{"id":8194,"date":"2017-04-26T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T19:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=8194"},"modified":"2017-05-17T14:57:39","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T18:57:39","slug":"student-spotlight-louisa-chen-20-acting-on-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2017\/student-spotlight-louisa-chen-20-acting-on-principle\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight\u2014Louisa Chen \u201920: Acting on Principle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEvery person deserves the right to their own wellbeing regardless of their path in life,\u201d says first-year Geisel student Louisa Chen. Her perspective on community medicine is grounded in deep sense of compassion that took root during her childhood. Chen\u2019s family moved frequently, rarely settling in one country for long\u2014Australia, China, then America. Wherever she lived, it was clear to her that one of the cruelest forms of injustice was health care disparity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn China, illness and health issues were not seen as misfortune, but were instead viewed as though they reflected one\u2019s own inherent personal failures,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a child, I was berated by family members for acknowledging the suffering, and even the presence, of people living on the streets. I was to understand I could not do anything to improve other\u2019s lives or change how an ignorant society treated people. I grew up feeling powerless and voiceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate student at the University of California, Irvine, in Orange County where Chen discovered deep pockets of poverty within a county known for affluence\u2014the veneer of wealth cloaking the evident social disparity. In this, she saw a need for not only free healthcare, but for a harm reduction program. As an undergraduate working alongside medical students, she initiated two ambitious projects to help the disadvantaged\u2014Crescent Clinic and the Orange County Needle Exchange Program\u2014projects that had power to change people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Louisa Chen '20<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI felt empowered for the first time in my life,\u201d Chen recalls. \u201cThis was when I realized I could truly do something to affect another person\u2019s wellbeing\u2014that I could actually make a difference. It was an incredible realization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crescent Clinic caters to the medically underserved, immigrant, and undocumented populations in Orange County. Over the course of her undergraduate years, Chen held many jobs, eventually managing the clinic, and she describes those years as one of the most defining and influential experiences of her life. She was particularly struck by the way the clinic\u2019s volunteer doctors worked. \u201cThey weren\u2019t there just to treat patients and prescribe them medication\u2014they were there to listen to patients\u2019 stories, advocate for them by helping them locate resources, and educate them so that they could have a chance at living a better life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Working at Crescent Clinic further exposed her to the county\u2019s prolific opioid crisis. At the time, Orange County was the only county in California without a needle exchange program. The county\u2019s political leadership consistently resisted clean needle distribution based on the prevailing opinion among the largely conservative demographic that it would lead to increased drug use. On the contrary, studies have shown that needle exchange programs do not encourage drug use, but rather lead to decreased transmission of blood-borne pathogens. The goal of the Orange County Needle Exchange was to properly dispose of used needles, distribute clean needles, and educate about safe usage in order to prevent transmission of HIV, Hep B, and Hep C. In other words, keeping users healthy and alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstablishing the needle exchange was an uphill battle,\u201d Chen explains. \u201cBecause of the political landscape we bypassed the county and applied directly to the state, otherwise we knew the application would be immediately shut down.\u201d California rejected the application, but the students persevered and reapplied. After overcoming numerous political hurdles, a year later they received permission to open Orange County\u2019s first needle exchange program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our first day we set up in Santa Ana where there\u2019s a large population of homeless people with histories of drug use\u2014news of our arrival at the Civic Center quickly spread,\u201d Chen recalls. \u201cEvery week we were there, we would dispose of thousands of used needles in a few hours and give out thousands of clean ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partnering with a local grief group consisting of mothers whose children had died from opioid overdose, Chen and her colleagues embedded a Naloxone (also known as Narcan) distribution program within the needle exchange. Naloxone is an overdose reversal drug, given via injection, that can save the life of someone who has overdosed if it is immediately administered. The students distributed the drug to users\u2019 friends and family along with kits containing information about what to do in the harrowing event of an overdose. \u201cWe taught them to recognize the signs of overdose, who to call, and how to avoid arrest. This was somewhat controversial because there is a history of conflict between the police and this population,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

According to Chen, there have been hundreds of overdose rescues to date. Though she has left Orange County for Hanover, she says it is heartwarming to know the project is still going strong and moving forward.<\/p>\n

The needle exchange taught her that public policy and advocacy have power to help large populations improve their health. In addition to collecting and providing clean needles, the exchange had resources readily available for those who wanted to enter a recovery program. When it comes to quitting, every person has their unique journey, Chen says, and if you aren\u2019t personally in that situation it may be difficult to understand why users may not be ready to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have walked down a different road in life. Judging them or forcing them to change isn\u2019t going to help anybody in the long term,\u201d Chen notes. \u201cSo our ultimate purpose was to give people a space to feel accepted and safe. A lot of drug users are in hiding and afraid of the police and it doesn\u2019t help to criminalize their behavior\u2014it won\u2019t help them get away from drugs. But if we give them clean needles and prevent them from contracting serious diseases, we give them another chance.\u201d Through the needle exchange, she formed friendships with the civic center community creating a bond that allowed her to better help those in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the personal connection is more important than anything else. Being a doctor means making that same connection with my patients and empowering them to improve their lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the reason she chose Geisel.<\/p>\n

Recalling her first campus visit, Chen says she felt as though she belonged here\u2014surrounded by people who felt the same need to make a difference. \u201cIt was something I think I\u2019ve been seeking for a long time,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew I\u2019d be happy here.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motivated by the injustice of the social and health disparities she witnessed while growing up, Louisa Chen \u201920 is determined to provide care to these vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,679,1],"tags":[57,362,23,833,409],"class_list":["post-8194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-insider","category-news","tag-community-service","tag-drug-abuse","tag-global-health","tag-louisa-chen","tag-medical-student","author-12"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/louisa-chen.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-28a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8199,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194\/revisions\/8199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}