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An Underrated Barrier to Healthcare: It's Not Just About Cost
“Thank you for calling our free clinic. How can I help you?” I have spent countless hours listening to the pleas of people in desperate need of... -
A Guide to Geriatric Psychiatry Referral for Health Care Professionals and Caregivers
Our aging global population has the potential to enrich our communities, strengthen intergenerational relationships, and help preserve our cultural... -
Room to Breathe: Making the Health Case for Green Spaces
The intentional implementation of green spaces originated in elite classes of society when intricate gardens used for strolling and hunting exhibited...
Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
Insights
An Underrated Barrier to Healthcare: It's Not Just About Cost
“Thank you for calling our free clinic. How can I help you?” I have spent countless hours listening to the pleas of people in desperate need of medical attention, often with nowhere else to go. Our free clinic in Maryland provides comprehensive care free of cost to those who are uninsured and meet our eligibility criteria. Part of the screening process, though, is determining why someone might be uninsured and helping connect them to other resources that could assist them. To many, it can be surprising why patients might lack health insurance, ...
Reference
What Your Patients are Hearing About GLP-1 Medications
Glugacon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist medications have taken social media and celebrity news by storm. Your patients have likely heard about these medications – sold under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, and the GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro or Zepbound) – and their effectiveness for weight loss well before the topic is broached in your exam room. So, you might be asking yourself, what exactly have they heard online? ...
Reference
Childhood Obesity and Disparities in Obesity Care
The prevalence of obesity has surged in the setting of the obesity epidemic. Among U.S. children and adolescents 2-19 years old, over the ten years between 2007-2008 and 2017-2018 the prevalence of obesity increased from 16.8 percent to 19.3 percent while severe obesity rose from 4.9 percent to 6.1 percent. Nationally, a greater percentage of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic children are
Advocacy
The Role of Advocacy in Primary Care
Primary care physicians are uniquely positioned to go beyond the immediate needs of their patients. Everything from writing a prescription to examining the larger, more daunting socioeconomic and environmental factors that affect their patients’ health and well-being falls within their scope of work. “When physicians have a trusting relationship with their patients, there are things that are disclosed between the walls of an exam room that many people would not disclose otherwise,” says
Primary Care
Health Equity
Health Policy
Social Determinants of Health
COVID-19
Activism
Burnout / Resiliency / Moral Injury
LGBTQIA+
Advocacy
No Borders for Those Who Fight
"Não há fronteiras para os que exploram… não deve haver para os que lutam”—there are no borders for those who explore… there should not be for those who fight. This powerful statement was the rallying cry of representatives from dozens of waste picker organizations to the 2nd Latin American Congress. The gathering, held in 2005 in São Leopoldo, Brazil, unified a collection of marginalized peoples into a single voice calling for an end to unjust borders. Physical borders erected around landfills that, for many, were their only source of income. Sociocultural borders ...
Advocacy
Housing Vouchers as the New Golden Ticket
Meet Sandra. Sandra is a former resident of Columbia Heights, a neighborhood in Washington, D.C. that used to be an affordable area to live. She’s now one of the thousands that are left struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living in Columbia Heights continues to skyrocket well above the national average. Like many others, Sandra now finds that the neighborhood she once called home has significantly surpassed her budget. ...
Primary Care
Health Equity
Health Policy
Social Determinants of Health
COVID-19
Public Health
Activism
Advocacy
Beating Hunger: Addressing Food Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Closed. Out of Business. We are temporarily closed due to COVID. These signs have become a common sight in the windows of grocery stores scattered throughout the United States. Throughout the pandemic, the number of communities that have become food deserts, as well as the number of households that have become food insecure, has increased substantially. While volunteering at a local food pantry during the pandemic, I talked to a regular named Carmen, and she described her ...
Primary Care
Health Equity
Health Policy
Social Determinants of Health
Public Health
Environment / Climate
Advocacy
Air Quality in Southwest Detroit: A Public Health Crisis
Southwest Detroit is currently battling some of the worst air pollution in the country. In this area, where senior centers and elementary schools sit on the borders of oil refineries, residents suffer from high rates of asthma, cancer, and respiratory illness. Asthma hospitalization rates are
Education
Primary Care
Health Equity
Social Determinants of Health
Public Health
Trauma
BIPOC
Sexual and Reproductive Health
LGBTQIA+
Advocacy
Black Birthing Persons Matter—All of Them
A Black trans dad, Kayden Coleman shares his clinical experience during his two pregnancies. He recounts horrible encounters with gestational care providers, such as being offered an abortion a “ridiculous” number of times, misgendered by physicians, virtually forgotten during his postpartum period, and even turned away from care.