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Arion Lillard-Green earns a spot in Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 14:32:53 +0000

Arion Lillard-Green earns a spot in Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth Taylor Thomas Mon, 12/11/2023 - 09:32

Congratulations to Arion Lillard-Green, a Health Services Research doctoral student, for earning a spot in the second cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth. This fellowship, conducted in collaboration with The OpEd Project, is dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in public health, research, and social justice. Lillard-Green's inclusion highlights her dedication to health services research. The fellowship's objective is to redefine historical narratives and nurture a more equitable world.

Learn more about Lillard-Green’s desire to bring journalism, theology, and health administration together here.

The Public Voices Fellowship empowers fellows to contribute thought leadership pieces to mainstream media outlets, thereby influencing public discourse on critical issues in health and healthcare. The curriculum delves into themes of authority, equity, innovation, and action in an unfair world. Fellows receive training and coaching from seasoned journalists and editors through The OpEd Project.

AcademyHealth strives to advance impactful and equitable health services research and policy and remains committed to fostering a diverse array of voices that can drive positive change in the landscape of health research.

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Patriot Profile: Arion Lillard-Green

Priyanka Champaneri — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 20:43:13 +0000

Patriot Profile: Arion Lillard-Green Priyanka Champaneri Tue, 11/07/2023 - 15:43

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Year: Doctoral Student
Major: Health Services Research
Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky

The thought of hospice care can stir up many emotions, including grief, fear, or dread. But what about peace, comfort, or courage? As a former hospice chaplain, Arion Lillard-Green, MHA Health Systems Management ’21, has probably seen–and felt—all of these. When she started her doctoral program at Mason, Lillard-Green brought experience from a unique combination of disciplines: journalism, theology, and health administration. Her goal of earning a doctorate in health services research comes from a desire to bring these disciplines together to ask important questions that impact health policy.

Asking Deeper Questions: Lillard-Green studied journalism as an undergraduate because she enjoyed investigating issues and bringing truths to light. She then completed a master’s degree in theology, which pushed her to think more deeply about issues based on theological and philosophical principles. During seminary, Lillard- Green worked as a private caregiver for aging adults alongside hospice clinicians. This inspired her to complete a hospice chaplain residency program, where she spent a year learning the art of spiritual counseling in the hospital setting.

Providing Comfort: Lillard-Green spent 17 years working as a hospice chaplain. This sparked her interest in the health care field. “Although a career in health care wasn’t my initial goal, it somehow found its way into my work,” she says. She gained insight into the issues people face at the end of life: their spiritual and emotional needs and the physical realities of hospice and palliative care.

Facing Difficult Realities: Working in rural West Virginia and in Northern Virginia, she observed disparities in access to and quality of care. She counseled patients who were financially secure and who lived paycheck to paycheck. “The most significant lesson I learned during my time as a clinician is the reality that socioeconomic status determines the way we live, and it determines how we die,” Lillard-Green says.

Support for Her Work: In fall 2023 Lillard-Green earned a spot in the second cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth. This fellowship, conducted in collaboration with The OpEd Project, is dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in public health, research, and social justice.

Rethinking the End-of-Life Journey: Lillard-Green hopes that her research will help capture the degree to which hospice and palliative care providers are meeting the needs of patients and families, along with barriers to access. “We need to find ways to collect better, meaningful data to gain a well-rounded understanding of social risk factors,” she says. “The end-of-life journey should not start at the end of life. Unfortunately, aging and dying well is a privilege that needs to be extended to all persons earlier in the health care continuum.”

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Social work students connect with therapy horses, dogs to learn how to help trauma survivors

Shayla Brown — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 18:20:06 +0000

Social work students connect with therapy horses, dogs to learn how to help trauma survivors Shayla Brown Tue, 06/13/2023 - 14:20

“Horses very much discern who you are and how you are based on how your inside and your outside match,” said ��AV professor Vicki Kirsch.

Each semester Kirsch takes students in her advanced Trauma and Recovery course to Project Horse Empowerment Center in Purcellville, Virginia, to learn about the emerging field of equine assisted psychotherapy (EAP).

Vicki Kirsch at Project Horse for her Trauma and Recovery course. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

As a therapist, Kirsch specializes in working with individuals who have experienced trauma, early childhood abuse, sexual assault, and relationship issues and with transgender individuals through their transitioning process. She has been a fan of horses for most of her life and incorporates the horses to enhance evidence-based interventions with clients for her private practice.

“EAP is just finding its feet,” said Kirsch, an associate professor of social work in Mason’s College of Public Health. “It’s like a baby compared to other [therapy] fields. There are different paths, and some are better than others

Students at Project Horse for Kirsch's Trauma and Recovery course. Photo by Evan Cantwell/ Office of University Branding

She is able to help those who suffered horse-related trauma such a fall or being trampled. “[I worked] mostly with people who wanted to start riding again but were too afraid to,” she said. But EAP can be beneficial for overcoming other types of traumas as well, she added.

Kirsch wants students think outside the box when working with trauma survivors. “We have to engage with the body because trauma lives in the body,” she said.

These interventions can include brushing, petting, and rhythmic breathing with the horses.

“People have used horses for a long time for therapeutic riding, working with autistic kids and people with developmental and physical disabilities. But in the field of psychotherapy, which is what I do, it’s new,” said Kirsch.

Mason student Tara Amor with one of the therapy dogs. Photo provided

“Going to Project Horse and meeting those horses who were also survivors of trauma themselves was very beautiful,” said Minnie Thukral, who graduated from Mason with a master of social work. “It was interesting to see how we could use connecting with animals to help with healing and recovery, and to see where your career can take you.

“The main goal of the course is to be able to recognize childhood injuries or trauma when a person sitting in your office is telling you their personal life stories and it has some form of trauma that they don't know exists,” said Tara Amor, a clinical psychology student who graduated from Mason with a master of social work in May 2023. “As a clinician, [we have to] recognize it and unpack all that, then implement an intervention to help them to heal."

In addition to working with horses, students in the class got to explore other approaches with the campus K9s who visited their classroom during the semester.

“It's all about healing,” said Amor. “You want to help your client continue living with their trauma because that trauma doesn't go away. You heal it; it's part of who you are, but it's not who you are.”