Reflection

Reflection

Public health is deeply integrated into societal operations. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the number one global health concern for all of 2021, and along the way, several major issues were experienced globally and in our classroom. Health equity and prevention are key to city health maintenance and overall health improvement; the major issues experienced being understanding the magnitude “place” plays in the trajectory of one’s health experience, team dynamics and utilization of our greatest skill sets to complete all necessary classroom task, and recognization of advocacy as a powerful tool.

The first prompt for this class required watching a documentary titled Unnatural causes: In sickness and In Wealth, educating us on the sad or highly fortunate reality of how where we live shapes our life experiences and reality (Adelman, 2008). It provided immense insight into poverty and its unfortunate cycle and how so often economic instability can be one’s reality solely due to the location. "Urban planning," in cities significantly impacts population health risks and challenges (Braubach and Grant, 2010). For this class we conducted research on how Charlotte compares economically to the United States as a whole. North Carolina ranks 17th out of the 50 states as the most economically stable state in the nation (usnews.com, 2021). Do we have a high crime rate and what does that mean for our community health? Is housing affordable, are jobs available and accessible to all? The second-highest homicide rate for Charlotte happened in 2020, with 118 murders and a homicide rate of 12.8 (Hopkins, 2021). As we answered or failed to sufficiently answer these questions it revealed how deeply connected one’s habitation (neighborhood/environment) constructs the life health status of various city inhabitants.

This semester required and called upon a great deal of collaborative work. In the workforce we are inclined to and are often exposed to and forced to work with a variety of individuals. It is imperative to utilize everyone’s strengths when collaborating; however, it first starts with us learning our own. After taking the ClintonStrength Assessment achiever, belief, competition, ideation, and developer were my top strengths (Gallup, 2021). My strengths revealed my ability to spearhead assignments as I thrive in leadership roles/positions. I work hard to accomplish all task I set before myself and often this keeps me busy (achiever). I am a natural competitor, I want to be the best, always. I also became aware of my need to be solid in my core beliefs, they serve as my anchor. In class we draw from so much and yet I am able to more easily find connections between differing ideas. Finally, I always want the best for others and for them to recognize that within themselves. I very naturally and easily see great qualities and gifting in others and will encourage them to show up as their full but also their best selves. As my group worked towards mastering the material in this course we were also navigating how to safely interact with one another in a pandemic. This proved to make collaboration more difficult but not impossible. So while the work was difficult at times (the course aided in us becoming more fully informed on the historical background of public health and the governing organizations over public health policies) we all chose to show up in ways that supported high work quality (CDC, n.d.).

Advocating for others is an essential quality of public health. This class enabled us to recognize a number of healthcare deficiencies and in doing so taught us about numerous health disparities and those communities most affected to inspire us to want a better future. HealthyPeople2030 is a website we often referenced as we started to recognize we as a whole must do better, and it all starts with us wanting better for ourselves (Healthy people 2030, n.d.). Organizations such as RAIN aim to minimize the number of individuals who are most likely to contract HIV by providing imperative sex education to our youth (rainn.org, n.d.). This organization does incredible work of providing free HIV and STD testing, provides numerous and all forms and types of contraception, and even offers PrEP in hope of significantly reducing the future number of HIV-positive individuals.

This semester presented a number of issues and complications. As we globally learn to live “normally” in a pandemic numerous public health issues are on the rise. So many facets and areas of our health are at stake and the need to better global public health is more imperative than ever. HLTH 6200 enabled us to recognize the place and its role in generational poverty and those communities most affected. As we continue to work in public health it’s important to recognize what we most easily bring to the table. Finally, advocacy is some of the most important work we can ever do. As we go out into communities in need of health reformation let’s be advocates of change.

References

Adelman, L. (2008). Unnatural causes: In sickness and In Wealth [Film]. https://uncc.kanopy.com/video/sickness-and-wealth

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). CDC Covid Data tracker. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home.

Census.gov. (2021). Charlotte: City in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States of America, North America. Charlottes. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://datacommons.org/place/geoId/3712000?utm_medium=explore&mprop=income&popt=Person&cpv=age%2CYears15Onwards&hl=en.

Gallup, I. (2021, September 22). Clifton Strength Assessment. Gallup.com. Retrieved December

13, 2021, from

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252224/developer-theme.aspx.

Healthy people 2030. (n.d.). Access to health services, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-health/interventions-resources/access-to-health#4

Hopkins, P. (2021, June 3). Charlotte's Homicide Rate Highest it's been in two decades. Axios Charlotte. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://charlotte.axios.com/260306/records-charlottes-homicide-rate-highest-its-been-in-two-decades/.

Rainn.org. (n.d.). Need to talk? we're here for you. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from

https://www.rainn.org/.

United States census Bureau. (2019). Population estimates, July1,2019, Health, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/charlottecitymichigan,mecklenburgcountynorthcarolina/PST045219