Two UNM organizations are teaming up for this semester's Health Care Awareness Week to help students become more aware of health care policies.
The Public Interest Research Group and Associated Students for Empowerment have organized activities every day this week to promote health and awareness of students with disabilities.
Films will be screened at 1 p.m. each day in the SUB, and the week will end with a day full of events on Friday.
This will be PIRG's first Health Care Awareness Week, but PIRG representatives said they hope to host one each semester.
Vicky Scheidler, PIRG treasurer and coordinator for this week's events, said the group's activities will focus on making health care accessible and affordable for students.
She said this week will help facilitate discussions about America's changing health care policies.
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"There are a lot of different ways to pay for health care that exist in other countries that we don't know a whole lot about," Scheidler said. "We've got this whole American mind-set and don't really think very globally. I think one of the best things about this event is allowing students to discuss those other options that might not have occurred to us."
This week was inspired by House Bill 267, which would create a board to analyze problems in the Albuquerque health care system and develop solutions. Scheidler said the bill passed the state House but stalled in the Senate Finance Committee as the session ended.
PIRG wants to help students know what options they have when looking for health care and to show students without insurance that they need to get it, Scheidler said.
"You never really think something terrible is going to happen to you," she said. "If you aren't prepared for it, you're in a position where you owe a ton of money."
UNM student and PIRG member Katryn Fraher is no stranger to the struggles many students face with insurance and health care. She is speaking Wednesday at 2 p.m. in SUB Acoma A and B about her illness, Crohn's disease.
Fraher said it is a genetic disorder that causes her immune system to attack different parts of her body, especially her digestive system.
"When I'm at my healthiest, I still cost about $20,000 a month in health care," she said.
Fraher said she was denied UNM health insurance because her disease is a pre-existing medical condition. She will speak about her experience, student health care options, and the future of health care.
"Health care awareness week helps students to realize how many different ways there are to get the health care they need," she said.
Friday is also Disability Awareness Day. The day is organized by ASE with the help of PIRG.
Sheila Campos, president of ASE, said the group is made up of UNM students with disabilities ranging from blindness to depression, as well as students who advocate for disabled-student needs.
Campos was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and used an electric wheelchair before a surgery that now allows her to walk.
"All these people around me are encouraging me to keep going and keep trying to do the best I can. It has helped a lot," she said.
Disability Awareness Day was first held last spring, and ASE has hosted it every semester since.
Campos said ASE wants UNM students and faculty to know that disabled students aren't less capable of doing school work than other students; they just might need additional accommodations to support their success.
She said Disability Awareness Day allows students to talk with representatives from services such as Student Health and Counseling that provide help. These services will set up tables outside of the SUB.
"There is so much we offer during this day that students with disabilities, or able-bodied students, should check out," Campos said. "We'll even have a chiropractor and other various doctors that students can talk to."
The main event of Disability Awareness Day will be a wheelchair basketball challenge. The Albuquerque Kings wheelchair basketball team will be outside the SUB encouraging UNM students to try playing basketball in wheelchairs.
Other activities include allowing students to travel from the SUB to Zimmerman Library in wheelchairs or get blindfolded and be led around campus. Campos said these activities will help people become aware of students with disabilities and the accessibility problems they face.
Today
Screening of "Critical Condition"
1 p.m., SUB Santa Ana A and B
Julia Deupree from Health Care for America Now
2:30 p.m., SUB Santa Ana A and B
Tuesday
Screening of "Critical Condition"
1 p.m., SUB Santa Ana A and B
Presentation by Jennifer Metzler from Health Care for the Homeless
2:30 p.m., SUB Santa Ana A and B
Wednesday
Screening of "Sick Around the World"
1 p.m., SUB Acoma A and B
Presentation by Katryn Fraher, UNM student
2 p.m., SUB Acoma A and B
Thursday
Screening of "Sick Around the World"
1 p.m, SUB Theater
Friday
Disability Awareness Day
10 a.m-2 p.m., SUB North Upper Plaza and SUB Atrium
