MARYSVILLE, Ohio — Serving time in prison can harm your health and well-being.
According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, inmates are more likely to have high blood pressure, asthma, cancer and other health issues compared to the general population, but one Ohio State group may be changing those odds.
What You Need To Know
- According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, inmates are more likely to have health issues compared to the general population
- House Call is a group made up of Ohio State medical students who provide health education to inmates
- One inmate attending the group shares her experience with House Call
Meghana Ravi’s a busy medical student at Ohio State, but she also does a lot for House Call.
“Now, whenever possible, even if I have exams like I have an exam next week, I still want to be here because it’s so meaningful to me as part of my training,” said Ravi.
During House Call, medical students educate inmates at the Ohio Reformatory for Women on their health, but Ravi said it’s so much more.
“These women are really isolated, and so by giving them this knowledge, like they can advocate for themselves too, because they can make changes through the system themselves,” Ravi said. “And so, if we give them this knowledge, we enable them to be able to do that.”
Marie Poling has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years and started going to House Call about six months ago.
“As I’m getting older here, my body changes,” Poling said. “So, as my body changes, I see that I gain weight a lot quicker. My energy level is not as high as it used to be, and I was just in search of finding the right food group to make me feel better.”
Poling said this group became a safe space for her to learn without feeling judged.
“I appreciate all the ladies that come in to talk to us because they don’t have to,” said Poling. “It’s like sitting down and talking to a good friend. They’re open and honest, and we can ask them any kind of question that we want.”
That’s all these medical students could ever ask for.
“This is why I want to be a doctor,” Ravi said. “I like being able to do this community building at this level with people one on one. This is what I want. Like that’s the whole reason for doing medicine is because you care about a community.”
