By Yesenia Barrios This story was published in the Bronx Times on April 4, 2022. On a cold Sunday afternoon, Mike Cintron is sweeping the sidewalk in front of his home on Rosedale Avenue in the Bronx. The wind has scattered garbage from piles of waste paper, household trash, broken furniture and used electronics that...
Category: Health disparities
COVID-19, remote learning left Miami high school seniors stressed, strained and struggling to catch up
By Justin Fernandez, Ajmaanie Andre, Kymani Hughes, Krystal Li and Angely Peña-Agramonte Urban Health Media Project Hannah Corcoran had her plan in place: after graduating from high school, the Miami teen wanted to attend her dream school, the San Francisco Art Institute, and major in art. But then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Hannah was forced...
Systemic racism spurs COVID-19 to hit Florida communities of color harder
By Julianne Hill, Justin Fernandez, Gabriella Fuster, and Melissa Noda Urban Health Media Project Florida’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic unmasked disparities in healthcare based on socioeconomic factors, disproportionately hurting communities of color in the state while exposing weaknesses in leadership, according to a Florida health expert. “We know from our country’s history that responding...
Early screening for learning disabilities ‘would make a huge difference’
By Aileen Delgado, Courtney Curtis and Rick Hampson Urban Health Media Project WASHINGTON -- Frank Pinckney wonders what his life could have been like if his parents and teachers had believed what he now believes: that as a child he had a learning disability, attention deficit disorder (ADHD) and suffered from trauma after a sexual...
Correctional facilities: The Band-Aid to mental health
By Yesenia Barrios Shawanna Vaughn had no choice. She was born in a prison hospital to an incarcerated mother. She endured a tough childhood, only to land back in prison at 17, and continue the harmful cycle. “Nobody got to prison without adverse childhood experiences which turned into adult traumas,” said Vaughn, founder of Silent...
Social media: A complex challenge for youth and parents to protect mental health
By Yesenia Barrios Using social media– specifically apps like Instagram and Snapchat--requires tricky negotiation for young people to engage socially while avoiding its potentially intense toxic impact. “Their brains are not fully formed, not fully myelinated—they’re more at risk for the addictive aspect of these devices and these apps, and (teens) have less protective factors,”...
Is back to school better or worse than pandemic eating, couch surfing at home?
Virtual schooling led to increased obesity in students, but cafeteria food offerings often not healthy By Julianne Hill and Gabriella Fuster As young people returned to the classroom this fall, they faced the dual challenges of undoing unhealthy eating and exercise habits developed during virtual learning and searching for healthy food choices in the cafeteria---issues...
Health disparities hit survival rates for cancer, COVID
By Jayne O’Donnell, Julianne Hill, and Enijah Brennon Leana Wen knew her mother, who got winded walking to her car, wasn’t simply anxious or depressed. But that’s what the medical doctors treating Sandy Ying Zhang thought and that’s what mattered. It was the early 2000’s and Wen was in medical school, but her mother scoffed,...
Meet Justin Fernandez: UHMP student journalist and mental health advocate
By Aileen Delgado Justin Fernandez says he got two big things out of the UHMP boot camp on community health storytelling for high school journalists: “a good opportunity to better immerse myself in the community’’ and “experience writing and reporting on things that really mattered.” The senior at Coral Reef High School in Miami was...
Meet Krystal Li: UHMP student journalist and workshop participant
By Aileen Delgado Krystal Li, a senior at Coral Reef High School in Miami, was one of more than 20 students who participated in UHMP’s “Homesick” spring workshop. She says she jumped at the opportunity. It was “a good opportunity for me,’’ she says, “because I was relatively new to journalism at the time, and...