NSTD07: U.S. STDs Reach Record High; Lack of Sexual Education Seen at Fault

U.S. STDs Reach Record High; Lack of Sexual Education Seen at Fault

By Mary Hennigan
The Razorback Reporter

Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in the United States have continued to rise for the fifth consecutive year and reached the highest combined rate ever recorded, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 2.4 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported and young people, ages 15-24, acquired more than half of all new cases of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the CDC report concerning diseases spread through sex.

“It is really frightening,” said Zac Brown, director of communications at the Pat Walker Health Center. “To see that national number increase is really concerning to me because a lot of these kids aren’t even going to realize they have it.”

The increase of STDs reported since 2014 can be attributed to reduced access to prevention and care, according to the CDC. The agency also reported a decrease of condom use among young people and budget cuts to state and local STD programs.

Young people acquired more STDs partly from “the emphasis on partying and hook-ups,” Brown said.

Infections can be spread by any sexual contact with someone who is diagnosed with having an STD.

“Alcohol plays a big part in spontaneity,” said Kathleen Paulsen, a gynecologist at the Pat Walker Health Center.

“Casual sex,” she said, is a major factor.

Decades after the AIDS epidemic, Paulsen thinks people aren’t afraid of dying of AIDS anymore, she said.

“HIV is manageable, but not curable,” Paulsen said. “They aren’t riled by fear, so they aren’t being cautious.”

Arkansas ranked No. 11 nationally for cases of chlamydia, No. 8 for gonorrhea and No. 18 for syphilis, according to the CDC.

“I think the biggest underlying reason of increases is lack of education and access to contraception options,” Brown said. “When I first started here it almost amazed me how little students knew about sexual health.”

Students have reported that gym teachers taught their health class because there was no budget for it in their schools, Brown said. One student told Brown that a health teacher taught that the vagina was comparable to aluminum foil, and that with each premarital sexual act the foil would crumble and the woman would no longer be wanted.

Arkansas law doesn’t require schools to teach sexuality education or about HIV and other STD instruction, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States 2018 report.

Many schools in Arkansas only teach abstinence, in fear of community judgment, said Mary Alice Serafini, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and the executive director of Pat Walker Health Center.

“The educational process in Arkansas is not inclusive; it is not thorough,” Serafini said. “Most of our students report that the only education they have had is abstinence.”

Koesha Davis, a freshman from Magnolia, Arkansas, received no sexual education in school, she said. Instead of learning from academia, her parents taught her what she knows about sexual health. Davis practices abstinence, she said.

Sophomore Mercedes Moore has received STD testing twice a year for the past five years. The 21-year-old from Casper, Wyoming, is the step-daughter of a nurse. Wyoming requires some form of sexual education from K-12, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States 2018 report. Moore received only one sexual education class, she said, and that was in the fifth grade.

Jacob Jackson, a sophomore from Haskell, Arkansas, was taught one abstinence-based program during his eighth-grade year, he said. The program consisted of a slideshow that showed photos of “STDs gone wrong,” he said. Students were not taught how to prevent infection.

“It became a joke around school,” Jackson said. “No one wanted to talk about it.”

Nationally, chlamydia reached 1.8 million cases in 2018, according to the CDC. Women accounted for 61.8% of reported cases.

Arkansas reported an almost 2% increase in cases of chlamydia in women from 2016 to 2017, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

“Within the state of Arkansas, access to women’s health is spotty,” Serafini said. “If you live in a more rural environment, you may not have access to women’s health and you may have to go hundreds of miles to get it.”

The Pat Walker Health Center provides a “Get Yourself Tested” clinic that tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Tests are urine-based and results take two to three business days. Staff members send a secure message through the online patient portal with the results.

“I can’t stress this enough: STDs are treatable if caught early enough,” Brown said.

Left untreated, STDs will continue to spread through sexual contact. Those who are diagnosed with having an STD are at a risk of detrimental health issues and could become infertile.

Testing is critical.

The Washington Regional Health Center has agreed to a partnership with the Pat Walker Health Center to provide students with free HIV, AIDS and STD testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 4 on the third floor of the Arkansas Union.

November 13, 2019November 13, 2019

Early Intervention Key to Help Find Autistic Children in the Arkansas Delta

On-going research by a UA associate professor is helping provide resources to families with autistic children in rural Arkansas.

By Kirsten Baird
The Razorback Reporter

To open avenues to greater resources for rural areas, training is given to individuals who provide support to the families of autistic children living in the Arkansas Delta, said an associate professor in the UA College of Education and Health Professions.

“My research area is in the area of autism spectrum disorders,” said UA associate professor Peggy Schaefer-Whitby, who was recently elected vice president of the Council of Exceptional Children Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities, a national organization. “I really look at educational strategies to help teach and ameliorate some of the problems that people with autism have to face.”

Because autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that conditions may vary, there are certain strengths and challenges that vary among individuals. There are different levels of learning, problem-solving, and thinking, based on where an individual is on the spectrum, said Schaefer-Whitby, who was honored by the Arkansas Alumni Association for her work in the Delta..

“Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication,” according to the Autism Speaks organization.

The Arkansas Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Program, managed through UAMS, received a four-year grant of $2.17 million, which enables researchers to conduct a statewide study.

The program looks “at all 8-year-olds in the state to see how many kids have autism, and they look at every county in the state,” Schaefer-Whitby said.

About one in 77 children in Arkansas are diagnosed as having autism, according to a report by the disabilities monitoring program.

With that data, Schaefer-Whitby and her team recognized that in southern Arkansas, far fewer children were diagnosed as having autism. Specifically, she said that fewer African-American children were diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorders.

“About 50-75% of kids on the autism spectrum, with good intervention, have really good outcomes,” Schaefer-Whitby said. “There is about another 25% of kids that we don’t really understand why. But, if we don’t diagnose these kids, and we don’t get these kids into interventions and these families the services they need, we are going to have long-term care for these kids, and the societal cost is greater.”

Deciding that it was time to figure out the reason behind the discrepancies in the data, Schaefer-Whitby followed the pathway of her research, rented an apartment in Helena, Arkansas, and lived there for one year. She needed to become part of the community before she could have an impact on that community, she said.

“I worked with UAMS East, Kids for the Future, Partners for Inclusive Communities, and Arkansas Autism Outreach Center,” Schafer-Whitby said. “We started going down to the Delta and set up an advisory board, and we would meet monthly with them to determine kind of what we need to focus on services down here.”

Another research project Schaefer-Whitby is conducting has to do with the factors other than the lack of resources that contribute to autism.

“I’ve been working on a qualitative study where I’m really looking at, and talking with families about their lived experiences of having a child with autism,” Schaefer-Whitby said.

Although research confirms that factors such as low socio-economic status impacts the ability to access service providers and resources, there are also other factors to consider that may have an impact on autism diagnosis, Schaefer-Whtiby said.

“I do believe there are some cultural variables that impact access to services and whether or not a family will step up to access those services,” Schaefer-Whitby said. Most of the families that have been validated through interventions are confirmed to be white, upper class, wealthy families.

“One of the strategies that I promote is that we need to look at family systems and family routines and adapt our behavioral interventions to meet their family context and the routines within their family system,” Schaefer-Whitby said.

Schaefer-Whitby is working toward finding each of the variables that attribute to families in rural areas hesitating to access services for their children.

“The other thing that I find when I meet with these families is that really we’re more alike than different, that we all want to do what’s best for our children, and we want the best outcome for our children” Schaefer-Whitby said.

Perspective is another big aspect that Schaefer-Whitby attributes to the differences in culture within the Delta.

“When we start looking at quality of life and stress related to these families, it’s perspective,” Schaefer-Whitby said. “Many of these families really look at the disability, or the impact of the disability on the family system, a little differently.”

Because of the different perspectives, Schaefer-Whitby has found that families are sometimes better able to cope with the impact that the disability has on their family structure.

In addition to cultural differences between urban and rural areas, there is also the matter of access to resources that is difficult for families to receive.

During her time in the Delta, Schafer-Whitby first identified three individuals who aspired to become behavior analysts. For each of those individuals to complete the 1,500 clinical hours required, she provided supervision for free.

Shannon Crozier and Jessica Love, founders of Behavior University, an online training platform specializing in therapy based on the science of learning and behavior, partnered with Schaefer-Whitby in her project.

“When we learned about the new project in the Delta, we were thrilled to see

what she was doing,” Crozier said. “As the project grew, we realized that there might be a way for us to help and so we contacted her to offer support.”

Behavior University offered to provide free Registered Behavior Technician training to 10 individuals who had been identified within the Delta. The training process includes a 40-hour online training and an observation from a behavior analyst. Schaefer-Whitby was the one to observe and certify that each of the trainees did indeed have the required skills.

“In the next several months, we’re hoping that we are going to have one behavior analyst down there and that we’ll have about 8-10 registered behavior technicians that can start working with the kids,” Schaefer-Whitby said.

“Families in rural areas lack access to many of the resources they need,” Crozier said. “Relying on people and resources in more urban centers is difficult and unreliable.”

Schaefer-Whitby hopes that through this project, there will be greater support and resources available for families living in the delta with a child in need of autism intervention, she said.

November 1, 2019November 7, 2019

Enrollment Rates Continue to Climb in COEHP

Despite recent slower enrollment rates, the numbers in COEHP have remained the highest out of all colleges. Certain changes within the college and upcoming changes through all departments play a role in enrollment.

By Kirsten Baird
The Razorback Reporter

The College of Education and Health Professions is located in the Graduate Education Building. Photo by Kirsten Baird.

Despite recent slower UA enrollment rates, the College of Education and Health Professions has the highest increase among all colleges for the 2019-2020 academic year, said a research assistant from the Office of Education Policy.

The college offers 50 degree programs through six academic departments, said Ketevan Mamiseishvili, associate dean for academic and student affairs. Across the six departments, 5,277 students were enrolled in fall 2018. The numbers have only gone up from there, research assistant Charlene Reid said.

“Our college is very diverse with respect to the range of degrees and certifications offered and those options have continually increased over time,” Reid said. “The interconnection between health and education is becoming more complex, making it more difficult to simply separate the two fields of study.”

Thus, any funding to one college must be dispersed throughout all departments.

The money that was given to the college includes a $10 million gift from the Walton Family Foundation, which helped in establishing the Arkansas Academy for Educational Equity, according to the annual report for the college.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the college a five-year grant totaling $35.7 million to create the Arkansas PROMISE Model Demonstration project, according to the annual report. Many departments have a goal of getting programs accredited, “which will provide students with greater opportunities to enroll in programs that are more in line with their field of interest,” Reid said.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the college a five-year grant totaling $35.7 million to create the Arkansas PROMISE Model Demonstration project, according to the annual report.

The education department within the College of Education received a favorable review from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, according to the annual report. In addition to the changes in the education department, there are also a lot of positive elements within the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, former clinical adjunct instructor Jessica Newcomb said.

One of the things Newcomb said attracted her most was that the nursing department hired “quality people.”

“The best thing you can bring to students is your experience,” Newcomb said, “and the instructors did that.”

The school of nursing also provides a bridge program, which enables students who are registered nurses, or RNs, to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in one year rather than four, Newcomb said.

“This was a big draw because it was affordable and accredited,” Newcomb said.

Within the Occupational Therapy department, completing the Occupational Therapy House and launching the graduate Occupational Therapy program in January 2020 also will increase enrollment, program director Sherry Muir said.

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019

SOTHERAPY16: UA Occupational Therapy Program to Launch in January 2020

UA Occupational Therapy Program to Launch in January 2020

COEHP is starting an occupational therapy program in partnership with UAMS. Along with new curriculum and staff, the department remodeled a house which will be used for lectures and training.

By Kirsten Baird
The Razorback Reporter

UA Occupational Therapy house provides real-life training for students. Photo by Kirsten Baird

The UA faculty of the Occupational Therapy clinical doctorate program will welcome students in January 2020, the program director said. The program will use the newly renovated O.T. house, as well as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus on College Avenue.

This will be the first joint program between the UofA and UAMS, director Sherry Muir said. Fran Hagstrom, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication science and disorders got the program approved by the state Legislature and recruited Muir as program director, a university representative said.

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education currently accredits over 570 O.T. programs within the United States, four of which are located in Arkansas, according to the American Occupational Therapy Association. The UofA currently stands at candidacy status, but in order for students to take the national exam, they must graduate from an accredited program, Muir said.

In the third year of the program, the ACOTE will visit the campus, interview students and faculty, and determine whether the program can receive accreditation status.

Meanwhile, renovations on the occupational therapy house were completed in June, and the 7,000 square feet of lab space at UAMS was completed October 1, Muir said.

The O.T. house has a variety of functions. It can be used for small seminar classes, lectures, and about 50 percent of hands-on active learning, Muir said.

“This house was designed to be a real home and not handicap accessible,” Muir said. “It’s on a hill, it has bad sidewalks that are broken, it has stairs.” Muir said that the faculty and staff believe that if students are to truly be problem solvers, it is important for them to understand that patients go home from an injury to a real home.

Thus, the faculty and staff within the department aim to build a program that instills both this view within their students and changes the way people view occupational therapy as a field.

When it comes to occupational therapy, people “have either never heard of it, or they have a very tiny limited view of it,” Muir said. Occupational therapy requires knowing the needs, wants, and daily requirements of an individual, which vary with age.

Occupational therapy “is very broad, and our training is very broad so that makes it hard for people to understand,” Muir said. “And I think we, as a profession, are significantly at fault because we haven’t been able to clearly articulate what we do.”

“We can build a very different kind of program, and I think we have,” Muir said. “I think it is highly unusual in that we did a backwards design for the entire curriculum.”

“We began at the end, but it is also fully integrated,” Muir said. “If our courses are integrated, the student’s knowledge will be more holistic and you won’t think of yourself as a pediatric therapist or an adult therapist. You will think of yourself as an occupational therapist.”

Muir hired faculty members who are innovative thinkers, do unusual types of practice, and are pioneers within their area. She hopes that the design of the O.T. program will develop students that expand the scope of their practice and be leaders in their own areas.

Establishing this program also aids in “making degree programs more robust, helping to highlight the fact that one area cannot thrive without some understanding of the other,” research assistant Charlene Reid said. “There needs to be greater collaboration among the various departments to better reflect the importance and need for each other in our respective fields.”

The new faculty and staff within the OT Program already are starting on a trajectory toward redefining how Occupational Therapy is viewed as a field, Muir said.

“I have a passion for this profession, and I believe that we are underutilized, and I believe that we are the missing link in many social crises like mental health issues, like the opioid addiction, like this exponentially increasing rise in young people’s anxiety and depression,” Muir said.

Muir’s biggest desire is for this integrated curriculum to prepare students to meet the diverse needs of society. She thinks that occupational therapy can have an impact on the world if they are fully utilized.

“I want our students to feel empowered to go out there and forge new paths and make a difference, not only in our country, but maybe in the world,” Muir said.

October 23, 2019October 27, 2019

UREC Activities Aid Retention, GPA

UofA research shows recreation usage leads to a higher freshman retention rate and GPA among all students. Some students report seeing improvement in academic performance and stress relief.

UA student using the Donna Axum Fitness Center in the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation building.

UA students who took part in University Recreation programs showed increases in retention and academic success, according to a study of the 2017-2018 freshman class.

UREC freshman participants reported a 9.2 percent higher return rate for their sophomore year than students who didn’t, according to the center’s study. Resources are included as part of UA tuition. UREC participants also performed better in the classroom. Users achieved an 11 percent increase in GPA over those who didn’t use it at all.

Lindsay Smith, the assistant director of Marketing and Public Relations, thinks it is important for freshmen to know what they have available, she said. By bettering their physical health, students also learn time management skills that can help their academic life, she said.

“We know that 85 percent of freshmen used our resources at least once. The more they continue to use them, the more likely they are to come back to school next year,” Smith said.

University Recreation tracked ID card swipes to count how often students attended a program. Those who spent more time using recreation had a higher cumulative GPA.

Smith focused mainly on freshmen for recruitment to UREC programs. With new students experiencing the stress of academics, unsupervised social life and newly discovered independence, the recreation staff wants to provide a comfortable environment for freshmen, Smith said.

During the first week on campus, University Recreation played host to an open house that showed activities available for students. Half of them were freshmen.

“You’re experiencing a completely new thing,” she said of first-year students. “We want to help you learn to balance school, time, social life and being away from home for the first time.”

Smith attended every new-student orientation session over the summer to give information about University Recreation. Smith also distributed 5,000 brochures to incoming freshmen.

Freshman Reilly Nichols already has participated in University Recreation every day in this new school year.

“Recreation was a big part of why I chose to attend the University of Arkansas,” he said. “I toured the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building during orientation, and I had read about it before.”

Nichols lived an active life during high school and plans to continue to lift weights and keep healthy habits while at the U of A, he said.

He has seen an improvement in his academic performance, stress relief and anxiety control Nichols said. He plans to participate more throughout the year and will be getting more involved during his remaining time on campus.

By creating healthful habits instead of playing video games in his room, Nichols said he sees an overall self-improvement.