I am forwarding this to a friend of mine most of whose students are African American. I'll suggest to her that some of those students may want to get on this list. Joan
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Johnson, Arley Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 9:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OTlist] Why??? Good Question David! Sorry for the long response, but you hit my passion. Any you asked a lot of questions. :-) As an African American, I have made it my passion to educate my community about the world of OT. Believe it or not, and it sounds corny, but discovering OT saved my life and redirected me. Since 1994, I have participated in various school based outreach programs discussing the allied health field in Philadelphia. I'm currently on the Philadelphia School district's health advisory committee at 2 high schools that promote special health field education programs and they have courses that prepare them for an entry level jobs such as CNA, techs etc. But I believe it can't hurt to expose them to the information of allied health professions as their next level of attainment. I found, like most things in the AA community, it's a lack of exposure to this array of professions. I can remember talking with a few young guys s/p gunshot wounds asking me how I got my job. They knew that what they were doing was not the way to be achieve "success" and they wanted a stable, hazard free, respectable occupation. AS a male who was born and raised in West Philly, I truly believe 90% of the kids who get into trouble want to discover a way to a stable environment, but don't know how and/or surrounded by others who don't know how either, even in the urban public school systems. That's one reason I stopped doing outreach to colleges students and went to the high schools. I have a million experiences that confirm this for myself, regardless of what other say or may think. Mainly because I was one of them, and I was just lucky to steer away in the nick of time. One outreach program that I did for about 10 years was probably the most fulfilling. Out of the possibly 300 high students that I introduced to OT, 3 became OTR, and 5 became PTs. This highly structured program at Temple University Hospital, level I trauma ctr, exposed them to all the other fields in the allied health professions outside of the traditional RN/MD roles. From my understanding, most of the students entered into the program to expose themselves to theses traditional roles, but discovered that they can be in other medical professions that may a satisfying pit stop along the way to becoming a physician. Actually, I was introduced to the allied health fields by a HS outreach program. I knew I didn't want to be a physician or nurse, but I didn't know what else was out there. The approach has to be grass roots but directed by the national organization. Every OT should make it a point to be involved with career days in their local schools. APTA, AOTA should place directives to the state associations, who in turn, should aggressively reach out to high schools, especially urban area school districts and annually funnel them a contact person and offer career day opportunities to their schools. If we make it a point to identify the career counselors and create one on one dialogue, regardless of how brief the encounter, we are helping him/her do their job easier by having a person to contact that exposes his kids to another profession than the ones he can think of and have contacts. Arley Johnson MS, OTR/L Site Manager, Rehabilitation Services, Pennsylvania Hospital Good Shepherd Penn Partners O: 215.829.5018 P: 215.422.0174 C: 215.776.4305 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LEHMAN, DAVID Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OTlist] Why??? OK...my question: Why is it that there is still a large lack of representation of African Americans in the Allied health professions relative to the representation in the general population? It does not seem to be as great an issue with other ethnicities such as Asian or Phillipino. It may be an issue with hispanic. I am trying to put together a forum on this topic in the PT world and I wrote an email to the department heads of many HBCUs as well as the President of APTA and the minority affairs department. I got ONE response, from a caucasian faculty member at a HBCU. Even with a minority affairs department in the professional organizations (i.e. APTA) and all types of initiatives to help minorities be in Allied Health, the problem exists but you don't see discussion about it anymore. Is it taboo? What are the reasons why, for example, school, socioeconomic, cultural, etc??? How do we overcome this. Scholarships will not take care of the problem alone and that is all I see the APTA minority affairs department doing. David A. Lehman, PhD, PT Associate Professor Tennessee State University Department of Physical Therapy 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd. Nashville, TN 37209 615-963-5946 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit my website: http://www.tnstate.edu/interior.asp?mid=2410&ptid=1 This email and any files transmitted with it may contain confidential information and is intended solely for use by the individual to whom it is addressed. If you receive this correspondence in error, please notify the sender and delete the email from your system. Do not disclose its contents with others. ________________________________________ -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
