Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
friday October 24, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 48
West Health care for the homeless essential African trips halted By Matthew Reisen
Part two in a weekly series on homelessness.
By Tomas Lujan
UNM has postponed all study trips to West African countries as part of its precautionary measures to minimize the threat of Ebola. Cancelled trips included those for humanitarian programs like Project Helping Hands, an organization that provides medical care and health education for people in developing nations. The organization had selected eight nursing college students to go to work in a clinic in Kenya. But the trip was cancelled as the region was deemed unsafe. UNM will not send students, faculty or staff to areas that are identified as unsafe, David Wright, associate director for education abroad at the Global Education Office, said in a press release. Earlier, Centers for Disease Control recommended U.S. residents to avoid nonessential travel to West African countries. “CDC urges all U.S. residents to avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of unprecedented outbreaks of Ebola in those countries. CDC recommends that travelers to these countries protect themselves by avoiding contact with the blood and body fluids of people who are sick with Ebola,” CDC’s website stated. Danielle Gilliam, administrative officer at GEO, said even though Ebola poses little threat to UNM students, every precaution is being taken in accordance with federal regulations. “There are no international students or scholars on student visas currently enrolled at UNM from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone – the countries on the CDC level three warning list for Ebola,” she said. “Additionally, there are no UNM students or faculty currently engaged in or planning study abroad trips to those countries.” According to the UNM policies and procedures manual on study abroad health and safety, “UNM will not offer or support trips whose dates and destinations are or become subject to a U.S. Department of State Travel Warning or a CDC Travel Health Warning, unless special circumstances justify an exemption or a trip is already in progress.” In addition to adherence to federal regulations, GEO also monitors for new information and alerts from the CDC, the World Health Organization, leading professional health organizations and local information centers in affected areas, Gilliam said. Gilliam said that the GEO Education Abroad uses a Universitywide advisory committee to evaluate risks involved with study abroad programs and make recommendations to deans and the provost on study abroad travel. She said only the provost can decide whether to grant an exemption in consultation with the committee. Tomas Lujan is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ TomasVLujan.
Health Care for the Homeless, in collaboration with other organizations, is working to end homelessness in the UNM area and throughout Albuquerque. Serving at least 7,000 people since its doors opened, the organization provides integrated and comprehensive care to those experiencing homelessness, transcending the definition of simple health care, said Anita Cordova, director of development, planning and evaluation. Cordova said HCH tries to address the health-related concerns of homelessness while working to eradicate homelessness altogether. The organization offers dental help, major medical concerns, behavioral health and social services among others, she said. Aside from physical health issues, behavioral health is paramount and largely compromised by the very status of being homeless, she said. “The stresses, unstable place to sleep, lacking regular food or food choices; are out of your control for the most part,” she said. “Living on the streets, your stuff is at risk, your personal safety is at risk; you are very vulnerable. So the acute depression and anxiety is spiked through the roof.” HCH provides integrated behavioral health and primary care services, a program they have been working on and growing for the last 15 years, she said. The organization currently has four behavioral health providers who work on individual and group counseling sessions, she said. They also set up systems that make it possible to maintain and sustain medication as needed, including a free pharmacy.
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo / @SXfoto
The Memorial Wall at Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless lists the names of homeless persons that have died since 2003. The tiles were created collectively by artists in ArtStreet, an open art studio implemented by AHCH and available Thursdays and Fridays every week for everyone in the community.
In addition, HCH believes therapy can come from other outlets besides pharmacology, such as art. ArtStreet, an open art studio implemented by HCH, is available Thursdays and Fridays every week, she said. The studio is staffed by artists and art therapists with all materials provided free of charge; it is open to everybody, a solution to bridge the gap between housed people and the homeless. According to HCH’s Statistics Summary, the operating definition of homelessness includes persons who spent the previous night; in an emergency shelter, on the streets or in sites not intended for human habitation, in a motel or “doubled up,” meaning temporarily in homes of friends or family members.
Housing status at HCH intake shows 30 percent of the homeless are relegated to the streets while another 30 percent are housed in shelters. The remaining 40 percent are either “doubled up,” institutionalized, sleeping in vehicles or in transitional housing. Cordova said HCH works with about 90 scattered sights around Albuquerque to get people housed along with case management to help them maintain housing. The organization has a high success rate of keeping around 80 percent of the population housed for six months or more, she said. They work with St. Martin’s and The Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico among others to make that possible, but more needs to be done in the
way of sheltering those people in need, she said. “We know you house someone and they automatically get better whether you’re talking physical or behavioral health or substance use. Housing makes you feel better and keep you safe from the elements so that you can recover. So without housing we see people more often and they come back and that’s what we try to do, is to connect them to housing.” she said, “Because that’s what we know will ultimately help them achieve recovery.” Another program HCH runs in its memorial, built to remember those who died as a result of homelessness, she said. The wall sits on the west side HCH’s building, dedicated to those
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Homeless page 3
Resolution supports future Sex Weeks By Moriah Carty and Lauren Marvin
After six hours of negotiations, the ASUNM Senate passed a resolution stating the groups support of Sex Week. ASUNM Sen. James Walker, coauthor of Resolution 5F, said he wrote the resolution because he felt there was a need for sexual education on campus. “We as a public institution have a duty to educate our students even more and pick up the slack that was left off,” Walker said. “I think this was a great way to do it, but what the resolution ultimately says ‘we need this education. UNM, continue to do this.” The resolution, which passed by a 15-4 margin, did not mention plans for future sex weeks, he said. However, Walker sees that there is a concern about the titles, which some considered to be racy. ASUNM does not have the authority to dictate what events should be named, but future Sex Weeks will not be repeated in the same way it was this year, he said. According to Resolution 5F, “be it further resolved, that student input be heard and considered in the planning and implementation of future Sex Weeks.”
ASUNM Sen. Mathew Sanchez opposed the resolution because it was not specific in the call to action for student’s voices about Sex Week. Sanchez supports sexual education on UNM’s campus, but for Sex Week he thinks it could have had better execution and reflected more of the student population, he said. “So now we are just leaving it up to the students to come and give their input whereas we could have put something in the resolution stating that ASUNM go out and get students’ input for the next Sex Week,” Sanchez said. Sade Patterson, vice president for Students for Life, said she did not support the past Sex Week because the event did not cover sexual assault awareness. Sex Week’s racy titles were also a concern, she said. However, she supports the idea of sex education on campus. “We would like the approach to be different than it was this year because we feel it should have supported more how to prevent sexual assault and how to help someone who has been victimized by sexual assault,” Patterson said. President Pro Tempore Grace Liu, a co-author of the resolution, said although there was opposition, the senate was still able to construct
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo / @SXfoto
Books dealing with various topics on sex lay on a table during a UNM Sex Week event.
a resolution that pleased a majority of the group. The senate added a clause that encouraged students to voice their opinions about Sex Week, as well as provide more clarity about what is being taught, she said. “We originally had a clause that asked the UNM administration to revoke their apology,” Liu said. “That eventually evolved into a clause that said ‘we want to see more proactive, constructive criticism on what can we do better moving forward,’ like that kind of information from the
administration.” UNM’s inaugural Sex Week made national news earlier this month because of the titles at which point UNM issued an apology, she said. “The authors and I thought that (apology) was completely inappropriate. As a school administration they should be supporting their students in their right to put on events that they think are important,” Liu said. For UNM to go out and publicly apologize for an event that took a lot
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Sex Week page 3