Projects

Social (dis)Connection + Emotional Health

Emotional needs are basic parts of the human experience that promote and maintain a sense of well-being and include feelings of love, belongingness, safety, and connection. Social disconnection and/or isolation can lead to unmet emotional needs. These unmet emotional needs may then present as physical and/or mental health needs. There has been little research done to parcel out the differences between unmet emotional needs and mental health diagnosis. As a result, we theorize that unmet emotional needs due to social disconnection and/or isolation are presenting as mental health needs resulting in misdiagnosis or unnecessary diagnosis of mental health issues resulting in misuse or over utilization of health services. The proposed study employs an examination and critique of individual level behavioral changes to meet the emotional needs of people across the lifespan. The neoliberal response to social problems includes a decrease in focus on community building and mutual aid and instead focuses on professionalized services to meet social and emotional needs of people across the lifespan. Instead, this study proposes using a case study methodology to push understanding beyond those individual level behavioral changes to identify the potential systemic level changes to promote social connection.

Archive DV

An online archive of resources from government and national organizations on gender-based violence, trans health, sexual and reproductive health, immunizations, civil rights complaints that are at the risk of being disappeared by the illegal and unethical actions of the federal government.

Sibling Relationships

Siblings share many experiences throughout their lives, and a commonly shared transition in adulthood is the death of a parent. Little is known about the experiences and processes siblings share when navigating the death of a parent, leaving the opportunity to more deeply study and understand this impactful event. This project leads with the understanding that the sibling relationship has potential for lifelong membership, that siblings are a complex and dynamic part of the family system, and that siblings have the potential to be an individual’s greatest support and ally in adulthood. In this study we propose to seek adult siblings who have experienced the death of a parent before or during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the death event and timing, the grief process, the supports utilized, and the sibling relationship.