| Community Health Workers Take to Streets to Improve Babies' Chances |
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After nearly 10 years working as a parish nurse in Winton Hills, Mary Kappesser RN had become intimately familiar and dismayed with the harsh realities that pervaded the at-risk neighborhoods she served. Especially troubled by ongoing issues concerning prenatal care and education, low-weight births, and infant mortality, she took it upon herself to change the status quo.
“I gathered a group of agencies working in the neighborhood,” Mary explains. “Because we saw the same problems popping up, we knew it was time to do something different.” The best solution, they felt, would be to implement a community health worker program that focused primarily on providing access to health care and social services for pregnant women and new mothers through education and outreach. The concept, which was in place in pockets around the United States, including Ohio, had been extremely successful at combating the exact issues she wanted to address.
“I thought, ‘Why not here?’” notes Mary, adding that she was convinced a program overseen by TriHealth Parish Nurse Ministry could succeed in Winton Hills. Others agreed, and with leadership approval, the wheels were set in motion for the Winton Hills Community Health Worker Program to take off--and take off it has.
Since its inception last January, “it has become one way, among many others, that we provide benefit to the community,” says Sister Agnes Coveney OSU, director of TriHealth Mission Integration. “When the Community Health Worker team responds to people living in poverty and promotes health and healing, we live up to our charitable purpose.”
Central to the program’s success are two community health workers, Denise Harris and Gina King. Collaborating with the perinatal social workers and care coordinators at Good Samaritan Hospital, they make frequent home visits to provide maternity education and to monitor for problems and client concerns. The biggest part of their workday, however, is spent serving as advocates for their clients. This includes calling the Department of Job and Family Services to help clients uncover benefits that they do not know about, do not understand or do not know how to access.
Denise and Gina agree that their cultural and personal connections to their clients are very important to this process. “If you’re not considered a real part of the community, clients won’t trust you,” Denise says, emphasizing that personal relationship building is a necessity. “You have to take the time to get to know them and their individual circumstances to earn their trust. You learn not to be judgmental or critical of people’s situations.”
Sometimes, Gina admits, this is best achieved simply by being there to listen. “They tell us their hopes, dreams and fears,” she says. “So when someone tells you she and her family are being evicted and not sure if they will have food for the next month, you can understand why going to the doctor is secondary in her mind.”
That is why they may seem like friends, and even family, to the young people who have learned to trust them. “It is a humongous help having Denise here to talk to about what you’re going through to help you keep positive,” says one client. “Gina is the only person I can really talk to,” adds another.
That’s all the health workers need to hear to know their hard--and oftentimes emotionally distressing--work is worthwhile. “It keeps us balanced,” Denise says with a smile. “It’s the support we need to let us know that we’re making a difference.”
For more information about the Community Health Worker Program, call 513-242-2975.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2008 issue of Triumph, TriHealth's quarterly magazine for its employees. ©TriHealth, 2008.
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