October 2023 Newsletter

Barbershops and salons witnessing overdoses respond with naloxone

Boxes of naloxone—the treatment for opioid overdoses—are stacked among water bottles, condoms, and other free resources on a table inside Majestic Hair Salon in Irondequoit. Salon owner Debbie Wise works as a community health educator—someone trained to educate others on health matters, including how to use a naloxone kit—for Common Ground Health.

Monroe County saw a 23% increase in overdose-related deaths in 2021. Nearly 30% of the 2021 deaths were members of the Black community, and 14% were members of the Hispanic community.

To address this crisis, Common Ground Health is leveraging the close relationships barbers and stylists have with their clients to distribute naloxone kits and promote awareness, aiming to distribute 4,000 kits by the end of 2023. These efforts are crucial to destigmatize opioid overdose treatment and save lives in the community.

“The response has been remarkable,” says Jackie Dozier, director of community health and well-being at Common Ground Health. “This is an epidemic in our community, and people are realizing that it's hitting close to home.”

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Preliminary findings from most inclusive My Health Story survey yet

Common Ground Health aimed to reach an even more diverse population with its My Health Story 2022 Survey—and in the process created its most inclusive survey yet, with versions in English, Spanish, text-to-speech for those with low vision, and American Sign Language.

The annual survey encourages residents in the nine-county region to share their health stories, especially in under-resourced communities where individuals often are left out of efforts to understand barriers to public health services.

“Common Ground Health wants to promote health equity for all, and part of that is gathering stories from as many different types of people—in as many ways as they identify—as we can,” says Dr. Sarah Farash, a senior research associate at the agency.

New questions explored the pandemic’s effect on children and mental health, and more open-ended questions in general allowed respondents to share their experiences in their own words.

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Left: Dr. Linda Clark, photographed by Cocoa Rae;
Right: Melanie Funchess, photographed by Natalia Lauer

Partner Spotlight: Funchess, Clark honored with biographical chapbooks at Eastman Museum

Black curator Amanda Chestnut's In This Moment project pairs 10 teams of Black writers and photographers with 10 Black leaders to share these leaders' stories across the city of Rochester.

On October 2, Melanie Funchess, director of Mental Health and Well-being for Common Ground Health, and Dr. Linda Clark, President and CEO of Jordan Health and an active member of the African American Health Coalition, were each honored with their own biographical chapbooks at a community discussion event at the George Eastman Museum.

Funchess's chapbook features an essay by Quajay and photographs by Natalia Lauer, while Clark's chapbook features an essay by Lisa Maria Rickman and photographs by Cocoa Rae.

Copies of the chapbooks are available from the Visual Studies Workshop.

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