Are the people you came into contact with through this experience having some needs met through the community activities? Are community activities like these necessary and/or sufficient to fulfill these community and individual needs? Do you see other means to do so?
I have been working with Mile High United Way (MHUW) and Early Childhood Partnerships of Adams County (ECPAC) over the past semester for my service learning hours. MHUW provided grant funding to ECPAC to develop a referral system that starts in the community (Head Start programs, WIC, Early Childhood Learning Centers) and links preschool aged children to a primary care medical home. Our goal is to make a seamless referral system, not to add another piece of paper to the system to become lost. These children come from low income families. Most of the children qualify to receive Medicaid and CHP+, however many of the families have difficulties going through the process to become qualified and accessing health care services in the community. Also many of the families are undocumented and are afraid to seek healthcare for their children for fear of being "discovered" by the state. However, many of these undocumented children are eligible for healthcare in a sliding scale clinic.
While working with ECPAC in forming a referral system, I have met some truly amazing people in the community that all have the same goal of improving outcomes for families and children. We are still in the process of designing the referral system, however I can speculate how this system will address the needs of these children in the community. Once the referral system is in place, children will have greater access to health and dental care and will experience fewer barriers in obtaining health care coverage.
In working in a family practice with privately insured children, I did not realize the depth of needs of children in the community. Early childhood councils and other non profit organizations are absolutely a necessary entity to improve the health and lifestyle of children in the community. One insight I have had while working with these non profit organizations, is that people and providers in the community are not aware of these services. I am realizing community education to providers, parents and teachers regarding the resources available in the community is another necessary step in meeting the health care needs of children.
What is the best/worst/most challenging thing that happened this semester?
My largest challenge by far is realizing that working on a grant and meeting needs in the community is a very long, tedious process. As mentioned previously, the community members and I are only just beginning to formulate the referral that will be implemented in the Fall of 2011. We are meeting with community members and obtaining their opinions and input about how to make the referral process seamless. We are also trying to discover all of the resources available in the community. So far, by the process of elimination, we have come up with one preschool in Adams County to pilot the project with. Also through several interviews, we have determined that Community Health Services (a community and school based medical clinic that also provides assistance in Medicaid enrollment) will be our pilot primary care medical home. After the referral system is in place, we will then implement the system and collect our data. Then, after the system is in place, we can finally measure our outcomes. The grant is being funded for a period of three years. This is difficult for me to process, because I want the needs of these children immediately met. As a nurse practitioner in clinical practice, I am used to immediate results. For example, if you incise and drain a cyst, the cyst is gone. If you see a high blood pressure and medicate, the blood pressure usually drops in over 2-3 months! I am seeing the challenge in working with system changes!
What have you learned about yourself?
I have learned that there are many unmet needs in the community. There seems to be limited funding to projects and non profit organizations that are working to improve outcomes for children. With limited funding and limited time, many needs and services are going unmet. Honestly at first, I felt I did not have time to tackle a service learning project and offer voluntary time to services in the community. However, after working with ECPAC I have realized that organizations like these greatly appreciate any time that someone can help with activities. ECPAC has been very grateful for my assistance during this project! I have realized that my volunteer time, no matter how little it is, really can influence changes and outcomes. It is a very worthy cause and I plan to continue my services as long as I can.
What are your future service learning plans?
The Health Initiative Grant expands over a period of 3 years and we are only in the beginning steps of the program. I plan to follow out the grant and help with its initiation even after I graduate. I have also talked to the directors of some non-profits about holding some educational conferences to inform providers in the community about these early childhood councils, Head Start programs, Healthy Steps, WIC and other community resources. I have also agreed to hold some educational conferences for teachers so they are aware of health care services in the community. I am dedicated to informing and improving access to improve outcomes in children in the community!
