Dana Kobrin
Mental-Health Advocate
Oral Presentation
ARV's: Can't afford them, can't live without them
Summary:
ARV medication has always been incredibly expensive ,and it's cost has been a documented barrier to HIV treatment. The CDC's Medical Monitoring project found "During 2016–2017, 14% of persons with HIV infection used a prescription drug cost-saving strategy for any prescribed medication and 7% of patients had cost saving–related nonadherence"(Beer et al, 2019 This session will be a conversation surrounding barriers to care including insurance coverage, ADAP coverage, medication refills, and lack of stable income. A vignette will be presented with a mock patient who needs assistance with refilling their ARV's with many barriers in the way, and discussions will be presented about how to connect patients to health insurance, patient assistance programs, copay assistance, and linkage to medical providers. Differences between states, ADAP programs, and Medicare and Medicaid coverage will be discussed. Participants will leave with a better sense of how to link patients to care, finding resources to cover ARV costs, and how to enroll patient's in insurance programs.
Publication
“Lost connection”: Pandemic related disruptions to schooling and social services among Latinx Immigrant Youth and Families
Summary:
COVID-19 and subsequent public health measures resulted in significant disruptions to schools and social service delivery to Latinx immigrant youth in the U.S. As social service providers pivoted work to virtual platforms, continuing to provide social-emotional support/therapy and case management; relatively little is known about the pandemic-related issues providers navigated working with Latinx immigrants. This qualitative study (N=33) elucidates providers’ reflections on presenting issues of Latinx immigrant youth and families and their experiences working to meet clients’ social service needs in the initial months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Participants indicated Latinx immigrant clients’ needs changed to a “great extent,” reporting that youth experienced limited access to internet and took on additional household responsibilities (i.e., caring for siblings, having to work) impacting their psychological wellbeing. Yet, 42% of participants indicated their organizations “never” or only “some of the time” had enough providers to meet rising client needs. Findings provide critical insights from social service providers on the frontlines of service delivery with Latinx immigrant youth and families during the initial phases of the pandemic. Implications highlight the critical role of the school-home-community connection to prevent health, mental health, and educational disparities.
Oral Presentation
Social Services Providers Serving Immigrant Youth and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis
Summary:
As the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing guidelines forced social service providers and schools to rapidly transition to virtual platforms, job loss and spread of COVID-19 disproportionately affected Latinx immigrants. However, little is known regarding the issues experienced by Latinx students as well as how social service providers navigated continuity of care for this vulnerable population during a public health crisis. This study explores the first-hand experiences of social service providers working with Latinx immigrant youth and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Poster
Hours of sleep and their effect on Pain Tolerance
Summary:
Previous studies have compared hours of sleep adults receive to their pain tolerance. The purpose of the present study is to see if children's pain tolerance is related to their pain tolerance. The analysis findings concluded hours of sleep are correlated with children's pain tolerance, with age acting as a moderating variable. These findings could give insight to whether or not children's sleep could affect their ability to cope with acute or chronic pain
Poster
Anger Expression and it's relation to Fasting Glucose Levels
Summary:
Anger is an emotional state that has been linked to increased risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Common anger expression styles are described as “anger-in” (suppressed anger), “anger-out” (outward expression of anger), and “anger-control” (ability to manage anger). Results of multiple regression analyses showed that, after controlling for age, sex, body mass index and race/ethnicity, participants with higher anger control scores had lower fasting glucose levels (b = -.48, t(5,163)= -2.76, p .05). Results suggest that greater ability to manage one’s anger may be associated with better glycemic control. Findings may contribute to improved screening efforts for diabetes risk.
Poster
Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) and Career Experience Opportunities
Summary:
In Montgomery County, Maryland, fourteen different public high schools start the pathway program knows as ACES. Students selected for the program are from underrepresented backgrounds in higher education, and receive personalized academic coaching for a future career plan. The ACES program continues with associate's completion at Montgomery College ,and baccalaureate completion at the Universities at Shady Grove. From the third year of the AmeriCorps grant, the ACES impact data shows the personalized support and coaching leads to eventual graduation and success. CEO is a cohort of ACES students that receive personalized career readiness skills and programming, and their impact data has a higher rate of students employed or in internships.