NSU Horizons Fall 2010

Haitian-American. “A majority of the patients had no means to receive the health care they needed. It felt good knowing that I was making a difference.” One of Blanc’s colleagues, Josie Toussaint, coordinator of Low Vision Services at The Eye Care Institute at NSU, served as a Creole, French, and English interpreter for foreign doctors and earthquake victims. Toussaint, a Port-au-Prince native, was also an on-the-spot nurse and social worker, assisting relief workers in transporting patients to their homes, if they still existed. Currently, the College of Optometry serves on an international task force, organized by the Pan-American Health Organization, to develop a strategic plan with Haitian eye care leaders to recon- struct vision services in Haiti. Although the quake destroyed Haiti’s national school for the blind and rehabilitative services for the visually impaired, ophthalmology residents continue to train at a Port-au-Prince university hospital. NSU’s Center for Psychological Studies (CPS) was the first academic unit from South Florida to send a psychologist to Haiti. CPS associate professor, Stephen Campbell, Ph.D., who has a long history of working with trauma victims in Africa, arrived in Haiti on February 7, 2010. Campbell spent 10 days at the Port-au-Prince airport field hospital counseling patients. “They were confused, didn’t know what to think, what to feel, as if they were losing their minds,” said Campbell. “They had feelings of uncertainty, disorientation, and anxiousness.” His goal was to help victims make sense of the events. He also assured them that their thoughts and feelings were common for individuals who were exposed to traumas caused by earthquakes. Many of his patients suffered from post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Campbell checked on them regularly to make sure they were not harming themselves. “It was rewarding to see a mother, who wanted to kill herself and her four children, having hope after five daily sessions of therapy,” he said. Therapy of another kind was conducted in Miami- Dade County for Haitian teens displaced by the earthquake. Haitian-born Charlene Desir, Ed.D., program professor at NSU’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services, collaborated with Barry University to start a summer program called Literary Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). The program, funded by the nonprofit Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade, helped Haitian students assimilate into high school, providing them with academic and literacy skills, and arts-focused activities such as poetry, acting, dancing, music, and painting related to their culture. “The program was a great opportunity for the students to socialize and prepare for their next school year,” Desir said. “It has far exceeded my expectations. The students were very engaged in learning about their culture.” n 5 horizons Scott Colton, director of medical communications at NSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Felecia Henderson, NSU associate director of public affairs, contributed to this article. Below left and center: People flock to a garden hose for water; one of myriad tent cities. Photos courtesy of CNN Below right: Brian Cross, D.O., performs surgery in a tent hospital in Haiti.