Haley Beech, a social work graduate student, went to Haiti to give back through relief work and community building, and presented preliminary research she gathered during the third International Conference on Heath, Wellness and Society last week in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She presented a paper, “Access to Health Care in Rural Haiti: A Descriptive Study on Preventable and Manageable Disease States,” in poster form.
“I wanted to go so I could have the opportunity to meet with other health care professionals in different disciplines and to meet other people who were doing similar research,” Beech said. “I gained a lot of affirmation that what I’m doing is important, and it was encouraging to meet with others that valued my research and are doing similar things.”
Beech’s paper focused on her experience during her second trip to Haiti working at a medical clinic in July 2011. She was given permission to gather data used that wasn’t being used for other research and focused on female diseases.
“I quantified it, ran analysis and received basic descriptive stats in order to better understand what illnesses were present, and primarily focused on females,” Beech said. “There were six prominent categories that were ‘most prevalent.’ These were gastro-intestinal problems, vitamin deficiencies, vaginal infections, lung infections, cardiovascular problems and parasitic diseases.”
She hypothesized that all of the most prevalent problems were either preventable or manageable with proper medical care.
Beech was able to write her paper while enrolled in an independent study course under Jo Pryce, a professor in the school of social work. Pryce explained how Beech’s research made a difference.
“Haley’s work focuses on sensitivity of cultural difference and letting people you are working with tell you what it is they need. Sometimes efforts to assist people, especially after disasters, are misguided because people don’t listen,” Pryce said. “Haley’s work discovered that people need basic medical supplies for health concerns common to us but not to Haitians. They need over-the-counter medicines.”
Along with presenting her paper, Beech helped facilitate other sessions with question-and-answer segments, made introductions and served as a go-to person for anyone who needed assistance. She also helped with registration throughout the three 100-minute sessions, but said there were differences between her Haitian work and presenting that work in Brazil.
“Sao Paulo is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and the only difference from the U.S. was that people spoke Portuguese, Beech said. “In Haiti there was a lot of poverty, there was a struggle for shelter, water and health care was limited.”
Beech didn’t enter the Haitian community with the intention of doing research, but saw she had an opportunity to bring to light the health care problems that the people face.
Jayme Cloninger, who was an undergraduate with Beech at Samford University, said Beech has always been a leader in issues through personal investments in relationships and through advocacy.
“Haley lives out what she preaches, and her involvement to everything from work in Haiti to publicly declaring her information is her personal testament to her commitment,” Cloninger said. “She has a lot of tenacity and won’t stop until she finds a solution, and she’s become a voice for the marginalized.”
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