story by David Hoffman
College of Education & Human Development doctoral student Afroze Shaikh has recently been named a 2024 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)/CDC Student Fellow in Injury Prevention.
Shaikh is a student studying in the counselor education and practice doctoral program, where she researches suicide and older adults’ mental health. Through her work, she hopes to find ways to support older adult communities long term.
Shaikh’s interest in this area began after she started volunteering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, where she connected with individuals and families who had experiences with suicide. This work, combined with seeing suicide come up in her friends and family’s lives, sparked her interest in suicide prevention.
SOPHE named Shaikh a student fellow based on her research. As a fellow, she will receive a stipend for her work, which is funded by the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and the opportunity to present her findings at SOPHE’s annual conference.
“It's exciting to receive this fellowship, as older adults are often excluded from research,” she said.
Shaikh’s research focuses on suicide prevention and suicide risk factors for older adults, which includes chronic pain, social support or psychological distress. She looks at the prevalence of these factors among certain communities as predictors of suicide to better understand how to provide mental health care.
Throughout her work, she has learned a great deal about the communities that she works with.
“I’ve been able to really connect with older adults and hear their stories,” said Shaikh. “As someone who is not an older adult, being able to learn from them and see where some of the research actually needs to go – as opposed to what I'm reading online from previous literature – is a meaningful opportunity.”
Shaikh’s work is far from over. After graduation, she plans to build upon her current research, finding ways to get involved in different communities. She also hopes to begin teaching and provide her students with crucial mental health resources.
“I'm really looking forward to continuing researching, teaching, working with students, forming connections with students and being able to provide students with access to resources that I felt like were really helpful for me or I felt like were missing when I was a student,” she said.