Connecting You to Your Health

Living in Philadelphia is very different from where I’m from. I’ll give myself some credit in saying that I have been to several big cities growing up -Chicago, New York, San Francisco- but visiting is not the same as living. I grew up with a corn field in front of my house and a llama farm behind it, my best friend had a flock chickens for pets, and my high school educated students on how to drive to school safely with tractors on the road. Not exactly big city. The most obvious and notable difference was the sheer amount of people living here. According to Google, there are roughly 1.5 million people living in Philadelphia, a staggering number compared to my hometown’s mere 31,000. My first week with AmeriCorps we began our Pre-Service Orientation by discussing healthcare and public health. Our discussion led my thoughts to how health is impacted by the size of the population. Navigating the healthcare system and finding access to what you need can be difficult. Add 1.5 million people to that for a whole other level of difficulty.

One of our focuses here at LaSalle Neighborhood Nursing Center is our Health Intervention Program for Families, or HIP for short. HIP provides support for families who have children with special health care needs. These needs can range from diabetes, autism, and asthma all the way to fragile X syndrome, microcephaly, and cancer. Many of these families are struggling, and their children have severe medical and behavioral problems they have to factor into their daily lives. To make matters more challenging, several of these developmentally delayed children have parents who are delayed themselves. This city has so many resources to offer, but finding them and gaining access to them can be difficult. At our center we have a team of social workers and nurses that work to connect these families to the services they need. We help them find specialists, dippers and supplies, transportation to school and appointments, apply for social security benefits, and the list goes on. Most importantly the HIP program provides these families with a support, someone they can go appointments with, go to for help, and someone they can talk to.

We also have an adult program at the Nursing Center. Mature Health Connections (MHC) is a grant funded program that goes out in the community to educate and give health screenings. It can be difficult to find a place to get screened in the city, especially if you are uninsured. You can wait months for a simple appointment to get your blood pressure, glucose, or cholesterol checked. Our center offers a clinic for the community to visit  if they need our services. We also go to them. We travel to senior centers, libraries, and health fairs offering blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol screenings as well as educational workshops for the community. During these screenings, I am always shocked by people’s reactions to their readings. Despite their knowledge of what high blood pressure is, few know what to do about it or how this could affect their health. They think because they feel fine that they couldn’t possibly have a health condition. There’s a reason hypertension is called ‘the silent killer.” This is why education is such a big part of what we do. Whether it be heart health, healthy eating, diabetes, or flu education, the people we serve always walk away knowing a little more about their health. These educational screenings really me appreciate the work that we do, it reminds me of how important our services really are. If we hadn’t been at that library that one day and taken that one client’s blood pressure of 160/110, if we hadn’t been there to explain the severity of her situation, that she needed to go to her doctor ASAP, she may not be here today. Having health care professionals that go out into that big city, going into the community instead of making them navigate their way to us makes all the difference.

This blog was written by NHC Philadelphia member Katie Kisseberth.
Katie serves as a Community Health Outreach Associate at LaSalle Neighborhood Nursing Center.