My name is Stephanie and I am the President of Student Health Advocates at DePaul. SHA is dedicated to bettering sexual health at DePaul University. We advocate for better health services on campus along with resources and education.
The idea for this organization came to me when I went to SAGE Medical Clinic for a bladder infection. My doctor prescribed me amoxicillin, an antibiotic no where near strong enough to cure my infection. I took the amoxcilyn for ten days; I went back to SAGE when the infection had not gone away and I had pain on my right side. I had a nurse practioner this time, she told me that the infection spread to my kidneys. For the last ten days I was taking medicine, but I was actually making myself sicker.
I received the correct antibiotic the second time and got better in just a few days. But no one at SAGE ever apologized and I had to pay for both visits and the two bottles antibiotics. It was a stressful and expensive experience to say the least. Needless to say, I will never go back to SAGE Medical Clinic.
After asking around DePaul, I realized that a lot of people had a negative experience at SAGE. Simply put, I wanted to form this group on DePaul's campus because we need it. We are consistently ranked last on Trojan's Sexual Health Report Card, we lack any resources to keep ourselves healthy while being sexual activity, and there is little students can do about it.
Health is a basic right and one of the most ignored social justice issues; a certain group of people are denied the right to be healthy. By limiting our health services DePaul is denying us a basic human right.
So I invite the DePaul community to share your stories about health at DePaul and how you want DePaul to improve in sexual health. Right now I am working with the DePaul Student Health Advisory Board to improve relations with SAGE and students. We are also creating a team of students to educate peers on sexual health.
I'd love to hear your comments.
You can also email me at depaulsha@gmail.com
Peace,
Stephanie DeLacy
