Henry Ford Health System Physician Leads Global Youth Activism Program

DETROIT – Earlexia Norwood, M.D., service chief of Family Medicine at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, will serve as lead physician and Health and Wellness Ambassador of Breaking Walls: Igniting Global Conversation from July 5 – 17, 2017 in Warsaw, Poland.

Breaking Walls is an ongoing global arts activism program empowering youth to discover their voice and find their place on the world stage through the arts and face-to-face dialogue.

“Through Breaking Walls Global Health Conversation, we have the opportunity to bring together physicians and creative intellectual minds of future leaders, to collaboratively address teen health inequities, and develop solutions. This conference will mobilize and consolidate our expertise, in order to assess the health issues facing the world’s teens,” Norwood said.

Adding a focused health and wellness component to the 2017 Global Conference will allow for artists and ambassadors to address issues relevant to today’s medical community and develop a deeper understanding of the many challenges associated with wellness.

As lead physician and Health and Wellness Ambassador, Dr. Norwood will dialogue with physicians and youth leaders from Bethlehem, Palestine; Cape Town, South Africa; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Warsaw, Poland; and the United States to develop the “Global Health Conversation.” Topics for the conversation will include teen suicide, substance abuse/addiction, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The 2017 Breaking Walls Health and Wellness training led by Dr. Norwood will:

• Engage participants in discussions of risk assessment, statistics, signs and symptoms, strategies, and solutions for STIs, substance abuse/addiction, teen pregnancy, and teen suicide.

• Develop actionable health and wellness plans for community implementation.

• Empower participants to be health and wellness advocates, and use their creative gifts to promote global health & community transformation.

• Identify students interested in health policy or healthcare, and connect them with mentoring resources.

• Educate and empower participants to initiate social change and mobilize their peers on health promotion and wellness.

• Identify areas of teen risk and priority topics for inclusion in Breaking Walls 2018, Chile Health and Wellness Summit.

For more information on Breaking Walls, please visit breakingwallsprogram.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jeff Adkins

586-307-2027

jadkins6@hfhs.org