Sadly, these statistics are expected to be higher with the pandemic. It isn’t a wonder that during one of my visits to the bank, the bank agent asked me a question that I get too often, “How do you deal with all the traumatic stories you hear at work?” He went on to talk about how his …
Wellness Programs: What Options Do I Have as a Mental Health Employee? Read More »
As we come to the close of this challenging year, I want to talk about a topic that is so dear to me because of its many aspects, Uterine Fibroids. These non-cancerous benign tumors are an epidemic in the black community but rarely talked about. This blog is a summary of some of my favorite intersections: Race, gender, …
Uterine Fibroids in the Black Community and its Health Intersections Read More »
I was too young to comprehend the whole issue and for so many months living with an expectation that my friend would come back home. Grief is a very personal journey and as Sandberg & Grant (2017) put it “.. a demanding companion”, it feels like you are always dragging grief with you everywhere you go. …
During those moments you seem to lose life’s bearing, energy and are still expected to nurse your pain and heartache. So how can we keep sane during those difficult moments? I don’t know if there is a specific answer to that but like many of us, it’s about pulling yourself up, to try to stay …
It was a memorial stone outside the front yard. The words on the stone read “This stone is laid here in memory of…” Judging from the words on that stone, it seemed that the family in that beautiful mansion had lost one of their family members and had placed the memorial stone in remembrance of …
I had mixed emotions as I started this class and didn’t know what to expect apart from talking about sexuality in people with physical disabilities. Only to find out that the coursework consisted of using critical thinking skills to understand the impact of health issues on sexuality. As the class came to an end it …
Loneliness The Invisible Disability: The Impact on Health Read More »
Guess that is why somebody said that experience is the best teacher. One of my first experiences was at a medical appointment which I remember vividly. It’s at that appointment that I realized that the doctor and I were looking at the same issue but with different lenses. As a new immigrant, there was a lot …
The Prescribed Flight: The Need for Cultural Competency Read More »
History has a weird way of reliving itself in our current lives. Unfortunately, most of us might be unaware of how our storylines impact our health. Is there a connection? One might ask. I remember growing up and not understanding why the older people would spend hours on end reminiscing about their lives. I could not …
I have always heard the saying that doctors make the worst patients, the same goes for some mental health professionals. We procrastinate when it comes to accessing mental health services. This definitely doesn’t help reduce the stigma of why and how we access mental health support. Not many of us are willing to acknowledge the need to …
It was one of those long nights and I was looking forward to doing some work with little or no distractions. As hard as some of those nights can be on the body, they sometimes bring some kind of sanity as it gives us time to complete some work in quietness. On this particular …