“Once you start to work with teens, you realize the STDs are because of sex and the sex is because of other things, like that desire for love, the desire for companionship,” said 2012 Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awardee Brandii Mayes.
In six years of promoting safe sexual health behaviors to youth and adults in St. Louis, Brandii Mayes is beginning to see a difference.
“That project has started to roll into anti-violence and bullying and self-esteem – I mean, it’s amazing where that has gone,” she said.
The numbers show it.
“Nationally we’ve seen a decline in teen pregnancy rates – the rates of teen pregnancy is the lowest they’ve been since the 1940s,” Mayes said.
“There still are some high pregnancy rates in some core parts of our city, but we are definitely getting the message out. I think the success with STDs and youth has been conversation surrounding them. And of course, we know when we test, we find more STDs. And a lot of times when we increase our testing rate, we find that our rates go up.”
So much so that the city’s STD rates have been compared to that of a third-world country.
“I see success in a lot of things that are happening,” she said – “the gang abatement, the anti-bullying and that sort of thing has evolved into something. I had no idea years ago when we started with talking about STDs and it would turn into so much more now.”
The health department is working with area charter schools and the Girl Scouts to work on self-esteem and anti-bullying messages.
“And we always make sure to roll in that it’s about safe sex and abstinence,” Mayes said.
“We are definitely getting the message out, especially about STDS and youth.”
Mayes has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Clark Atlanta University and a master’s in public health from The University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health. Her master’s thesis in STDs and HIV among drug users and her work as a behavioral research assistant was part of her early work.
“Once I finished my degree, I worked for the University of Texas doing a research study with drug users and their sexual behaviors,” she said. “We were studying that influence and that correlation between race, STDs and drug use.”
Mayes also conducted research one summer at the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica on HIV–infected youth and conducted HIV lab research in the summer of 2001 at Harvard University School of Public Health.
Connecting with people what Mayes wanted to do. A three-year fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought her to St. Louis on her third assignment. The Houston native was assigned to revise and monitor the St. Louis Health Department’s three-year plan to reduce STD rates and collaborate with community partners to document their STD reduction efforts and develop evaluation strategies.
Mayes now makes St. Louis her home.
Since 2008, Mayes has been doing health disparities work, which she loves.
Currently as a Health Equity Program Manager for the City of St. Louis Health Department, Mayes is focusing on STDs/HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infant mortality and asthma. Asthma is dominating her work these days, thanks in part to agrant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to address childhood asthma. It’s called the CALM grant – Childhood Asthma Linkages Missouri.
Mayes and her team also spend time identifying the role of contributing factors in health behaviors.
“Part of the reason that we believe that women seek and access prenatal care so late in their pregnancy has to do with the reaction of the dad once she reveals to him that she is pregnant,” Mayes said. “Whether that is positive or it’s a ‘That’s not my baby’ kind of reaction can really have a strong effect on whether than mom seeks care, whether or not she goes into hiding it. I guess they go into survival mode.”
Right now, Mayes said the health department is piloting an infant mortality program in the 27th Ward because the rates there are high and concentrated.
“Ideally we want to roll that out into the different wards across the city,” Mayes said.
Mayes is still very connected to her hometown or Houston, Texas, as co-founding nine years ago the volunteer nonprofit organization, The MLLES Mademoiselles’ Alumnae, Inc., a mentoring and scholarship organization for young African American women. In April, Mayes was back in Houston for its annual conference for high school teen girls, “It’s A Man’s World – Not.”
“It’s a free conference for the girls and they get free breakfast, free lunch, they get a chance to interact with other teens and then they go to workshops throughout the day,” Mayes said. “Every year the workshops are different, but they are all education, health and self-esteem.”
Mayes’ team in Houston helped develop sponsors and presenters for workshops and on health, self-defense, finances and automotive care for young ladies from 12 high school campuses in Houston through the presenting medium of school social clubs.
Mayes is the middle child of three daughters born to Jean Mayes and the late Johnny Mayes.
In St. Louis, Mayes said her “extended family” is the health department and Prince of Peace Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis County, pastored by Willie Kilpatrick, where she is a member of the singles and college ministries.
