News

Five months after the launch of UW Police Captain Christopher Tarmann’s app created to help Law Enforcement officers who are dealing with depression and other mental health issues, it is thriving, with more features available.

“It’s really good because there are just over 1,500 people who have downloaded the app in Law Enforcement and I think that is probably where we estimated we would be at this time,” said Captain Tarmann. Mental health has been an important subject of discussion on the campus of UW Oshkosh after a current student Veteran and a former student Veteran died by suicide in recent months. “In the Wile Guardian app, we have resources for Veterans as well, who are in need of help,” said Tarmann.

Suicides are up among Veterans. According to the Veterans Affairs National Suicide Data Report, from 2008-2016, more than 6,000 Veterans committed suicide. In 2016, the suicide rate was 1.5 times higher among Veterans, than non-Veteran adults. The United We Stand is focused on changing those statistics for the better. “I definitely feel that it’s the type of thing that can break the stigma associated with seeking help with mental health issues,” said Steve Freund, student Veteran who works at VRC.

Wile Guardian is available now in the Apple App Store and Google Play for free. If you are not a law enforcement officer, you can also download the app for free resources, which include immediate access to services.

Read more at WeAreGreenBay.com.

Black transgender adults were 18% less likely to share the names of their partners so they could be connected to HIV prevention services after a new HIV diagnosis than their white trans peers, despite having six times the HIV prevalence. That’s one of the findings of a comprehensive Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of HIV testing, linkage to care and partner services for transgender adults. The findings were published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Partner services include offering to connect partners to their own HIV tests and offering them pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as well as sharing the names of sexual and drug use partners. The study authors’ findings were consistent with past research that suggested that trans women, especially Black trans women, are disproportionately affected by HIV.

Transgender women were more likely to be engaged in partner services than non-binary individuals, but racial and geographic gaps persisted. Black transgender adults were less likely to receive partner services (58% versus 74%) than their white counterparts. This is striking, considering that previous research showed that Black cisgender adults overall are more likely to engage receive and/or accept partner services than white cisgender people.

Read more at POZ.com.

The class of 2020 at Hawaii’s public high schools managed to graduate at a record rate after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, but far fewer of those graduates enrolled in college, new data shows. Just 50% of last year’s graduating class went straight to college, down from 55% the previous year. The drop was even more pronounced for students of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander ancestry.

“The negative effects of the pandemic on educational progress, in general, are not equal across socioeconomic and demographic groups, ” said Stephen Schatz, executive director of Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education. “In particular, economically disadvantaged, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders saw some pretty precipitous declines in the college-going rate for the class of 2020.”

“We continuously work to smooth the pathways for Hawaii’s public school graduates to advance themselves by enrolling in a University of Hawaii campus, ” UH President David Lassner said. “Next Steps to Your Future is an amazing program for the classes of 2021 and 2020 that provides free support, encouragement, and a head-start on college to help our recent high school graduates continue on pathways that lead to better futures.”

The Next Steps program helped guide graduating seniors to post-secondary education and training, connecting them with a dedicated adviser and offering a chance to take free career exploration classes at UH community colleges in the summer. Last year, 2, 154 graduates received support services through the program, and they could take 120 different courses that carried college credits.

Read more at YahooNews.com.

When COVID-19 officially became a pandemic in March 2020, the world and life as we knew it changed. Grocery store shelves emptied. Shelter-at-home orders were given. Fears about a previously unknown virus ran amok. For refugees living in San Diego, these challenges were magnified in a city they had just begun to call home.

In response, the UC San Diego Refugee Health Unit shifted its focus to supporting members of communities that are facing systemic inequities that have caused many to suffer during the public health crisis. Work began with a survey of the San Diego refugee community, the first in more than 15 years.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing systemic racism issues and highlighted the health inequities within our communities,” said Amina Sheik Mohamed, founding director of the Refugee Health Unit. “Through our survey, we found that employment was hugely impacted, but so was housing availability, digital literacy and the ability to navigate system resources, such as at-home virtual learning for children and mental health support services.”

Since the survey results were compiled last fall, the Refugee Health Unit has served as a conduit between the refugee community and the County of San Diego, holding weekly meetings with community health care workers and county officials. The Refugee Health Unit also collaborates with the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition to develop and coordinate grant writing and funding distribution. Since March 2020, it has received approximately $3 million in grants, which are shared among community and ethnic-based organizations in need. Peer-based, bilingual community health care has also grown, with 40 new hires since last year. These workers provide assistance in navigating health care and crisis resolution.

Read more at UCSanDiegoNewsCenter.edu.

Major General Leah Lauderback could choose to dwell on the misery she carried through the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, when she needed to hide her sexuality to stay in the military. Instead, the Space Force official wants to create a better future for those like her.

“I hid. I evaded questions. I was untruthful at times…My private life and my relationships were stressed, and there was a lack of support for my family,” the Space Force’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance director told reporters Wednesday. “I now choose to focus on the light.”

Lauderback is a leader of the Air Force’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning Initiative Team (LIT), one of two task forces created in March to update military policies that still pose barriers to minority service members. The other, an Indigenous Nations Equality Team (INET), will handle the concerns of airmen and guardians of American Indian and Native Alaskan heritage. Colonel Terrence Adams, deputy director for strategy, policy, and assessment at Air Force headquarters and an airman of Cherokee and Creek Indian heritage, leads the INET.

The groups plan to find issues that need resolving, recommend changes to Department of the Air Force leadership, educate others on the unique traditions and challenges in their communities, and offer support to members of those communities who are struggling.

Ten years after the Pentagon policy of banning openly gay people from serving in the military was repealed in 2011, Lauderback said, “We decided that a barrier analysis working group was necessary to determine if our LGBTQ+ community was able to serve openly without fear. More importantly, are they able to serve in an inclusive and welcoming environment?”

Read more at AirForceTimes.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. The Wall Las Memorias, has been selected as the Partner of the Month for June in celebration of Pride Month.

The Wall Las Memorias (TWLM) is a community health and wellness organization dedicated to serving Latino, LGBTQ and other under-served populations through advocacy, education and building the next generation of leadership.

The Wall Las Memorias serves low-income and hard-to-reach communities throughout Los Angeles educating community members on the importance of HIV and AIDS, substance abuse prevention, mental health stigma reduction for LGBTQI2-S transitional-aged youth (TAY), transgender women health and wellness, non-binary health and wellness, and community building in the marginalized communities. For more than 26 years, the organization has helped eradicate stigma and bigotry, and created a safer place in our communities for dialogue, community building, education and prevention services for this devastating epidemic using its AIDS Monument as a catalyst for social change.

The some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Men’s Health –  The Wall Las Memorias has been serving gay, bisexual and questioning men since its inception in 1993. The innovative programs and services integrate culture, spirituality, and social justice to address various health issues affecting our men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) population.
• Trans Health– Since 2014, The Wall Las Memorias has offered services to transgender persons which have included healthcare referrals, counseling, and linkage to hormone therapy. The Trans Health Program aims to reduce the health disparities experienced by transgender women of color. To address their physical health and wellness, they provide free HIV testing, linkage to care, and preventive health resources such as PrEP and PEP.
• Non-Binary Health – The Wall Las Memorias established its Enby Entities in 2018 as the first support group of its kind in L.A. County that caters to non-binary, gender non-conforming, and questioning individuals. The peer-led support group meets every Thursday, and has welcomed more than 50 community members since its inception. Past topics for discussion have included gender identity, mental health, substance abuse, social justice, advocacy and community building. Aside from the great conversation and educational presentations, Enby Entities provides participants with referrals to outside resources such as counseling and access to PrEP and PEP.
• Mental Health – The Wall Las Memorias created its innovative mental health program called Beyond Safe Spaces to address these issues. Beyond Safe Spaces provides peer-to-peer support groups for LGBTQI2-S youth as well as a separate support group for families and caregivers of LGBTQI2-S loved ones.
• Substance Abuse Prevention – The Wall Las Memorias spearheaded the development and funding of a series of methamphetamine task forces by submitting more than 10,000 signed petitions demanding action from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Through its leadership in the Act Now Against Meth Coalition, the agency developed the Greater East Los Angeles Meth Task Force—an effort which generated national attention for its work in mobilizing the Latinx community to address the meth epidemic.

Learn more about The Wall Las Memorias, and their mission to provide access to specialized services designed to prevent disease and to promote societal wellness; guarantee that individual voices of the community are heard and that all are in agreement on the essential need for social change; promote the use of The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument as an acknowledged catalyst for change and action; and engage the LGBTQ and faith communities, making both entities full partners in promoting wellness and eliminating stigma among all people in the underrepresented and LGBTQ communities for Los Angeles.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.