The Advocate » Health http://www.gcadvocate.com The Student Newspaper of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:21:58 +0000 en hourly 1 Breast Health: Building Awareness http://www.gcadvocate.com/2010/02/breast-health-building-awareness/ http://www.gcadvocate.com/2010/02/breast-health-building-awareness/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:05:27 +0000 Linda Neiberg http://www.gcadvocate.com/?p=2111 This morning, as I slipped into my underwire, c–cup-with-a-hint-of-padding Donna Karan bra, I realized, again, that I have yet to find the perfect-fitting brassiere. No, I am not seeking a nature-defying, power-boobs effect (I need to be able to see the book in my lap, for starters) nor am I negating DKNY’s efforts to help us in the support department. Rather, in years of quizzing my doctors and reading reams of material on the subject of breasts, I have realized how important a really good bra is to breast health (not to mention comfort). But more about that later. First, a disclaimer: I am not a physician, I don’t even have Red Cross training and, despite having read many physician-authored texts, from Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) to Christian Northrup’s Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (3rd ed., 2006), I couldn’t begin to draw a basic diagram of the breast’s ducts, muscles, and lobes. Thus, I am not dispensing medical advice, but sharing information about breast health that I have gleaned over many years of obsessive research and discussion.

According to the American Cancer Society, in 2009 approximately 192,000 “cases of invasive (i.e., carcinogenic cells have invaded surrounding tissue) breast cancer will be diagnosed among women” and an additional 62,000 “cases of in situ (carcinogenic cells have not spread to surrounding areas) cancer” will also be discovered. We do not know yet what the actual numbers turned out to be. What is known, of course, is that the earlier cancer is detected and treated, the greater the chances for survival. Which brings me to the topic of detection and some of the methods currently available. For over two decades, women have been told that mammograms are the surest way to detect cancer in its early stages—“early” meaning before one is able to feel a lump via a manual exam (and how many of us do those important monthly self-exams?). Mammographies, in fact, have picked up many Stage 1 cancers, as well as those that have progressed much further. Orthodox medical guidelines state that a woman should get a baseline screening at age forty and then have follow-up mammographies each year. While mammograms continue to be touted by many physicians as the best method for the early detection of breast cancer, the safety and effectiveness of this screening tool are being debated more and more within the medical community. For example, there have been many instances of both false positives and false negatives, which, in turn, have led to unnecessary biopsies—or, in the latter case, led to fatal consequences. Also, if a woman has dense breast tissue, a mammogram might not be able to detect a tumor until it is large.

Mammographies, moreover, are x-rays and x-rays contain radiation, a known carcinogen. But isn’t the risk of supposedly minimal exposure to radiation a small price to pay if disease can be uncovered, you may ask? Each person has to answer that question for herself (preferably in consultation with her doctor, after she has done some of her own research), though I will note some recent findings. In 2002, for instance, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published the results of a Swedish study, which revealed that routine screening (vs. diagnostic) mammograms in women under fifty are overused and overrated. Further studies in Europe and the United States support this claim; indeed, in October 2009, Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, stated in The New York Times “that American medicine has overpromised when it comes to screening. The advantages to screening have been exaggerated”
(http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911u/mammograms). In Breast Cancer? Breast Health! (for which Dr. Northrup wrote the foreword—think what you may of Northrup’s New Age style, she is still a physician), Susan S. Weed writes, “The American Cancer Society claims that the radiation danger from a screening mammogram is no more than that caused by natural radiation in the environment. Not so. The amount of radiation from even one breast x-ray is 11.9 times the yearly dose absorbed by the entire body, according to Diana Hunt, former saleswoman for an x-ray manufacturing company, UCLA Medical Center graduate, and senior staff x-ray technologist for 20 years.”

Am I denouncing mammograms? Certainly not. The doctor’s daughter in me respects science and is excited about advances in medical technology. However, there appears to be enough peer-reviewed material to suggest that routine mammograms—especially for women in low-risk categories—are not always the safest or most effective screening tool.

Other screening tools include sonograms which gather images using sound waves rather than radiation, and digital mammography, which, like its conventional counterpart, still emits radiation but purportedly is more effective in screening dense breast tissue for abnormalities. There is also a test known as thermography. This FDA-approved test takes a digital infrared image of the breasts and produces a colored “map” of their thermal patterns. Abnormal heat areas (i.e., potentially cancerous or precancerous “hot spots”) can then be further tested via mammograms, sonograms and/or biopsies. While advocates of thermography seldom state that it should supplant more conventional technologies, they do claim that regular thermographies can accurately chart changes in heat patterns and thus help a patient detect problematic areas before a malignant tumor has begun to grow. It should be noted that this technology does not fall under the rubric of naturopathic medicine, but is rooted in science. Moreover, theses images, while taken by thermographers, are interpreted by physicians.

I have been discussing ways of finding disease, but would like to conclude on the more positive subject of trying to promote breast health. We have all heard that cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, and cauliflower should be part of our regular diets and that hormone-fed animals that end up on our plates can raise our estrogen levels. One also should reduce dietary fat intake and reduce or eliminate dairy products (which some studies link to elevated levels of estrogen).

Again, please do some research yourselves, but my own physician advises women to avoid dairy. Exercising regularly also helps the body to reduce fat and expel toxins, not to mention reduce stress, which many scientists argue is a contributing factor to various breast diseases.

And, finally, back to brassieres. A tight-fitting bra that leaves marks not only can make it difficult to absorb the ideas of (the other) Marx, it also impedes the flow of lymphatic fluid, hence the optimum expulsion of the body’s toxins. Underwire—that vestige of corsetry that nonetheless keep things buoyant—is an impediment to lymphatic drainage. Similarly, anti-perspirant—by succeeding in what its name implies—prevents the elimination of toxins. Deodorant does not pose the same problem.

My final bit of advice? Talk to your doctor—talk to several doctors. Be a pest if you have to. Read The Lancet. Google your heart out. Visit Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret and try on every bra. And by all means, keep this conversation going. 

]]> http://www.gcadvocate.com/2010/02/breast-health-building-awareness/feed/ 0 Rapid HIV Testing Returns to GC December 3rd http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/11/rapid-hiv-testing-returns-to-gc-december-3rd/ http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/11/rapid-hiv-testing-returns-to-gc-december-3rd/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:34:17 +0000 Collette Sosnowy http://www.gcadvocate.com/?p=709 The Graduate Center is an HIV-saavy community, which is evidenced by the significant turnout to the recent confidential Rapid-HIV testing event sponsored by the Wellness Center-Student Health Services on November 11. In fact, there proved to be such a need for the service, the Outreach Team from Ryan-NENA Community Health Center will be returning on Thursday, December 3, from 10:00–12:00 and 2:00–4:00 on the concourse level! In addition, the Wellness Center-Student Health Services will be tabling information on HIV/AIDS and World AIDS Day in the lobby.

The fact that there is so much activity and education around HIV speaks to the need for continued efforts to stem transmission of the disease. According to the CDC, many persons with HIV do not get tested until late in their infection. In the United States, approximately 40 percent to 50 percent of patients with HIV infection are diagnosed with AIDS within one year of testing.

Another challenge to prevention efforts is that many persons who are tested do not return to learn their test results. Using the traditional test, it may take several weeks to get results back, warranting a second appointment. The CDC estimated that in 2000, 31 percent of patients who tested positive at public-sector testing sites did not return to receive their results

Rapid-HIV testing both reduces wait time to one visit and expands the testing sites to non-clinical settings. A rapid test uses a quick finger stick test that produces results in about twenty minutes. Allowing time for confidential paperwork and education, the appointment takes less than an hour. The Ryan-NENA staff provides comprehensive, confidential counseling and will connect you quickly to medical services if needed.

One test counts the number of T-cells in the immune system. T-cells are white blood cells that help the body fight infections. HIV destroys these cells. A person with HIV usually has a high number of T-cells early on. Over time, that number begins to drop. Another test checks how much HIV is in the blood. This is called “viral load testing.” The number of T-cells and the HIV viral load determine what kind of treatment a person should have, and show whether or not the treatment is working once it is started.

There are other testing options. State and local health departments, HIV/AIDS organizations or private doctors can give the test. The nurse practitioner at the Wellness Center-Student Health Services can give the test. It has to be sent out for results and requires a follow-up visit, but may be a more convenient option for Graduate Center students. There is a lab fee of about $12 that will be billed to the student by the lab.

No matter the method, all HIV tests are confidential. Your result is told only to you, but it is also put in your medical file, which your health care provider has access to. Some areas offer anonymous testing. This means you don’t give your name and the result will only be reported to you. Home testing kits are available from pharmacies. You mail a blood sample along with a code name or number and receive results over the phone.

Knowing your HIV-status is critical to getting early treatment if your status is positive. While there is no cure for HIV, treatments can be started when the person is healthy. The most common treatments limit the ability of the virus to reproduce. They help protect the immune system and improve chances of staying healthy. Other treatments may slow the spread of HIV, make the immune system stronger and treat opportunistic infections. Certain medicines can be taken by HIV-positive pregnant women to significantly reduce the risk of passing it on to their baby. Since it takes time for HIV to show up in the blood system after it has been contracted, it’s best to get tested regularly.

Important Information

The Ryan-NENA Outreach team will return to the Graduate Center for confidential Rapid-HIV testing on Thursday, December 3 from 10:00–12:00 and 2:00–4:00 in the concourse level (C204-C205).

The last patients from the 10–12 slot will be seen at 12 and the last patients from the 2:00–4:00 slot will be seen at 4:00. Please allow time for a short wait, paperwork, testing and questions and answers, about forty minutes to an hour. If you have any questions, call the Wellness Center at 212–817-7020.

If you are not able to make the onsite testing at the Graduate Center on December 3, the Ryan-NENA Community Health Center offers full HIV services, including rapid testing at their site, located in the Lower East Side.

For information, or appointment call:

Ryan/Chelsea Clinton: (212) 265‑4500

Ryan-NENA: Assistant Coordinator of Prevention, Education Outreach (212) 477‑8500

Ryan Center: Coord. of Counseling & Testing (212) 749‑1820

]]> http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/11/rapid-hiv-testing-returns-to-gc-december-3rd/feed/ 0 How to Avoid the Swine Flu This Season http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/how-to-avoid-the-swine-flu-this-season10/ http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/how-to-avoid-the-swine-flu-this-season10/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:00:33 +0000 Adraenne Bowe http://www.gcadvocate.com/?p=432 This flu season (2009–2010), there are more uncertainties than usual because of the emergence of a new 2009 H1N1 influenza virus (previously called “novel H1N1” or “swine flu”) that has caused the first influenza pandemic (global outbreak of disease) in more than forty years.

Severity is uncertain. Many people do not have immune protection against this new and very different 2009 H1N1 virus, which has spread worldwide quickly and has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) scientists who believe the 2009 H1N1 virus—along with regular seasonal viruses—will cause illness, hospital stays, and deaths this flu season in the United States. There is concern that the 2009 H1N1 virus may cause the season to be worse than a regular flu season—with a lot more people getting sick, being hospitalized and dying than during a regular flu season.

Thus far, the Centers for Disease Control reports influenza activity in the United States during the last week of September/first week of October at above normal levels, primarily due to the H1N1 virus. Activity in New York State specifically, however, has been reported at “normal” level. To date, the Student Health Service at the Graduate Center can report that no cases of influenza like illness have been diagnosed, but we will need the participation of all members of our academic community to prevent the spread of this illness.

Below are a few suggestions for avoiding getting sick this season.

1. Get vaccinated. Vaccination is the best protection against contracting the flu. Encourage your family, your roommates, students, classmates, coworkers to be vaccinated. If uncertain, talk with your health care providers about whether you should be vaccinated for seasonal and H1N1 flu. If you are at higher risk for flu complications from 2009 H1N1 flu, you would be considered in a “priority group” for receiving the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available. People at higher risk for 2009 H1N1 flu complications include pregnant women and people with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, heart disease, or diabetes). For more information about priority groups for vaccination: www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/acip.htm.

Please note that this year the CUNY administration has thus far been unable to provide seasonal, as well as H1N1 vaccine and they are therefore currently not available on CUNY campuses, including the Graduate Center. Since these vaccines are not being currently offered at the Student Health Service, please visit the following websites to find a location to obtain flu immunization, visit: https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/FluPublic (free and low cost centers, NYC Department of Health); http://flu.gov (CDC flu vaccine locator). There will also be a listing available at the Health Service office (room 6422), as well as on our website.

2. Practice good hand hygiene by washing your hands with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hand cleaners also are effective.

It is suggested that you carry pocket sized bottles of sanitizer, and make use of wall sanitizer dispensers that are being installed on the Graduate Center campus. (Currently there are dispensers located in the main lobby, outside the Library, as well as outside the 8th floor cafeteria.)

3. Practice respiratory etiquette by covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. After using one tissue, discard it; do not keep the contaminated tissue in your pockets. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow or shoulder, not into your hands. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth; germs are spread this way.

4. Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. A fever is a temperature taken with a thermometer that is equal to or greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius. Look for possible signs of fever: if the person feels very warm, has a flushed appearance, or is sweating or shivering.

5. Stay home if you have flu or flu-like illness for at least twenty-four hours after you no longer have a fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius) or signs of a fever (have chills, feel very warm, have a flushed appearance, or are sweating). This should be determined without the use of fever-reducing medications (any medicine that contains ibuprofen or acetaminophen). Don’t go to class or work.

6. Maintain a clean work environment. Keep shared surfaces such as telephone receivers and computer keyboards particularly clean with antiseptics or wipes containing alcohol or chlorox.

What Services Does the Student Health Service Offer?

Health information and updates regarding influenza are available in our office and on our website (gc.cuny.edu/wellness) which has links to other websites with more extensive information.

Although it is advised that you remain at home if ill with influenza-like symptoms, the Health Services Center can examine, diagnose, treat and offer prescriptions for those who have symptoms, should you not respond to home remedies (applicable to eligible, registered GC students only).

Diagnostic laboratory testing is not available onsite, nor is it recommended routinely for influenza by the Department of Health or the Centers for Disease Control. If indicated, however, in rare circumstances, the Health Service can refer you to an appropriate site that does testing.

The Health Services Center can also provide referrals for immunization, as described above, as well as advice and information regarding both seasonal and H1N1 immunization.

For further information please contact: the Student Health Service at wellness@gc.cuny.edu or telephone 212–817-7020; or access the following web sites, http://flu.gov; http://nyc.gov/flu.

]]> http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/how-to-avoid-the-swine-flu-this-season10/feed/ 0 Young but Not Invincible http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/young-but-not-invincible/ http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/young-but-not-invincible/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:03:51 +0000 Kimberly Libman http://www.gcadvocate.com/?p=165
The current debate on health care reform and its rapidly changing policy landscape leaves open a number of problems and ignores or dismisses several populations. Understanding the current policy recommendations and the concerns surrounding them were the subject of a recent forum on the politics of health care reform in the United States, co-sponsored by the DSC Health Issues Committee on October 8. A series of speakers offered academic and practice-based perspectives on the Barack Obama administration and Congress’s most recent efforts to pass a reform bill that is rapidly dwindling to little more than new regulations on private health insurers and a health insurance mandate, which aim to close the widening gap of uninsured Americans and wrangle escalating health care costs.
Most uninsured people make too much money to qualify for Medicaid (less than $706/month for an individual; less than $1,217/month for a family of four) but cannot afford coverage on their own. Young adults occupy a unique niche in this health insurance demographic. Within the debate on national health care reform people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four are continually labeled as “young invincibles.” The bill sponsored by Senator Bacchus (D-Montana) includes mandated health insurance for everyone with a discounted ‘young invincible’ policy for people under the age of twenty-five. A far cry from the left’s calls for a single payer plan, or centrist calls for a public option. Baccus’s bill offers little more than some basic tinkering with the for-profit insurance market. It proposes giving financial support for creating health care cooperatives and creating exchanges (regulated marketplaces) where small businesses and the uninsured can buy into government vetted health plans. There are regulations on what plans must cover, but these are rolled out in tiers (literally going from “bronze” to “platinum”) and maintain structured inequity in terms of access to care. These reforms will do little for most of the young adults here at the Graduate Center. We are far from invincible and most of us are not under any illusions about this. The label is problematic because it is inaccurate and it positions us unproductively and unfavorably in the health care reform debate.
The label “young invincibles” paints us unfavorably by describing us as willing risk takers when it comes to health coverage. It thinly cloaks our elected representatives’ assumptions that we don’t want health insurance; that we are actively choosing to remain uninsured; that we would rather spend our incomes on other things; and that we do this because we are somehow unaware of our own vulnerability. From this perspective, young adults are not only threats to our own health but we become a big piece of the escalating insurance cost problem. By not buying into the private health insurance system we fail to help disperse the costs that insurance companies pay for care, presumably because we don’t require the same amount of care that older adults do. If more young healthy people like us paid up for insurance, the argument goes, it would be cheaper for everyone. This logic is a paternalistic way of saying we are too dumb and reckless to do what’s good for us and too selfish to do what’s good for our country.
This is where the term young invincibles and the assumptions behind it become politically and practically unproductive. By positioning us as needing to be forced into buying insurance, it provides a rationale for legal mandates on having health care coverage, not for the altruistic goals of protecting us from illness, injury, and the threat of financial ruin before age forty—but rather to disperse risk for private insurers. Politically we are not at the table speaking for the care we need. We are used as bargaining chips nudged back and forth between politicians and the insurance industry. Forcing us to pay for health insurance is big leverage for getting insurers to lower premiums and accept people with pre-existing conditions. Practically speaking, our health care coverage is never discussed as serving us and the particular health care needs we may have.
We understand that we are vulnerable, we want care, but most of us can’t afford it! We get sick with everything from common colds to early cancers. We get hit by busses while riding our bikes and acquire sports injuries as we try to take personal responsibility for staying fit. We get depressed and struggle with addictions. And, we need and want preventive care. Women in this age bracket are in the prime years of fertility. We need access to health care so that we can have healthy pregnancies and families when we want them and have reasonable options for deciding what to do when we don’t.
Most of the young invincibles I know are troubled about not having health insurance but the options they are presented with are out of reach. At one point, when I was uninsured graduate student I found the nearly $200 a month New York State Family Health Plus Plan and the $250 a month Student GHI coverage unaffordable with my salary as a research assistant and teaching fellow. To qualify for free health insurance through the New York State I needed a pre-tax income of no more $800 a month. This is less than what most of my colleagues pay monthly in rent.
The debate about national health care reform is connected to a long-standing and ongoing struggle for health care at CUNY. This struggle is about more than the right to see a doctor. At CUNY, graduate students, and recently graduated part-time faculty, teach more than half of the courses offered—and are uninsured or underinsured. Our under– protected health is a major vulnerability to this university. As such it undermines the university’s mission of providing high quality education to poor and working class New Yorkers. Our underinsurance, the precarious position in which it leaves CUNY, and the death and resurrection cycle of the ‘public option’ are reflective of the troubling stance our society takes denigrating and underfunding all things “public’”
Unlike most universities, CUNY does not have a health insurance mandate. Supposedly, this is meant to protect students from the cost of paying into a university-wide health care system. In practice it means that CUNY is absolved of any responsibility for our health care and that our student fees cover the majority of the wellness services offered on this campus. As of last year, matriculated Graduate Center students who meet employment requirements are eligible for insurance as student employees of New York State. The coverage that some of us receive through the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP) was hard won. The Profession Staff Congress of CUNY, the Doctoral Students Council, the Adjunct Project, and the Graduate Center administrators, students and faculty who fought for this should be applauded. However, as it functions now, the NYSHIP agreement still leaves even those of us with coverage grossly underinsured and leaves adjuncts who are not matriculated students simply uninsured.
As chair of the DSC’s Health Issues Committee, I’ve had the unhappy privilege of trying to help students find a course of action when they encounter NYSHIP’s limitations. For example, if you are under forty, the plan only allows for $60 every two years for routine care. It provides no coverage for preventive care or diagnostics—like tests for sexually transmitted infections. The dental plan included only pays for mercury fillings, not composite fillings, which are less toxic. Unsurprisingly many students are hard pressed to find health care providers that accept our plan. Worse yet, many only become aware of its limitations after they exceed their annual, or biannual, allowances and begin receiving claim denials and bills in the mail.
Reflective of our position in the health care debate in Washington, at home within CUNY we are also being used to disburse risk. For a single person, our insurance costs New York State and CUNY about $100 a month. It’s cheap in part because it doesn’t cover much. It is also cheap because it allows the private insurers involved to enroll more young invincibles under the expectation that we won’t need, or want, much health care. It also allows both private insurers and New York State to dismiss our needs now that we have insurance that is considered better than
nothing.
The single payer, or Medicare for all, options have long since disappeared from our national debate. But, this option is the one most likely to address the health care needs of young adults in public institutions like CUNY. It could drive down cost by eliminating administrative expenses and leveraging economies of scale. It would ensure that working and non-working students and their part-time faculty instructors were covered when they got sick or had accidents. Delivered well, it could even begin to break down some of the stigma we place on public goods.
If you missed the October 8 forum and would like to know more about health care reform and how you can get involved in the national debate, the Student Health Committee of the Public Health Association of New York City is planning a health care reform teach in on this on October 22. The event will be held at Columbia University. For more information go to www.phanyc.org. 

]]> http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/10/young-but-not-invincible/feed/ 0 Student Health Services: Still there, Still Needed, Still Yours…So Speak Up! http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/09/student-health-services-still-there-still-needed-still-yours-so-speak-up/ http://www.gcadvocate.com/2009/09/student-health-services-still-there-still-needed-still-yours-so-speak-up/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:50 +0000 Collette Sosnowy http://www.gcadvocate.com/?p=49 In the wake of the hard-fought-and-won NYSHIP health insurance for student employees of CUNY and the (unrelated) creation of a new student position, the Health Education Coordinator, I’d like to review the role that The Wellness Center—Student Health Services (SHS) can and still plays in health care services for Graduate Center students. Obtaining basic health insurance for students working at CUNY was a major victory, however, as Renee McGarry and Jesse Goldstein pointed out in the previous issue of the Advocate, there are still many students not covered by NYSHIP or any insurance at all. This moved us closer to the larger goal of guaranteeing coverage for ALL Graduate Center students, but there are still gaps to be filled. This is where Student Health Services can step in.
At the risk of repeating information you may already know, here’s what SHS offers: the Nurse Practitioner, Adraenne Bowe, provides basic medical care, including routine physical exams; episodic treatment for acute health problems; gynecological pap smears; testicular exams; tests for pregnancy, HIV, STDs, and tuberculosis; immunizations (HPV, MMR, Hepatitis B, seasonal flu vaccine, and occasionally others), and she is able to write prescriptions. All of these services are free to students, thanks to the funding of the Doctoral Students Council. Lab tests are offered at a reduced cost and unand under-insured students are referred to free and low-cost clinics and providers whenever possible.
These services remain a vital resource for students with no or limited coverage. They also fill a gap in the NYSHIP policy, which doesn’t cover routine physical exams, except to reimburse $60 once every two years. A routine exam, the most basic of health care procedures, can prevent larger health issues from devel-
oping later on by screening for them regularly. Why NYSHIP will not to pay for basic care, yet be willing to pay for more expensive procedures, which might be prevented by early detection, is beyond me, but I don’t write the policies. Luckily, students can get routine physical exams for FREE at SHS. Students who are covered under other policies are still eligible for SHS services, and can avoid co-payments by getting basic services there.
Free vaccinations for students also close a cost gap in many insurance plans. Notably, the retail price for the HPV vaccine (brand name: Gardasil) is $125 per shot or $375 for the three-shot series, which is the required dose. Unfortunately, it is only FDA-approved for women under 26, which rules out a large part of our student population, but we have it and it’s a boon for those who can get it. Other vaccines generally cost around $50 each, making these a bargain as well. Unfortunately, the kind of vaccines SHS is able to offer is somewhat limited to the whims of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. HPV is offered because it’s a relatively new vaccine and Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it, is heavily promoting it and apparently gives it to the city. Despite her efforts Ms. Bowe, hasn’t been able to get other basic vaccines for the clinic, such as tuberculosis and the combined Hepatitis A & B vaccine. “They [The DHMH] simply won’t give it to me,” she explained.
While my point is to encourage students to use the health services that YOU are paying for through your students fees, which are administered to the Wellness Center by the DSC, I encourage students to request even more services. The more you use the Student Health Services, and the more you make your voice heard about what health services you need and want, the more the Graduate Center administration will have to address students’ basic health rights.
Were all students covered by even basic insurance, the services provided by SHS would be less vital. In the meantime, however, they are crucial! Make the most of them and demand more!
Dr. Robert Hatcher, a clinical psychologist, has been hired as director of the Wellness Center. Starting later this fall, he will oversee both SHS and the Psychological Counseling and Adult Development Center, which up to this point, have been under the same umbrella (The Wellness Center) but which operated independently. With an incoming director, now is an excellent time to be loud and clear about what you need and want from the Wellness Center, rather than leaving it to the administration to guess or decide for you.
SHS and the Office of Student Affairs will be gathering data from the last few years about student use of the SHS and insurance coverage rates of GC students. Data collection in the past has been intermittent and mostly limited to head counts. For example, in 2003, from January to December, there were a total of 370 visits by male students and 750 visits by female students. The Fall semester months have generally been the peak months. All good to know, but it doesn’t give us much information. What services are students asking for? Why are there half as many men as women seeking care here? Is SHS being under-utilized? In answering these and other questions, we can assess the efficacy of what we do have and more effectively work towards getting more health services and greater insurance coverage.
The DSC would like to hear from you! Have you used Student Health Services? How satisfied were you with the care you received? What else is needed?
Visit the Health Issues Committee blog at http:// opencuny.org/health/ or Send your comments to dsc@cunydsc.org.

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