The core objective of this joint initiative by Rutgers’ School of Communication & Information and the School of Health Professions, working together with Rutgers Global, is to Advance Health Communication Research, Education, and Practice Across the Health Professions in Greece and the U.S. We are pursuing this vision through a broad array of activities and in close collaboration with institutional partners in Greece. Our initiative was developed in the context of our participation in the International Academic Partnerships Program – Greece (IAPP-Greece); an academic incubator program sponsored in 2020 by the Greek Ministry of Education, the U.S. Department of Education, the Institute of International Education, and the Fulbright Foundation, among other organizations, designed to promote international collaboration between U.S. and Greek institutions of higher education
Building Communication Infrastructure to Support Health in Urban Communities in Greece in the Aftermath of the Economic Crisis
This community-engaged research project and intervention aims to strengthen communication ties among local stakeholders—primarily between residents, on one hand, and leadership and staff of local health and other social services, on the other—and generate a blueprint for how to improve the communication infrastructure of an urban community. The study is unfolding in the Municipality of Egaleo, in the metropolitan region of Athens, Greece, in partnership with the city and the Greek National Center of Social Research (EKKE, in Greek).
How Solidarity Outpatient Clinics Helped Combat Health Disparities During the Global Economic Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Greece
We investigate the multiple ways in which solidarity outpatient clinics (SOCs)–a type of grassroots organization that emerged in Greece during a decade-long economic crisis–helped socioeconomically disadvantaged populations address pressing health needs and provided social support during the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examine the role of communication as a social process through which SOCs established themselves as critical community health resources. Finally, we study SOCs as potential models of patient-centered communication and care delivery. The project is built on socio-ecological theoretical approaches to communication and public health and relies on a case-study approach employing a mixed-methods research design.
Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services among Black LBQ+ Women
A collaboration between a team of researchers from Rutgers University, Brown University, Johns Hopkins, City University of New York, and the University of Maryland – Baltimore County. Black lesbian, bisexual, queer, and other sexual minority (LBQ+) women face barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Interpersonal sexual orientation and racial discrimination independently undermine sexual and reproductive health services use among U.S. women. However, very few studies have examined whether and how interpersonal sexual orientation and racial discrimination simultaneously affect sexual and reproductive health services use among Black LBQ+ women. Structural sexual orientation and racial discrimination (e.g., laws, policies) have been linked to poor health and health care outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) and Black individuals, respectively. However, studies investigating associations between structural sexual orientation and racial discrimination and sexual and reproductive health are scarce, and no study of which we are aware has focused on Black LBQ+ women in particular. We will conduct a national online survey of Black LBQ+ U.S. women aged 18-44 years (N=350) to investigate how both interpersonal and structural sexual orientation and racial discrimination influence sexual and reproductive health services use among Black LBQ+ women.