Gun Violence is a Public Health Emergency: Week of March 26th, 2021

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends, 

Good morning from our nation’s capital where I am here to attend the bi-annual meeting of the Department of Veteran Affair’s Special Medical Advisory Group meeting, of which I am a member. One nice advantage of being down in DC for the meeting is I get to jog along the National Mall and around many of the monuments, which was a nice treat this morning. The cherry blossoms are even starting to bloom! While I’m down here, there is much happening around campus:

DEI FORUM ADDRESSING PERSPECTIVES ON RACISM & HATE FOR ASIAN AMERICANS: I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Mosley-Williams for organizing a very informative and timely panel discussion that focused on the most recent violence against the Asian American population in our country. Very special thanks to forum panelists Salus Board member Joyce Koh, JD; Salus partner, Ken Wong; and Chestnut Hill College professor and psychologist, Bindu Methikalam, PhD for your very personal insights and thoughts. For those who did not have a chance to see this, please click here and insert the following password: mFUZkbp5 to access the recording of the session.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: An historic number of women at Salus University have taken on top leadership positions. They sit on the President’s Council and the Board of Trustees. They all have come ready to help lead Salus and its clinical facilities. In honor of Women’s History Month, meet a few of the University’s women in leadership. Click here to read more. 

LIGHTHOUSE AWARD WINNER: This year’s recipient of the Looking Out for Kids 2021 “Lighthouse Award” is TD Bank. We are thrilled to honor the bank with this award. Our relationship is more than just one of a business association, as the bank has genuinely become partners with us on many fronts. To read more about the bank’s commitment to Salus and its communities, go here. The University’s 14th annual LOFK fundraiser, held virtually this year, will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1. To purchase virtual tickets or VIP reception boxes online, visit our website here.

LENA START GRANT: Salus University’s Department of Speech-Language Pathology has been awarded a one-time grant from the LENA Foundation to Launch LENA Start, a parent program that uses regular feedback from LENA's "talk pedometer" technology to help increase interactive communication in order to close the early-talk gap, improve school readiness, and build stronger families. Read more here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: This week’s Where Are They Now features Emily Swavely, MS ’17, who now works as a speech therapist at an elementary school in the Owen J. Roberts School District in the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, area. To read more, go here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As I read the paper, listened to the news and walked around Washington last evening, I could not get the thoughts of the most recent gun violence out of my mind. While, unfortunately, this is nothing new in our country, it is something that must be addressed. While there are myriad causes for this epidemic that include mental health conditions, poverty, and many of the social determinants of health, there are some things that can and should be done to make it more difficult for those who shouldn’t have firearms to get one. In our country, just this year alone, there were 107 mass shootings (defined as 4 or more victims), 122 people killed, 325 injured, for a total of 447 total victims, including the shooters in some instances.

According to a recent New York Times article, guns account for over 40,000 deaths annually in the U.S. This includes homicides, suicides and accidents. While gun violence, such as mass shootings and other homicides tend to get all the press attention, the fact remains that over 50% of these deaths are from suicide. No matter how you look at it, deaths attributed to guns represent a public health emergency.

If you compare the U.S. to other developed countries (see chart), you will find, not surprisingly, that the number of guns that are civilian-owned directly relate to the number of gun deaths. What stands out is just how many more guns are owned in the U.S. compared to other developed countries. If we are to begin to curb this very disturbing trend, we need a multi-pronged approach that includes funding for mental health initiatives, enhanced suicide prevention initiatives, enacting effective gun control laws such as universal background checks, barring people with a history of mental illness and domestic violence from purchasing guns and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines for starters. I raise this issue not to make a political statement, but rather to raise your awareness as healthcare professionals. Gun violence is a public health emergency. We all have a responsibility to recognize it as such and to do what we can to influence public policy to help turn this around.

As you think about all this, I hope you can get out and enjoy some of the good weather we’re having. Please stay safe, continue to wear your double face mask when around others, socially distance and wash your hands frequently.

You are SALUS STRONG because of your commitment to helping others improve their lives.

Mike

Condemning Racism and Hate: Week of March 19th, 2021

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Good morning on a cold and sunny morning in Elkins Park. It’s also a sad day as we reflect on the killings that occurred in Atlanta last Tuesday and the increased violent attacks on people of Asian heritage around our country. As I stated yesterday, this is contrary to everything we believe at Salus as we condemn all acts of racism and hate on our campus and in society and we must continue to address the racial and social disparities we see in public health. With all that is going on around us, it’s helpful to spend some time on the positive things that our Salus community has been doing both on and off campus:

IMPACT HBCU: Black Eyecare Perspective, established by PCO/Salus alum Darryl Glover, OD ‘11, in partnership with Dr. Adam Ramsey, has worked toward the goal of obtaining 13 percent representation of Black ODs in the profession since its inception in 2019. To address the eyecare needs of Black Americans in an increasingly diverse society, Dr. Glover teamed up with fellow PCO/Salus alumni Jacobi Cleaver, OD ‘11, and Essence Johnson, OD ‘10 to create Impact HBCU, an initiative that links optometry school recruitment and admissions to students enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). To read Part 1 of this three-part series, click here.

FACULTY FOCUS: This week’s Faculty Focus features Kelly Salmon, SLPD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, CLT-LANA, NDC, an assistant professor in our Department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). Dr. Salmon has recently been involved in conducting admissions interviews with prospective SLP students, and one of the questions many of them ask are her impressions of the Salus program and what she believes makes the University unique. To find out what she tells them, just click here.

EXPANDING INTERNATIONAL FOOTPRINT: The Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) welcomed its first international cohort of students from Canada in the Spring of 2019, who enrolled in the Vision Rehabilitation Therapy program at Salus. The affiliation between Salus and Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada – the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (VLRC-CNIB) - has proven to be a successful one. To read more, click here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Our next Where Are They Now profile features Amanda Kaufmann, MS ‘17, who pursued her dream of becoming a speech-language pathologist at Salus University and is now working with children at a private practice in Los Angeles, California.

AUDIOLOGY MENTOR PROGRAM: Session three of the Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) mentor program will be held from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, 2021. The program “Building Your Brand and Expanding Scope of Services” will feature a panel discussion and Q&A with leaders in Audiology on career mapping. For information, click here. 

TEI RESEARCH STUDY: The Eye Institute (TEI) is recruiting children ages 3 to 12 for a research study evaluating an investigational medication to help slow myopic progression (poor distance vision). Potential enrollees will receive a no-cost examination at The Eye Institute to determine eligibility. If the child meets the study requirements, they will attend up to 11 visits (about every six months) during the four-year study. If you or somebody you know is interested or if you have questions, please email Jasmine Campbell at jcampbell@salus.edu or call 215-276-6034.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Following the shootings in Arizona that claimed the lives of six people and almost claimed the life of Congresswomen Gabrielle Gifford, President Obama gave a speech in which he noted that, “at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” He went on to ask all Americans to "expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together." These words are just as pertinent today, maybe even more so. We are living in a world where the tolerance for people, ideas and ideologies different from ours has been deeply diminished. As healthcare providers, our “moral imaginations” should include our commitment to make it part of our mission to help bridge these differences, not through discourse, but through listening, respecting and exhibiting the empathy needed to effectively care for those who seek our help. Bridging these differences won’t be easy, especially now, when our country is so deeply divided. We have to start someplace and I can think of no better place than here, at Salus, where empathy, imagination and respect for others are bound together as we continue to provide quality and compassionate care for our patients and clients, wherever they may be.

As we approach this weekend, please take some time to reflect on the events of this week and remember those who were lost. Also, please take some time to recharge your own physical and mental batteries as you prepare for next week.

You are SALUS STRONG because of the high ideals and moral fortitude you personify and share with every patient and client interaction you have. Please continue to socially distance, wear your double mask and wash your hands frequently.

For those who would like more information about the challenges Asian Americans have been facing during the pandemic, here is a link from our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum www.apiahf.org

Tessler, H., Choi, M., & Kao, G. (2020). The Anxiety of Being Asian American: Hate Crimes and Negative Biases During the COVID-19 Pandemic. American journal of criminal justice: AJCJ, 1–11. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09541-5

Don't Get Distracted: Week of June 8th, 2020

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

These past couple of weeks have presented all of us with significant events that must generate difficult and candid discussions about race relations in our country, white supremacy, and police brutality, especially toward Black Americans. We also witnessed a clear abuse of power and a desire to use our active duty military to quell protests by the President of the United States. These events, on top of fighting a global pandemic, which our national leadership has struggled with, compounds the issues we are all currently living with. Only a few times in our history has the future of our great democratic experiment been under such extraordinary pressure. Some of my former military colleagues have written we are at a tipping point. I agree. With all this going on, it’s easy to get distracted. I believe that’s exactly what President Trump would like us to do. Some may feel differently about that, and I respect their opinion. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative we keep our eye on the ball – which includes our social, moral, and ethical responsibility to openly and actively address racism, bigotry and all that goes along with that. 

Closer to home, we also need to remember that you are all at Salus to learn to become the best health care professional possible. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to that and I know you are as well. With everything else going on, it’s important to maintain focus on your studies while also carving out time to address these other important issues; I acknowledge it won’t be easy, but it is necessary. We have to hold ourselves accountable to listen, learn, act differently and then influence others to do the same. It’s also imperative that we understand our patient and client base. No doubt, we will continually offer high quality, compassionate care, but we also have to have a clearer understanding of the challenges our non-white patients go through, day in and day out. 

I had the opportunity, along with my wife, daughters, and grand-dog, to attend a march against racism in Ambler on Saturday. We all wore masks and stayed socially distanced from others during the event. It was peaceful, constructive and moving as I watched a diverse crowd of participants and speakers honor the memory of George Floyd and speak of the centuries of injustice Black people have endured in our country. Leaving the march, the thought occurred to me that we cannot allow the momentum and initiative the events over the past couple of weeks have generated to wane, as it often does. Change must occur! 

I pledge to work very closely with our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to ensure that doesn’t happen. As a start, I’d like us to bring outside speakers and experts to the University so we can have even a more informed and educated dialog, be intellectually challenged, remain energized and engaged and be able to influence others in a positive way. 

Let’s also not forget that the COVID-19 pandemic still rages around us and we need to remain vigilant, especially with our campus partially reopening this week. Don’t relax your current behaviors concerning hygiene, social distancing and wearing your face mask. With everything on all of our minds, it’s very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security concerning the spread of the virus. 

We have some difficult work ahead of us if we’re going to make a difference. I know we are up to the challenge and I’ll be there, along with you, listening, learning, teaching and influencing others. 

We are SALUS STRONG in body, mind, and soul. 

Mike