SMART News December 2021

Meet the Smart Scholar Winners:

Yonseop Kim

In 2010, I was in Ethiopia. I worked in the Hibret Free Elementary School which is in the poorest area in Addis Ababa. At that time, I was running three different sports programs for children with low socio-economic status. After students joined the after-school programs, the overall students’ absence rates went down from 20% to 5 % and the school’s academic performances went up amongst the eight primary schools. From these experiences I strongly believe that sports education can benefit not only children’s physical and mental health but also their promising futures. This valuable experience led me to study further on physical activity community health and recreational therapy at Indiana University. In five years, I would like to work in two different careers, either international organizations or at a college. For the international organizations, I would like to work for research institutions, which are associated with working with people with disabilities through physical activities such as UNESCO (International Center of Martial Arts for Youth development and engagement), ICM or the International Paralympic Committee. Since I am partly involved in these organizations, I believe I can continue developing my research project through these organizations. For the college level, I would like to work in a college where I can teach recreational therapy for undergraduate-level students because I have already been teaching some of the RT courses. In addition, I believe that my previous experiences in serving the community through recreational activities can be a great source of teaching materials for students.

Ivanka Simic Stanojevic

I began my academic path at the University of Belgrade’s School of Special Education and Rehabilitation because I was dedicated to improving health and wellness for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities (IDD). At that time, I became aware that the most efficient way to achieve this goal was to continuously explore as well as work on establishing evidence-based practices. In my professional career as a special educator at the International School in Belgrade, I became increasingly interested in the sexual wellness of people with IDD. What drew my attention to this quite overlooked topic was my student’s apparent lack of knowledge and social skills needed to successfully navigate romantic and sexual relationships, including the lack of ability for fulfilling their sexual and emotional needs. Recreational therapy driven interventions for individuals with IDD could bring positive outcomes to the sexual wellbeing of persons living with disabilities.

My five-year career goal is to explore interventions that would address the sexual wellness of persons with IDD and develop multiple RT based facilitation techniques, especially for women with IDD. Moreover, I hope to fill gaps in the literature thus improve the quality of life for these individuals through research about inclusive sexual education.

This way, I hope to contribute to reducing the high vulnerability for sexual abuse and victimization in the aforementioned populations. After obtaining a PhD. Degree, I plan on continuing my academic journey and development, as I believe that one should never stop learning, and as scientists, we should always foster our academic and professional growth. Finally, the extraordinary experience of the invigorating academic environment in the School of Public Health instilled in me the enthusi- asm to pursue a tenure track position in an R1 institution after graduation, thus continuing life- long learning and the creation of new knowledge.

Navigating COVID-19: Balancing Rationality and Emotions

There is no doubt that COVID is a hot topic at work, at family gatherings and anywhere you go these days. Some people avoid talking about it in fear of conflict or they just can’t stand to hear about it anymore, while others share their thoughts, statistics and science like a raging waterfall. A divide can be seen around the world between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Words like mandates, quarantines, gov- ernment over-reach, vaccine passport, and lock-downs instantly create strong emotions. But there must be some way to discuss Covid and all of it’s challenges without invoking an us vs. them mentality or shut- ting down our brains and feelings completely. Where can we find the balance between our rational brain and our emotions? Where is the middle path?

Many of the skills taught in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy can be applied to handling and discussing Covid-19. I know many of you may be thinking ‘hey wait a minute, isn’t DBT a cognitive based behavioral therapy for individuals with borderline personality disorder?’. Yes, originally this was the intended use of DBT, however it has been adapted to treat many other mental health conditions that involve handling ex- treme emotions in a way that is not destructive to oneself or others. From the news casts from around the world, it is obvious to me that we all need to practice some DBT skills.

DBT helps us to look at opposing sides of a problem in a nonjudgmental and wise minded way. It focuses on four main modules to help balance the dialectics in our life; Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation. Here are some quick tips on how to apply some DBT skills in your life or the clients you serve.
Mindfulness: Create time and places where you can work on radically accepting difficult things by being fully present in this moment. Allow yourself to acknowledge a feeling without judging it, pushing it away or wallowing in it. Purposely plan to focus on the positives in your life through meditation, deep breathing, focused attention and visualization. Practicing mindfulness daily takes Practice. Start with small time frames and gradually increase the time. It is important to have patience with yourself and don’t judge yourself if you get distracted or can’t meditate for more than a few minutes at first. The important thing is to practice. We cannot change the fact that COVID 19 exists but we must find ways to handle our feelings about it daily.

Interpersonal Effectiveness: We have all seen how Covid 19 has reeked havoc on relationships in our lives. People fearful of getting together, fearful of asking questions, fearful of what others think. DBT teaches many skills to assist individuals with knowing how to communicate clearly about hot topics in their life without animosity. Through DBT you can learn to express your needs and get what you want without damaging relationships or your own self. The DBT acronym for self-respect effectiveness is FAST: F – Fair: Be fair to yourself and to the other party, to avoid resentment on both sides. A – Apologize: Apologize less, taking responsibility only when appropriate. S – Stick: Stick to your values and don’t compromise your integrity to gain an outcome.

Distress Tolerance: There is no doubt that Covid 19 is a distressing situation that we need help handling. Some DBT skills that can assist you include: Self-Soothing, Finding Ways to Improve the Moment, Think of the Pros and Cons of a Situation and Distracting Yourself. Distress Tolerance can be boiled down to distract, relax, cope. DBT teaches you how to accept things you cannot change and respond to distressing situations in a more productive and healthy way.

Emotion Regulation: Learning how to recognize, label and handle emotions is a lifelong challenge. The DBT PLEASE skill is a great place to continue your journey to emotional regulation during this COVID 19 crisis. By paying more attention to just a few things we can greatly improve our ability to handle emotions.
Treat PhysicaL Illness, Balance Eating, Avoid mood Altering Drugs, Balance Sleep, Get Exercise.