By Aria BrentAFRO Employees Writerabrent@afro.com
Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America (Deliberate Parenthood) is concentrated on offering high quality sexual and reproductive healthcare. From breast exams to most cancers screenings, the group does all of it.
For many years, Deliberate Parenthood has been a lightweight on the finish of the tunnel, offering medical providers and assist to far too many ladies with little or no entry to well being care.
Whereas the group has acknowledged its unsavory roots within the eugenics motion, at this time, folks like Dr. Megan Freeland work diligently to supply care and schooling to hundreds of thousands of ladies on an annual basis- no matter race.
Freeland at the moment serves because the director of well being communications for the non-profit group and he or she’s ensuring that marginalized communities are receiving the schooling and assets they deserve. The pharmacist turned communications specialist spoke with the AFRO about her objectives within the position, challenges she’s confronted and the Deliberate Parenthood initiatives geared toward growing entry to their providers.
AFRO: How did you get entangled with Deliberate Parenthood and the way lengthy have you ever been on this position?
Dr. Megan Freeland: I’ve been with Deliberate Parenthood for over three years and I’ve been in my present position for about two years. After I got here to Deliberate Parenthood in 2021, I got here in because the affiliate director of Black well being media. I discovered myself in that place as a result of I had been working independently as a freelancer specializing in well being content material writing and well being content material technique. I used to be doing lots of work with digital well being and well being tech corporations. I used to be serving to them develop content material methods that have been going to be most impactful for Black communities and different communities of colour.
As a pharmacist by coaching and somebody who has expertise in medical and well being communications, I do know that lots of printed well being info is completed for default communities– which generally means White communities. Relating to well being care it’s necessary that info be tailor-made to particular audiences in order that it’s related to their lives. After I noticed that Deliberate Parenthood was on the lookout for somebody to assist with the event of well being info for Black communities and to have interaction with Black shops to be sure that info was getting out to these people I used to be actually excited in regards to the alternative. After I was promoted to my present place, I went from solely specializing in Black well being media to main the workforce that focuses on Black well being media, in addition to different different issues beneath that umbrella.
AFRO: What are a number of the duties that you’ve on this position ?
MF: One a part of my job is ensuring that sufferers and households and on a regular basis folks know in regards to the unimaginable work that Deliberate Parenthood is doing throughout the nation to supply sexual reproductive well being care and schooling. The inner companions that we work with are spending their time innovating in digital well being and well being expertise.They’re innovating in schooling and in well being care. Oftentimes, as a result of they’re being compelled to innovate by the panorama of sexual and reproductive well being care within the U.S. proper now, they’re innovating in arts and leisure.
It’s actually thrilling work. We collaborate with lots of exterior companions to execute. We’d interact with the media. We’d work with conferences or people who find themselves internet hosting in particular person occasions to be sure that Deliberate Parenthood specialists are represented there, speaking in regards to the work they’re doing. We’d present up at cultural occasions like ESSENCE Fest to be sure that we’re assembly folks the place they’re.
These are my duties from a Deliberate Parenthood perspective. Nevertheless, on a private degree, what’s most necessary to me is past “Right here’s the good work that Deliberate Parenthood is doing.” The query is “How can I assist my workforce discover inventive methods to tell folks about vital well being care matters?”
Whether or not it’s abortion care, or cervical well being, contraception, intercourse, schooling– any of these matters – what motivates me to do that work is my skilled mission of preventing well being misinformation.
AFRO: What are a few of your objectives for this place?
MF: What first involves thoughts once I hear you ask that’s stigma. Stigma associated to sexual and reproductive well being care is so pervasive throughout society. It’s not simply one thing I come throughout in my work, it’s one thing that I see and listen to every single day whether or not I’m speaking to family members in particular person or I’m scrolling by way of social media. Generally folks assume that stigma is simply social in nature, prefer it doesn’t truly hurt folks. They assume that it simply sounds dangerous or makes folks really feel dangerous, however stigma has very concrete penalties. It retains folks from speaking about points which can be actually necessary to debate with trusted people. It retains folks from getting care.
It may be really easy to go to your native Deliberate Parenthood and get examined for sexually transmitted infections however there’s a stigma that usually retains folks from doing that. For me, certainly one of my objectives on this work is to do the whole lot we will to eradicate stigma in sexual and reproductive well being care. One other objective of mine is ensuring that sexual and reproductive well being care isn’t being misplaced within the well being fairness motion. It needs to be central to the entire work that we do as a result of if we have a look at well being outcomes throughout completely different racial and ethnic demographics, we constantly see minority communities getting the brief finish of the stick. We’re having well being disparities that aren’t affecting White communities. The maternal well being disaster is an ideal instance of that.
AFRO: What has been your best problem on this position to date ?
MF: Part of “assembly folks the place they’re” is neighborhood and collaboration. We get pleasure from working with different entities, whether or not they’re company manufacturers or reporters, journalists, artists or celebrities. These collaborations are actually necessary to getting information in entrance of various audiences and ensuring the messages are getting there as nicely.
We’ve been very lucky to have superb collaborators that we’ve been in a position to work with. Nevertheless, once in a while we’ll run into points the place a corporation or entity will not be in a position to collaborate due to preconceived notions or stigma in regards to the forms of care that Deliberate Parenthood offers. That’s all the time discouraging since you understand that the results of stigma are nonetheless there. The opposite problem that I run into is prioritization as a result of there may be a lot work to be completed. There’s by no means a scarcity of labor to be completed. There’s by no means a scarcity of communities that we need to do extra outreach and engagement with. There’s by no means a scarcity of misinformation that we have to appropriate not directly. Recognizing that we’re folks too and now we have lives outdoors of labor and now we have households and priorities and family members.
AFRO: What’s the communications workforce at Deliberate Parenthood being intentional about?
MF: You talked about this phrase earlier: inclusiveness. I feel that’s one thing that our group is being actually intentional about. How will we be sure that we’re not overlooking communities or experiences which can be generally neglected within the work that we do? Whether or not it’s speaking about intercourse schooling and never simply within the context of ordinary heterosexual relationships, but in addition ensuring LGBTQ plus communities are additionally mirrored in our communications about intercourse schooling. That’s only one instance, nevertheless it represents our strategy to creating certain that we’re not leaving folks behind– particularly individuals who stay within the communities which can be already going through probably the most boundaries to care due to racism within the well being care system.
We’re being intentional about what sorts of areas our specialists are exhibiting up in. We all know that on the planet we stay in at this time, there are limitless methods of participating with organizations.
Individuals nonetheless go locations in particular person, so there’s the in particular person expertise, there’s the social expertise and there’s the occasion expertise. Inside all of these buckets there are a number of classes and ways in which folks interact. Twenty years in the past, folks have been in a position to get information and data otherwise than how they do at this time. We’re actually dedicated to constantly studying about how individuals are getting info, how folks need to get info and the place they’re going. We then, in flip, take that info and regulate our technique to be sure that we’re moving into these new locations.
