Access to Health Services

George Mason College of Public Health Professor Rebecca Sutter awarded $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat Program grant

Taylor Thomas — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:41:04 +0000

George Mason College of Public Health Professor Rebecca Sutter awarded $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat Program grant Taylor Thomas Fri, 09/13/2024 - 10:41

Afghan victims of combat arrive in the United States as refugees with unique health care needs. Rebecca Sutter, professor in the School of Nursing at ��AV, has been awarded a $3 million Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat (SASIC) grant to develop health service delivery infrastructure for Afghan survivors, refugees, and immigrants impacted by combat trauma and violence. The program, titled Healing and Educating Afghans for Resiliency-Virginia (HEAR-VA), will serve Afghan refugees residing in Northern and Central Virginia, where an estimated 95% of Afghans resettled in 2022.

HEAR-VA seeks to screen 500 individuals for eligibility and enroll 305 participants in care services.

Photo provided

“We are implementing a care coordination model where individuals, regardless of which HEAR-VA partner they interact with first, will receive screenings, and be connected with services that address their individualized care needs,” Sutter said. "What’s especially important is this program will be built not just for, but in partnership with actual Afghan survivors of combat and other refugees who are impacted by trauma and violence."

The SASIC grant was awarded from the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The mission of ORR is to provide newly arrived refugees from Afghanistan with resources to begin healing combat-related trauma and facilitate sustainable physical, emotional, social, and economic well-being.

This interdisciplinary HEAR-VA initiative will be managed by the Mason and Partners Clinic in partnership with Virginia Department of Social Services Office of New Americans (DSS-ONA), the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Office of Behavioral Health Wellness (DBHDS-OBHW), Health Brigade, Northern Virginia Family Services, and additional community partners. The program went into effect July 2024 and will extend through February 2026.

“This collection of partners is dedicated to creating an innovative program that will be community-based, community-driven, and community-led. We are building local capacity to serve vulnerable populations, not just for the duration of the grant, but long after we as the implementers have departed,” Sutter said.

In addition to her role as a professor in the School of Nursing, Sutter is the director of the Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinics. She is a credentialed Family Nurse Practitioner with expertise in community health care access and navigation to improve care and promote collaboration between public health, public safety, and health to ensure that evidence-based treatment is available for at-risk and marginalized individuals, families, communities, and populations.

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In This Story

Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

Topics

Refugees

immigrants and refugee communities

Access to Health Services

Community Partners

Mason and Partners Clinic

Kakenya Ntaiya speaks her truth at Mason’s annual Sojourner Truth Lecture

Shayla Brown — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 18:51:25 +0000

Kakenya Ntaiya speaks her truth at Mason’s annual Sojourner Truth Lecture Shayla Brown Wed, 03/22/2023 - 14:51

In This Story

LaNitra M. Berger, PhD

Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, guest speaker at ��AV's Sojourner Truth Lecture. Photo by Shayla Brown/Strategic Communications.

Kakenya Ntaiya’s life was set to follow the traditional Kenyan path of ending school early in preparation for marriage and motherhood at the age of 15, but she had a different dream.

Ntaiya, who was ��AV’s 2023 Sojourner Truth Lecture guest speaker on March 2, is the founder of Kakenya’s Dream, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to educating and advocating for young girls across rural Kenya.

“I’m really grateful to be here as we are ending the celebration of Black History Month, and also welcoming Women’s History Month since they’re two of the entities that I have within me,” she said. “In communities like ours, you find that the place of a woman is pretty low.”

About 50 people were in attendance during the lecture. When Ntaiya was asked why it was so important for a Black feminist to also be committed to health, she responded, “Health is everything, especially mental health, but general health is everything.”

“I grew up in a community where about 40 percent of young girls between the age of 15 and 19 give birth, 50 percent are married off during childhood, 80 percent undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), often without anesthesia,” said Ntaiya, who also was subjected to the procedure in Kenya where it is considered a rite of passage to womanhood.

“I was lucky to survive because most girls die from bleeding,” she said. “There are consequences for the bodies of these young girls.”

Despite having been subjected to FGM, Ntaiya made a deal with her father to let her forgo marriage and finish her education, promising her rural Kenyan community that she would go to school in the United States and use her education to help the village in exchange for their support.

“The commitment that Kakenya has to supporting women and girls internationally is unparalleled,” said LaNitra Berger, director of Mason’s African and African American Studies Program. “I have so much respect for the organization that she runs, and the ways in which she is completely dedicated to the cause of women and girls’ education.”

Ntaiya said she was driven to make a difference to help end child marriage in Kenya, in the absence of intervention from NGOs or other aid organizations.

“The government of course had laws in Kenya [that said we're] not supposed to be married before 18, but those are just laws in the box that are not implemented,” said Ntaiya.

In addition to educating girls and women on various topics, Kakenya’s Dream also gives boys and men the tools to help them be allies for women battling cultural norms.

“They now speak out against the practices [of the past] and we have a better future with the younger generations now sensitized about the harm of FGM,” said Ntaiya. “Young men learning about this are going to marry a woman that is not cut, and that is where we start seeing the generational change that will break the norms that have been there thus far.”

Topics

Sojourner Truth Lecture

African and African American Studies

Guest Speaker

Access to Health Services

adolescent health

Women's Health

Women's History Month

Campus News

Healing the Healers Through a Pandemic

John Brandon Cantrell — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:14:07 +0000

Healing the Healers Through a Pandemic John Brandon C… Tue, 04/06/2021 - 10:14

Mason alumna provides mental health support to health care workers and achieves the highest score on the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam in fall 2020.

Parriski (right), standing beside Professor McDonald, leads a team of counselors to provide wellbeing strategies and support to health care departments in Central New Jersey.

To combat the growing mental health challenges affecting health care workers, Mason CHHS alumna Irene Parriski leads a team of crisis counselors dedicated to providing wellbeing strategies and self-care resources for local health departments.

After graduating in May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Community Health, Parriski applied her skills and experience to help others. “I currently serve as Team Lead and Crisis Counselor for New Jersey Hope and Healing,” Parriski said. “This program is designed to offer emotional support for those impacted by a disaster and to provide referrals to specific programs or a crisis counselor. Specifically, my team supports health care workers in the Central Jersey region.”

To further educate others on managing health concerns, Parriski became a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) in Fall 2020. After taking the exam, she soon found out that she earned the highest CHES score out of the nation.

“I have been passionate about public health since I started at Mason but entering into my career amidst the pandemic added unforeseen challenges,” Parriski said. “Learning I achieved the high score on the CHES exam was very validating for me, and I felt reassured that my passion and work in the field was worthwhile.”

When asked how she prepared for the exam, Parriski spoke of the support she gained from Mason faculty and the experience acquired from her program’s coursework. “I especially want to thank Professor McDonald who I had for GCH 350 (Health Education and Promotion) and GCH 411 (Program Planning and Evaluation),” Parriski said. “Not only were these classes the most relevant to the CHES exam, but Professor McDonald has [also] been a great mentor as I studied for the exam and entered into the public health field.”

“Irene’s stellar performance on the CHES exam is a testament to her hard work," Mason Professor Kayla McDonald said. “I applaud Irene’s ongoing dedication to educating health care workers on the importance of well-being and mental health.”

Parriski’s time at Mason allowed her to gain the needed experience to be a successful health educator and establish a mental health program at New Jersey Hope and Healing. “The wide-ranging classes I took within the community health program primed me to navigate all of the stages of programming,” Parriski said. “I am grateful to the faculty at Mason for preparing me to be successful in my current role.”

In addition, Parriski praised Mason for providing a dynamic atmosphere to learn in, which helped her gain the needed skills to provide care to others. “While at Mason, I encountered such diversity in thoughts, ideas, and experiences,” Parriski said. “This has made me more understanding and empathetic of others’ circumstances so that now I can better meet them where they are in life.”

Parriski’s team supports health care workers by promoting activities and resources that aid in wellbeing, such as hosting mindfulness breaks, running workshops on effective coping skills, and holding support spaces to help health departments process their experiences working through a pandemic.

Speaking on what it is like to support health care workers experiencing mental health concerns, Parriski said that it has been one of the most rewarding experiences in her life thus far. “It is a great feeling to see my team growing as counselors, helping others, and working with passion,” Parriski said.

Dedicated to service, Irene recently completed training to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer as well as a Disaster Response Crisis Counselor (DRCC) volunteer.