First Pre-Trip Meeting

Hello fellow ASB-SC trip members!!
     Our first pre-trip meeting was a couple weeks ago so forgive me if I miss any important topics! To start off with a little summary of what we covered, we went onto playspent.org and simulated living for a month without much money. The goal was to see who could make it through the month and how their health was affected by some of the tough choices they had to make. The next thing we did was watch Ted Talks about the health care system and about Health Leads great impact on the community.
     So to start off with playspent.org, so many things stood out to me in this game. First, I know at least two groups didn't make it to the end of the month, and for the ones that did, most of them would not have enough money to go into the next month and pay their rent. Going through the game, little things that had never crossed my mind like denying your child ice cream from the ice cream truck or not having dental insurance were things that I know I really take for granted in my life now. Also, there were times in the game you had to choose between electricity or a phone or a car, and if you didn't have electricity that meant no heat, which obviously negatively impacts your health. Another thing that I had never thought about before was the fact that people get fired for trying to join labor unions to demand better work treatment as well as pay. I think this is such a sad fact because so many people are out there working so hard and then they get fired (which is illegal I believe!) for just trying to make a better life for themselves and often their children. I could go on but this is already getting long so anyway, these were a couple of things I thought were really interesting and sad when going through the game.
     The next thing we did was watch a Ted Talks video where a lady was informing us about Health Leads and how she made the decision to become a part of the organization. One of the really great things I thought she said was that doctors should be able to prescribe people "heat", or "shelter", or "food", as a medical treatment. If you think about, this makes sense since these people are suffering because of a lack of vitamins from food or from them sleeping on a cold hard floor or even outside! It is very eye-opening to me to realize that these things aren't just "inconveniences." They truly are detrimental to people's lives and it is so hard for doctor's to prescribe real medication to these types of people when they don't need medication. What they need is something to eat besides bread and a warm place to be able to sleep at night. I thought Health Leads was a great opportunity for college students to be able to give back to their communities as well as learn more about our health care system here in America and possibly get involved! It was so awesome to see how these people and these programs really worked together to change people's lives and bring them a ray of hope in an otherwise seemingly desperate time for them.
     Okay, sorry this is so long!! I just felt like we gained a lot of valuable information from this meeting and it was a great way to introduce us to the topic of poverty and how it affects health. See you guys at the next meeting!!

XOXO
Kristen