Hasta La Gadget!

The recent police shootings of unarmed black men, the lack of police indictment and the assassination two New York City police officers has caused tremendous unrest in communities across the country. As a public health nurse, I have been challenged to determine my role in supporting the vulnerable, as this is clearly a public health crisis. The New York City Commissioner of Health, Dr. Mary Bassett, posted a riveting piece in The New England Journal of Medicine entitled “#BlackLivesMatter — A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities.” Dr. Bassett provides her perspective as a public health professional, physician and mother of black children. She calls for the steadfast commitment of public health professionals to the reduction of health disparities.

In public health, our work involves advocating for the vulnerable. Unarmed victims and their surviving families are unarguably vulnerable at the hands of law enforcement. In my quest to seek answers and determine my contribution to change, I attended a variety of events. “How to Improve Police-Community Relations,” hosted by the Amadou Diallo Foundation, was transformative. If you don’t recall, Diallo was a young man gunned down in the hallway of his Bronx apartment building in February 1999. At this event I sought insight from those affected by such violence. Heartfelt testimonies were given by the foundation’s president, Mrs. Kadiatou Diallo, and members of Black and Hispanic communities speaking about the trauma of police brutality or the emotional and psychological effects of losing family members at the hands of police. These accounts were compelling and overwhelming. I realized that the impact of survivorship is not readily discussed. Major quality-of-life issues exist when families continue living in communities where their loved ones were gunned down. Some testimonies mirrored accounts of people living in war-torn countries. This is considered slow genocide, which is the physical and emotional harm to survivors of violence who continue living in communities plagued with violence. What I learned only scratched the surface and must be addressed in public health’s efforts to support victims.

What I also found compelling were the perspectives of the speakers, including retired members of the NYPD. I desired to seek all perspectives, but I was surprised at the viewpoints of retired cops. I realized that the public health crisis continues into the lives of police officers as well. My realization was surprising. I had not perceived officers as victims in the traditional sense, but there are vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to improve policing.

From the public health prospective, we are taught to apply a sociocultural approach to our efforts in diverse communities. We come to understand through community-based participatory research that effective community-level health interventions cannot be determined by academic scientists sitting in some ivory tower. We learn about the community through the lens of the community. Our work must be community-based, community-driven and participatory for change to be realized. We take this approach very seriously.

I would think that police training would be socioculturally guided as well. Police officers should feel the same societal obligations that health professionals feel. Well, cadet training does not include an in-depth understanding of diversity in New York City, the melting pot. Time is not taken to ensure effective cultural-competency training. In fact, a criticism of cadet training by a retired sergeant was that six months is insufficient to ensure preparation for patrolling culturally diverse neighborhoods. From the retired sergeant’s perspective, the outcome is overwhelming fear. Rookies are afraid to be on the street. The example put forth was that it’s like putting a drunk behind the wheel of a car. Let’s think about this: In such a scenario, would any of us be safe? Do we want to be protected by scared cops with loaded guns? Whether you are perceived to be privileged or underprivileged, I am confident that your answer is no. The retired sergeant suggested that scared rookies find different employment, but that’s not the answer. The problem is two-fold. In our ongoing, exhaustive discussions of police-community relations, a more representative police force is always a suggested solution. With 24.5 percent of New York City’s population being Black, the fact that only 7 percent of the recent graduating class of NYPD cadets is Black is unacceptable. Inappropriate assignments are also a problem; more seasoned officers should patrol more challenging neighborhoods.

So here is an awful scenario resulting from bias and stress: A scared rookie, investigating a building with an unlit staircase, shoots and kills an approaching young black man, Akai Gurley. What does the rookie say? He felt threatened for his life? As long as the rookie can maintain this claim, he may not be convicted for the senseless killing. Can we dispute his claim of fear? Most likely it’s an honest account of his feelings. However, we can’t continue down these destructive paths.

Some may say rookies are not the only ones shooting unarmed men of color. Seasoned officers commit such crimes, like the ones who riddled Amadou Diallo‘s body with bullets. However, I will tell you that post-traumatic stress is real. Dealing with the stress and emotional pain that is a part of the difficult job of being a cop plays out in policing. What is being done to support officers? I checked. The NYPD has an Early Intervention Unit with peer counselors and invites officers to utilize these services. But there is a problem with the voluntary utilization of such services: Not everyone at risk will perceive themselves to be at risk. In fact, they may believe themselves to be effectively coping, until challenged. The retired sergeant made an insightful point: Psychological examinations are done upon entry into the academy, but they’re not conducted regularly — another problem, as PTSD is said to affect many people working for several years in public safety. The retired sergeant also believes that officers should be given sabbatical, similar to academics. This will allow for rest and a temporary change of environment.

So the public health crisis is more pervasive than I once believed. I am now challenged to identify interventions — essential to addressing all aspects of police-community relations. We clearly need to hold the NYPD accountable; we need to hold the administrators and decision makers accountable for needed improvements in police management. We are all victims, cops and citizens alike, at the hands of the decision makers. They should be prosecuted.

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I have a daughter. A wonderful, energetic daughter. I think she is wonderful. Even if she were a boy, I still think my child would be the best child ever.

Before we knew we were having a girl, my husband and I agreed with the color green for her basic things. Green matched with many colors, we could reuse it if we had another child and most of all, it wouldn’t matter if we had a boy or girl.

I also noticed I bought a lot of gender-neutral clothes even after we knew we were expecting a girl. Part of it was we were hoping for another child in our future and we wanted to keep things basic if the gender was different.

Another part was there were some clothes I liked on her and some that I didn’t.
After she was born, I would flip-flop with dressing her. Some days she would wear a giant ass bow on her head with a dress, while some days she wore a simple red onesie and other days, she wore a Captain America shirt.

I never saw this as a problem with the outside world. After all we are living in the 21st Century. Bruce Jenner just announced that he is a woman. We are becoming more aware of how others define themselves; but the more I hear different comments, the more I realize what over rated jerks there are in our society.

It first started with her as a baby. My daughter was in a simple yellow onesie and she was in her green stroller with a green blanket.

“Oh, what a cute boy.”

“Thank you. She is a wonderful baby”

“She? Oh sorry, I thought it was a boy”

“It’s OK. It’s an honest mistake.”

“Well, your baby isn’t wearing any pink. You should put her in pink.”

Excuse me? Since when do girls have to wear pink? It’s OK if you mistake my child’s gender. I’m not asking you to look at her genitals. Since when do I have to care what she wears so you can feel comfortable?

It hasn’t stopped.

I remember a family member asked when I was going to pierce her ears. Why does my child need man-made holes for cosmetic purposes? She’s a baby! She doesn’t even know where her nose is!

A friend once said I needed to do something with my child’s hair. People were thinking she was a boy. Have you ever put together a toddler’s hair? It’s like herding cats. Not to mention, my child has fine uneven hair. So if I feel like putting her hair in pig tails, I’m going to have to get ready for blood, sweat and bows. And even when I’m done, my child will take apart said hair style in two seconds.

My child is perfect the way she looks. I want her to feel beautiful wearing her princess dress and feel adventurous in her superhero outfit. I want her to love baby dolls and get excited about trucks.

I want my child to look back at herself and see that she was her own individual. If she grows up to do her nails and wearing the latest fashion, that’s ok. If she wants to dress in a suit and tie, that’s OK. In the end I want her to be happy. In the end I want her to know that I gave her be herself.

So stop telling me how to dress her so that you can tell if she’s a girl or boy. My child is herself. That’s all the world needs to know.

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I’ve spent my entire career helping high performers set up better strategies and habits to keep them energized, engaged and achieving their best. And the biggest secret I’ve learned in almost 20 years in this field is what I call “trigger moments.”

In essence, trigger moments are cues that remind you to activate your intentions or habits.

It’s one thing to have the intention to be more kind, patient and loving with people; it’s quite another to set a reminder on your phone that triggers you into being that kind of person. It’s one thing to want to eat healthier, but another to set up a mental trigger that says, “Every time I drop off my kids at school, I immediately go to the gym or drive to the grocery store and buy fresh produce.” A trigger is a “when this thing happens, then I do or think that.”

For example, if you want to become more present and calm throughout the day, set up three phone alarms to go off throughout the day with a label that says, “Close your eyes, take 10 deep breaths in, and remind yourself to be calm.” These reminders will trigger you to enact the new behavior.

One of my favorite triggers to set up are “doorframe triggers.” Here’s how it works: When you walk into a room you have a psychological trigger go off in your mind that you’ve associated with that doorframe. So, for example, when you walk into the office in the morning, have three words go through your mind about how you want to interact with other people. Set up this same kind of trigger for when you walk into meetings, conference rooms, and even when you walk into your house.

Whatever you want to achieve in your life — better health, more energy, more clarity — set a trigger.

If you set up more triggers reminding yourself to stick to your habits and intentions, everything in your life will change. You will feel more energized, engaged and on track and you will experience what we call The Charged Life.

Get mp3 and full transcript of this episode.

About Brendon Burchard

Brendon Burchard is the most watched personal development trainer in the world and a Top 100 Most Followed Public Figure on Facebook. Over 30,000,000 people watched his videos in the last 12 months, and over 15,000,000 see his posts every week on Facebook. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, his books include The Motivation Manifesto, The Charge, The Millionaire Messenger, and Life’s Golden Ticket.

At the age of 19, Brendon was in a car accident that inspired him to turn his life around and follow his dream to be a writer and trainer. He failed at first, going bankrupt as he strove to write his first personal development book. But by the age of 32, he became a #1 bestselling author and a multimillionaire as an early pioneer in the online education space. Since then, he has dedicated his life to helping others find their charge and share their voice with the world.

Larry King named Brendon “one of the top motivation and marketing trainers in the world.” SUCCESS Magazine named him in their Top 25 Most Influential in Personal Development along with legends like Oprah, Tony Robbins, Joel Osteen, Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Deepak Chopra, and Wayne Dyer.

To learn more about his seminars, book, and online courses, visit him at www.Brendon.com

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Beruk Kiros is a graduate research assistant in the Biology Department at UMass Amherst. He spends a lot of his time in the lab studying the effects of environmental chemicals on the thyroid gland. There is nothing especially unique about that. There are an estimated 1.7 million students taking graduate courses in the U.S.

What does make Beruk exceptional is that he is a first-generation-to-college student from a low-income, Ethiopian family. Low-income students like Beruk make up only 8 percent of all graduate students nationwide.

Beruk, though, is a good example of the growing awareness among low-income students that a graduate degree is a good investment. For many students in low-income families, the hope is not just to go to college, but is increasingly to go to graduate school and enter a professional field.

What keeps many students and their families from considering graduate school is the high cost and the question of how to pay for it. Graduate school tuitions have increased even more than those in undergraduate schools, and the burden of student loan debt falls heaviest on the shoulders of graduate students. Student loans have grown precipitately over the past decade, becoming the main source of funding for graduate students. These loans sometimes cover up to 80-90 percent of the total cost of attendance. The average debt for a medical school graduate is around $163,000 and for a law school graduate is around 131,000*.

So the question that students like Beruk face is: “Is graduate school worth it?” While the answer, based upon the economics alone, is still yes — on average those with graduate degrees have 38.3 percent higher earnings than those in the same field with a Bachelor’s degree alone — all degrees are not equal.

For example, degrees in biology and life sciences earn 70 percent more than those with Bachelor’s degrees in the same field while the earning premium is significantly less for other fields: only 25 percent for the arts, and 19 percent for Journalism and Communications degrees. These differences, however, may not matter to students who are dedicated to earn a degree in the field they love.

While the increased lifetime earnings must justify the cost, there are other reasons pushing many to pursue a postbaccalaureate education. There is the personal satisfaction of more deeply pursuing a field of study, as well as the opportunity to interact with other students and teachers who feel as passionately as you do, and the chance to grow intellectually and to make a contribution to a body of knowledge in your field. A shame about the cost. There is so much to be gained through graduate education for both the students and us.

“As a researcher,” says Filimon Kiros, Beruk’s brother and a graduate research assistant in Public Health, “I have my own project studying gaseous air pollution in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. A typical day could have me running around in the lab working with equipment and hundreds of samples, to sitting in front of my computer and analyzing a raw dataset. When I have downtime between experiments, I am usually reading scientific articles or interacting with other researchers in my lab, learning about methods I need to learn more about.”

If one intends to pursue a post-secondary degree, students and parents alike often wonder, “Should we be spending our money on a top undergraduate college or should we save it for the graduate school?” The answer, based upon available information, is that in general, graduates from high-quality colleges are more likely to enroll in graduate programs and they are more likely to finish their graduate degree. At the same time, a high grade-point average in college is an absolute requirement for entry into grad school, whether or not it involves an initial two years at a community college to save money and then a transfer to a top undergraduate school. What matters most is the effort you put in and how well you do in college.

The continuing and growing disparity in income and wealth we are experiencing has, no doubt, convinced many low-income students that not only is a college degree now a necessity, but striving for a professional degree is a way out.

“My belief,” says Filimon, “is that the best way to escape from socioeconomic disenfranchisement is by climbing up an education ladder. Having come from a marginalized family and an underrepresented community, it is clear to me that one must be very well educated in order to support myself and to give back to my community. Although the ladder seems taller as you climb, just remember to take one step at a time. Do not get tempted to stay still or climb down just because one small step becomes too difficult. It is always good to remember that others before you have done it. You just have to look up and see that they have taken the same steps and you too are climbing up in the same ladder.”

How to Pay for Graduate School

Aspirations aside, every student must face the cost. The reason graduate education is so high is the lack of financial aid. There are few Pell grants or scholarships for graduate school. This makes institutional support such as tuition waivers, teaching or research assistantships, and fellowships more important, though some universities and fields of study are more likely to offer them than others. Teaching and research positions may pay for the cost of tuition and fees, and some students are paid a stipend to live on each month.

There are also scholarships from professional associations and private foundations, and for low-income students, there are more targeted, need-based scholarships. If you identify as a minority student, national and local cultural organizations can provide merit-based grants.

* These three figures do not include debt incurred during undergraduate degree.

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ATSUGI, Japan (AP) — Yuichi Imahata’s 9-year-old daughter is thrilled her dad stands tall above her head. It’s an experience that is new to her.

Imahata, 31, has been using a wheelchair to get around for seven years after a serious spinal-cord injury suffered in an accidental fall while working for a transport company. He completely lost sensation in both his legs and was told he would never walk again.

But he is now walking, at times with his little girl laughing beside him, because of a robotic exoskeleton called ReWalk.

The thrill is still limited to a rehabilitation center in Atsugi city, southwest of Tokyo, where ReWalk is available to a handful of Japanese paraplegics, skirting regulations, in the name of research.

It’s already available in parts of Europe, and just received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for individual everyday use. But despite Japan’s prowess in robotics, ReWalk advocates say its wider application here could be stymied by convoluted bureaucracy.

“It’s a wonderful tool for people who sincerely want the joy of standing up,” said Moriyasu Marutani of Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center, who works with Imahata to use ReWalk.

“Safety is the biggest concern for winning its approval for medical use, as well as presenting data that work as scientific evidence of its health impact,” he said. “Approval tends to take many years here, and so the hurdle is pretty high.”

ReWalk, an invention of Israeli entrepreneur Amit Goffer, who was paralyzed in a 1997 accident, clasps on to the legs and waist, and is designed to create natural walking movements, including standing, sitting and turning through upper-body motion sensors and special software. Medical experts say its use helps keep organs and bones healthy and also enhances mental well-being.

The product was one of the Israeli technologies highlighted with much fanfare as a symbol of flourishing commercial ties when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Abe’s visit to the Middle East earlier this year.

Japanese robotics maker Yaskawa Electric Co. has been distributing ReWalk in Asia under a deal signed last year with ReWalk Robotics, based in Yokneam, Israel.

The effort is going far more smoothly in places such as China than Japan, said Yaskawa spokesman Ayumi Hayashida.

Hayashida believes ReWalk is being met by bureaucratic stonewalling that is typical of the frustrations Japanese businesses face in doing something new.

“We boast the No. 1 skill in robotics, but how we can actually use the skills is where we are behind the rest of the world,” he said.

Under the Japanese system, there is a lengthy preliminary vetting process before a formal drug or medical device proposal can be filed. The Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency works with the health ministry to carry out consultations and nonclinical and clinical tests. Only after that can an application be submitted to be followed by a regulatory review and more testing.

The process has public safety in mind. Japanese drug approvals tend to take longer than the U.S. and Europe but some feel the requirements are overly onerous and ill-suited to new technologies.

Hiroshi Yaginuma, a health ministry official overseeing the approval of medical devices, said ReWalk was not yet being considered for approval, and it was unclear whether it would meet the criteria for a treatment device. It is assessing the Hybrid Assisted Limb, or HAL, developed by Japan’s Cyberdyne, in which a wearer’s ability to walk is supported though it is not suitable for paraplegics.

Abe has promised a “robot revolution” including deregulation and research funding to double Japan’s robot market size in manufacturing from 600 billion yen ($5 billion) to 1.2 trillion yen ($10 billion) a year, and boost it 20-fold outside manufacturing, from 60 billion yen to 1.2 trillion yen by 2020.

Annual profits from robotics are already 340 billion yen ($3 billion), or half the global market. That zooms to 90 percent for parts such as servo motors and force sensors.

Outside of manufacturing, however, regulatory barriers to practical and potentially life-changing robotics applications remain high.

“Technology is evolving and it spreads, finding new uses that weren’t anticipated in the beginning,” said Tomotaka Takahashi, creator of Kirobo, the boy-like humanoid that went on the International Space Station.

“It’s truly pathetic when ridiculous regulations get set up, based on irrelevant and negative predictions,” he said of the government approval system which he feels is out of touch with scientific innovation.

Yaskawa, one of the top four robotics makers in the world in market share, built its reputation by supplying robotic arms and other automated machinery for automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp.

More recently, Tokyo-based Yaskawa has been expanding its lineup to robots that can co-exist with people, helping them get around and assisting in health care.

That area could boom in coming years because of Japan’s aging population. There is also export potential because many other countries have growing ranks of old people as birth rates decline and longevity increases.

Yaskawa is hoping to fine-tune the $71,600 ReWalk to make it lighter and smaller and hopefully cheaper. It currently requires upper body strength and is not the best design for the elderly. It also requires 40 hours of training.

Yet even in its current form, the device is freeing for wheelchair users, who can feel confined to a low eye-level.

“I’ve seen Americans using ReWalk on YouTube. They can reach things on shelves,” said Imahata.

His wish is simple.

He dreams of wearing ReWalk to his daughter’s school for the annual athletics event, standing in a crowd of parents, peering with anticipation over shoulders and heads, and catching a glimpse of his girl in action.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama: http://www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

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