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Author Archives: tiana
Surviving exploitation, but not escaping it: Human Trafficking and Mental Health
After doing the readings and having time to delve deeper into the issue of human trafficking, I inevitably thought of the issue’s relevance to my blogs regarding mental health of women. According to the US State Department, annually, an approximate 50,000 women are trafficked to the United States each year (1). In terms of societal [...]
“It felt like somebody took my body”: An Overview of Postpartum Depression
“ And it just worsened and 3 days after I was home … I didn’t want anything to do with him [the baby]/and he cried and cried” (5) Outside of the course, my academic interest primarily focus on parental engagement and a child’s linguisitic competency. Mother-child physical and verbal interactions are crucial for a [...]
Collaborative Stepped Care Model: Preliminary Success of a Mental Health Intervention in India
An article published in The Lancet in October 2011 declared “Mental health–the economic imperative” in developing countries. Not only is it an economic imperative, it is a women’s health imperative given the disparate impact that it has on women. Interventions to address this mounting problem are needed, but are often not given the priority they [...]
Curbing a Bloody Rite: Meet the women of Senegal
“Before you would never even dare to discuss this… It was taboo. Now you have thousands of people coming to abandon it.” (4) The practice of female genital cutting (also known as female genital mutilation or female circumcision) is considered a rite of passage for girls in communities that have embraced the practice. [...]
HIV Status and Stigma: Meet Itumeleng Modimola
“It was not easy when we started; people were not used to the idea of caregivers and because of the stigma around HIV and AIDS, people would pretend they were not at home when we came to visit.”- Itumeleng Modimola After hearing Naina Khanna speak in class last Monday, I went home with thoughts of [...]
Conflict, Rape, and PTSD in the Congo: Meet Honorata Kizende
“Honorata had been a sex slave and kept in captivity by armed militias in eastern Congo for almost a year. She was repeatedly gang-raped in public. After she escaped, the stigma of rape made her family reject her. Alone and destitute she found refuge in a friend’s house and was raped again when armed men [...]
Bringing Women’s Mental Health to the Forefront: An Intro to Women’s Mental Health
Mental health may not be immediately recognized as an issue that disparately impacts women. However, women in fact face unique challenges when living with mental illness. According to the World Health Organization, “Gender is conceptualized as a structural determinant of mental health and mental illness that runs like a fault line, interconnecting with and deepening [...]
Success and Setbacks of Developing Interventions for Women’s Mental Health Issues