As Peggy Chinn wrote in last week’s Lavender Health blog post, it’s LGBT Health Awareness Week. Sponsored by the National Coalition of LGBT Health, the week is meant to increase awareness of LGBT health issues and to improve the competence of healthcare professionals and the healthcare system regarding LGBT health.
This seems like a good time to think about your personal health, your health promotion activities, and your routine health screenings.
Ask yourself these 10 questions:
1. Have you had an annual physical examination including gynecological exam in the last year?
2. Have you been to the dentist in the past 6 months?
3. Have you had a mammogram (if appropriate)?
4. Have you had a colonoscopy (if appropriate)?
5. Do you get the recommended amount of exercise every day or week (cardiovascular and weight/resistance training)?
6. Is your diet as healthy as it could be?
7. How much alcohol do you drink?
8. What is your weight?
9. Do you have social support (family, friends, co-workers)?
10. Do you find meaning in your life?
LGBT Health Awareness Week is now. If you have “room for improvement” in your personal health, why not take one step in the right direction, and do it today. Why wait?
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About monashattell
Mona Shattell is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the College of Science and Health, and Professor in the School of Nursing at DePaul University. The College of Science and Health at DePaul University is comprised of 8 departments (health sciences, psychology, STEM studies, biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, and mathematics), 1 school (nursing), and 4 centers (STEM Center, Quantitative Reasoning Center, Center for Family and Community Services, and the Center for Community Research). The college currently has 150 full-time faculty members, 2700 undergraduate students and 725 graduate students, and $15 million in research funding. In her role as Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Shattell promotes research in all departments, schools, and centers in the college; she enhances the culture and capacity of the college to support scientific inquiry, supports and mentors tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, and promotes student research. In addition to her position as Associate Dean, she also serves as the PI of mental health services research teams and as board member for several community non-profit mental health advocacy organizations. She is Associate Editor of Advances in Nursing Science and Issues in Mental Health Nursing, a regular blogger for the Huffington Post, and the author of more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. She has participated in several fellowship programs: she is a former Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project, which is a media fellowship program that develops thought leaders from traditionally underrepresented groups; she participated in the Sigma Theta Tau International Mentored Leadership Development Program, and post-doctoral K30 Clinical Research Training Program through NHLBI. She is active in a number of professional organizations and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She is also a member of the American Nurses Association, the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, the Southern Nursing Research Society, Midwest Nursing Research Society, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the International Academy of Nursing Editors. She serves on numerous community boards of mental health-related service and advocacy organizations. Prior to joining the faculty at DePaul University, she was tenured Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received a PhD in nursing from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, a Master of Science degree in nursing from Syracuse University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, also from Syracuse University.
