Brown School › 2020 › Page 12

Spurred by a desire to help their Brown School community during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese students, faculty and staff community have collected nearly 1,500 masks for free distribution to those who need them. The single-use masks are available through pickup or delivery to any members of the Brown School community.

As the coronavirus spread slows in China, where mask production is at full tilt, families there have sent masks to relatives in the Brown School community, said Linyun Fu, manager of global programs for the Brown School, who helped organize the initiative. She realized many had a surplus because of this, and masks were hard to find in St. Louis. Fu, along with Assistant Professor Ruopeng An and Zizi Xu, a second-year MSW student, began soliciting donations of masks from the Brown School Chinese community and distributing them to those who requested them. Additional masks were also ordered directly from China.

“This is a difficult time for all of us,” said Fu. “We know need to all work together for everyone’s benefit.”

An puts masks in a large cardboard box outside his home for pickup, while Fu, Xu and two other Brown students, Grace Cao, MSW/MPH, and Danyi Li, MSP/MPH, deliver masks. Because the masks are single-use, they are given away in quantities of 5-10, with more available for people with special needs.  As of May 1, masks have been given to 131 people who requested them.

Fu noted that as the outbreak unfolded and mask-wearing was not common, some Chinese students faced discrimination and taunts when they shopped for food, making them fearful of going to grocery stores wearing masks. The Brown School created a grocery-shopping program in which volunteers shopped for students. “Chinese students feel grateful,” she said, “and they wanted to do something for our larger community.”

Xu said she was moved to act when she saw the crisis in China but was unable to return.  “I felt a bit powerless because I could not go back home and help. I feel obligated to do my best to serve our communities here because I feel heartbroken to see more people and families are suffering,” she said. “There are many uncertainties and impossibilities out of my control, but there always things that we can do to make small changes as individuals and benefit our larger communities.”

Cao, the co-chair of the International Student Association at the Brown School, said she received a great number of masks from her family in China, and her mother suggested she share them with classmates. She heard about the mask-donation program and decided to volunteer.

“If there was only one thing I have learned from this pandemic, it would be that hatred, division, and blaming towards each other would never save people’s lives,” Cao said. “Instead, they put underprivileged people under risk.  To make it through this hard time, we need to hold each other accountable, diminish our distance while social distancing, and help each other as much as possible when needed.”

“Brown School is my community. Professors, teachers, and my peers helped me a lot and they play an important role as my social support system,” said Li. “I also want to be supportive as a member of the Brown School family. Stay together, stay strong.” 

Registration is underway for the Brown School’s annual Summer Institute. During the weeks of June 15 and June 22, the Brown School will offer 13 virtual courses in data, management and leadership, and policy.

Each course unfolds over five consecutive days, with courses eligible for 15 CEUs or CPH units. The focused, results-oriented coursework appeals to Brown School alumni and other working professionals.

Many of the classes build proficiencies that are valuable in the virtual work environment.

“The Summer Institute is a great venue to learn these skills because it’s the exact right balance of time, group, and content for powerful skill building,” said Steven Harowitz, executive director of Campfire and returning instructor. “I think students are drawn to the Summer Institute because it offers a strong mix of opportunities to learn and become a better professional.” Harowitz will teach Group Facilitation & Management: Skills, Tools and Philosophies for Facilitating Virtually.

Instructors value the insights that students develop during their sessions. Theodore Floros recalls a breakthrough during a session of Introduction to Tableau for Data Visualization. “A student brought in a video by Hans Rosling that focused on changes in living standards over the last 200 years. By the end of the class, we were able to build our own version of the visualization using the Pages feature of Tableau to create a stop motion video.”

Nonprofit and government employees, including Washington University employees, are offered a special rate of $450 for most classes and $400 for a second class. (The general admission rate is $650 for most classes.) The registration deadline is June 5.

Degree-seeking graduate students, including visiting students, may enroll for academic credit. Brown School students should enroll as part of the regular summer registration process, beginning March 25. Visiting students should complete the application process by May 1.

“The Brown School’s Summer Institute offers graduate students and practitioners from our community a unique opportunity to come together to build public health and macro-practice social work skills,” said Janet Gillow, director of Professional Development Programs at the Brown School.

“The pace is rigorous and dynamic,” she said. “In just a week, Summer Institute classes help our participants build a marketable competency they didn’t have before.”

A complete course listing and additional information can be found at the Summer Institute site

The global pandemic has severely impacted every American, but maybe none more than older people. COVID-19 has placed a high-intensity spotlight on the deleterious effects of deep-seated ageism, sexism and racism on older Americans, suggests a new paper from the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at Washington University in St. Louis.

“While the virus leads to worse health outcomes for older people, the pandemic presents a number of challenges to older adults beyond dealing with the virus itself,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School and director of the Friedman Center.

Those challenges include lasting economic setbacks, health and well-being effects and highlighted ageism, racism and classism.

Morrow-Howell is corresponding author of the paper “Recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Focus on Older Adults,” in press in the Journal of Aging and Social Policy.

In the paper, Morrow-Howell and her co-authors Natalie Galucia and Emma Swinford, both of the Friedman Center, identify several specific challenges facing older Americans:

“The challenges we are facing can be expected, and in fact, none of them are new,” Morrow-Howell said. “Our state and regional agencies on aging, private and non-profit agencies, advocacy organizations and universities have been grappling with these issues in one form or another for years. But now, it seems our efforts to improve policies and programs for longer, healthier lives might be more productive as we communicate to consumers, public officials and everyday citizens who may be more aware of what isn’t working, what is at stake and what might be improved.

“Further, we can hope that the spotlight thrown on the inequalities experienced by disadvantaged people during this crisis will bring stronger commitment to working toward social justice and health equity.”

The paper does identify a number of opportunities for older adults as a result of the pandemic:

“Although it is not clear what our lives will look like over the next few months, we can anticipate both challenges and opportunities emerging as a result of this pandemic,” Morrow-Howell said.

“My hope is that by articulating these challenges and opportunities, we might move more quickly to minimize the negative outcomes of the spread of COVID-19 and maximize positive changes that might be possible,” she continued. “I hope that all of us — researchers, educators, practitioners, advocates, providers, government bureaucrats and elected officials — will redouble our efforts to improve our aging society in ways that benefit people across the life course.”

Although she had been feeding fish to her children already, Matunda Said now gives them even more of this nutrient-rich food. Packed with long-chain fatty acids and other nutrients, fish can be a critical source of nutrients linked to improved brain development in young children.

Said is a 34-year-old mother of two, who lives in Kilifi county near the Kenyan coast. She has a 3-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. Also a businesswoman, she cooks and sells mandazi donuts and is a salonist in the area. Said is busy, but these extra jobs provide income so that she can buy food for herself and her family, such as the fish she buys at local shops or from her neighbor who is a fish trader.

“For now, I can still afford fish because my family is small,” said Said. Said is one of many who incorporate fish into their families’ diets, but encouraging young children to eat fish and fish products can sometimes be a challenge. Boiled fish is a typical preparation in Kilifi county but often not one that children find appetizing. To overcome this challenge, Said offers her children fried or dried fish, which she then serves with vegetables or in a coconut stew.

Although Kenya has made strides in improving nutrition and reducing stunting in young children, regions of the country, such as Kilifi county, and vulnerable populations still suffer. Along the coast, in Kilifi, stunting rates reach as high as 40% among children under the age of five. This is much higher than the national rate of 26%. Dietary diversity also is low, placing children at risk of consuming inadequate micronutrients needed for growth and brain development.

To address these persistent needs, the SecureFish team at the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish (Fish Innovation Lab) is conducting research for development in the area to improve nutritional outcomes for the region, especially its young children.

Said attended a presentation by these researchers about the benefits of fish and noted she learned a lot that could be directly applied to her family.

“Initially I was giving fish [to my children] two to three times per week, but now that I know the benefits of fish, especially for brain development, I will increase to four to six times per week,” said Said.

Fish is a diet staple in this part of Kenya, but the SecureFish team, led by Lora Iannotti of Washington University in St. Louis in the United States and Andrew Wamukota of Pwani University in Kenya, has found that families often reserve the fish, especially the most nutritious parts of the fish, such as the head, for the adult men in their households.

Said noted that before the presentation, “I did not think it was okay to give the head of the fish to the children,” but that she now will incorporate this nutrient-dense part of the fish in her children’s meals.

The SecureFish team and the Fish Innovation Lab continue to conduct research and outreach with caregivers, health professionals, and fishers in Kilifi county to share knowledge and resources that can help mothers and communities improve nutritional outcomes for themselves and their families. You can follow along with this work on the Fish Innovation Lab website.

Brown School alumni are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also working to meet the new social needs that our current crisis is producing. We’re so proud of the important work that they’re doing to help their communities during the pandemic, and are honored to share their stories in their own words. If you’re a Brown School alum we’d love to hear from you and share your story. 

Gwen Callaway, MPH ’15: “I work for the San Joaquin County, Calif. Health Department and have been reassigned from my position as a health educator in a children’s health program to that of public information officers & risk communication branch director. We try to walk the line between communicating the very real risk COVID-19 poses without inciting panic. I’m proud to be doing my part in combating misinformation and helping our department communicate to our partners and the public.”

Corinne Char, MSW ’17, works in an emergency department in St. Louis,  providing care to patients with psychiatric concerns: “Sometimes it has been really overwhelming and frightening in a way I haven’t seen before. I was exposed to an asymptomatic patient a week ago, hours before they spiked a fever and tested positive. Everyone is stressed in the ED now and outpatient referral options are dwindling. I am very lucky to feel supported by many of my coworkers and the hospital in general. PPE is in short supply, so when I’m at the grocery store and see someone in an N95 mask (usually wearing it wrong) I want to cry. Hospitals can’t get enough, and now we’re asked to reuse surgical masks for three shifts.”

Kristi Collins, MSW ’97: I am currently working at SSM Hospice in Lake St. Louis, Mo. This wasn’t the career path I would’ve ever imagined taking when I graduated with my MSW.  However, when I went on my first patient visit I fell in love.  I finally found what I was meant to do. This is a job that doesn’t stop because of COVID-19.  I am still making visits and supporting the patients and families.  They still deserve quality of life even during a pandemic.  We are the only support for some families and I will make sure they still get the best care. We have home patients as well as patients in skilled nursing facilities.  Many facilities are limiting who can come inside.  This is heartbreaking and causing complicated bereavement issues.

Natalie Curry Ray, MSW ’06: “I was appointed BSW coordinator in the School of Social Work at Missouri State University in June 2019. I have been working with our faculty and administrative team in recent weeks to move all of our seated BSW courses to distance learning through online and web-conferencing modalities to support our students who are sheltering safely at home during the COVID-19 crisis.”

Hannah Dismer, MSW/MPH ‘18, serves as education and research coordinator at Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Ill.: “Abortion providers have always worked with less resources and more opposition than other healthcare providers, and we are keenly aware of the reality that the services we provide are highly contested and under immense scrutiny from opposition. We have been working tirelessly to keep our doors open and implement new COVID-specific safety precautions for patients and staff.”

Ben Glosenger, MPH ’14: “Working as a health educator at the Grant County Health District  in Moses Lake, Wash., I have been activated as part of our emergency response team on the operations side, conducting case investigations, contacting close contacts to inform of isolation/quarantine, and recording information for input into our state disease reporting system.”

Laura Kessel, MSW ’09: “I have the honor of serving as the director of Telehealth Services at SIU Medicine. SIU Medicine’s service region is the 66 southernmost counties in Illinois (covering Central and Southern Illinois). The SIU Medicine Office of Telehealth Services has been working fast and furiously over the past two weeks to get the majority of our healthcare service lines online providing telehealth services to patients at home during this COVID-19 public health emergency.”

Samantha Rockler, MSW ’15, is a hospital social worker with Johns Hopkins in Washington, D.C.: “I primarily work with oncology patients who are extremely vulnerable during this crisis. I believe that social workers will play a key role in this crisis supporting staff, patients, and families in extremely difficult circumstances.”

Dessa Shuckerow, MSW/MPW ’13, who lives in the St. Louis area, recently started group called MapleGOOD with neighbors, and was astounded by the response: “Two days later we were a story on Channel 4 news and had an article in St Louis Magazine as an example of neighbors helping neighbors.  We’ve reached out to hundreds of households in Maplewood and Richmond Heights, Mo., offering grocery and medicine delivery, for those who can and cannot afford them. We now have new projects starting every day: Arming Warriors supports health care workers, Social Distance Support is a mental health initiative, Hygiene Heroes provides free sanitary and hygiene items, and MapleGOOD Masks is making masks for health care workers and community members. Over 600 people are involved in the initiative both providing and receiving support.”

Emily Stuart, MSW ’10: “I am the director of Family Development and Program Evaluation at LifeWise STL in St . Louis, and work with three other alumni colleagues:  Felecia Noguera (bilingual youth therapist), Sarah Caldera Wimmer (manager of Mental Health Integration), and Samantha Ferguson Knight (director of Senior Programming).  We remain open during the pandemic: welcoming the children of guardians with essential jobs;  working remotely to contact our student scholars (ages 5-22) and drop off essentials like food and computers;  staying in constant contact with senior adult clients and dropping off bags of food and household supplies; providing curbside pickup of food/household supplies ; and conducting virtual group and individual therapy with all clients.”

Muniru Sumbeida, MSW/MPH ’12: “I am deployed to the Emergency Operations Center located at the Washinton, D.C. Department of Health as part of the response to COVID-19. I work a 4-day on and 4-day off 12-hour shift schedule, supporting the development of various planning products, including the weekly Coordination and Support Plan that captures key activities of the day and the weekly objectives and activities for the COVID-19 response, and then shares that information with the Mayor’s cabinet, department directors, and emergency management leaders. I feel honored to be part of this team of committed and passionate public servants. It’s challenging, but the Brown School certainly prepared me for this role.”

Megan Vitale, MSW ’98: “I am an associate vice president for youth behavioral health at COMTREA (pronounced COM-TREE), a community mental health agency in Jefferson County, Mo.  Our community support specialists who go into the community to work with youth who have severe emotional disturbances.  Whether it is in the home, school, juvenile office and court hearings, or children’s division, we find ourselves trying to work with young people in all aspects of their lives.  I also oversee our emergency room enhancement program — created by mental health providers in the St. Louis area and tied together by behavioral health network — to link youth in hospitals for mental health needs to outpatient services in their area.”

Kimberly Rand Zimmerman, MSW ’96, offers personal guidance on financial capability and asset building with Dragonfly Financial Solution in Boston, Mass. “I have shifted the focus of my professional blog to assist nonprofit practitioners in adjusting the lens through which they view personal finance in the time of the coronavirus.  I’ve also developed a virtual class called “Money Matters in Tough Times” geared toward financially vulnerable consumers that is offered in conjunction with nonprofit sponsors.

Sumbeida Muniru, MSW/ MPH ’12: “I work 4-day on, 4-day off, 12-hour shifts supporting the development of various planning products, including the weekly Coordination and Support Plan that captures key activities of the objectives and activities for the COVID-19 response. These are distributed to the Mayor’s cabinet, department directors, and emergency management leaders for situational awareness and action.  As challenging as the task is ahead of us with regards to the COVID-19 response, I feel honored to be part of the team of committed and passionate public servants dedicated to protecting the residents of the nation’s capital. The Brown School certainly prepared me for this role.”

Caroline Dias, MSW/MPW ’13, who has been living in Maputo, Mozambique for the last six years, and recently joined the team at the USAID that is implementing a monitoring and evaluation project in the country: “Our team is working with the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 resource allocation and planning meeting.  We are supporting the US mission in the COVID response.  I am also responsible for 2 studies related to COVID to support the US mission here and the Mozambique Ministry of Health. First, I’m working on a study on how COVID isolation measures are impacting vulnerable populations, to inform USAID and their partners’ response.  I am also presenting a concept note to support a study on knowledge, attitudes and practices about COVID prevention to USAID. Additionally, I am involved in 2 COVID technical working groups at the Ministry of Health.”

Abigail Chihak, MSW/MPH ’18, lives in West Des Moines: “I’ve been lucky enough to join the Dallas County [Iowa] Health Department team since graduation. We are now working to make sure COVID case investigations are completed and correct information is disseminated to the public.”

Alynn McManus, MSW ’84, is part of a group of practitioners who is providing pro-bono, evidence-based EMDR therapy in the Greater St. Louis region in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic: “Serving our community in the St. Louis area since early 2014, our mission is to develop and maintain a network of licensed clinicians who provide early EMDR interventions as part of the frontline trauma response and recovery in the Greater St. Louis Area. Since 1995, at the time of a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, Trauma Recovery, EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs has brought mental health clinicians with evidence-based therapy to the scene of disasters, providing pro bono care to thousands. The Trauma Recovery Network grew out of this tradition and now helps hundreds of skilled therapist/volunteers to serve communities affected by disasters worldwide.”

This article will be updated as more alumni share their stories.

Madison Lands is a second-year MSW/MPH student from Denver. We invited her to share some of her perspective on studying in these fields during the pandemic: 

Looking back at my first 18 months at the Brown School, in light of our current situation, I now feel embarrassed remembering a few moments of my naiveté. 

When I first took epidemiology, I was largely indifferent to the parts about tracking diseases, instead thinking about how it could be applied to issues in the reproductive health field. John Snow’s approach to pinpointing sources of cholera in 19th-century London felt very distant from my career interests, which include structural supports for family planning, access to contraception and pregnancy-related mortality. I misunderstood the potential for a contemporary global pandemic. 

Back in January, my Eliminating Health Disparities class reviewed disease theory and treatment modalities throughout history. We talked about the ethical considerations of isolating Typhoid Mary. I can’t speak for my classmates, but four months ago, I couldn’t imagine prescribing isolation as a reasonable treatment for disease.

And here we are, socially isolated and in the middle of a pandemic. I was clearly very wrong.  

If I’m going to be honest, being a public health student right now is incredibly frustrating. Suddenly, everyone with a platform is an epidemiologist. Philanthropist and tech founders’ opinions are being elevated to the level of those from scientists who have dedicated their lives to the study of diseases and how they spread. We’re getting very mixed messages and not always questioning the motivations of those who spread them. I understand that a pandemic requires transdisciplinary problem solving, but I would have assumed (or hoped) that in the face of a public health crisis, public health practitioners would be leading the charge. 

At the same time, in addition to being a public health student, I am also getting a dual-degree in social work. That perspective has given me the chance to examine the many ways that social determinants of health impact COVID outcomes. My class on health disparities has included some important discussion to the ways that race, gender, and socio-economic status are impacting treatment and outcomes. My class on sex education methods has given us the space to think about how we can adapt community health education to comply with social distancing. My applied linear modeling class is teaching me the basics of the tools to run the statistical models that inform epidemiological models. 

Having the space to learn from this pandemic before I go into the field is hopefully giving me tools for the next time something like this occurs. I’ve been able to learn a lot from my classmates and friends who are pushing leaders and decision makers to incorporate social determinants into their pandemic response. 

Brown School students have been doing incredible response work: listing the ways that COVID-19 will disproportionately impact Black St. Louisans, to organizing WashU & Brown School Mutual Aid projects, creating and sharing online trainings, and data projects that examine media bias in reporting on COVID-19. The list goes on.

My own COVID practicum experience has shown me the importance of public health practitioners and social workers in this pandemic. 

I’m a patient educator and counselor at a Southern Illinois abortion clinic. Across the country, state leaders have been trying to deem abortion a non-essential service to shut down clinics, but Illinois has made no such efforts. My team has moved to telehealth counseling appointments, and I’m calling patients in advance of their appointments to provide information and a space to discuss feelings. It can be hard to encourage patients to open up when we’re in the same room, but counseling on a phone call has been a new challenge for me. 

I think back to my first semester social work classes for best practices. We’re seeing patients who have to travel longer distances to access essential healthcare, which can lead to heightened emotional needs. Providing care during this pandemic has been a constantly evolving challenge, but at the very least, I have been able to see my coworkers and peers contribute really incredible work to ending this pandemic.