Our student researcher team explored the diverse topics within various fields of health. Two main focuses of their research explored Mental Health & Access to Health Services and Information. To check out the photos with their respective SHOWeD method, scroll down below!
Mental Health
This photograph is important to me because it’s a park that I have seen in all it’s stages, beginning from when it was built a few years ago. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the “life” of this park since the beginning of the pandemic, but it has been tumultuous. It began with a sign that said not to use the equipment, that turned into caution tape, that turned into the fence shown in the picture. Also, during that span of time, the swings were taken off because people visiting the park kept using them, even though it was a potential health hazard. It reveals how things we often take for granted, like a public park, become completely off limits turning a pandemic.
– Chloe Low
This photograph is important to me in many ways. This is just a snippet of how my life has been chaotic since distance learning as both a student and an educator. As a student, distance learning has been hard due to the difficulties of trying to reinvent ways in self-studying along with having the motivation to continue and finish assignments with good quality work. My room has changed from a comfortable place to a work zone filled with stress and anxiety. This is the same for my high school students whom I tutor twice a week. As an educator, I have to gauge their mental health and how they are working through distance learning. There has definitely been negative mental health effects on my students who are typically of Vietnamese and Hispanic descent. I interact with my students through a screen which is much different than in person because I no longer have the ability to read their social cues or their body language. There is bigger emphasis in seeing and analyzing their work environment which can tell clues of whether or not their environment is affecting them in a negative way and if they are safe. For a majority of my students, and I am sure for many others, their lives have changed drastically. They have more responsibilities at home if they are living in a multi-generational family, especially with younger children. AAPI communities often live in multi-generation homes. This is not the most ideal environment for many students with family members walking in and out of the room causing them to lose focus. School, though stressful, was a place where many students could interact with peers and get a chance to breath from home. With my Vietnamese students, a common pattern I have been seeing is the involvement of parents in their daily learning. As much as parents are a large part of students’ lives, their involvement can be a form of interference and affect the mental health of students as they try to focus and balance the difficulties of learning at home. This forced more unneeded academic pressure on students to succeed in the face of their parents when normally they handle a large amount of pressure to save face for their families and succeeding in society. This photograph offers personal insight and perspective on being an educator and student at the same time during distance learning in the pandemic. I believe it’s a perspective that takes into account many factors of understanding both sides. As an educator, I have to make sure my students are still learning properly at a curriculum which promotes a strong foundation in the subjects they are learning. However, I also understand firsthand of the mental health issues and burnout that can arise from learning through a screen every day. Mental health is a taboo topic within the AAPI communities. I try to promote as much mental health and self care to my students, knowing what the consequences are if there is no focus on how to deal with mental health issues.
– Annie My Phan
This photograph is important to me because it is about my cat, Leo Candy Nguyen, who kept me company during the lonely lockdown period. During this period, classes are held virtually through the internet. This drastically decreases the level of interaction in the classroom. Small talks before the start of the lectures became non-existent. Therefore, it was hard to make new friends. However, my cat always stayed with me through my classes, giving me company, acting like a classmate sitting next to me. I feel less lonely because of him. I think I owe him for my mental health.
– Emma Hong Nguyen
This photograph is important to me because I haven’t experienced what it’s like to struggle with mental health as much as I have during this pandemic. Growing up, I’ve always heard that taking care of your mental health is so important. However, this never really hit me until the pandemic began when I was forced to leave school, say goodbye to my friends, and isolate at home. These past few months in quarantine have not only been filled with depression but it also has been one of the most insightful periods in my life as I’ve learned more about myself and my mental health as well. In this photograph, I hoped to capture the stillness that occurred during a day in my household. In a way, this represents the pause that the pandemic inflicted onto my life. And although this has been depressing period, the insight that I’ve gained about myself is represented by the light from the window that beams through the curtains and illuminates the dull room.
– Tristen Jovellanos
Access to Health Services & Information
This photograph is important to me because my mother is an essential worker and her courage to go out to work every day in the midst of a pandemic is truly inspiring. The photograph depicts some of the essential tools my mother needs as someone who is not only an essential worker, but also an asthmatic individual, including an N95 mask that she must wear at work and if she goes out in public as well as a
breathing treatment system. In my household, it has become the new norm to wear these protective masks upon leaving the house, if we happen to at all, in order to be more mindful of my mother’s respiratory circumstances and keep one another safe. We have been fortunate enough to have the means to buy a breathing treatment system from our healthcare provider in order to help manage any severe asthma flare
ups, but it is also important to acknowledge that not all families have this same privilege/access. My intention with this photograph is to highlight that there are various added protections that someone with pre-existing conditions must take in order to stay safe from COVID-19, many months after the pandemic had started. Being
an essential worker has its own risk in terms of contracting COVID-19 and having respiratory complications only adds to the said risk, which can be very scary.
– Soniya Manju
This photograph is important to me because I was able to see the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the homeless population. People who are displaced or homeless may be in great danger of contracting the coronavirus. Many of the people that I saw who were homeless did not have masks on and were in non-physically distanced settings. It is highly likely that they may spread the virus at rapid rates if they do not receive the proper education and preventative measures necessary to slow the spread.
– Grace Choe
This photograph is important to me because I took this picture based off of an encounter I had with an Asian mother while working at Target as a cashier. She told me how difficult it was for her to find supplies that she needed like baby wipes because people kept buying them for general cleaning purposes, meanwhile she was struggling to find them for her actual baby. Plus, being a mother, she did not have the time to go baby wipe hunting from store to store and this shortage caused her a lot of stress during the pandemic.
This photograph is important to me because it illustrates the impact of COVID-19 on my grandmother, Carolina (Nanay). Although I am fortunate that she has not been infected by the virus, this pandemic has affected her in a more social way. Nanay is at the elderly age when she can get a bit confused at times, and the precautions that my family and I have had to take because of the pandemic confuses
her even more. For instance, she’ll always question why we have to put a mask on her whenever we leave the house or why we can’t leave the house to go to the store. In reality, we are taking these precautions for our safety, and it is disheartening that people at an age like hers may not understand. I believe that my experience with my grandmother is just an insight onto the health disparity that has risen from the pandemic regarding proper dissemination of information to keep people informed during these uncharted times. Thus, this photograph illustrates the impact of COVID-19 on people who are at a disadvantage at receiving the necessary information about COVID-19, especially communities of color and elderly people including my grandmother.
– Tristen Jovellanos
My grandmother is currently in hospice care, and has been since February 2020, a month before the pandemic worsened and caused the nation to shut down. We have been extremely fortunate to have access to and be provided various health technologies, such as the pictured hospital bed, and non-pictured oxygen tank and supplies. Due to these resources, we have been able to be present for my grandmother, 24/7, and provide as much care for her as possible. As can be seen in the photograph, the bed is located in a large area, the living room, with a large patio door leading to the backyard. This photograph offers insight towards how elderly people, specifically those with pre-existing conditions prior to the pandemic, may be coping.
– Leyna Tran
Personally in my family, there has been a disconnect between traditional and modern medicine. Many parents want their children to become doctors, but at a certain point, they refuse to acknowledge the significance of modern medicine. This has hindered their understanding of COVID-19. Their understanding of COVID-19 has also been hindered by the hearsay networks which are notorious for spreading misinformation. There are many issues that come up here. Firstly, individuals who do not have a proper understanding of credible information and diseases trust sources of misinformation. Secondly, this misinformation causes them to use traditional remedies to “protect” themselves from COVID-19. In a specific case, many elders in my church believed rubbing garlic on their bodies or eating garlic would protect them from COVID-19. Although traditional remedies are beneficial in reducing symptoms, they do not have the ability to cure or protect oneself from COVID-19. With the increase in cases, there is a need to spread culturally competent education resources to vulnerable populations to trust modern medicine rather than traditional remedies. There is also a need to educate communities on the basics of how diseases work and spread along with the difference between symptomatic and asymptomatic.
– Annie My Phan