medical-redlining

In response to claims that Harlem is overburdened by drug-addiction rates and overdoses, a methadone clinic is being built on 145th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in West Harlem. However, community members argue that this clinic is not needed in the area.

Halfway through the interview with Dr. Raymond Givens, two young boys materialize through the slightly-pixelated Zoom virtual background displaying the stoic face of the rapper Biggie Smalls. The little one pops cheerfully through the famous rapper’s mouth, waving a tiny green toy at the camera, and the taller one comes running through the rapper’s tilted plastic crown, grinning cheekily and tugging at his father’s surgical scrubs. Givens, smiling at his sons and not at all fazed by the distraction, smoothly introduces his six-year-old, Lucas, and his two-year-old, Nicholas, pausing momentarily to swoop Nicholas into his lap and put his arm around Lucas’ shoulder. Givens gently corrals them out of the room, apologizes for the interruption, and without missing a beat, returns to the discussion of his efforts to change the name of Bard Hall.

This time last year, I was Not Happy. I ended up taking the following semester (fall 2018) off for medical leave. It’s something that I still have a hard time talking about comfortably, and it was an abysmal process at best, but the results of that process included a beautiful service dog in training, a career-furthering internship, and one (1) mentally stable human being. I’m three times the person I was a year ago at least, but back on campus I’m reminded of what led me to leave in the first place.

In an attempt to improve its leave policies and protocols, Columbia has piloted a new medical leave readmission process to allow students on leave to register for classes before their anticipated return, the first step in a larger effort to create a “simplified readmission” policy.

Close to 100 students have received direct, in-appointment consultations with Counseling and Psychological Services clinicians as a result of a new pilot program that staffs CPS clinicians in Medical Services’ John Jay health clinic.

“Are you thinking of hurting yourself or others?”“No.”“Okay. The next available appointment is in three weeks.”

For Barnard junior Emma Senner, it all began last fall when she stumbled across a poster in the Diana Center. Soon after, her phone buzzed with a text from her mom. “Did you know about this?” it read, with a picture of the very same poster, which her mother had come across on Facebook. Within the hour, another buzz, this time from Senner’s friend and current Barnard junior Emily O’Dell, with the same photo. “Have you seen this?”

Barnard Primary Care Health Services clinicians are not required to ask for consent or provide clear information about cost before administering medical tests to patients, an issue that has led to unwanted testing and unexpected charges that have turned students away from PCHS as their primary source for healthcare.