LOCUS Project: Health Promotion and Education in the Community

Project: Health Promotion and Education in the Community
Fellow: Laura Skrzeczkoski
Mentor: Dr. Zorba Paster

Fellow Bio:
Laura is from Stevens Point and received her undergraduate degree at UW-Madison. She became very interested in family medicine and public health after spending 4 months in the Dominican Republic working with a "health promoter". They went door to door in a very poor area to check on the health of families and also organized community discussions on health concerns. Laura would like to build on the skills she learned for future leadership activities with the underserved.

Project Description:

A common complaint of health care is that it is too impersonal and that patients become confused about their treatments due to inadequate time spent with their physician. The purpose of my project is to improve the patient-doctor relationship by providing a more community-based health care program. My project will involve placing "health promoters" throughout various underserved neighborhoods in Madison. The "health promoters" will: assess the general health needs of each neighborhood population, monitor those patients with chronic illness, explain various treatments(glucose testing, inhaler use, etc.),provide information on health resources, give discussions on health topics affecting the given population, and serve as a health advocate for that area. Eventually I would like to institute this into a "roaming" MEDIC clinic or a part of the Patient, Doctor and Society Course depending on which is most feasible.

Project Goals:

Improve patient education by presenting discussions on various health topics and spending 1-on-1 time with each patient to explain their course of treatment
Improve patient-doctor relationships by providing an alternate means for patients to speak with a health care provider in a more relaxed setting free of time constraints
Serve as health advocates for underserved populations by identifying the needs of a given neighborhood (through personal interviews and work in the neighborhood) and finding resources for these individuals that are oriented toward these needs
To allow students to gain more experience in dealing at a more personal level with their patients by spending one day a week working in an assigned neighborhood
Provide exposure to health concerns of underserved populations in the Madison area
Present weekly or bimonthly discussions on common health issues such as diabetes, hypertension, STDs, nutrition, etc.
Provide another avenue through which medic volunteers can participate on a more regular basis

Challenges and Solutions:

This is a project based on a medical school class in the Dominican Republic, and I'm not sure Americans will be as receptive to home-visits as Dominicans. Therefore, the neighborhoods involved will need to be well informed of the program being proposed.
A number of volunteers will be needed to put this project on a larger scale. I am hoping that by running it through MEDIC, I can find the amount of help required.
As of now, this is just an idea and no official plans have been made. So, until I have met with my advisor, I'm fearful that the entire project will be a challenge in and of itself.

Next Steps:

Locus Project Objectives and Key Tasks	Target Date for Completion
Meet with Dr. Paster to discuss the basic plan	February 2002
Identify target neighborhoods and develop a survey to identify basic needs and receptiveness to the project	April 2002
Begin small scale trial run in one neighborhood to see if beneficial to the patients and to MEDIC	May-June 2002
Coordinate into MEDIC program and provide volunteer training	August-September 2002
Institute program on a large scale through MEDIC and oversee its development	August-ongoing 2002/03

Resource Needs:

Support from Medic and Medic volunteers and contact info from Kristina for the similar program she worked with

Last update:

February 5, 2002

Graduation Requirements Progress Chart
If you complete the requirements outlined below, you will graduate as a LOCUS fellow.

A check indicates the item has been completed.

When	What	On-line
Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options