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Amanda Merck

Merck completed her MPH with a concentration in Physical Activity and Health. She curates content for Salud America! (@SaludAmerica), a Latino childhood obesity prevention project based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. She focuses on the latest research, resources, and stories related to policy, systems, and environmental changes to enhance equitable access to safe places for kids and families to walk, bike, and play.

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Articles by Amanda Merck

Somos Neighbors: Using Data Visualization to Connect People, Close the Life Expectancy Gap in San Antonio


Tonika Johnson, center, with “map twins” Carmen Arnold-Stratton, right, and Bridghid O’Shaughnessy, left. (WTTW News)

Where we live plays a big role in how long we live. That’s why racial and economic segregation are so harmful. Unequitable distribution of investment and services results in poor social and health outcomes for some. Tonika Johnson saw this in real time as a teen when she commuted from the less affluent South Side Chicago neighborhood where she lived to the more affluent North Side neighborhood where she attended school. “It’s like there was an invisible line dividing the city,” she said. Johnson started the “Folded Map” project to explore neighborhood differences and discuss solutions. In San Antonio, public health group CI:NOW were intrigued by Johnson’s “Folded Map.” How could they use it as model to create their own data tool to help residents, ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 3/10: Routine Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)



Our bodies are wired for survival—thanks to our biological stress response system. However, without buffering protections, adversity in childhood can lead to a toxic stress response—changes in brain structure and function, how genes are read, functioning of the immune and inflammatory systems, and growth and development. This toxic stress response is associated with increased risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, depression, anxiety, suicide, and numerous other negative health and social outcomes. By screening children and families, providers can assess their risk of toxic stress and provide appropriate education, treatment, and services. After all, screening is one of the most basic tools of modern public health and preventive ...

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4 Reasons We Have Traffic Safety All Wrong



Traffic fatality rates—in decline for 50 years—are rising again. Why? Not enough effort to get vehicles off the road, traffic safety experts say. Reducing vehicle travel can boost safety. It has many social, environmental, and health benefits, too, especially for Latinos who face many transportation barriers. Yet historical transportation planning had misplaced focus in four keys area: vehicle throughput to sprawling areas, vehicle travel safety over transportation system safety, vehicle safety over roadway safety, and reducing high-risk driving over all driving. Here is a breakdown of each issue, and why we desperately need reform. 1. Historical Focus on Vehicle Throughput to Sprawling Areas What is sprawl? Reid Ewing, a nationally recognized transportation-planning ...

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14 States Are Strengthening ‘Head Start’ for At-Risk Children, Families


Head Start helps at risk children and families

Communities are increasingly concerned about the rise of poverty, homelessness, trauma, and opioids among children and families. However, few states address these issues by investing money in Head Start programs, which are proven to strengthen families, promote school readiness, and improve child health. The good news is that lawmakers in 14 states are investing over $400 million each budget cycle for local Head Start and Early Head Start programs, according to a new analysis by the National Head Start Association and Voices for Healthy Kids. These investments will help serve more kids─but millions are still left out. Crisis of At-Risk Children and Families Many children and families face difficult situations: persistent childhood poverty the unrelenting opioid ...

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6 Ways to Correct Bike Share’s Social Equity Problem


Adaptive bike share

For years, bike share programs have shown sharp divisions along race and class lines. Bike share stations are often located in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods. Whiter, wealthier individuals are far more likely users than those of color. That’s why cities are working to improve equity of bike share programs. In fact, 60% of bike share systems had specific programs to address equity, according to the National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs from the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC). But these systems rarely set or tracked outcomes on equity. Below are six ways to correct bike share’s social equity problem, based on examples from the TREC report to help bike share systems move toward equity and from Shared-Use Mobility Center’s list of efforts to ...

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9 Big Questions as California Starts to Screen Kids for Trauma, ACEs


California Starts to Screen Kids for Trauma, ACEs

Early childhood adversity like abuse and divorce is a root cause of many of the greatest public health challenges we face today. But doctors don’t even screen children for exposure to adversity. That’s changing in California, thanks to Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and other child advocates. As of Jan. 1, 2020, almost 100,000 physicians in 8,800 clinics will be reimbursed for routinely screening Medi-Cal patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), in an effort California hopes will help prevent ongoing ACEs-related stress and disease. Here are nine big questions surrounding the change. 1. What Is Childhood Adversity (ACEs) and its Impact? Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include abuse, neglect, divorce, parental incarceration, parental mental illness, etc. These ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 2/18: Shifting from Car-Centric Thinking to People-First Thinking



Many of our transportation woes are due to lack of realistic options. American cities have largely designed streets for speeding vehicles rather than for people walking, biking or taking the bus, resulting in high rates of traffic fatalities and injuries; air, water, and land pollution; and limited access to destinations needed to stay healthy and climb the economic ladder. Although people-first design has numerous social, environmental, health, and economic benefits; current car-centric policies and practices undermine these efforts. It’s time to better measure and prioritize people-first policies, practices, and projects. Let’s use #SaludTues on February 18, 2020, to tweet about how to shift from car-centric thinking to people-first thinking. WHAT: #SaludTues ...

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City Leader Uses ‘Omnibus’ to Power Up Transit and Walkability in Richmond, Virginia


Andreas Addison transportation omnibus

“I feel like my life is threatened at each intersection.” That is what Andreas Addison said about walking the streets and relying on mass transit during his #NoCarNovember experiences in Richmond, Va., where he is a city council member. He wanted safer streets and more frequent transit for his constituents. So Addison found two models he liked─a D.C. city leader’s omnibus bill (one that combines several measures into one package) for better transit, more walkability, and less car reliance, and Virginia Commonwealth University’s work to make campus safer for pedestrians. Addison then began working on an omnibus bill of his own to create a safer environment for people walking, biking, and taking the bus in Richmond. Unfair Social and Health Outcomes in Richmond Life ...

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