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Communication is Key by Snigda Thyagaraj

As I became older, I started to realize that not a lot of people valued communication as much as I do. I noticed that people didn’t want to initiate any serious conversations or be confrontational. They would rather bottle their feelings in and hope that their problems would go away. Trust me, it never went away. If anything, they would hold it in for so long that one day they would eventually blow up and have a mental breakdown. I believe people do this because no one really talks about mental health and building healthy coping mechanisms. This only happens in therapy which not everyone does because of the stigma. The reason I think this is an important topic is because I’ve seen people with pharmacy leadership roles not have the basic communication skills to be a leader. This can be detrimental to not only them, but to their coworkers as well. For example, I had a pharmacy lead intern favor only one employee and devote most of their time training that person while there were three
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Mental Health and Care in Mainland China: Apps filling the gap? By: Vince A Alessi

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Mental Health and Care in Mainland China: Apps filling the gap?  By: Vince Alessi,   April 14th 2021     Mental health has historically been a highly stigmatized topic in developing nations that have recently undergone rapid transitions from being labeled a '3rd world' to a '1st world nation'. There are several examples of this, albeit predominantly in sino-eurasian nations. Historically, China has been amongst the most outwardly intolerant of mental health illness as comparable to more demonstrable physical maladies. In 2011, a study performed by  Whittington and Higgins indicated that the majority of Chinese nurses in nationally supported hospitals exhibited minimal or "zero-tolerance" for multiple behaviors commonly associated with one or more mental illness. Even to do this day, overall the Chines population does not engage in mental health services or make visits to a care provider with any frequency, as shown in the figure.      Over the years, however,
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By Danielle Konan

Our recent conversations in class concerning systemic racism have caused me to think more about the topic, its origins, and its place in healthcare. One of the major contributors in my opinion is implicit bias. Implicit bias describes the attitudes and stereotypes held by an individual without conscious knowledge. This bias can influence the perception of others as well as contribute to expectations and assumptions for other individuals. Typically, implicit bias manifests in physical and social characteristics, such as race, gender, age, and ethnicity. On a day-to-day basis, implicit bias can appear as a non-threatening aspect of social interactions, but that is not the case in healthcare. Healthcare providers, like all individuals, have implicit bias, but in their case, perceptions could influence clinical decisions. These affects have been noted in studies concerning statin prescription rates as well as diabetes treatment. When thinking about racism and its various impacts, it is imp
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Lack of diversity in clinical trials

In the FDA 2018 Drug Trial Snapshots report, it was demonstrated that there’s a significant imbalance in the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical research. Participants in clinical trials should reflect the diversity of the population, but this lack of representation has led to the development of drug interventions that may cause safety or efficacy issues for underrepresented populations. It's not just potential genetic predispositions of certain racial/ethnic groups to specific adverse events, but differences in experiences and exposure to environmental stressors among racial/ethnic groups may not be accounted for when clinical trials do not test their drug interventions on diverse participants.  A 2021 cross-sectional study looked at 230 vaccine clinical trials between 2011 and 2020, and the results highlighted disparities over the past decade where Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latinx populations, and older adults
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Peach State Blues

 I am writing this blog about the current state of Georgia politics. I chose this topic for 2 purposes. The first being that Georgia is my home state and secondly to display the style of systemic oppression that our nation still bolsters today in various ways.  Background: On March 26th, 2021 the governor of Georgia passed a series of laws in regards to voting rights. At face value the laws present as a series of unique changes that should be enacted to help secure and validate elections in the state of Georgia. However, once the 98 page document is broken down into layman's terms it is apparent that the laws have been reorganized to benefit the republican party in areas where they fell short during the 2020 election. I've listed some of the laws below for anyone to explore if they are interested.  Voters will now have less time to request absentee ballots. There are strict new ID requirements for absentee ballots. It’s now illegal for election officials to mail out absentee ba
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How Can We Increase Trust in Science?

  For decades, there has been a general mistrust in science and healthcare among the general American public. This trend has been highlighted especially regarding the coronavirus pandemic, as many Americans refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, acknowledge the reality of the virus, or listen to recommendations from the CDC and healthcare providers. But why do Americans have trust issues with scientists and the healthcare system? The answer is not simple but lies in the idea that the average American feels that science has failed them. Science is messy and convoluted. It’s not simple enough to say that the public should “just trust” scientists because they “know better.” Trust, like in any relationship, must be earned. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to an education and cannot easily seek out scientific information and understand it. This is something most scientists know, but do not do anything about. Some scientists and healthcare providers tend to use technical terms, as w
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CDC Director Declares Racism A “Serious Public Health Threat”

When the Center for Disease Control (CDC) came out with this statement I was not at all surprised about this statement. As an African American woman, I know that racism is a threat to not only the public but to individual’s mental health. In pharmacy school we learn about social determinants of health (SDOH) which are all factors that are interrelated to public health. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the CDC, addressed this statement of “racism is a serious public health threat” with Times News. Dr. Walensky acknowledge the fact that although COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the disparities communities of color face but also states that it is a long problem that was perpetuated by racism.   When I first read the titles of this article I got a little annoyed because racism has been around for years and I was thinking “why is this just now coming up?” However, I read the article and saw that Dr. Walensky is making an effort to incorporate interventions that are measurable in a
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