A Community Tree

I believe I am the luckiest National Health Corps-Philadelphia member around.  I am the Health and Benefits Advocate at 11th Street Family Health Services.  My position entails interacting with patients to help them enroll in health insurance plans as well access other public benefits available to them.  Helping people enroll in health insurance may not sound like I am directly impacting someone’s health and well being. However,  at 11th Street everyone has the opportunity to get involved in creating a healthier environment for the patients and surrounding community.  By enrolling patients in health insurance, I do my best to make sure that the community has their medical needs met, affordably. I look at 11th Street like an enormous interconnecting set of branches who all work together for the greater good of the tree.  My branch is Outreach and Enrollment which focuses  on getting people the health care, medications, and social services they need.  My branch helps people enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as Food Stamps. Afterwards, they are connected to our nutritionist, on a physical wellness branch, who helps patients understand the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables.  The nutritionist then can reach out to the trainer on her branch, who helps the patients learn about weight control and good lifestyle choices.  These connections go on forever, with patients also having access to yoga, fitness classes, prenatal classes, and services in other branches, like the mental health branch, encompassing arts therapy, psychiatry, movement therapy, and behavioral health.  All of this happens in one facility with a staff that works together seamlessly. 

A patient can get help with almost every facet of life here, from therapy and primary care to gaining access to fresh fruits and vegetables through the Greensgrow Farm Mobile Market, an important addition to the food desert we are located in.  The health center works together so smoothly in connecting patients to the many resources offered that it is almost difficult to see the connections at first.  As a result, it was hard at first to find exactly where I fit in and how I could contribute to the tree metaphor I referred to before. .  What changed my outlook was the exercise of using tree diagrams and asset mapping during an October training with the National Health Corps: Philadelphia to outline what services each health center offers.  As I listed off each helpful service and placed every position on a branch, I realized that I do play a role in improving the health of the community.  Through me people gain help accessing health care that they otherwise would not have. Seeing where I contribute in my own section of 11th Street allowed me to better understand this invisible network of branches I could not visualize previously.  

These connections and the market are examples of directly improving the health of the community.  While 11th Street provides these services , the staff must also experience Sanctuary training. “The 7 Sanctuary Commandments, which encompass the themes of nonviolence, emotional intelligence, social learning, democracy, open communication, social responsibility, and growth and change, are intended to guide both individuals and whole organizations away from behaviors that are trauma-reactive.”1 With all of us abiding by these commandments, we can encourage the community to act in the same manner.  I am a firm believer in the power of positivity, and it is clear that the staff members at 11th Street do as well.  Such a positive environment strengthens the functioning of our health center,  and clearly this beacon of positivity rubs off on the community and the behavior of its residents.  Therefore, patients want to come in to 11th Street to get further connected to the resources we provide and so the positivity spreads and community health improves.  I am so happy to be a part of this wonderful center and have the opportunity to improve the health of the population of Philadelphia.

1http://drexel.edu/cnhp/news/current/archive/2012/November/2012-11-1-Staf... Drexel  University: College of Nursing and Health Professions, November 1, 2012.

This blog post was written by NHC Philadelphia member Jennifer Newman.
Jen serves as a Health and Benefits Advocate at Family Practice and Counseling Network - 11th Street.