芭芭拉·门德斯·坎波斯. 图片由密歇根大学社会工作学院提供.
芭芭拉·门德斯·坎波斯，一位博士候选人 电子游戏软件社会工作学院, says she is on a mission to help end racism and discrimination in the United States 医疗保健系统.
Her dissertation focuses on how Hispanic patients with dementia and their caregivers have experienced this pair of problems in clinics and hospitals, 强调获得治疗如何影响健康.
While previous studies have found that environmental factors such as smoking and air pollution can increase the risk of dementia, Mendez Campos’ study is the first to explore the potential link between healthcare discrimination and the condition.
“种族主义超出了直接的社会影响, 影响认知健康的,门德斯·坎波斯说, Ph.D.’25. “通过优先消除系统性障碍, 我们不仅确保获得医疗保健, but also strive for a future where individuals of all racial and ethnic backgrounds can lead healthier lives, 建设真正公平包容的社会.”
A 新的调查 在凯萨, 前身是凯撒家庭基金会, throws the extent of racism and discrimination in healthcare into stark relief. More than 50 percent of Hispanic adults say they “prepare for possible insults from providers or staff and/or feel they must be very careful about their appearance to be treated fairly during healthcare visits at least some of the time.” 关于 one-in-five Black adults who were pregnant or gave birth in the past 10 years say they were refused pain medication they thought they needed, 大约是成年白人怀孕人数的两倍. And over 40 percent of Asian adults say they have been discriminated against in daily life at least a few times in the past year, 与较差的健康和幸福有关的经历.
Mendez Campos’ unique approach to tackling healthcare discrimination is being supported by a 著名的奖学金 来自《社会工作大挑战, 这是一项倡导以科学为动力的社会进步的倡议.
本月早些时候，她收到了3000美元的帮助 消除种族歧视这是该计划面临的13大挑战之一. Only 13 doctoral scholars from social work schools across the country were selected for this year’s award, 每个挑战一个.
“I’m surrounded by amazing colleagues whose work I believe in so much,门德斯·坎波斯说, whose credentials include a license to practice clinical social work. “And so to be distinguished through this award confirms that I belong here, 太, 人们相信我所做的工作, 我的工作很重要.”
She plans to use her fellowship funding to interview people who care for dementia patients. Although the primary focus of her research is Hispanic patients and caregivers, 她希望和布莱克谈谈, 白色, and Asian caregivers as well to get a sense of how their experiences compare and contrast.
“我想让痴呆症护理人员的声音传出来,她说。. “What’s the good in creating initiatives if we don’t listen to what our community is telling us about barriers to care, 是什么工作, and how they’ve navigated a 医疗保健系统 with everything that they’ve had to face?”
门德斯·坎波斯也会分析来自 加州健康访谈调查这是美国最大的州健康调查.S. The survey includes data from 11 different Hispanic subgroups—information that Mendez Campos can use to pinpoint similarities and differences between their healthcare experiences.
“古巴移民可能很有钱, while a Mexican immigrant might come from the complete opposite background,她说。. “We need to be able to address these kinds of differences and be able to have practitioners not silo themselves into this one idea of thinking they’re culturally competent because they’ve seen one Hispanic person.”
“我想让痴呆症护理人员的声音传出来. What’s the good in creating initiatives if we don’t listen to what our community is telling us about barriers to care, 是什么工作, and how they’ve navigated a 医疗保健系统 with everything that they’ve had to face?”
她的电子游戏正规平台想法是一点一点地形成的, shaped by a series of personal and professional experiences dating back to her teenage years.
Mendez Campos grew up in Mexico and frequently volunteered to bring food to homeless children who lived at the top of a mountain in the northern part of the country. 有一天,, 当时她正在给孩子们送食物的路上, 她注意到一个老人坐在长凳上，看起来很伤心. 她停下来给他一袋糖果, and he told her that he wished that she would bring food to other adults in his village, 太.
Mendez Campos, then 14, 太k the man’s words to heart and began bringing food to adults. “从那时起,她说。, “我非常喜欢和老年人在一起, 帮助他们, 听他们的故事.”
她第一次涉足痴呆症护理是在六年后, when she was studying social work as an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida in 2015. 作为为期16个月实习的一部分, 她帮助创造了, 实现, 管理一个音乐和记忆项目为病人 阿尔茨海默氏症 & 痴呆症资源中心 在奥兰多.
“如果不是我的导师, 那些相信我的能力和我为人的人, 我就不会成为今天的从业者,她说。.
At BC, Mendez Campos confides in Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor 凯伦·布洛克她的博士委员会主席. 门德斯·坎波斯说，当她的信心动摇时，她会打电话给布洛克, 当她质疑自己是否适合在学术界取得成功时. 布洛克, who has worked with Black and Latinx communities for more than 20 years, 让她相信她有能力.
“Professor 布洛克 always tells me that she believes in me as a person,门德斯·坎波斯说. “不仅我的工作值得，我自己也值得。.”
她的长期职业目标是追随导师的脚步, 她说, becoming a tenure-track faculty member at a top-tier research university. She hopes that her dissertation will pique the interest of social work deans.
尽管她还在为这个项目收集数据, Mendez Campos predicts that policymakers and doctors will see her research findings as even more evidence to fix racial disparities in healthcare. She says that social workers could use her findings related to the healthcare experiences of different Hispanic groups to tailor interventions to meet the specific needs of their clients.
“Practitioners could move from treating Hispanic people as a homogenous population to seeing nuances in this group that we need to pay attention to,她说。. “Social workers are situated to say, ‘Let’s address what you’ve experienced in this medical system. 你的情况如何?? 你有什么背景?? 我们能做些什么??’”