Hope for Haiti Now

Fourth year medical student Sarah Rae Strunk is packing for a mission trip to Haiti.

“What’s special about Haiti is that not only is it close to us geographically, but there are also so many Haitians in Atlanta so there are so many connections right here,” Strunk said. “It's wonderful to be a part of that.”

Strunk and her team are going to Haiti later this month on a new sort of medical mission — a women's health trip — through Emory Medishare.

Emory Medishare, which was founded over six years ago, typically holds week-long mobile clinics in the Central Plateau Region of Haiti and have been able to collect data about frequent complains and biggest needs in the area.

The data showed that women’s health complaints made up the majority of complaints they see in adults, and they are responding by making women’s health needs a priority. Some examples of the health-related issues women are facing includes maternal-fetal health, pre-natal visits, birth handled with skilled attendants and access to maternal health services.

Since these women live in small villages of relative isolation and extreme poverty, it is hard for them to get the care they need. Strunk said that most women in the region are responsible for taking care of the children and earning an income from selling goods on the street. 

That's why Emory Medishare works with Community-based Health Workers (CHWs) who are people in the community that can read, write and speak the local language. The CHW’s are responsible for interaction on behalf of the group such as providing contraceptives, counseling for child development and follow-ups for communicable diseases such as TB and HIV. Emory Medishare trains these workers to help with follow-ups and asks them what they want to learn. The number one need the CHWs requested was wanting to learn how to take blood pressure. 

Blood pressure is actually a critical tool in preventing diseases.

When blood pressure is very high, uncontrolled and untreated, people can have acute complications like stroke, kidney failure and blindness. When blood pressure is not controlled in pregnancy, there can be complications like eclampsia and pre-eclampsia that can lead to a spectrum of serious problems. The most feared of these is maternal seizures and maternal death. Since many births in this Haitian community happen outside of a hospital, there are high risks of complications.

By having the CHWs screen and track blood pressure in their patients, they have a chance at thwarting preventable diseases and also making referrals to hospitals when the patient’s blood pressure is dangerously high or she needs to have birth in a hospital. 

The great thing about this program is that it is culturally appropriate and sustainable.

Gabi Van Schoyck, a first year in Emory’s Masters of Public Health program, is one of the students on Strunk’s team.

Van Schoyck, an American, grew up in Haiti with her family. Her parents are missionaries for Haitian American Friendship Foundation in another small rural community in Haiti.

Van Schoyck hopes to be involved in work in Haiti for the rest of her life. She said the saying “when you visit Haiti it breaks your heart and when you leave it doesn’t give back all the pieces,” accurately describes how she feels.

“A lot of who I am now is because of Haiti, growing up there, and the people there. It’s just stayed with my heart. We lost family and friends with the earthquake and it has left such an impact and drive for me to want to work there,” she said.

Her role on the team is lending cultural insight and making sure that all parts of the research remain culturally sensitive to the context. Van Schoyck also speaks Creole fluently.

Van Schoyck and Strunk’s interdisciplinary team starts their work this month and will spend six weeks in the field this summer. They will also be conducting research, asking questions about how much these health care workers know about these chronic diseases and their complications and figure out what Medishare can teach them.

They also hope to learn the local attitudes and practices, which could help them create a comprehensive program for looking at blood pressure that could be a model for not only future Emory Medishare projects, but also others working in the field of public health. 

To learn more about Emory Medishare, visit the group’s website.