Libertas OB/GYN Resident Publishes Research "Gynecologic Care Utilization in Asylum-Seeking Women in New York City"

Dr. Kelly Bogaert, a former Mt. Sinai OB/GYN resident who performed research in partnership with the Libertas Center to gain insights on Libertas clients, published her paper “Gynecologic Care Utilization in Asylum-Seeking Women in New York City” in the Journal of Migration and Health, Volume 6. The paper can be found here or linked above.

Dr. Bogaert’s paper reviews how female Libertas patients from 2005 to 2020 who received care at Elmhurst Hospital utilized gynecologic care. Dr. Dinali Fernando, the Libertas Executive Director; Dr. Ben McVane, the Libertas Senior Medical Educator; and Dr. Sheela Maru, Elmhurst OB/GYN Physician, are co-authors.

Dr. Fernando Publishes "Beyond Burnout: Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges to Self-Care"

Libertas’ Executive Director, Dr. Dinali Fernando, published the article in Current Psychiatry Reports alongside Dr. Richard Mollica and Dr. Eugene Augusterfer of the Harvard Program of Refugee Trauma.

Their paper reviews the significant emotional and physical challenges that healthcare providers continue to experience as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as self-care practices that can be used in response.

Dr. Fernando Publishes "When Racial Trauma is a Chief Complaint Among Healthcare Staff" in The Lancet

Libertas’ Executive Director, Dr. Dinali Fernando, co-writes the article alongside Dr. Richard Mollica, Director of the Harvard Program of Refugee Trauma.

In the article, they highlight the racial trauma that healthcare workers experience in their workplaces, and the importance of support to address and process such trauma.

They write: “This abuse should give us pause to consider our health-care colleagues who experience such racial discrimination on a continuum, even in non-pandemic times. The Black Lives Matter protests happening throughout the world have brought the issue of racial injustice in the USA into the limelight. Health-care workers are no exception to these racial biases.”

Libertas Publishes COVID-19 Response Report

Since March, Libertas' response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been immediate, determined, and sustained. Today, we are excited to announce the release of the
Libertas Center COVID-19 Report on our response to the pandemic over the past nine months to highlight the pandemic relief work we have done and continue to do to care for our clients. 

Thank you for your incredible support during this unprecedented time.

Dr. Ben McVane Publishes, "I’m a Doctor at the ‘Epicenter of the Epicenter'" in the New York Times

Libertas Senior Medical Educator, Dr. Ben McVane publishes, “I’m a Doctor at the ‘Epicenter of the Epicenter’” in the New York Times.

Dr. McVane’s article explores the challenges the Elmhurst community is facing in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He says, “The people living around Elmhurst Hospital are both vulnerable and neglected: largely immigrants, poor, uninsured and dependent on a public hospital system that is already overstretched and underfunded. Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona are the neighborhoods with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in New York City, coming from seemingly every corner of the world.

These people work jobs that we now acknowledge to be essential — driving cabs, stocking grocery stores, making and delivering food. Many are undocumented immigrants and work off the books or as a part of the gig economy; their jobs don’t offer health insurance, benefits or employment protection. One in five people living in Corona and Elmhurst lives in poverty. Some who are sick or medically at high risk of becoming sick have continued to work because they can’t afford to lose wages or their jobs. These are the circumstances of the often invisible work force that continues to keep New York running now, in skeletal form.”

To read Dr. McVane’s entire article:
CLICK HERE