,
low sodium, reduced
sodium, or no salt added.
Cut calories by drinking water
or unsweetened beverages,
and last but not least,
I encourage everybody
to bring your home cooked food.
If you want to heat
it, we have a microwave
at the Student Union Building.
That's all, thank you.
Next we have Diana,
she will be talking about
physical activities,
importance of physical activity.
- Okay, hello everybody.
My name is Diana and I'm gonna talk about
physical activity and health.
Due to difficulty in getting insurance,
we can find a way that can help
us from getting any disease
and maintain our body
and obtain good health.
The first way we can choose is exercising.
Exercise promotes health
and prevents illness.
Experts recommend to
exercise 20 to 30 minutes
three times a week or more.
And regular exercise can improve your mood
and help you to better manage stress.
You know college life is very stressful.
Some people live in a constant
state of trying to catch up,
and not getting insurance
is very frustrating.
So actually stress and depression
are the most prevalent
mental health problems
that students confront.
And suicide, which is the
leading cause of death
among college students
between ages 18 and 24,
which is due to when the
person feels very depressed.
So a way to prevent
this is doing exercise.
When we do exercise, our
brains release a chemical
to give us a sense of
well being, good mood,
and increased self esteem as well.
Okay, and diabetes and hypertension,
which is also very common,
as the video has shown,
not having insurance is
really hard to continue
without required treatment
because of the high cost
of the equipment or medicine.
Actually, obesity leads to
diabetes, and when we don't
exercise, exercise reduces
body fat and can help us
to control our weight and
thus prevent diabetes.
Also, exercise makes your
bones and muscles strong,
helping us with having good circulation
and prevent heart disease or stroke.
It reduce chances for any
disease when we exercise,
so we can have more
chances for living longer.
Actually, Queensborough has facilities
we can take advantage
of, like outdoor track,
if you want to walk between
hours if you have a chance,
like five to ten minutes.
And we have the gym, the pool,
and the hours of the gym and the pool
you can find in the handout
we are giving at the end.
Also you can find facilities
outside the campus,
like indoor pool, running tracks.
You can go to this
website, nycgovparks.org
and you can find more information.
Some of them are free.
Well as we can see a
combination of exercise
and good nutrition contribute to
promoting health and preventing illness.
My next peer, Maureen,
is going to talk about
free and low cost clinics and
affording health insurance.
(applause)
- Good afternoon, my
name is Maureen Appel,
and I'll be talking about many services
and clinics that provide low
cost or free health service
in the New York City area
because we still need
check ups, vaccinations,
tests, Pap smears, treatments
and so on for the uninsured
to promote health.
There are also low cost
insurance plans for students
and families who can qualify.
Okay so for dental, there
are many clinics all over
New York City such as
Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens
and the Bronx that
provide low cost treatment
which is very accessible.
Also the New York City Health and Hospital
Corporation Clinic is a
large public corporation
in New York City consisting of
hospitals, treatment centers,
care facilities, agencies, and clinics.
Their mission is to provide
services for everyone
who needs care regardless
of their ability to pay.
Again, located all over New York City.
The Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene
offers individuals and
families free health services
including immunizations, STD
testing, tuberculosis services,
flu shots, and with no
income requirements,
so this is obviously all
over New York City again
which is very easy to promote
your health and well being.
Health insurance is really important
because it pays for medical
care, preventative treatment,
preventing and treating
illnesses while also paying
for many healthcare services.
If you have a child,
Child Health Plus provides
free or low cost health
insurance for children under 19.
This is an example of the
monthly income eligibility rate
by family size.
Eligibility for insurances
such as Child Health Plus
and Medicaid for children
includes age under 19,
you must be a New York State resident,
and you cannot have
other insurance coverage.
For us college students,
Medicaid and Family Health Plus
are public health insurances.
Well, Medicaid primarily
being for low income adults,
and Family Health Plus
for having income too high
to qualify for Medicaid.
For Medicaid and for Family Health Plus
you have to be eligible
the same, 19 to 64,
New York State resident,
and you cannot have
another health insurance coverage.
Again, you can see the income eligibility.
Children under one, so that
would be coverage for children,
and then Medicaid for us adults
19 to 20, and 21 through 64.
Same requirements for Family Health Plus,
and as you can see again,
the eligibility income.
The benefits covered for
all of these public health
insurances include
immunizations, hospital care,
ER room care, prescription
drugs, dental care,
eye glasses, specialty
care, medical equipment,
smoking cessation,
which is very convenient
for our wellbeing.
You can enroll for any
of these by calling 311
and asking for HRA Medicaid
Helpline to find out
if you're eligible for any of
these mentioned insurances.
Here's our list of our
references that you can
sign on, whatever, and
it'll give you a lot of more
details, along with the
pamphlets and fliers
that I received from
the gentleman outside,
that's in charge of the
table for health insurance.
He's available on Wednesdays from 9 to 1
and this concludes our
presentation on poverty and college
students and to maintain their health.
If you have any questions,
Gina and Paula will answer
at the very end.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
and I am Dr. Blake-Campbell,
and I am here to introduce
the next set of students.
The first group will
present on Patient's Rights.
Because historically
patients are often of doctors
and other healthcare
providers, they literally
surrender their rights to choose wisely
when it comes to healthcare.
In the case of Henrietta Lacks,
just to have access to Johns
Hopkins Medical Facility
was a privilege.
The second group will
focus on the need for
healthcare clients to receive
culturally competent care.
As the ethnic profile
diversifies in the United States,
so must the healthcare workforce.
I believe Queensborough is
helping to meet those needs.
Health disparities and stories
similar to Henrietta Lacks
has caused a federal mandate to come about
called the Class Standards,
to ensure that healthcare
professionals who receive Medicare
and Medicaid reimbursement
train their staff
to deliver culturally competent care.
So without any further delay,
I will introduce the first group.
- Hello, and good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for coming.
My group will start our
presentation with a skit
we put together with exact
quotes from the book,
and then a poem will follow right after.
I hope everyone enjoys it.
I'm Carol, and I'll be
playing Babette, Henrietta's
daughter in law.
- I'm Isabella, and
I'll be playing Deborah,
Henrietta's daughter.
- Hi, my name is Grace.
I'll be playing Zakariyya,
Henrietta's son.
- Hi, my name is Lily and
I'll be playing Dr. Gey,
I'm the doctor who took Henrietta's cells.
(microphone feedback)
- Nobody ever asked me about,
nobody ever said nothing about my mother,
Henrietta Lacks, I mean,
where my mother's clothes at?
Where my mother's shoes?
Everything's always about her cells,
and never about,
oh my God.
Everything's always about them cells
and never worry about her name,
or if HeLa was even a real person.
Her cells have been so
important to science,
the least they could do
is give her some credit.
- Yes, it quite possible that these cells
can teach us how cancer cells can damage
or completely wipe out.
I will share the HeLa
cell vial with anyone
who needs them.
- What?
You can't share those
cells, because you took them
and you didn't ask.
Henrietta Lacks didn't donate anything.
You never told the family anything.
You knew how to contact us.
- I just want to know what's been going on
after all these years.
Not knowing who to go
to for understanding,
no one from the medical
field took the time.
- Yeah, what Dr. George Gray
or whatever his name was
did was wrong.
Dead wrong, you don't lie to people
and clone people behind their backs.
That's like me walking in your bathroom
when you in there with your pants down.
It's the highest degree of disrespect.
If you were still alive, I
would take a black pitchfork
and stick it where it hurts.
- Zakariyya!
- Me and my mother, nobody
got benefit from those cells.
If you and me needed
something from the doctors,
we couldn't afford to go see one.
- But I didn't make any
money out of HeLa cell.
If I were in her situation,
I would have done the
exact same thing for the
other thousand millions
of cancer patients.
- I don't even care about
the money that much.
I just want somebody that I can trust.
Somebody who will talk to me and tell me
what's going on.
(sighs)
I just miss you, Momma.
(applause)
(somber music)
HeLa.
The name on the vial,
Endless glass.
How can you be here,
And yet not with me?
How you can you be dead,
And yet immortal?
I am trapped just like you
Endless glass
Scientists gaze at me and my family
Like we are not human anymore
Just like you aren't human anymore
I'm pressing against the glass,
Screaming for answers that never come
And all I can picture is your body
Your pain
Your tumor-pearls
I look at the vial in my hands
Does it hold the secrets
To your life?
To your heart?
To the mother I never knew?
Hands are grabbing me, reaching inside
Suddenly it's my name on the vial.
DeLa.
Immortal together.
- Good afternoon, (speaks
in foreign language)
a student of Queensborough
Community College.
I am here to talk about
clients who are not aware
of their rights but were suspicious enough
not to sign consent.
Our goal here is to
discuss how disparities
in the healthcare system
and the medical injustice
that have occurred and
will occur if these issues
are not addressed.
Healthcare providers should
not depend on a person's race,
ethnicity, socioeconomic
status, gender, disabilities,
level of education and age.
Everyone is entitled to
receive quality healthcare.
As nurses, we must develop
interventions to help
eliminate these health disparities
and reduce health
disparities in our societies.
This story of Henrietta
Lacks would remind us
of injustice that were
perpetrated by the healthcare
industry on the poor and
uneducated some years ago.
Henrietta Lacks was an
African American woman
who was diagnosed with
cervical cancer in 1951.
She had some possibly damaged
cells taken from her body
without her knowledge and permission.
Her cells would grow
and multiply and be used
all around the world.
Twenty years later her
family will find out
that her cells are alive
and they would question
why they never knew and who gave consent
for Henrietta Lacks' cells to be taken
since neither of them did.
In this world and day
there are people just like
Henrietta Lacks, people
who have fright but are
taken advantage of.
Minorities, immigrants,
non-English speaking natives
are more likely to be
mistreated and have their rights
violated due to lack of knowledge.
They conclude the doctor knows best
and never question his actions.
They are unaware of their patient rights.
They do not understand
procedures performed on them.
The Common Rule is a Federal
Policy for the Protection
of Human Rights used in research.
It was issued in 1991 by
15 Federal Departments
and Agencies.
The Common Rule requires that all patients
who participate in research
have given their fully informed,
fully voluntary written
consent during the time
they participate and
are told any foreseeable
risks or benefits.
The Common Rule applies
to everyone, irrespective
of age, race, and socioeconomic status.
The need for an informed
consent allows the patient
to be involved in his or
her healthcare decisions.
Henrietta Lacks never
gave an informed consent
for her cells to be taken.
Now there is foreskins of
circumcised infant boys
are sold often without the
consent of their families
to cosmetics and bioengineering companies.
One foreskin can sell up to $100,000.
They are never told about the
benefits associated with it.
Their patient rights,
just like Henrietta Lacks,
are ignored and violated.
Our duty as nurses is
to ensure the patient
has full understanding of procedures
and understand they have
the right to consent
or refuse treatment.
We must follow the Endicott
Principle of Autonomy
which requires us to
give the patient rights
to make their own healthcare decisions
because the change begins with us.
Next, my colleague Carol
is gonna talk about clients
who do not know their
patient rights but consented.
(applause)
- (speaks in foreign language)
I will be talking about
patients who do not fully
understand their rights but
coerced into giving consent.
A big problem with healthcare then and now
is the fact that many patients
do not fully understand
their rights but give consents.
As nurses, our goal is to
make sure that patients
have full understanding of their rights
so they are able to make good decisions
about their healthcare.
A patient in New York has
the right to understand
their rights, receive treatment
without discrimination,
receive complete information about their
diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis,
receive all information needed
so they can give full consent,
refuse treatment and be told what effects
these treatments may have on their health,
and that's only naming a few.
Many times these rights are compromised
by language barriers or health literacy,
which effect the poor, the
elderly, and immigrants.
As defined by the Institute
of Medicine report,
health literacy is the
degree to which an individual
has the capacity to obtain,
process, and understand
basic health decisions.
Basically this is the
ability to understand
health information and use
it to make good decisions
about your healthcare.
A study done in 2006 by the
US Department of Education
found that 36% of adults
in the United States
have only basic or below
basic skills for dealing
with health material.
This means that 90 million
Americans can't understand
discharge information
at a fifth grade level.
So we can change the statistic,
we should make it a goal
to diminish the effects
of health literacy,
whether that is by using
a teach back method,
providing information in the
patient's primary language,
or using simpler language.
When we first hear about
Henrietta's cervical cancer,
she is describing a knot
in womb to her cousins.
Having had only a sixth or
seventh grade education,
she had never heard words
such as biopsy or cervix
before.
All she knew was that
something was wrong with her.
Once diagnosed Henrietta
signed an operation permit,
and started her cancer
treatment the next day.
Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr.
started the radium treatment.
No one bothered to tell Henrietta
the negative effects of the radium.
Surely she wouldn't understand much,
but she would understand
that people were dying
and she would become infertile.
That alone would have
changed her decision.
Henrietta was not able
to make good decisions
about her healthcare due
to being a person of color,
who was not given enough
education and believed
that a doctor knew best.
Something that is still seen now.
Such was the case of
the Tuskegee Experiment,
which lasted 40 years,
between 1932 and 1972.
The US Public Health Service
conducted an experiment
on 399 Black men who were in
the late stages of syphilis.
The men were for the most
part illiterate share croppers
and came from one of the
poorest counties in Alabama.
They were never told what
disease they were suffering from,
or how serious the disease was.
They were lied to and taken advantage of
because of their poor economic being,
and lack of knowledge all the
way up until their deaths.
The experiment went on, even
when penicillin was discovered.
And these men were denied it.
If any of these men had
known about their rights,
and had someone help them
understand their situations,
and any medical advances being made,
the outcomes might have been different.
As future nurses we do not
want to have situations
such as Henrietta's, or the
men of the Tuskegee experiment.
Our goal should be to help them understand
every single detail, no matter
how minuscule it may seem.
We must ensure that patients know exactly
what they're giving consent to,
and give them all the information needed
so they can make their own
judgment on how they want
their healthcare to go.
My colleague Isabella will now speak.
(applause)
- (speaking in foreign language)
I am here to discuss an ethical issue
that doctors and nurses face day to day.
Competent patients who fully
understand their rights
but refuse treatment and/or medications.
Patients who are competent
are those who are able
to understand and make
their own decisions.
They are generally mentally healthy
and can have thorough conversations.
Whether the treatment or
medication is life sustaining
to the coherent patient,
they still have the right
to refuse it.
It is our job, as future
nurses, to promote health
and help patients understand
the reasons and processes
of their treatment.
We also advocate for them and
explain the rights the
patients are entitled to.
Patients rights to refuse is fundamental
and reflects healthcare providers' respect
for autonomy of the individual.
As nurses there can be
times that we feel obligated
to help the patients
make the right choices,
especially when the
treatment is life sustaining,
but we must understand that it is unlawful
to force a refusing patients
to treatments or medications.
If they refuse we must
respect their decisions
as coherent individuals.
An example of a patient
who refused treatment
that could have saved his life,
was a teenaged Jehovah's Witness.
Fifteen year old Joshua McAuley
was pinned against a wall
by a car accident in May 2010.
He suffered serious
abdominal and leg injuries,
but because of his religion
had to refuse the blood transfusion.
He was pronounced dead after his refusal
of the blood transfusion.
But because he was a
minor, doctors could have
went to obtain approval from the parents,
but they also practiced the
religion of Jehovah's Witness
and did not allow the blood
transfusion for their son.
One situation when
parent's right to refuse
could be overruled occurred
with a dying homeless man
with chronic gangrene,
osteomyelitis, and diabetes.
He refused interventions of any kind
and did not allow doctors
to treat or submit him
to the psychiatric evaluation.
He said he just wanted
to be fed, given insulin,
and given a bed.
The doctor had to determine
if the patient could
make his own decisions,
if not, a surrogate must be found.
We must remember it is
unacceptable to discharge
a very sick man to die in the streets.
Because the sick homeless
man was throwing urine
at the nurses, the
doctor got a court order
for the patient to speak
with a social worker.
New York law states that a
court order can be obtained
to treat mental illness,
if the patient is
certified by two physicians
to be a danger to themselves or to others,
against their will in
the psychiatric unit.
If he still refuses, the
doctor must get another
court order to appoint a surrogate
to oversee his continued care.
The psychiatrist had a
conversation with the man
that made clear he was not
capable of making decisions.
During the conversation,
the man allowed the doctors
to call his mother.
She confirmed his mental illness
and encouraged the hospital
to force him into care.
The hospital sought and
was granted permission
to treat the man against his will.
Last but not least, an
example when doctors lied
to the patient to avoid
the patient's refusal,
was mentioned in the non-fiction story
of Henrietta Lacks.
His name was John Moore, and
he was, like Henrietta Lacks,
a victim who was not
informed on the extraction
of body samples used for research.
John Moore had developed
hairy cell leukemia
and had his 22 pound spleen
removed in order to live.
His local doctor referred
him to David Golde,
a cancer researcher at UCLA.
Moore signed a consent
form stating the hospital
could "dispose of any
severed tissue or member
by cremation," and agreed
for follow up exams
that required airplane travel
from Seattle to Los Angeles.
Once Moore had questioned
Golde why he couldn't
just have a local doctor
take his bone marrow,
blood, and semen, Golde offered to pay
for his flight tickets.
Moore got more suspicious when he received
another consent form stating
"I (do, do not) voluntarily
grant the University of
California all rights I,
or my heirs, may have in
any cell line or any other
potential product which might be developed
from the blood and/or bone
marrow obtained from me."
Moore asked Golde if
his samples were being
commercially sold and Moore
said no, so just in case,
Moore circled "I do not," on the form,
and went to seek a lawyer
after Golde had called
and mailed him more consent
forms, pushing Moore
to circle "I do."
It turned out that
throughout those seven years
after his surgery, David
Golde was developing
and marketing a cell line called Mo.
He had entered into agreements
with biotech companies
that gave him stocks and
financing worth more than
3.5 million dollars to
commercially develop
and scientifically
investigate the Mo cell line.
To conclude, as future
nurses, we must remember no
matter what the situations are,
that we advocate for all patients.
Our job is to promote health and make sure
that the patient can understand rights,
in whatever language and
whatever way they can
to make their own
decisions about their care.
We must educate them and
respect their autonomy
as individuals.
It is unlawful to ignore
a coherent patient's
right to refuse.
Whatever the reason, the best
we can do is educate them
and provide emotional support.
And with that said, I'm going to let Grace
come finish up our presentation.
(applause)
- (speaks in foreign language)
I'd like to discuss
rights that all patients
are entitled to.
After the horrors of
the Tuskegee experiments
and the Nuremberg Trials in 1950s,
the US government released
the Belmont Report in 1979.
This was to set basic
boundaries to protect everyone
from suffering the same
injustice as Henrietta Lacks.
Dr. George Gey discovered in 1970
that he had pancreatic cancer.
He spent his entire life
fighting this disease
and he knew exactly what
options were available to him
as a patient and a research subject.
He offered himself to many researchers,
understanding what were
possible side effects
of such experimental treatments
and his informed consent
was meaningful because he
fully understood his rights
as a patient and a research subject.
Dr. Gey is an excellent
example of a patient
that the Belmont Report
and we as future nurses
strive to have.
The Belmont Report
consists of three parts:
Principle of Respect,
Beneficence, and Justice.
The Principle of Respect
states that a person must enter
into a research voluntarily
and with adequate information.
The Principle of Beneficence
insists that researchers
must maximize possible
benefits and minimize harms.
The Principle of Justice
addresses the beneficiary
and the bearer of burden of the research.
It states that many
times subjects are chosen
from economically disadvantaged groups
while benefits are enjoyed
by groups that can afford
treatments and it can be
found exploiting disadvantaged
people.
This principle attempts
to insure that Henrietta's
descendants, like Zakariyya,
are able to enjoy medications
that were found using these kind of cells.
Research subjects must never be selected
because of easy availability,
compromised position,
or manipulability.
Immigrants, less educated
people, and socioeconomically
disadvantaged groups are
especially exposed to this harm
since they're intimidated
by authoritative figures,
they tend to agree with
everything, because they're
afraid to ask for an interpreter,
or just an easy explanation.
Our group introduced ourselves
in our native language
at the beginning of this presentation,
to demonstrate the
frustration of inability
to understand.
We must advocate for such patients.
People generally feel more
comfortable with nurses,
especially ones that can
speak their language,
and/or are willing to take
their time to educate them
on options available to them.
Cultural sensitivity
is not a responsibility
that is limited to a
minority group, like us four,
but everybody in the medical field.
Irma, who is a more recent example,
is a college educated White
woman in middle class.
She had a breast cancer and she was sick
for eight years, but she never gave up.
She was informed of her
rights to pain reduction,
living will, refusal of
treatments, and death in peace
and dignity.
However, even as her
blood count got very low,
one lung collapsed, and
she felt excruciating pain,
she chose to fight her disease.
Her choice was respected and supported
by her medical faculty.
We must educate our future clients
and advocate on their
behalf, so that we only have
fully informed patients
like Dr. Gey and Irma.
According to the latest
statistic by US Department
of Education, dated 2003,
only 12% of the population
is at this level of understanding.
This is estimated to cost between 50 to 75
billion dollars per year.
We must reduce this figure
so that we never have
another patient like
Henrietta who was neither
given information about
research into her cells,
nor was she even given
a choice to consent.
If there is a cultural
barrier, language barrier,
socioeconomic barrier,
we must bridge that gap.
If clients do not wish to
continue their treatment,
or participate in our
research, they must know
that they can say no any time they want.
We will never have
unacknowledged or involuntary
hero or heroine like
Henrietta Lacks again.
Thank you, and we hope you enjoyed
our portion of the presentation.
(applause)
- Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for being here.
My name is Tiffany Ivy and myself,
along with my group members,
Siaid, Ben, and Jenny,
are going to be discussing
Culturally Competent Care.
The World Health Organization's
Constitution states
that the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of
health is one of the fundamental
rights of every human being
without distinction of race,
religion, political belief,
economic or social condition.
Henrietta Lacks lived during
the era of segregation,
when few hospitals
accepted Black patients.
She was fortunate to have been treated
at Johns Hopkins Hospital,
and to have received
the standard cervical cancer
interventions for the times.
Unfortunately, because
most of the Blacks that did
receive healthcare couldn't
afford to pay for it,
they were often used as
guinea pigs for research
as a form of payment.
Johns Hopkins, whose
family freed their slaves
before the Civil War,
wrote in his letter to his trustees
that the hospital shall
admit the indigent poor
without regard to sex, age, or color.
When the hospital first opened in 1889,
the second patient admitted was Black.
At the end of the first
full year of operation,
13.6% of patients were listed as colored.
By 1900, it was 20.7%.
The medical staff at Hopkins was expected
to provide all patients
with the same courtesy
and standard of care.
So even though Henrietta at the time
didn't have many options,
she was fortunate enough
to go to one of the best hospitals
and to receive the best care
that she could at that time.
She received the same
care that a White woman
would have received for her same diagnosis
which is cervical cancer.
Before the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s,
Blacks made up less than
3% of American physicians,
although they represented
10% of the population.
At that time, most
medical schools admitted
on average one minority
student every other year.
Minority enrollment in
medical schools rose to 8%
in 1970 but stalled until 1985.
In 1990, enrollment increased to 1500,
falling in line the
Association of American
Medical College's Project 3000 by 2000.
The goal of Project 3000
was to have at least 3000
new med school applicants by the year 2000
in an effort to help close the
diversity gap in healthcare.
So the federal government did recognize
that this was a problem and
this was one of the initiatives
that they started to try to combat that.
As of the 2010 census, minorities
made up 36.3% of the US
population with Hispanics
being the largest of
those ethnic groups at 16.3%.
It is projected that by
2042, minorities will make up
over 50% of the population.
Currently, minorities only
account for 9% of physicians,
7% of dentists, 10% of
pharmacists, and 9% of
registered nurses.
Compared to the nation,
minorities make up 41.7%
of New York's total population.
According to the 2011 census
data for greater New York,
39% of healthcare and social
assistant employees were White,
14.9% were Latino, 29% were
Black, and 10.61% were Asian.
So compared to the
nation, New York does have
a higher percentage of minorities,
and a higher percentage
of minorities that work
in health care, but because
our population is so diverse
and we're so concentrated,
it still doesn't make up
the gap in healthcare.
We still have to do more.
While progress has been made,
there is still much that needs to be done
to increase diversity in healthcare.
Diversity is necessary
because the workforce
needs to represent the
population that it serves.
In order to receive
the best care possible,
patients must feel completely comfortable
with their providers.
Part of that comfort comes from knowing
that they will receive
culturally competent care.
Culture refers to one's
beliefs, values, traditions,
language, religion, and ethnic identity.
All of these factors
influence a person's concept
of what health is and
the decisions they make
in regards to their care.
When a healthcare provider
is aware of and accustomed
to a patient's culture it
allows them to approach
treatment in a culturally
sensitive way that won't
intimidate the patient.
When medical advice falls
in line with personal views,
patients are more likely
to comply with their
provider's recommendations.
This results in more effective
care and greater patient
satisfaction.
It has been shown that
minority healthcare providers
generally serve minority
patients and that minority
patients generally choose
minority providers.
So there seems to be some
type of invested interest
in one's own community.
Usually when you come from a
community that's underserved
and you've grown up with the problems,
you try to fix that.
So the people that do end up
becoming healthcare providers,
usually they serve their own
community and try to help
out in that way.
So this is a case study of a 17 year old
Vietnamese male who is HIV positive
and has been taking herbal remedies.
So his name is Vu Nguyen and
he's being treated for HIV.
The patient and his family show distrust
for healthcare practices
and practitioners,
to the point that they chose to use
traditional Vietnamese
herbal medicines instead of
the anti-retroviral prescription
the clinic had prescribed.
How can healthcare
practitioners impact the care
of Vu Nguyen, especially as he has chosen
traditional therapy?
So here I have a cultural
insight that just states
that Asian and Pacific Islander
cultures, among others,
use traditional therapies,
including acupuncture,
to treat illness.
So, as nurses, we're on the front lines
and one of our main
responsibilities is to advocate
for the patient.
In regards to providing
culturally competent care,
there are certain things
that you should discuss
with the patient, because cultures differ
in the way that they
view health and illness.
One of the things you could ask them,
is what do they think is wrong?
This is how you try to
find out what they call
their problem and it's getting
to the patient's perception
of what the problem is.
So the same symptoms may
have very different meanings
in different cultures and
may result in barriers
to compliance.
For example, among the Hmong
people, epilepsy is referred to
as "the spirit catches
you, and you fall down."
Seeing epilepsy as spirit
possession, which has some
positive connotations for
the possessed, is very
different from seeing it as a
disruption of the electrical
signals in the brain.
This should lead to a very
different doctor/patient
or nurse/patient conversation,
and might help explain
why such a patient may be
less anxious than a physician
to stop the seizures.
Understanding the patient's
point of view can help
the healthcare provider
deal with potential barriers
to compliance.
Another thing you should try
to find out, is what do they
think caused the problem.
So this gets at the patient's
beliefs regarding the source
of the problem.
Not everyone believes that
disease is caused by germs.
In some cultures, it is
thought to be caused by
upset in body balance, breach
or taboo, similar to what is
seen in the US as diseases
due to sin and punishment
by God, or spirit possession.
Treatment must be
appropriate to the cause,
or people will not perceive
themselves as cured.
Doctors thus need to find
out what the patient believes
caused the problem and treat that as well.
For example, it may sometimes
be appropriate to bring in
clergy to pray with them, if
they believe God is punishing
them for some transgression.
Another thing you want to
determine is how the patient
copes with their condition.
You can ask them what have
they tried to done to make
it better or who else have
they seen for treatment.
This will provide the healthcare
provider with important
information on the use
of alternative healers
and treatments.
Most people will try home
remedies before coming in
to the physician, however few
will share such information
due to fear of ridicule or chastisement.
It's important that healthcare
providers learn to ask
in a non-judgmental way since
the occasional traditional
remedy may be dangerous or
can lead to a drug interaction
with prescribed medications.
This question can also help you discover
if they've been unable to cope
with whatever is going on.
And also you should try to
find out what the patient's
concerns are in regards to the
treatments that you suggest
once you come up with a
diagnosis and you try to figure
out an intervention.
You want to understand
the patient's perception
of the course of the illness,
and the fears that they
may have about it so that you
can address their concerns
and correct any misconceptions.
You also want to know what
aspects of the condition
pose a problem for the patient.
This can help you uncover
something very different
from what you might have expected.
It is also important
to know their concerns
about any treatment you may prescribe.
This can also help avoid
problems of non-adherence
since some patients may
have misplaced concerns
based upon past experience.
For example, some patients
may not be taking insulin
because they believe
insulin causes blindness.
They've seen friends and
family members go blind
after going on insulin, and
they incorrectly perceive
that as a cause.
It's a logical assumption
based on observed
cause and effect.
Unless a healthcare
provider asks, however,
the patient may not illicit such beliefs
and will simply not take their insulin.
By asking, the healthcare
provider can correct
any misconceptions that can
interfere with treatment.
So now I'm gonna have
Siaid come and talk about
whether or not going to
providers of your peers
is a good thing,
necessarily, all the time.
(applause)
- Thank you Tiffany.
Good afternoon everybody.
The fact that most people
prefer healthcare providers
with backgrounds similar to their own
raises some important questions.
Is it really a positive or negative thing?
Is it always possible to go to your peers?
Imagine this situation.
Let's say Mr. Peterson,
an 80 year old White male
just moved to a rural area
where there are only two
physicians: one of them is
Black, and one of them is White.
The Black doctor graduated
from Harvard Medical School
at the top of his class,
and has been practicing
successfully for 15 years,
while the White doctor
recently graduated from Hofstra
University Medical School
and achieved average grades.
In the past, Mr. Peterson has
always gone to White doctors
because he feels that
they are more trustworthy
than their counterparts, however
in this case Mr. Peterson
may not get the best care
available to him if he chooses
the White doctor.
Being from Bangladesh, I
myself prefer to have a doctor
from my own country, but at
what point do we sacrifice
quality of care for
comfort, and vice versa?
In regards to Henrietta
Lacks, she waited for
over a year to go to
the doctors and find out
what was wrong with her.
Could the fact that she had no choice
but to go to White male
doctors have contributed to
her waiting so long?
Would she have gone to the
doctors sooner if she had
had the option of seeing a
Black doctor that she felt
more comfortable with?
We will never know the
answers to these questions
but many people still
face these problems today,
because there are not enough
healthcare professionals
of all ethnical backgrounds.
So here in the graph, from 2004,
we can see that the number
of White Registered Nurses
are way more higher than
other ethnical groups
per 1000 population of this group.
So what must be done
to solve this problem?
As the nation's population
continues to grow
and diversify, the healthcare
system has to change
and adjust to the needs of
an increasingly multicultural
patient base.
All patients, regardless
of race, ethnic origin,
gender, nationality, primary
language, socioeconomic
status, sexual orientation,
cultural background, age,
disability or religion deserve
high quality healthcare.
As our society increasingly
becomes racially and ethnically
diverse, physicians and other
healthcare professionals
need to to acknowledge the
cultural, informational,
and linguistic needs of their patients.
Health literacy among
racial and ethnic minorities
must be strengthened in a
culturally and linguistically
sensitive manner.
Now, I'm going to invite
my next group member, Ben.
Thank you.
(applause)
- The federal government
has been advancing the
cultural competence
agenda in various ways.
For instance, the Health
Resources and Services
Administration, in partnership
with the Institute for
Healthcare Improvement, has
developed Health Disparity
Collaboratives focused on
addressing racial/ethnic
disparity at community health centers.
Through the use of quality
improvement models,
several strategies are
being implemented to improve
healthcare delivery to
diverse populations, including
developing culturally
competent systems of care
and techniques for more
effective cross-cultural
communication.
Also, the National Institutes of Health
and the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality
have funded research and
education in cultural competence
over the past few years.
In 2004, several bills were developed
in the House and the Senate
targeting the elimination
of racial and ethnic
disparities in healthcare.
Within this proposed
legislation have been activities
related to cultural competence education.
Although none of these were
brought forward for a vote,
they may still move forward
in the upcoming years.
Most importantly, it appears
that cultural competence
has caught the attention
of federal policy makers
as part of the effort to eliminate
racial/ethnic disparities.
I want to talk about
a personal experience.
I'm Chinese.
I've been here for two and a half years.
I have a Chinese doctor.
The reason I choose the Chinese doctor
is because I feel more
comfortable with her.
It may be that we have the
same values and beliefs.
My English is not so
good, so I can communicate
with her more easily.
I'm more willing to listen
to her plan of care.
Okay, my colleague Tiffany
is ready to talk to you.
(applause)
- Okay so, we have an ad
here from Empire BlueCross,
and it's a short video and
I just think that it really
talks about what we've
been discussing so far.
And then after this, my group member Jenny
will speak about one of
her personal experiences.
(upbeat music)
- [Male] Diversity, New
York. One and the same.
Millions live, eat, shop, and commute
shoulder to shoulder.
That's why it's known as
America's melting pot.
How awesome a concept that is.
Empire BlueCross BlueShield
is New York's largest insurer,
covering nearly six million people.
The people we serve represent
thousands of ethnicities,
cultures, and religions,
so we created a Community
Ambassadors Team.
This team builds relationships
with leaders and activists
in diverse communities,
because if we don't
understand our clients,
people won't choose to
do business with us,
nor will we attract and
keep talented employees.
We're lucky to be a part
of this beautiful population mosaic.
We understand the value
of embracing the diversity
of our people, our cultures,
and our communities.
- Before I read the story,
I just want to ask,
what is diversity?
There are many definitions
of what diversity is,
such as some of my classmates stated,
but Queensborough website
defines diversity as
"the concept of diversity encompasses
acceptance and respect.
It means understanding
that each individual
is unique, and recognizing
our individual differences.
This can be along the dimensions of race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, socioeconomic status,
age, physical abilities, religious belief,
political beliefs, and other ideologies.
It is the exploration of
these differences in a safe,
positive, and nurturing environment.
It is about understanding
each other and moving beyond
simple tolerance to embracing
celebrating the rich
dimensions of diversity
contained within each individual.
To conclude, the question always has been
and always will be, how do
we live and work together
despite our great differences?
The answer to this question is,
whatever it may be, it must
include mutual understanding,
compassion, and respect
to the important matter
of what it means to be human.
Instead of me talking about
my cultural background,
such as practice extremities or beliefs,
I decided to incorporate a story.
And it goes like this.
Title: A Native Haitian Story.
It's seven a.m. in the
morning in uptown Queens
and you're waking up with abdominal pains.
The couple of days, your
symptoms include an on and off
fever, body aches, vomiting,
and lack of energy.
As you lay in bed, your
mother's awakened by the sounds
of your pain.
She enters your room with concern to check
and ask if you're okay.
You reply, no.
Without any hesitation, your
mother says, convincingly,
her exact words, "There is
nothing a little back home
remedy can't cure."
You're reluctant to call the
doctor, a man in his late 40s,
who you assume is Irish,
based on a poster you saw
in his office, which
read, "The Irish Nation
cherishes a special affinity
with people of Irish ancestry
living abroad who share
its cultural identity
and heritage."
You immediately start to
have flashbacks about your
last visit when you told him
that all your past illnesses,
conditions such as headaches, body aches,
and the common cold were treated
and cured by home remedies.
You went even further and
told him that your "money"
spray bottle, purchased from
one of the botanical stores
around the corner from your
house, helped you with some
of your previous finance problems.
The after look upon his face
still haunts your memory
even still to this day.
Your mother returns from the
kitchen with a lit candlestick,
a rosary, bible, some essence
water, and a tiny bottle
labeled Healing Oil.
At this point, the pain
progressively worsens,
a sense of fear enters your
mind, followed by the horrible
thought of being bedridden
in a hospital, with that
Irish doctor hovering over
you and shaking his head
in disbelief.
With the candlestick half
melted, numerous of chanting
continues which now resembles
sounds of a broken scratched
record and what was left of
the healing oil is now done.
Now in a daze and still in
pain, you can't help but think,
what are my options now?
You think about calling your
aunt's doctor that she told you
was Haitian, but quickly
remember that your aunts
live in Brooklyn.
If you call 911, will the
ambulance drive from Queens
to Brooklyn?
You doubt it.
You continue to weigh your
options, dreading the feeling
of being criticized,
uncomfortable, unsafe,
and unable to relate with
anyone about your beliefs,
or even be allowed to
incorporate non-therapeutic
alternatives to promote your health.
Several minutes later, a
decision has been made.
You now pull back the
covers, praying and hoping
for a miracle to come.
I also wrote a short poem.
And it's title: Colors.
Red, White, blue, orange, green, black
They're not whack, and that's a fact
Why do we hate when it is not our fate
Don't we all crave love and equality?
Better yet, we should all
come together as one harmony
Colors are a mixture of diversity
Without one, we are prone to disparity
Red, White, blue, orange, green, black
They're not whack and that's a fact
Look around, what do you see?
A friend, a mother, a
father, a sister, a brother
Yet some are so blind to even acknowledge
or even be bothered
Well I say, colors are
a mixture of diversity
Without one, we are prone to disparity.
Thank you.
(applause)
- I'm very proud to
present the NU201 students.
As nurses, we are a
large group of providers
who have a central ethic of caring,
and an agenda of early intervention
and health promotion to
improve the health status
of communities.
We play an integral role
in hospital and community
settings to assist victims
of domestic violence
and sexual abuse.
The NU201 students have
identified these two
key social problems to
help raise awareness.
(dramatic music)
- Good afternoon, my name is
(mumbles) an NU201 student.
- Hello my name is Keisha Alston.
- My name is Teresa Bonesmith.
- Felipe Ephratah.
- My name, Shareemah.
- My name is Zola.
- My name is Abeena.
- Kareen Robinson.
- My name's Davika Matudna.
- Our topic today is domestic
violence and sexual assault.
And as you know, in The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks,
that we all read,
The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks doesn't just talk about
the painful life of the Lacks family,
but it also addresses new
issues and current issues,
just like domestic violence
and sexual assaults.
The United States Department
of Justice defined domestic
violence as
a pattern of abusive behavior,
I'm focusing on pattern
because I'm going to come back
on this.
A pattern of abusive
behavior in any relationship
that is used by one partner
to gain or maintain power
and control over another intimate partner.
And the New York State
Coalition Against Sexual Assault
defines sexual assault as
activities involving power,
again, that word, power.
Differential coercion, trick,
and/or at right, force.
And I was saying I was going
to come to the word, pattern.
My buddy yesterday, when he
saw my work, he asked me,
he's from New Guinea, "What
do you mean, what do they
mean by pattern? Does it mean
that my girlfriend can hit
me and throw me out of my
house, and that says nothing
because it's one time?"
What do we teach
kindergarten about pattern?
Meaning we say, okay, black, white, blue,
black, white, blue, a
repetitive color, right?
That's what we tell them,
like a repeated action,
but should we wait until
it get to this stage that,
I'm just going to take an example,
I see Professor Cupelli,
that I know on the street,
or Professor Rome, that
she's been covered by bruise,
she's been abused, and maybe I knew it,
and I didn't do anything
because I was waiting
for it to be a repeated action.
Should we wait until
it gets to that stage?
You can see that all of
them have been abused,
and maybe sexually assault, should we wait
until they die?
Just like the lady and baby?
Because it will get to
that stage if we don't
do anything about that.
So we are here today to tell you, no.
You shouldn't wait.
You have to do something as student.
We today, we fought against
second hand smoking,
right, on this campus.
Now, if you smoke you have
to go outside and smoke.
You're protected against
second hand smoking.
So the same way we
stand, we stood for that,
we have to stand against domestic violence
and sexual assault,
we have to end the cycle,
as Professor Rome said,
and in order to do so,
I'm just going to set a little example,
usually what do we as society, we do?
I saw on TV, I'm going to use
the exact word that I saw.
After a girl has been
sexually assault, I saw on TV,
this in Yonkers, Channel 12.
And I saw somebody, he was
like, "Oh, anyway, she always
shows her boobs," that's the word he used.
Just to say she always dresses
sexy, so she deserves it,
or she's always drunk
so she demands for it.
No.
Remember, sexual assault
and domestic violence
is never invited, and anyone
here could be a victim.
And we must stand up all
together and fight against it.
We must end that cycle.
And in order to do so
we have to understand
and better grasp the concept.
And we have provided few
individuals in the group,
The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks, who have been
victimized and before we
give you the signs for you
to understand when is somebody
being victim of domestic
violence, when is somebody
sexually assaulted,
what is that?
We have provided between
here, and we are going to
talk to you about it before
we give you the signs,
the statistics, and all of this.
Thank you.
Henrietta.
(applause)
- You don't know me.
But I've probably changed the lives
of everyone in this room.
I'm Henrietta Lacks, and
my cells called HeLa,
are the world's first
immortal human cells,
that were taken from inside me,
and bought, sold, packaged,
and shipped by the trillions
to laboratories around the world.
But you don't know me.
I was born in Virginia, August 1, 1920.
One of ten siblings.
I've known my husband
Day, since he was four,
since I was four and he was nine.
We slept in the same bedroom
with all the siblings
and the cousins, so no one was surprised
when we had our first son Lawrence,
just months after my 14th birthday.
Then his sister Lucille,
Elsie, four years later.
That's just the way things were done.
I guess after two kids,
we should get married.
My sister Gladys was
against me marrying Day.
She always insisted Day
would be a no-good husband.
But we did, at our preacher's
house, on April 10, 1941.
There was no honeymoon,
'cause there was no money
for no honeymoon.
But we had a good life together.
But I knew something was wrong.
I didn't like sexual intercourse much,
but I loved my five babies.
But I knew something was wrong
when the sex started hurting.
I thought it had to do with baby Deborah,
but I'd just given birth
to her a few weeks earlier.
Or it had to do with
the bad blood my husband
sometimes brought home after
nights out with other women,
you know, the kind doctors
treated with penicillin
and heavy metals?
But it turned out to be
something more, much more.
- My name is Deborah, Deb for short,
and Henrietta, that's my Momma.
My Momma died when I was young,
and I don't have many memories of her,
except this Bible here.
I keep it close.
Boy, I wonder if things'd been different
if my Momma'd been around.
My Momma was always there.
I done been through a whole
bunch of mess in my life,
you wouldn't even believe.
When I was young, me and
my sisters and my brothers,
we stayed with Ephraim.
Ephraim used to beat us bloody,
but if we was good we'd
get a piece of bologna,
but that was every once in a while.
When I was ten, the one man
I felt most comfortable to,
more than my own Daddy, he
used to beat and molest me.
One time he hit me so hard,
he punched me in the car,
my eyebrow split open.
I was bleeding.
Other times, he used to
force his hand up my skirt,
in between my legs, he would say to me,
"Oh you don't have to worry
about getting pregnant,
I'll wear a rubber."
Even though I was young,
I knew it wasn't right.
When he wasn't beating
me, he was giving me gifts
and loving me.
You see, that's how it goes,
that's how the cycle goes.
They hit you, they love
you, they give you gifts.
I knew it wasn't right.
Well, even though I went
through all that bad blood
when I was younger, even
though down in my life
when I got married to my husband,
we went through so much
animosity in my house,
I tried to kill him one time.
Lord, it just took so much toll
on my mind and my body.
I done been through so
much mess in my life.
- How you all doing?
My name is Zakariyya Abdul Bari Rahman.
I was born as Joe Lacks.
I was the last son, I was the last child
of Henrietta Lacks,
born just before she was
diagnosed with cancer.
My story is about neglect,
abuse, and violence.
It all started when my Momma left,
and we got left with Ethel,
and all she did was beat us, abuse us,
underfeed us and overwork us.
She would starve us, only
give us one meal a day,
have us working all day on the plantation,
and we'd have nothing to eat,
and if we did anything wrong,
she'd beat us and punish us all the time.
But I believe she hated me the most,
because even for not doing anything wrong,
she would just abuse me.
I would wake up getting
pummeled in the face
for no reason.
Or beaten with a chair,
if I'm just sitting
waiting for my dinner, which wasn't much.
As punishment, she would
lock me in the basement,
with my face straight onto the wall,
and I had to keep one leg up.
If she caught me with one
leg down at any time resting,
she would beat me with a
stick until I was bloody.
This was my childhood and
this is how I grew up.
This is what made me the man I am,
an angry, violent, very hateful person,
which carried through my teenage
years, and adolescent years
and later on to early adulthood.
I got into so many fights
and so much trouble
through my life that people
started calling me Crazy Joe.
This got me kicked out of
school, got me discharged
from the military, and
later, soon after, got me
into prison for murder,
just because somebody
started a fight with me.
While I was in jail, I spent
most of my time in the hole,
simply because all I
was doing was fighting,
but the hole was a place
I felt comfortable in
because that's what I
spent most of my life in.
And while spending my time in jail
I also did find some peace with myself,
as I started reading the
Koran and found Islam,
I was able to make some
peace with everything
but I still live very angry today,
and I always will.
- My name is Ethel.
Zakariyya calls me, an
obviously crazy woman.
After all I did for him, his siblings.
It was difficult to deal with these kids
who were not good.
Every morning I fed them
each a cold biscuit,
that had to last them until dinner.
I had to put latches and
bolts on my refrigerator,
cupboards, both, to keep
them out between meals,
because they pretended
to be always hungry.
I taught them how to hunt.
I woke them at dawn to clean the house,
cook, shop, to do laundry.
I taught them how to pick up
warmth from the tobacco leaves.
Even though tobacco
juices stained their hands
and made them sick, well it got them out.
I don't care.
I taught them to work sun up to sun down
without breaks and food
or water until midnight.
Even summer, heat, burned.
I had to watch them from the porch window,
and not one of them stopped
working before I told to.
I would beat them all bloody
with my extension cord.
The walls are cleaned as
the children Zakariyya
or Joe, I hate him and his mother too.
I am jealous of Henrietta,
because everybody loves her,
loved her, and my own husband
Gordon, was liking him,
more than he liked me.
Oh Lord, he followed her everywhere.
She's his cousin.
And they tried to stay at his
home when husband is gone.
It make me so jealous, it
make me hateful to Henrietta.
Something hurt here, right here.
So after that, I heard
that, I moved to her home.
I sent Zakariyya there to her place.
It was my turn to take revenge
on Henrietta's children,
because they couldn't
do anything against me.
Also, their father allowed me to do so.
Then I was releasing my
angriness and hatefulness
to everybody.
It made me powerful.
I felt in control of everything.
That's my excuse.
(applause)
- There are four phases of abuse.
Abuse starts out with the
tension building phase,
followed by the incident
or acting out phase,
the honeymoon phase or
reconciliation phase,
followed by a period of calm
before the cycle of abuse
begins again.
In the tension building phase,
the abuser starts to get
angry at little things,
not having food on the
table, or not being able
to pay the bills.
Communication in the
relationship breaks down.
Then we have the incident phase.
The incident phase is where
the actual abuse occurs.
We have physical abuse, is when
the abuser physically harms
the victim, giving her like
scars, hitting, punching,
pushing, slapping.
Victim tend to miss work,
school, or social occasion
without explanation.
Victims have frequent injury
with the excuse of accidents.
And we have sexual abuse, where
the abuser have intercourse
with the victim without their
consent to gain control.
We have emotional abuse,
which includes yelling,
name calling, blaming,
putting the victim down.
You may think that physical
abuse is more, is far worse
than emotional abuse because
physical abuse you can see
the scars and emotional abuse
you cannot see the scar,
but the scar of emotional
abuse are very real
and run very deep.
In fact, emotional abuse
can be just as damaging
as physical abuse, I
think sometimes even more,
because emotional abuse gives
rise to psychological abuse,
in which the victims tend
to have low self-esteem,
become withdrawn from activity, depressed,
or even suicidal.
The abuser use power and
control to isolate the victim.
The abuser will use threat,
intimidation, children
and economic abuse to force
partner to stay with them.
In the honeymoon phase,
the abuser will apologize
and beg for forgiveness and will promise
that this will never happen again.
The abuser will blame
the victim for provoking
and making this incident happen.
The abuser will also deny
or claim that the abuse
was not as bad as what
the victim claimed it was.
Then we have the calm phase.
In the calm phase, abuser
acts like nothing happened.
The abuser will give gifts to victim.
Victim will believe
that the abuse is over,
and the abuser will have
changed but the cycle repeats
with tension building phase
again with an increase
in intensity with the incident phase.
Here are some questions
that if you know someone
is being abused, that you can ask.
If they feel afraid of
their partner at times.
Do they believe that they
deserve to be hurt or mistreated?
If they can't do anything
right for their partner,
or if they feel that they're
crazy, emotionally numb,
or helpless.
Or you can ask them if their
partner humiliates or yell
at them, criticize them or put them down,
ignore or put them down,
put down their opinion,
blame them for abusive behavior,
or see them as like objects, sex objects,
rather than a person.
Like one of my colleagues
said in our introduction,
it's really important if you see someone
to go up to them and ask them,
to give them information,
because at the end of the
day, you can save a life.
- [Male] Every two and a half minutes,
somewhere in America,
someone is sexually assaulted.
(somber music)
- [Female] One in six American women
are victims of sexual assault.
- [Male] And one in 33 are men.
- About 44% of rape victims
are under the age of 18.
- [Male] And 80 are under the age of 30.
- [Female] Victims of sexual assault
are three times more likely
to suffer from depression.
Six times more likely to suffer from
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
59% of sexual assaults go unreported.
- [Male] Males are least likely to report,
making up 10% of reported data.
- Since 1993, sexual assaults
have been cut in half
based on reported data.
- But more than half were unreported.
- [Female] Sexual assault
victims are 13 times more likely
to abuse alcohol.
- [Male] 26 times more
likely to abuse drugs.
(cup slams on table)
(items crash to floor)
- [Female] And four times more likely
to contemplate suicide.
- [Female] Almost two
thirds of sexual assaults
are perpetrated by someone
known to the victim.
And half that is a friend or acquaintance.
- [Male] While images can make us aware
of some of the emotions and consequences
of sexual assault-
(multiple statistics spoken at once)
our actions
will stop the abuse.
- Domestic violence and sexual
assault can happen to anyone,
regardless of sex, age,
gender, sexual orientation,
socioeconomic status.
According to the New
York State Data Bureau,
domestic violence and sexual
assault have been increasing
over the years.
One in four persons will
experience domestic violence
or sexual assault during
his or her lifetime.
Every two and a half minutes
as stated in the video,
someone in New York becomes
a victim of domestic violence
or sexual assault.
Approximately two-thirds
of domestic violence
or sexual assault are
committed by someone known,
the victim knows, as stated in the video.
Domestic violence and sexual
assault destroys relationships
and families.
It passes from generation to generation.
As read in The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks,
Henrietta, Deborah, and
Zakariyya all experienced
either sexual assault
or domestic violence.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Even with the increased penalties,
changes to custody laws,
and increased awareness
through community
efforts, domestic violence
and sexual assault
remains a pressing issue,
because most domestic
violence or sexual assault
are never reported.
Help change this fact.
Speak up.
Stand out.
Make a difference for
victims of domestic violence
and sexual assault.
Give victims the support
they need, they deserve.
Could the people with the
bracelets please stand up?
(crowd chatter)
You would represent
the one in four persons
that would be abused, if
the auditorium was full.
Thank you.
(audience laughs)
- You can sit down now.
Thank you.
- Hi. I have a story about
a lady by the name of Linda.
She met her boyfriend when
she was 18 and he was 31.
He was one of her bosses at her workplace.
They spent some lovely times together.
She thought she had a wonderful man.
But after two and a half
months she found out
she was pregnant and
that's when it all started.
He kept her home and
fired her from her work.
She said the first time he
hit me right across the face
was because I said I was leaving him.
The hitting became
beating almost every day.
Even though I was
pregnant, he did not care.
He said, "If you were a
good girl, I would not have
to discipline you so much."
She went on to say, I remember
one day that I told him
I hated him with every bone in my body.
He hit me so hard I went
flying across the bed
and onto the floor.
The days went by and I would get hit
because I didn't vacuum before I dust,
the house was not clean enough,
or there was a fork in the sink.
I would get slapped again and again.
He made excuses to hit me.
The black eyes, and busted
lips, and bloody body,
was all I knew.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Hi, good afternoon.
My name's Davika, and
I'm also going to add on
to what Kareen said.
So I'm gonna tell you a story
about a young lady named Mary
who was sexually abused
at a very young age.
Her first encounter
was at the age of four.
One of her uncles would tickle her
until she was out of breath,
which seemed innocent enough,
but that was just a distraction he used
so that he could put his
finger inside of her,
and just very nonchalantly
would say, "Oops."
At the age of 11, that's when
she encountered her second
experience of sexual abuse.
Mary casually went by the
neighbor's to play with a friend
by the name of Sheila, like
children very innocently do.
The neighbor, who we'll call
Frank, sent his daughter
Sheila into the kitchen.
That was Frank's chance
to touch Mary's breast.
Mary felt like something was
wrong, so she told her Mom.
And Mary's mother's
response was, "Oh now Mary,
Frank wouldn't do a thing like that."
I just want to read a little
excerpt from Mary's story,
because it's very detailed.
"When I was around 12, Frank's
nephew Phillip came home
from the service.
Somehow, Phillip found
out that I was home alone.
I woke up late at night to
find Phillip on top of me,
his hands over my mouth,
his penis inside of me.
I was being raped.
I can still remember the
sound his belt buckle made.
His only words?
'And you better not tell your parents.'
The rape resulted in pregnancy.
Early in the pregnancy I
miscarried, in the toilet.
I didn't even know I was pregnant.
I didn't learn until later in
life, what had came out of me
was a baby.
It never occurred to me to tell my mom
about Phillip raping me.
I gave up on her being there
for me that day in the kitchen
when I was 11."
Later on, when Mary became a
teen, she was seen as "bad,"
but she was really just
scared, sad, depressed.
And she needed someone to talk to.
All she wanted was
someone to listen to her,
and believe her.
She lost all faith in her mom.
So sometimes, all you need is
someone just to listen to you,
to get your story out.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Now we're gonna put on a little skit,
but I just want to let everybody know
that it may be only a few
people in the audience,
but we had you stand up
because it means something.
Regardless of the fact
that it may be one person
or five people, you can make that impact.
That's why we did it, not just
to get you out of your seat,
but to really feel the impact.
Now we have the skit.
(plate slams on table)
- Seriously, what is this?
- What, that's your dinner.
- Are you serious?
- Yeah, I made it for you.
- I went to work this
morning at five o'clock,
and come home, and this
is what you're giving me?
- This is what I made,
I thought you liked it.
- I work six days a week
while you sit here at home.
What do you do?
- Um, I do some reading.
- You can't cook.
You can't clean.
You don't have a job.
What is the point of you?
- I don't know.
I'm here to help.
I'm trying to.
- Help with what?
- I cooked for you!
- I get at five in the
morning you weren't even here.
Where were you last night?
- Out with some friends.
- Friends?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I'm sure you
got with your friends.
Getting drunk and getting
crazy with your friends,
weren't you?
- No, not at all.
- I'm sure you tried to pick
up some girls, didn't ya?
- No, I would never do that.
- Oh, man, don't lie to me.
(plate drops on floor)
Who you speaking to?
- Nobody, just you!
- Shut up!
- Oh my god!
Why are you hitting me?
- I'm gonna go get me something to eat
'cause you can't pick up
anything in this house.
- Daddy, daddy, why are you crying?
- She hit me, Momma hit me.
- Why Momma always hits you?
You don't have to take
this you know, Daddy.
- I don't? What can I do?
I don't know where to go.
- At school they told us
domestic violence is not right.
You can stand up for yourself.
And look, I have the telephone
number and information
right here.
- Okay, thank you!
- Thank you.
(applause)
- Everyone is gonna receive a flyer
so you can have more
information and numbers to call
if anything happens, or
referring to a friend.
Thank you.
