Alibi News

Keeping Up With Teen Care

Half a block from the children’s hospital in Minneapolis is a comfortable old Victorian house that’s been converted into a health clinic dedicated to teenagers. Patients don’t have to grapple with the monolithic main hospital or sit in waiting rooms stuffed with crying babies and coughing seniors. Instead of dealing with terse or stodgy providers, they are seen by staff members who are experts in adolescent health care and who, most importantly, actually enjoy teenagers. Dr. Victor Strasburger, chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of New Mexico, cites this clinic and its teen-friendly staff as an ideal model for providing adolescent health care. “Teens need their own space,” he says. “And providers should be able to interact with them well. Because, like Holden Caulfield, teens can spot a phony a mile away.” Strasburger would like to see a dedicated adolescent health clinic here in New Mexico, a vision that’s approaching reality. UNM is moving forward with plans to expand its adolescent health services. Although no firm dates have been set, Strasburger says that the goal is to open at least one new clinic dedicated to providing adolescent primary care around October or November. UNM’s expansion comes at a crucial time for New Mexico. The new 2010 Kids Count Data Book ranks New Mexico dismally low in teen health, with some of the worst rates of teen death and teen pregnancy in the country. For instance, the state's teen birth rate climbed nearly 10 percent between 2004 and 2007. With these numbers in mind, Strasburger says the new clinic aims to bring more family planning and adolescent gynecology services. Strasburger cites a shortage of dedicated providers as one reason for gaps in care. There are only four adolescent specialists in the state, he points out. Another objective of the clinic is to create a teaching site for future providers. “Our goal is not to see every teenaged patient around, but to teach others how to see teenagers,” Strasburger says. Funding is another chronic roadblock to teen health, with New Mexico school-based health center budgets slashed by up to one-third in the past two years. Medical institutions are hesitant to invest in adolescent health, since teen care usually doesn't include profitable procedures (like colonoscopies or coronary bypass surgery). Providers often need more time to see adolescent patients, too, because complex social issues like family dynamics, school performance and budding sexuality affect teen health. “Adolescent medicine is not a big moneymaker, and in academic medicine these days, that’s the kiss of death,” says Strasburger. “Adolescent medicine is a really tough sell.” But where there’s a will, there’s a way. New Mexico has made substantial progress in bringing services to teens, even in the face of budget cuts. In addition to UNM’s coming clinic, the state boasts a robust network of school-based health centers. School clinics offer familiar, convenient locations and free health care services for students. School clinicians such as Bosha Gordon, the nurse practitioner for Wilson Middle School’s clinic, can write prescriptions and manage primary care problems like asthma and diabetes. She ensures that students receive mental health services, and she can refer those needing more complex medical care. She even ventures into the classroom, promoting health education with topics like obesity and suicide prevention. “That’s the more creative part of my job,” she says with a smile. Gordon says the highlight of her job is working alongside social workers, educators, nurses, psychiatrists and therapists to deliver comprehensive care to higher-risk children and adolescents. This approach is a major strength of New Mexico’s in-school clinics. Research supports her enthusiasm. Students who are seen in school health centers spend more time in the classroom, according to an August 2010 study in the Journal of School Health . Another September 2010 study in the American Journal of Public Health concluded the clinics save Medicaid money and may help close health care disparity gaps. Still, some argue that there is room for improvement within New Mexico’s system. For instance, providers in APS clinics can prescribe contraception but cannot hand out condoms or birth control. Some providers in other districts aren't allowed to offer contraceptive counseling or reproductive education. Many argue that the restrictions limit health care options for financially or socially vulnerable teens. “School boards and administrators think that if they bring up this issue, there will be a huge public outcry because a few people make a lot of noise," UNM's Strasburger says. "But every national survey has shown that American adults and parents would rather have teenagers contracept than be pregnant or have abortions. So APS should man up.” School clinics are limited by their facilities and equipment. Students with complex ailments must be referred to outside providers, but they don’t often use the referral, sometimes for financial reasons. So school health officials are looking to team up with community clinics to prevent these students from falling through the cracks. Adopting what’s called a “medical home” model would allow in-school providers and their patients access to fully equipped nearby community clinics. Under this model, providers like Gordon would be able to see their patients at their school-based clinic or at an affiliated community clinic. Since UNM operates community clinics and partners with state agencies on the school-based health program, these avenues already exist. Ultimately, whether teens in New Mexico receive health care in a beautiful old Victorian house or a rural school clinic matters little, so long as all teens have access to comprehensive, effective care. “We have to do right by teenagers, we have to keep them safe, we have to get them through adolescence as unscathed as possible,” says Dr. Strasburger. “Where’s our next source of adults coming from?”

Dr. Victor Strasburger Interview Extras

On adolescent reproductive health: “The United States is hysterical about teen sex. We’re the only Western country that still thinks that giving kids access to birth control means they’re going to start having sex, despite numerous studies showing that that’s not true and despite the fact that every other Western country has gotten over this. Giving teenagers access to birth control does one thing and one thing only: It increases their use of birth control. It doesn’t make them sexually active at a younger age, doesn’t increase the number of partners, it doesn’t increase the frequency that they have sex. And we’re still wrestling with this issue. It was an issue when I was growing up. And it’s time for it to end.” On changing attitudes about teen sex: “I think people have to be convinced that it’s not a moral issue, it’s not an ethical issue. It’s an economic issue. Your property taxes go up when teenagers are having babies. If you’re anti-abortion, you should be pro-contraception. So there are good economic reasons, and good moral and ethical reasons for that matter. If you’re anti-abortion, let’s prevent teen pregnancy to begin with. N.M. has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country. This is a big issue for New Mexico because a lot of money goes into helping teens who are pregnant and delivering babies. They tend to do less well in school, they drop out of school, they are poorer in terms of socioeconomic status. Society suffers when teenagers get pregnant. So it is a huge issue for this country. It is a mystery to me why we can’t understand that giving kids access to birth control protects them. Our job as adults is to get kids through adolescence as unscathed as possible.” On teens and the media: “Everything in society says sex sex sex. Kids see 15,000 sexual references a year on TV alone, and the media are not ‘abstinence only.’ The media are now the leading sex educator in the country. I think parents and teachers need to understand is the media are a very powerful teacher of children and teenagers. And kids now spend more than seven hours a day with a variety of different media. That’s more time than they spend at school. So the media are teaching them about sex, about drugs, about relationships, about eating, about aggression and violence, there’s almost nothing that the media do not have an impact on when we think about child and adolescent health. If you ask me what’s the single most dangerous aspect of media, it’s teaching the notion of justifiable violence. But there are many others. If you’re spending seven hours a day with media, you’re not out exercising, you’re not playing on a sports team. If you have a TV or internet connection in your bedroom, you’re at least twice as likely to be obese. So there are all kinds of repercussions about media that parents and teachers don’t understand. If I see a kid who is watching a lot of sexual content on TV, I’m worried about whether or not they are sexually active and whether or not they are contracepting, because there’s very little talk in the mainstream media and movies about using birth control. If they’re watching a lot of music videos I’m worried about them drinking and smoking. If they’re playing a lot of first person shooter video games, I’m worried about their aggressive impulses. There are a lot of ways that just sitting and talking to teenagers can get you a good idea of what risky behaviors they might be engaging in, and what you need to talk to them about.” On using the media to talk to teens about health issues: “For parents of teenagers, instead of the ‘Big Talk,’ use media to talk to your teenager. You’re sitting there watching something and a sexy commercial comes on, or there’s some wisecrack about prostitutes or condoms or whatever, use that to turn to your teenager and say, ‘What do you think of that?’ Instead of trying to get your teen under a single light bulb in the middle of a darkened room with a chair in the middle saying, ‘Have you ever had sex, are your friends having sex, do you use drugs?’ It’s much easier to point to the TV screen and say, ‘What do you think of that? Why is she having sex with him? Why is it funny when somebody gets drunk? What happens if he gets into a car and tries to drive home?’ Much easier discussion than having a ‘Big Talk.’ On teens as patients: “Teens are really unique. Sometimes they are like big children, sometimes they are like small adults, and sometimes they are uniquely adolescent. When they come in with a particular sign or symptom, unless you know what category they fit in to, you’re going to get yourself into a heap of trouble. Teenagers are exquisitely sensitive human beings. They don’t act like it. But they are, particularly when they themselves are involved. They can be sensitive to others too. They don’t like coming into big general hospitals, they don’t like being seated in waiting rooms with either crying babies or old folks, they really need their own space and it’s difficult in a big medical center to convince people that that should be a priority because there’s no money in it. The ideal adolescent clinic would be kind of a private practice setting. A house that was converted into doctors’ offices, where teenagers could come and go, parking was easy, and they could have their own medical staff who were there because they liked seeing teenagers and they were knowledgeable about them. That’s the ideal. Within the state, there need to be places where teens are comfortable being seen, being able to walk in, not being hassled about parental consent, those sorts of issues. And we’re far from that kind of ideal situation.”

Health

More from the interview with Dr. Strasburger here.

Thin Line

We are a country at war. And not just with immigrants. Reading the news these days, who can tell which brown people absorb the most American vitriol? Immigration is a decoy that right-wing political strategists dumped into the media Crock-Pot. The timer is set for Nov. 3, the morning after Election Day. While we sample that nasty stew, salty enough for a race-focused public, Iraq and Afghanistan escape the heat altogether. After all, frustration with the wars is part of what got President Obama elected. The media fails in its duty to report on the wars. In the last couple of years, stories about them, their successes or failures, have been few and murky at best. (It's anybody's guess as to how many Iraqi civilians have been killed. The press doesn't know. An independent research organization, Iraq Body Count, has called for a British judicial inquiry to find out.) As I write this, on Monday, Aug. 30, I find news of seven more American service members killed in Afghanistan today, pushing the total up to 14 in the last 48 hours. The story of their deaths in the New York Times is summed up in five brief paragraphs. But at least the fighting in Iraq is over, right? Tuesday, Aug. 31, marks the end of the combat mission there. A final ceremony. Speeches. It’s on the news. Soldiers step off planes onto American soil, and fewer than 50,000 troops will hang around Iraq until the end of next year to train the country's forces. Mission accomplished. Mission ... what mission? That's the harsh question returning veterans are asking. "People that haven't been there just don't understand," veteran Micah Shaw told the Alibi [" The War Followed Him Home," Jan. 21-27, 2010]. When you acknowledge the war is wrong, you acknowledge your participation in it was wrong, he said. That's tough to face. I spoke to Shaw and other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War after wwKenneth Ellis III was killed by Albuquerque police in front of a 7-Eleven at Constitution and Eubank. Ellis, an Iraq War veteran, was pulled over for bad plates in January, and he exited his car holding a gun to his head. Police shot him because he refused to put the weapon down. The other veterans in the story pointed to all the systems that failed Ellis, to all the ways he wasn't helped before he steped out of that vehicle, talking to his mother on his cell phone, committing suicide by cop. We make the mistake of allowing our wars to drop off the media's radar or to become obscured by politically divisive immigration smoke. We can't let that inattention hurt these veterans a second time. We know the U.S. will have well more than 1 million former military members on its hands when all is said and done. Let's hope the media can bear in mind our vets’ mental, physical and financial well-being before the headlines become heartbreaking reminders of how we fail.

Seeking the Puerto Rican Chupacabra

The chupacabra hasn’t reared its ugly head in Albuquerque lately. In fact, it’s been almost exactly three years since the last local sighting on the Westside. But many believe the creatures are out there, sucking the blood from goats ( chupacabra means “goatsucker” in Spanish) and other livestock. Descriptions of the chupacabra vary widely, but the typical version is a creature 4 to 5 feet tall. It has short, powerful legs, long claws, and terrifying black or glowing red eyes. Some claim it has spikes down its back; others report seeing stubby, bat-like wings. The chupacabra was first seen in 1995, and believers say it is the result of secret U.S. government experiments in the jungles of Puerto Rico. It had a heyday of about five years when it was widely reported in Latin America, Florida and elsewhere. Reports have dropped dramatically, except for occasional sightings of animals in Texas resembling hairless dogs or coyotes. I have spent much of the past five years investigating the chupacabra, including an expedition into the jungles of Nicaragua and trips to Texas for the “MonsterQuest” TV show. By 2009, my research had unearthed central facts about the chupacabra, save perhaps the most important: its origin. Why was the goatsucker first sighted in 1995 and not before? Animals simply do not appear out of thin air. To get answers about where the chupacabra came from, I visited its birthplace, Puerto Rico. I began by interviewing the woman who first sighted the monster, and whose eyewitness description was the basis for the most famous drawing of it in the world. A woman named Madelyne Tolentino said she saw the beast through a picture window outside her house in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, during the second week of August 1995. In a 1996 interview, Tolentino said the bipedal animal had dark gray or black eyes that “were damp and protruding, running up to its temples and spreading to the sides,” like typical alien eyes. Its height was “about 4 feet, more or less. At the time, it was walking like a human, on both legs. Its arms were drawn back in an attack position, as though it were a TV monster.” She said it had three long, skinny fingers and that its arms were also very long. Its hair “was rather short, and close to its body. Rather well-combed in fact.” It had some round things on its torso, and the region seemed ashen, as if something had burned it there. The burn mark revealed pinkish-purple skin, as if the top layer had fallen off.” The creature’s legs, Tolentino said, “were very long and skinny, and I could see three separate toes.” She said they were similar to goose feet, and that it had something like webbing between its toes. Tolentino’s curiosity about the chupacabra extended to its genitals: “I even got down on the floor to see if it had genitals. It had nothing at all. It was plain and sealed." She also noted a row of distinctive spikes on its back. The creature turned away, ran into the road, and leaped off into tall grass in a neighboring vacant lot. Despite being such a significant eyewitness, Tolentino dropped from sight and had only been interviewed once or twice since 1995—never by a professional investigator. With help from a friend, I tracked her down and met her at a busy Borders bookstore outside the capital, San Juan. I had never been able to find a photograph of her and wondered what she looked like. Was she a wacko UFO nut wearing the standard-issue tinfoil hat? Was she a wild-eyed young woman who saw monsters behind every tree? Tolentino is neither; instead I found an intelligent and sober petite woman in her 40s with an easy smile and quick laugh. She was cautious at first. All she knew about me was that I was a writer from New Mexico who had come to Puerto Rico specifically to see her, so she showed up with her ex-husband at her side. But she soon warmed up to me as I interviewed her in Spanglish, and Tolentino recounted her story. The basics remained the same. She said the creature she saw was about 3 feet tall, not the 4 to 5 earlier reported. She also said its skin looked like she expected an alien’s might. “I have an interest in UFOs and aliens, but I never said it was either an extraterrestrial or an animal. I don’t know what it was. I’ve never changed my story,” she told me. “Most people have believed me. People trust me and know I’m telling the truth.” I showed her a drawing I made based upon her original description, and she endorsed it as the most accurate depiction to date. She then kindly drove the four of us to the site where she had been the first person in history to see the chupacabra. We zoomed through the verdant Puerto Rican countryside, heading east toward her hometown of Canóvanas. We chatted and joked as she drove, and after about 20 minutes we pulled onto a side road and parked in front of a house where her mother still lives. It was a rural residential area, and I almost felt there should be a little monument or plaque commemorating the spot: Birthplace of el Chupacabra. Tolentino reenacted her sighting, which she said occurred at about 1 p.m. that day in 1995. She had been sleeping when her mother woke her up, excited and alarmed about something odd she saw near the house. Tolentino said the sighting lasted from three to five minutes, and though it happened near a fairly busy road, during that time no other cars appeared. In the 15 years since her sighting, a few things had changed. A wall had since been built between her house and the road, and a house stood in the once-vacant lot across the street that had tall plants through which the chupacabra disappeared. But, otherwise, the scene was more or less the same. Having studied her account many times at length, it was fascinating to visit the actual location. I did more investigating while on the island, spending hours in libraries searching through newspaper accounts from 1995 and visiting the Caribbean National Forest (better known as El Yunque), where the chupacabra is said to have emerged. Speaking to the original chupacabra eyewitness didn’t dramatically alter my information, nor did it change the course of my investigation (for example, she didn’t admit to me that it was all a hoax—not that I think it was). But mysteries are rarely solved all at once. Pieces of the puzzle come together in increments; a fact established here, a claim disproved there. I had picked up the last few pieces that I’d need to finally solve the mystery.

ÁAsk a Mexican!

Why do Mexicans only purchase one piece of wood from the hardware store at a time? Usually, it's an odd shape, like a 2 x 2 or one piece of trim, too small to even trim a closet. — Home Depot Diva Dear Gabacha: Because perfection takes time, chula . Take the Reconquista ...

Odds & Ends

Dateline: Japan— A 30-year-old factory worker has pleaded guilty to burning down his family’s home after his mother threw out some of his action figures. Yoshifumi Takabe testified in Kobe District Court in western Japan that he became suicidal after losing several of his toy robots. Yoshifumi described the toys as partners with which he wanted to spend his life, ABC News Australia reports. In retaliation for his mother’s housecleaning, Yoshifumi poured kerosene inside the home and torched it, saying he wanted to die in the fire with his other “precious” robots. According to reports, the bulk of Yoshifumi’s action figure collection consisted of toys from the popular Gundam animated series. The fanboy’s 55-year-old mother told the court she frequently complained to her son that the toys were cluttering the house. She said there were enough to fill 300 boxes. The fire, which was set on Aug. 9 of last year, completely destroyed the family’s two-story wooden house. No one was injured. Presumably, all of Yoshifumi’s Gundam figures were lost in the blaze. Dateline: Ohio— A drunk and disorderly woman who was in the process of being arrested by Eaton police used her cell phone to call 911 and ask for help—because she was being arrested. WHIO-TV in Dayton reports that Andrea Elliot, 44, called the 911 emergency number while officers were trying to put handcuffs on her. Needless to say, 911 operators didn’t send any police to Elliot’s rescue, as they were already there. Elliot was charged with aggravated disorderly conduct and making a false 911 call. Dateline: Wisconsin— A family visiting the State Capitol in Madison got lucky after their luggage was stolen—because they accidentally took a picture of the thief. A photograph of John and Catherine Myers and their two children, Charlie and Matilda, posing about 30 feet in front of the State Street entrance to the Capitol building just happened to capture the thief stealing their bag in the background. According to the Wisconsin State Journal , the Myers family was visiting from Bloomfield, N.J., attending a friend’s wedding at the historic Capitol building. The Myers stopped to pose for a picture in front of the Capitol after leaving the building. Mr. Myers set his Canon PowerShot’s timer, placed the camera on a wall and smiled along with the rest of his family. When he turned around, though, his large shoulder bag was gone. After searching around for the thief, Myers said, “I thought that maybe I caught the person in my shot, and when I checked, there he was.” The family portrait clearly showed a photobombing burglar in dark blue denim shorts and a dark T-shirt going though the family’s bag. Myers went back inside and showed his digital photo to Capitol Police. Surprisingly, they recognized the man in the photo as an area homeless person. “They were amazing,” Myers said. “They located the guy. He was still carrying the bag.” The man, identified as 59-year-old Glenn R. Lambright, was arrested on charges of misdemeanor theft. Dateline: Washington— A pair of suspects in a rural Washington break-in proved easy to identify. The two left behind a video of themselves having sex inside the home. The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office said a neighbor who came to collect the mail while the homeowner was away surprised a man and a woman having sex on the living room floor. The naked couple fled, abandoning a video camera they were using to film their illicit lovemaking. Chief Deputy Dave Pimentel told KXRO-AM that the video camera had been stolen elsewhere. Deputies who watched the video recognized the couple from previous contacts. The 39-year-old female was promptly arrested for investigation of burglary. An arrest warrant has been issued for the 31-year-old male. Dateline: Oregon— Two shoplifters picked the wrong day to commit a crime. They’re accused of stealing hundreds of dollars’ worth of items from a Fred Meyer superstore in Portland during the annual “Shop With a Cop” back-to-school event. More than 60 uniformed officers—from assistant chiefs and commanders to patrol officers and traffic cops—were inside the store at the time, helping about 160 children pick out clothing and school supplies for the upcoming school year. Apparently, Shane Alexander, 20, of Hillsboro, and Jason Vantress, 30, of Southeast Portland, thought this would be the perfect time to do some shopping of their own. “Two guys came in and were picking through goods, cutting tags off and loading up their backpacks with blenders, shoes, clothes and tools,” police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson told The Oregonian newspaper. Two Portland officers helped arrest the conspicuous duo, who were carted away in handcuffs. “Common sense didn’t play into their decision-making today,” Simpson added. “As is so often the occasion with crooks, they think they’re smarter than the average bear, and they’re not.”

Letters

I appreciate this opportunity to respond to the recent interview published by the Alibi [Feature, “The Accidental Historian,” Aug. 19-25], which contained comments by me regarding identity. I understand that these issues are complex and a sensitive subject matter to address. I wish to apologize for any misunderstandings and certainly any offense caused by my remarks in the Alibi interview. This was never my intention. In no way did I intend to deny the origins of our ancestry and certainly not that of Spain, from which a rich legacy flows in New Mexico. As excerpts, these answers were drawn from a much longer conversation. I have dedicated my professional life to creating open dialogue, even about issues that are the most difficult to talk about, and I will continue to assume the responsibility of raising consciousness through discourse. The published interview, however, was only a glimpse at a much longer conversation where I was able to more fully elaborate on years of in-depth research and my professional interpretations on identity and consciousness. I stand by that work. Beyond my inability to better contextualize the answers in the interview, the primary intention of my entire response to the question of identity was to recognize the beauty and complexity of who we have become, long after the first points of contact. I recognize that identity is such a sensitive topic, but as a community we cannot shy away from engaging in open dialogue about race and ethnicity. Neither can we ignore the notion that identity is not static. My hope is that we can continue this especially important conversation and toward that end, I will do whatever I can to address any concerns or questions by the public in order to move the dialogue forward for the benefit of our community. My door is always open. Sincerely and respectfully,