Individuals of transgender experience are disproportionately affected by HIV, but resources for prevention and treatment within the mainstream healthcare system can be limited. Often, it’s grass-roots organizations that fill the healthcare gap for this community. In Philadelphia, the homegrown Trans Equity Project has been delivering peer-based health education and support to transgender individuals since 2003. A new research effort seeks to understand whether this local program, which provides a six-session HIV risk reduction program, could provide a model for other organizat...

Taking prescribed blood pressure medicine (antihypertensive medication) is a relatively low-commitment way for people with hypertension to reduce health risks that can include cardiovascular damage, stroke and premature death. Yet around half of the people prescribed antihypertensive medication don’t have their high blood pressure controlled within recommended levels. Part of the problem is that they aren’t taking medication as prescribed. With an estimated 100 million U.S. adults having high blood pressure—and the number rising—failure to take recommended medicine crea...

Licensed social worker Tim Gallagher, a graduate of the master of social work program, founded and co-directs the Camden Adolescents Striving for Achievement (CASA) youth development program at Guadalupe Family Services. In the video, Gallagher discusses his work to empower the youth of North Camden at CASA, where students play games, do homework and interact with their peers in a safe place. Watch the video on YouTube....

Successfully easing back into the commotion of everyday life is challenging for people discharged from hospitals. For people with serious mental illness (SMI), like schizophrenia or major depression, the period immediately after discharge can be a high-risk moment for homelessness, unemployment and loneliness. Absence of well-coordinated care after discharge often leads to a return trip to the hospital. “The phenomenon is common in many chronic conditions, but especially for people with SMI,” says Yaara Zisman-Ilani, an investigator at Temple’s Collaborative on Communit...

On Friday, May 10, Montgomery County Commissioner Valerie Arkoosh will deliver the keynote speech at the College of Public Health graduation ceremony. First appointed to fill a vacancy on the Commission in January 2015, Arkoosh won election to a full four-year term in November 2015 and served as Commission Vice Chair until her election as Chair in 2016. Since then, she has managed human services, the county court and criminal justice system, voter services, roads and other infrastructure in Montgomery County, the third most populous county in Pennsylvania. Arkoosh is a graduate...

Rebecca Alper, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders, was awarded a three-year, $500,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to expand on a caregiver-implemented early language intervention for children in low socioeconomic status (SES) households. Alper will lead the team alongside co-principal investigators Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, professor of psychology and Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Temple’s College of Liberal Arts and Rufan Luo, assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers University–Camden. The intervention, called...

On April 6, the College of Public Health Scholar Bowl team competed at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the seventh annual Public Health Scholar Bowl, demonstrating their knowledge of public health issues and ranking third in the case study competition for their fully planned intervention focusing on opioid overdose prevention in Philadelphia. Throughout the spring semester, team members Patrick Kelly (who also competed in last year’s competition and returned this year as team captain), Faith Befano, Venise Salcedo, Tirzah Sheppard, Melanie Schupler, and Auror...

On March 29, Mary McKay, Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, delivered the final Dean’s Seminar of the 2018-2019 academic year. Formed in recognition of the College’s accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health, the series brings internationally renowned scholars and practitioners to campus for discussions on pressing issues facing an ever-expanding field of public health. In her career, McKay directed the McSilver Institute of Poverty Policy and Research at New York University, headed the D...

In the face of an expanding mumps outbreak on Temple's campus—and an increase in outbreaks of measles around the country—Dean Laura Siminoff writes on the importance of proper vaccination and the public health community's role in dispelling myths.  As you are no doubt aware, over the past few weeks Temple University has experienced an outbreak of mumps, an infection that presents like the flu, with painful swelling in glands on the face and along the jawline. For those over the age of 18, mumps is particularly dangerous, especially for those who have a weakened immune...