November Series: Make Some Noise for Men’s Health
Men’s Health Deserves More Noise Men’s health awareness deserves a level of attention that it currently lacks. I have pondered the whys. Have we become too comfortable expecting women to schedule appointments and remind the men in their lives? Is it fear of what a doctor might find? Embarrassment about the examination? Or being so […]
Why We Walk: Every Step Carries a Story
Beyond the Pink: From Education to Action On October 18, Sustainable Impact Makers International (SIMI) will once again join thousands of people for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. But for us, this walk is about more than wearing pink. It is about the women whose lives have been interrupted by a diagnosis. It […]
Before They Learn to Fear Their Body, Teach Them to Understand It
For many adolescents, puberty arrives before the information they need to understand it. A first period can bring excitement and a sense of growing up. But it can also bring confusion, embarrassment, fear, teasing, missed school days, and questions a young girl may not feel comfortable asking. What if we changed that experience? On September […]
The Village Needs Training Too: Preparing Families Before the Postpartum Crisis
We tell new mothers, “It takes a village.” We encourage them to ask for help, accept support, rest when the baby rests, and speak up when something does not feel right. But there is a question we do not ask often enough: Have we prepared the village to recognize when Mom is not okay? Families […]
Postpartum Psychosis: What Every Family Should Know, and How to Help a Loved One The ongoing Lindsay Clancy trial has brought a condition many families may never have heard of into national conversation: postpartum psychosis. It is important that we discuss it carefully. Postpartum psychosis is not synonymous with postpartum depression. It is not the […]
The Fourth Trimester Should Not Be an Afterthought: When Our Health System Fails Mothers
The ongoing trial of Lindsay Clancy has placed maternal mental health, postpartum psychosis, clinical decision-making, and the criminal justice system into the national spotlight. It is an extraordinarily triggering and difficult case involving the deaths of three children, and the courts must determine the questions of criminal responsibility before them. But there is another conversation […]
Four Reasons Why We Have Faith Leaders at the Health Equity Table
Why Faith Leaders Matter Faith leaders have a strong voice to promote health equity and are greatly trusted by their communities. Beliefs are formed, and decisions are influenced by the pastor, imam, and traditional leaders. Health is the topic people listen to when it comes to life. They are important because they: Establish trust in […]
Youth Mental Health Is a Global Public Health Priority
Young people today are carrying more than any generation before them: academic pressure, social media, economic uncertainty, and, for many boys and young men of color, the added weight of racial trauma and a world that rarely asks how they’re doing. This is not a personal problem. It is a public health crisis. Globally, depression […]
How SIMI’s Mom Count Program Is Reimagining Community-Based Maternal Support
Pregnancy should be a time of anticipation and support. But for too many women, especially in under-resourced communities across Ghana and the United States, it is a time of uncertainty, limited access, and unheard concerns. SIMI’s Mom Count program was built to change that. What is Mom Count? Mom Count is an evidence-based maternal health […]
From the Bronx, and Belize to Ghana: Why Community Screening Saves Lives
What if the most powerful thing a community could do for its health was to show up? Not to a hospital. Not to a specialist. But to a free screening event in a familiar space, to a church hall, a community center, a school gym, surrounded by people who look like them and speak their […]