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Today, Feb 8th, our assignment was to interview at least two people in ESJ and ask them questions about managing stress.

Our questions were:
1. On a scale of 1-10 how stressed are you on average during the middle of the semester?
2. What do you do to manage stress? (Ex: work out, sleep, read)
3. What resources do you wish UMD had to assist you better in stress and mental health?

When approaching our participants, I was quite nervous. It was completely out of my comfort zone to talk to someone random. However, it all worked out. The participants were students, which made them more willing to help other students out for just a couple minutes.

What I learned from this activity is how to interview. My partner and I didn’t introduce ourselves, we didn’t ask our participants about themselves or really what contributed to stress (ex. Major, classes). We just dove in to the written out questions. This made the whole interview more robotic and less personal.

Doing this activity in ESJ before doing it in the clinic or in a life setting where the information we are trying to gather is more serious was helpful. It let us make mistakes without any real consequence. Now I know that before diving into the meat (my questions) I should slow down and be more personable. Everyone we interview is doing us a favor. They are answering questions for our own benefit. The last we can do is show that we care about them as people rather than just getting our work done.

Overall, this excercise was very helpful.

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Red jacket. Ramya. Bio major. Junior.

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Today, Feb 15th, our assignment was to interview at least two people in our assigned area. Mine was on the mall.

This time, we didnt have written out questions and just winged it.

The conversations today were more comfortable and natural. I had a lot of fun today and liked this exercise.

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In class instead of conducting interviews, we researched about PG County and Temple Hills to get a better understanding of the community and the people who live there. This was helpful because the public health approach to health care versus the medicine approach is so different. Public health considers all the risk factors in ones life and compares them to the communities health issue to make inferences. Public health is more upstream medicine; identifying the overlying problem before it hits patients. Medicine is downstream treatment which focuses on getting the patient healthy rather than identifying why they got sick in the first place.

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This week we went to the Mona center. I wasn’t able to go because the pickup and dropoff  times conflicted with work. I heavily regretted not being able to go because those that did had a very enlightening and interesting experience. Hopefully next time, the times align with class time and I can go and get the full effect of this class. During the class time, I researched more about the Mona center and the surrounding neighborhoods. I read that PG county and temple hills are very much like my neighborhood and it made me reaslize how badly my neighborhood needs a clinic.

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Today in class we did a lot of group work. We reviewed the people we met and interviewed at the Mona center and their stories. This activity gave me a better idea of the people who live in the area, what they are receiving out of the healthcare center, and what they still need. We also have them point of view statements which were one sentence summaries of what we are attempting to provide them.

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Today, I left on a flight back home. Over spring break I went to the doctor for a cough I’ve had for 3 weeks now. My experience there, was terrible. The urgent care was connected to a college near my house and you could tell how much the doctors and staff did not care. The only thing they cared about was payment. I have 2 insurances, one through my stepmom and one through my stepdad. They tried to tell me that both insurances were inactive and I would have to pay our of pocket. The whole time, they were calling the wrong number on the insurance cards. They wouldn’t accept their faults and refused to see me. I knew how sick I was and I knew my insurances were active so I insisted on speaking to the doctor instead. The doctor saw me but ran no tests. He instead just diagnosed me with Bronchitis AND a Sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics.

What I’m reflecting on is if I did not stand up for myself or my health, and because I had a fighting spirit, I was seen without having to pay out of pocket.  I was not bullied into spending hundreds of dollars when we already pay for double coverage. This is not the case with many low income, low educated people who are intimidated by the health care system.

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I really enjoyed this class. I liked honing in on our idea to make an app/platform where the neighborhood feels more connected. I think that this is super important.

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Today we went to the Mona center and I could go!! It was honestly completely different from how I imagined it. My group and I presented our prototype to a couple individuals from the community. Overall, we got really good feedback. Our interactions really opened my eyes up to how unconnected the community feels and how they don’t really have a common space to gather. Hopefully we are able to provide them with the tools in doing so. In my family science class we talked about how concentrated disadvantage plays a role in health outcomes for a community. I can see that this neighborhood does not have much mutual trust or collective efficacy to make their neighborhood thrive.

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Today, we really honed in on our prototype. We reflected on our trip to the minds center and how are prototype could help and affect the community. I believe that we need to change the way we present and make it into a power point instead.