Healthcare Professional Workshop -- Day 1

Day one of our workshop for professionals was a great success.

Melissa and I gave talks on the following in regard to women with physical disabilities:

1. Reproductive health
2. Sexual health
3. The creation of a multidisciplinary pelvic healthcare team
4. The logistics of a pelvic health care clinic

Peg was able to join us by Skpe again from Houston.  She presented her research on women with disabilities.

Overall, the presentations were well-received with many questions from attendees and lively discussion about the topics presented.

 

It was a long day . . .

Making Connections

Our week in Macedonia continues to be an incredibly inspirational experience.

We had a meeting at the U.S embassy in Skopje this morning where we met with embassy officials and made important contacts.  It was very exciting. (Sorry no photos -- they're prohibited!)

Jasmina and Jagoda of Mobility Challenge and Vesna and Tanja of HERA coordinated an afternoon meeting with 11 women with impairments of mobility. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet with women and hear about their frustrations with health care in Macedonia. Mobility Challenge coordinated Skype input from Peg Nosek, PhD of the Center for Research on Women with Disabilities.  Jagoda also joined us (via Skype) from Washington D.C. where she's attending another educational program.

Meeting of women with disabilities (with Peg Nosek and Jagoda Risteska on Skype)

This meeting enabled us to collect important information about these women.  Interesting how much we have in common . . . the concerns we heard today are the same we hear from our patients at home!

Hopefully we can inspire this wonderful group of women to keep working for change in Macedonia.

Getting Down to Business

We've been very busy with our Macedonian host team.

Biljana Manevska, Jasmina Risteska, Sophie Fletcher, Vesna Matevska, Tanja Stankova, Melissa Morrison-Jacobus

Today we visitied the HERA office and learned about the amazing things they're doing in Skopje and surrounding area. HERA has received grants from the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS, the Open Society Foundation and others to provide HIV counseling and testing to marginalized members of society.  HERA's youth center in Skopje, "Sakam de Znam" provides reproductive health, STD and HIV counseling to teens with mental and physical disabilities.

A fantastic HERA service is a mobile gynecology clinic which provides reproductive health screening, counseling and care to women in rural areas of Macedonia.  We're exploring ideas for making this van accessible for women with impairments of mobility.

Two other vans of this type are devoted to HIV testing in Skopje.

 

  

 

The champion gynecologist-nurse team delivering care from the clinic-on-wheels is Dr. Snezana Georgieva Janevska and nurse Vesna Dinevska.  Our heroines in the field!

 

 

Thanks to the incredible hard work and planning of our hosts of Mobility Challenge and HERA, today was a very productive day!

 

 

 

 

Skopje Agenda

We have an extensive agenda for our week in Skopje, Macedonia.  In addition to visits to our hosts' organizations, project planning meetings, meetings with women with mobility impairments, and a trip to the U.S. Embassy, we have a two-day educational course planned.  The course outlines a multidisciplinary team approach to pelvic healthcare for women with mobility impairments. We're hoping that attendees will include urologists, gynecologist, colon and rectal surgeons, nurses, physical therapists and social workers.

Our hosts in Macedonia have created a great advertisement for the course:

Here is the Macedonian version:

I hope our course is as inspirational as these posters!

Team Macedonia

Melissa Morrison and Sophie Fletcher

Welcome!

We are two health care providers devoted to women's pelvic health.  Melissa Morrison, RN, CURN is a nursing specialist in neurogenic bladder, incontinence and female sexual dysfunction.  Sophie Fletcher MD is a urologist specializing in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.  We collaborate on projects with Peg Nosek, PhD Director of the Center for Research on Women with Disabilities (CROWD) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Our goal is to develop pelvic health outreach and education programs aimed at helping women with disabilities of mobility around the world.

Peg Nosek, PhD

Earlier this year, Peg was selected to participate in a U.S. Department of State sponsored Professional Fellows EMPOWER Program administered by Mobility International USA (MIUSA).  Peg asked us to be her ambassadors to her assigned exchange country . . . Macedonia!  Via Skype, we've connected with our exchange hosts in Skopje, Macedonia.  Our hosts represent two organizations: Mobility Challenge and HERA both dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities in Macedonia.  We will be working with Jagoda Risteska and Jasmina Risteska (sisters!) of Mobility Challenge, and Vesna Matevska and Tanja Stankova of HERA.

Jagoda Risteska

Jasmina Risteska

Vesna Matevska

Tanja Stankova

The Woman in Me (Женаta bo Mенe) is the tagline creation of our hosts.  It is a beautiful summary of the goal of this exchange. We want healthcare professionals to look beyond disability and treat the woman -- the woman with the same reproductive and sexual healthcare needs as any other woman. 

Let the journey begin!